Thank you Little, Brown Books for Young Readers and Netgalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for my honest review!
Penny and Tate have always clashed. Unfortunately, their mothers are lifelong best friends, so the girls’ bickering has carried them through playdates, tragedy, and more than one rom-com marathon with the Moms. When Penny’s mother decides to become a living donor to Tate’s mom, ending her wait for a liver transplant, things go from clashing to cataclysmic. Because in order to help their families recover physically, emotionally, and financially, the Moms combine their households the summer before senior year.
So Penny and Tate make a pact: They’ll play nice. Be the drama-free daughters their mothers need through this scary and hopeful time. There’s only one little hitch in their plan: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.
Rating: ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ (4)
'6 Times We Almost Kissed [and One Time We Did]' wasn't like I expected it to be! It was way deeper. The death of Penny's father played a big part in the story, which was unexpected but worked really well. It really focused on the trauma and how this brought the main characters closer together. Penny and Tate are a bit complex, just like we all can be. Which made them feel realistic to me.
Because the romance part was a smaller storyline, their love developed slowly, but that didn't make the rest of the story feel like it was dragging or boring.
Their moms are long-time friends, which is why Penny and Tate had to spend time with each other in the first place and experienced each other's hardships from up close. Even though they don't like each other at first, they are like magnets. They always find a way back to each other.
The relationship between Penny and her mom is rocky, to say the least. Throughout the book there is a distance between them. A tension that's palpable. Grief changes a person and this book is really good at showing what that can look like and how everyone deals with their own grief in a different way.
Even though I needed a bit of time to get into the story, once I was in, I flew through it!
'6 Times We Almost Kissed [and One Time We Did]' is out now!