Brothers of the Vine
Forever Evermore
Women of W.A.R.
Over four seasons of Never Have I Ever we’ve shared the highs, lows, crushes, humiliations, triumphs and loves of Devi Vishwakumar, her friends and her family. Now, as Devi graduates from Sherman Oaks High School, what better way to farewell these characters than with an American high school tradition: yearbook superlatives.
Most likely to win a Nobel Prize: Fabiola
Building a robot with artificial intelligence while still in high school is an incredible achievement. But creating an artificially-intelligent robot named Gears Brosnan who makes sassy comebacks? That’s next-level brilliance. Super-brained Fab is bound for greatness in the fields of robotics and engineering. (And if there’s a Nobel for dismantling toxic masculinity and making STEM more open to women and minorities, she’ll win that one too.)
Read Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
With her newly completed PhD in astronomy in hand, twenty-eight-year-old Grace Porter goes on a girls’ trip to Vegas to celebrate. She is not the kind of person who goes to Vegas and gets drunkenly married to a woman whose name she doesn’t know…until she does exactly that.
This one moment of departure from her stern ex-military father’s plans for her life has Grace wondering why she doesn’t feel more fulfilled from completing her degree. Staggering under the weight of her father’s expectations, a struggling job market and feelings of burnout, Grace flees her home in Portland for a summer in New York with the wife she barely knows.
When reality comes crashing in, Grace must face what she’s been running from all along—the fears that make us human, the family scars that need to heal and the longing for connection, especially when navigating the messiness of adulthood.
Most likely to become famous: Eleanor
Eleanor’s acting dreams took a few hits this season, from rejection at her Juilliard audition to witnessing her aspiring-actress mother’s desperation to be a featured corpse on a TV show poster. But rather than letting these setbacks destroy her dream, Eleanor decided to take charge of her own destiny. She’s not going to wait for the gatekeepers of the entertainment business to let her in – instead, she’s going to write and direct her own projects (‘like Greta Gerwig, or several problematic male directors’). And if her cinematic creations don’t make her famous, she can always become a fashion icon – any account showcasing her vibrant and eclectic style would be an instant follow for me.
Read The Not So Secret Crush by Jayci Lee
A read-in-one-sitting, fast-paced Rom Com.
Adelaide Song might have a teeny reputation in her family for being the party girl. But Adelaide’s dazed and debauched days are over (mostly) — and it’s time to take her place as part of the Hansol legacy. All she needs is her fashion savvy, a good cause, and a little help from her childhood crush. But working with sexy-yet-oh-so-irritating PR specialist Michael Reynolds might be more than Adelaide bargained for…
Adelaide needs his help, and damned if Michael can say no. But Michael knows that getting involved with Adelaide is flirting with sweet, ruinous disaster. Like the kind that comes when you mess with your best friend’s sister…
Best bromance: Trent and Paxton
While some people gave Paxton a hard time about leaving college so quickly and moving back to Sherman Oaks, Trent was just psyched to have his best friend back, and they picked up right where they left off. Was it wise for Paxton to socialise with students now he’s a faculty member? Definitely not! But these two were there for each other through tough times – Paxton’s feelings of rejection at ASU and Trent’s breakup with Eleanor. We should all have friends this constant and supportive (even if Paxton does occasionally take a call during ‘best bros dinner’).
Read The Bromance Book Club by Lyssa Kay Adams
The first rule of book club:
You don’t talk about book club.
Gavin Scott’s marriage is trouble. The Nashville Legends baseball star has recently discovered a humiliating secret: his wife Thea has always faked the Big O. His reaction to the revelation is the final straw for their already strained relationship. Thea asks for a divorce, and Gavin realizes he’s let his pride and fear get the better of him.
Welcome to the Bromance Book Club.
Distraught and desperate, Gavin finds help from an unlikely source: a secret romance book club made up of Nashville’s top alpha men. With the help of their current read, a steamy Regency called Courting the Countess, the guys coach Gavin on saving his marriage. But it’ll take a lot more than flowery words and grand gestures for this hapless Romeo to find his inner hero and win back the trust of his beloved wife.
Biggest flirt: Ethan
Ethan is the only new character I’m giving a superlative – but he really earned this title. After a summer growth spurt turned him into the heartthrob of the hot pocket, Ethan made the most of all the attention. His ‘bad boy’ image drove the girls of SOHS crazy – but actual ‘bad person’ behaviour like making out with Eleanor and Devi at the same party and stealing the Princeton admissions officer’s wallet meant that he should probably stay in the ‘fun to flirt with’ category rather than the ‘boyfriend material’ one.
Read The Wrong Kind of Weird by James Ramos
Cameron Carson has a secret. A secret with the power to break apart his friend group.
Cameron Carson, member of the Geeks and Nerds United (GANU) club, has been secretly hooking up with student council president, cheerleader, theater enthusiast, and all-around queen bee Karla Ortega since the summer. The one problem — what was meant to be a summer fling between coffee shop coworkers has now evolved into a clandestine senior-year entanglement, where Karla isn’t intending on blending their friend groups anytime soon, or at all.
Enter Mackenzie Briggs, who isn’t afraid to be herself or wear her heart on her sleeve. When Cameron finds himself unexpectedly bonding with Mackenzie and repeatedly snubbed in public by Karla, he starts to wonder who he can truly consider a friend and who might have the potential to become more…
Most likely to host a talk show: Ben
From the very start of the show, Ben has been focused on following the same high-achieving path as his dad: Columbia University and a career in law. But he didn’t seem at ease among either the Columbia students or the other interns at the law firm. Clearly he needs a new career goal: hosting a talk show. He has a quick wit (usually at Devi’s expense), and his dad’s extensive list of celebrity clients – everyone from Lisa Vanderpump to Jerry Seinfeld – would make booking guests a breeze.
Read: Thank You For Listening by Julia Whelan
For Sewanee Chester, being an audiobook narrator is a long way from her old dreams, but the days of being a star on film sets are long behind her. She’s found success and satisfaction from the inside of a sound booth and it allows her to care for her beloved, ailing grandmother. When she arrives in Las Vegas last-minute for a book convention, Sewanee unexpectedly spends a whirlwind night with a charming stranger.
On her return home, Sewanee discovers one of the world’s most beloved romance novelists wanted her to perform her last book—with Brock McNight, the industry’s hottest, most secretive voice. Sewanee doesn’t buy what romance novels are selling—not after her own dreams were tragically cut short—and she stopped narrating them years ago. But her admiration of the late author, and the opportunity to get her grandmother more help, makes her decision for her.
As Sewanee begins work on the book, resurrecting her old romance pseudonym, she and Brock forge a real connection, hidden behind the comfort of anonymity. Soon, she is dreaming again, but secrets are revealed, and the realities of life come crashing down around her once more.
If she can learn to risk everything for desires she has long buried, she will discover a world of intimacy and acceptance she never believed would be hers.
Best taste in men: Nalini
There were a lot of other titles Devi’s mother was in the running for: best mother, most stylish, best shoulder to cry on … but ultimately I just had to salute her for attracting such swoon-worthy men. This woman has never dated anyone who wasn’t a ten. From her dreamy late husband Mohan to her rival-dermatologist-turned-love-interest Chris and finally the ridiculously handsome contractor Andres, Nalini only accepts the very best. It’s what she deserves!
Read The Emma Project by Sonali Dev
Emma gets a fresh Indian-American twist from award-winning author Sonali Dev in her heartwarmingly irresistible Jane Austen inspired rom com series.
No one can call Vansh Raje’s life anything but charmed. Handsome—Vogue has declared him California’s hottest single—and rich enough to spend all his time on missions to make the world a better place. Add to that a doting family and a contagiously sunny disposition and Vansh has made it halfway through his twenties without ever facing anything to throw him off his admittedly spectacular game.
A couple years from turning forty, Knightlina (Naina) Kohli has just gotten out of a ten-year-long fake relationship with Vansh’s brother and wants only one thing from her life…fine, two things. One, to have nothing to do with the unfairly blessed Raje family ever again. Two, to bring economic independence to millions of women in South Asia through her microfinance foundation and prove her father wrong about, well, everything.
Just when Naina’s dream is about to come to fruition, Vansh Raje shows up with his misguided Emma Project… And suddenly she’s fighting him for funding and wondering if a friends-with-benefits arrangement that’s as toe-curlingly hot as it is fun is worth risking her life’s work for.
Cutest couple: Nirmala and Len
Ultra-laidback white guy Len and sardonic Indian grandmother Nirmala might seem like polar opposites, but somehow it works so well. The Vishwakumar family’s Pati was giddy about finding love after decades as a widow, and Len’s devotion to his ‘Nirmy’ was totally adorable. Their incredibly sweet romance almost seemed too good to be true (Kamala certainly thought so).
Biggest gossip: Kamala
In previous seasons, Kamala struggled against her parents’ wish for her to have an arranged marriage, searched for love and strove for independence. Now happily living on her own and in a relationship with Manish, she turned her attention to her grandmother’s love life. She was quick to share her suspicious about Len with Devi and Nalini, and became intent on proving that he was being unfaithful and using Nirmala. Hopefully Kamala’s new job in Baltimore will keep her too busy to derail any more senior citizen romances!
Read: Making A Marriage Deal by Sophia Singh Sasson
For a committed career woman, an arranged marriage with a picture-perfect man could allow her to live in peace with her family…until she’s stuck with her husband on a cruise! Chemistry sizzles in this romance from Sophia Singh Sasson.
She just married the perfect husband…who’s also a perfect stranger.
Ambitious doctor Hema Dharav already has the love of her life: her job. But without a husband, she’ll never get a chance at the career of dreams. So she allows her parents to arrange a marriage to a gorgeous, successful stranger. But Vivek Bajaj knows that while he can be the perfect husband on paper, nothing could ever convince him to fall in love again…
Now they’re stuck together on a luxurious Caribbean cruise, surrounded by beauty and trying to resist a searing attraction that threatens their platonic arrangement…
Best all-around: Devi
When Devi visits her academic idol Blair Quan at Princeton and discovers the older girl has flunked out after partying too much, she is terrified that the same thing will happen to her. Ben tells her she’ll be fine, because she’s never been as perfect as Blair. For once he’s not insulting her, but rather pointing out that while Blair was 100% focused on academics at high school, Devi has been more well-rounded: ‘You have made many mistakes, and you go to parties, and you’ve had boyfriends.’ She’s also been a loving daughter and a loyal friend. Yes, she sometimes messes up at both those things, but she’s always trying to do better. No one packed more into high school than Devi. Though her missteps could sometimes be frustrating to watch, I was always cheering for her. As great as it was to see her become valedictorian and get into Princeton, it was the times she screwed up, was led by her heart rather than her head or was totally impetuous that made me really love her. Long may she continue to be Crazy Devi.
Read: Dating Dr Dil by Nisha Sharna
Hi! I’m Kareena Mann. As cheesy as it sounds, I’m looking for my soulmate. In four months. And he must gain the approval of my meddling aunties.
Kareena dreams of having a perfect love story like her parents did. That’s why on the morning of her thirtieth birthday, she’s decided to suit up and enter the dating arena. When her widowed father announces he’s retiring and selling their home after her sister’s engagement party, Kareena makes a deal with him. If she can find her soulmate by the date of the party, he’ll gift her the house, and she’ll be able to keep her mother’s legacy alive.
Hi, I’m Dr. Prem Verma, host of the Dr. Dil Show. Prem means love, Dil means heart, and I’m a cardiologist. Don’t let my name fool you. I only fix broken hearts in the literal sense.
Prem doesn’t have time for romance, which is why it’s no surprise when his first meeting with Kareena goes awry. Their second encounter is worse when their on-air debate about love goes viral. Now Prem’s largest community center donor is backing out because Prem’s reputation as a heart-health expert is at risk. To get back in his donor’s good graces, he needs to fix his image fast, and dating Kareena is his only option.
Even though they have warring interests, the more time Prem spends with Kareena, the more he thinks she’s might actually be the woman he wants to spend the rest of his life with. In this Taming of the Shrew re-imagination, for Prem and Kareena to find their happily ever after, they must admit that hate has turned into fate.
Congratulations to the graduating class of Never Have I Ever!