Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)

Product Information

I get they had the stress of their mum's operation and all the unresolved grief and loss, but them continuing to tip toe around each other didn't make sense to me after a point. Overall, this is a beautiful story of two girls trying to find their way in the world--and to find love. Since their moms are best friends, Tate has always been in Penny’s life but it’s only rather recently that Penny’s feelings for the other girl seem to have shifted from driving her crazy to wanting to kiss her. Prepare yourself for a very emotional ride with this book that will make the happy ending feel even better. Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe is a beautiful young adult novel that follows the lives of Penny and Tate, two girls who have always clashed but whose paths constantly cross because of their mothers' epic friendship.

It’s all about grief and resilience, about love that should be a given and love that seems unfathomable, about PTSD and character growth, about standing up for yourself and showing up.I do not love that dynamic, I find it incredibly horrible to experience, but instead of ruining the book (which has definitely happened to me before) I can respect it because Sharpe did such a great job with.

So while the cover and the blurb feel like a romantic enemies to lovers YA, Six Times We almost Kissed is so much more. First of all, the audiobook is narrated by the author and my previous experiences of authors narrating their own books weren’t great but this one was excellent. With a title like Six Times We Almost Kissed (And The One Time We Did) you’d expect a cutesy, slow burn romcom. There is a romance plot line, but it feels secondary to the grief, even though I'd say both are equal main story arcs. She enjoys running, reading, snarking on YouTube personalities, and working on her future novel when she's not writing professionally.The Girls I've Been is a powerful gut-punch of a book that will leave you reeling long after its final pages. I added this book to my wish list the second I possibly could, and now that I have read it, I will be hyping this up as much as I can. Many thanks to NetGalley, Little and Brown Books for Young Readers, and Tess Sharpe for an ARC of this book! Times We Almost Kissed is a difficult and candid story to take in sometimes, but it is softened with a tale that shows love is sweet and undeniable.