Review of Not Now Not Ever

My review of Not Now Not Ever is part of the books’s blog tour! This was such a fun book and I’m excited to tell you more about it!

Not Now Not Ever by Lily Anderson

Published on November 21, 2017 by Wednesday Books

I received an e-ARC for review.

Synopsis from Goodreads: Elliot Gabaroche is very clear on what she isn’t going to do this summer.
1. She isn’t going to stay home in Sacramento, where she’d have to sit through her stepmother’s sixth community theater production of The Importance of Being Earnest.
2. She isn’t going to mock trial camp at UCLA.
3. And she certainly isn’t going to the Air Force summer program on her mother’s base in Colorado Springs.

As cool as it would be to live-action-role-play Ender’s Game, Ellie’s seen three generations of her family go through USAF boot camp up close, and she knows that it’s much less Luke/Yoda/”feel the force,” and much more one hundred push-ups on three days of no sleep.

And that just isn’t appealing, no matter how many Xenomorphs from Alien she’d be able to defeat afterwards. What she is going to do is pack up her attitude, her favorite Octavia Butler novels, and her Jordans, and go to summer camp.

Specifically, a cutthroat academic-decathlon-like competition for a full scholarship to Rayevich College, the only college with a Science Fiction Literature program. And she’s going to start over as Ever Lawrence, on her own terms, without the shadow of all her family’s expectations.

Because why do what’s expected of you when you can fight other genius nerds to the death for a shot at the dream you’re sure your family will consider a complete waste of time?This summer’s going to be great.

Review of Not Now Not Ever by Lily Anderson

Elliot Gabaroche doesn’t want to follow in the footsteps of her military family. So, under an assumed name, she applies to a crazy summer program-slash-academic competition in which a group of nerds competes for a college scholarship.

Like Anderson’s first book, The Only Thing Worse Than Me is You, this book is inspired by a classic: The Importance of Being Earnest by Oscar Wilde. Three confessions: I was part of my high school’s Academic Decathlon Team. I was the Literature specialist. And I can’t remember anything about The Importance of Being Earnest.

But this is good news, because that means you don’t need to know anything about the play to enjoy this book.  I found Not Now, Not Ever to be pretty much non-stop fun while also offering up diverse characters and a lot of great pop culture references.

As the book opened, I had to get up to speed on Elliot’s extended family and remember the pretty large cast of characters at camp. But I loved that this book has the same fond depiction of nerd culture as The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You, and generally hilarious. I was laughing at the snarky take on The Breakfast Club and The Hunger Games (though this book is a bit of a homage to both underneath the snark.) Plus there’s intrigue, double-crossing, scheming — and a sweet romance. What more could you want?

I also loved that Ben and Trixie from The Only Thing Worse Than Me Is You were also characters in this story!

Definitely recommend this and I’m looking forward to reading the next thing that Lily Anderson writes!