Sarah Everett is just a genius. Her writing is consistently beautiful, and her books have become ones I desperately look forward to. Some Other Now is no exception. Everett is a contemporary writer that I don't see mentioned enough, and I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys the genre.

The characters steal the show in Some Other Now(let's be real though, Everett's characters always steal the show). The way their stories are shown, the way it all unfolds, is heartbreaking and beautiful. Definitely have tissues handy for this one. It's not all sadness though. This book offers a beautiful portrayal of hope, of finding comfort and moving on from grief.

If you haven't read a Sarah Everett book, please keep this one on your radar(and also pick up her other books. They're all incredible, trust me).

This is a really heart-wrenching and heavy book. Even with the description I was expecting it to be a bit lighter because it is YA. Overall I still think it fits the YA genre but probably better suited to the older end of YA or New Adult because of the overall heavy themes and the characters being in the final years of high school/starting college. That bit of disclaimer aside I found the book to be very well written and dealt with the guilt and grief the characters deal with in a way that felt honest and realistic. The characters are well written and kept me glued to the page. I also thought the way the story unfolded revealing bits of the past as the present timeline moved forward worked really well. It was an interesting way to show the character development and piece together what had happened. Overall it was an enjoyable though heartrending read.

I want to buy copies of this book and put them in the hands of some of my students right away. Nothing is ever as easy as it seems & no matter how well we think we understand a situation, there is always some unseen element that provides another layer of truth. This book wrestles with that theme while handling the topics of death, family, friendship (in many forms), mental health, and love in thoughtful & mindful fashion. I’m sure highbrow readers will find flaw with the underdevelopment of some characters & a few other bits, but I know that my readers will be entranced by the story within just a few pages & those problems won’t matter. Now I need to investigate what else Sarah Everett has written! This was one that I had to finish in one day. It was that good! #SomeOtherNow #NetGalley

Wow this was such a good book. I love the themes of family and the relationship that Jessi has with both her parents and the Cohen family who is like her surrogate "found" family. The way it was written with glimpses of the past interspersed throughout the present really worked with revealing information at critical moments. I love how much Jessi grew and the lessons she learned from both Mel and her other relationships. I found there were so many sections that spoke to me as I was reading. I highly recommend this book.

Every now and again, between reading heavier dark fantasy books, I love to pick up a nice contemporary book to read something a bit more grounded in reality. While this book wasn’t the typical lighthearted and fluffy contemporary that I’d normally reach for, it was incredibly realistic and well written. The dialogue, characters, and overall plot where quite believable (and heartbreaking!) I really liked how the story was broken into sections of Then and Now, which work quite well to reveal the big event that split the story in two. I was constantly compelled to keep reading to find out what happened.

As I’ve said in basically all of my #ownvoices reflections, it’s so refreshing and heartwarming to read books where the characters’ blackness isn’t necessarily the main focus or point of conflict. While there’s definitely an important place for books like that (think of books like Dear Martin and The Hate U Give) there are a lot of times where I just want to escape real world issues and read something with great black representation, but also where race isn’t the main issue. In my own life, my race is often a part of me bit of an afterthought unless it’s brought to the forefront of my mind by other events in the world. It’s like how most of the time you’re not aware of the fact that you’re breathing until someone calls your attention to it. It’s just who I am!

All in all, I’ll give Some Other Now 4/5 stars!

3.5 Stars
I loved this book but there were some parts that didn't quite make any sense to me. Like the scene a little later in the book that cause the main conflict that we are introduced to in the beginning of the book. I don't understand why the main character reacted that way to her best friends she was had no feelings for him. I did appreciate the fact that the author addressed how mental illness can negatively impact family members without putting any fault on the person that is suffering. I did like the romantic dynamic between Jess and Luke for the most part, but I do think that the way Luke treated Jess when they just started fake dating was a bit much. I loved the family dynamic between Jess and her mother when her mother was recovering and the dynamic between Jess and Mel.

That's All I Got, Danielle.

I don't know how it happened, but by the end of chapter one, I knew two things. One, I was already wishing the best for the Cohens (Mel, Ro, and Luke) and Jessi, and two, this book was going to make me cry. (and it did)

The characters really shine in this novel. They all felt authentic and well-rounded. I was actually surprised how there isn't a single character that is portrayed as irredeemable or wholly good. (I mean Willow and Brent lean towards the latter, but they still didn't feel like they were flat characters) The relationships were on point, too: from Mel's mother-figure role to Jessi to Jessi & Ro's friendship to the dynamics of the Cohens and Jessi's parents. All the relationships felt real.

Additionally, this book is told from two perspectives: Jessi's Then & Now. The flow between these two time periods worked really well, as I was anxiously reading to find out what exactly happened to cause that separation between the past and present. 

In conclusion, this book tells Jessi's story as she tries to navigate her Now & Then, as she struggles with past actions, her mother-figure's sickness, fake-dating the one that got away, among other things. The thing I like most about this novel is how easily I connected to and rooted for the characters, especially Jessi. It was one of those books that I could not put down until I reached the end. 

Thank you to HMH Teen and #YALLWrite for this NetGalley ARC. I really appreciated the opportunity to read this!

✨Some Other Now thoughts✨

Thank you to @hearourvoicestours and @hmhbooks for the gifted galley of Some Other Now by Sarah Everett @heysaraeverett! 

Some Other Now publishes February 2021 and this ended up being the read I needed at this time! Book slump? What book slump? I started it and couldn’t stop picking this one up. I took this photo while my girls were in their morning pre-k sessions and I snuck a few chapters in to myself. 

I loved the flipping between thenand now! I just had to find out what happened to Rowan, why Luke was so angry with Jessi and I needed more wisdom from Mel. 

There’s a lot to unpack in this one. For instance, mental illness, what I believed to be postpartum depression that was never acknowledged, excessive drinking in a teenager just to name a few at the forefront of the story. I saw the train wrecks coming a mile away but I felt like a helpless child as well. 

When we don’t talk to others about what we’re feeling, when we keep things bottled up, we run the risk of making things worse. I’ve never seen a situation not turn around with communication and yet we don’t do it for whatever reason often enough, well enough, if at all. Words left unsaid bug me to no end but it is so common and I wish it wasn’t. 

Favorite Quotes: 
“Not being the best at something doesn’t make you stupid. It makes you human.”

“I don’t know if I will ever be okay with me...But I decide right here and now that I have to try.”

“Being all someone has and caring about them counts for a lot.”

“Be nice to yourself.”

Favorite Character: Mel! She wasn’t perfect by any means but I loved her. I loved her wisdom.I loved her nurturing spirit despite all she was going through and I love how she stepped in for Jessi with open arms. Sometimes it just takes one person to be there. 

When this book releases, buy a copy and give it a big ole hug. It’s not the easiest book to read as it comes with some  content warnings: dealing with depression, death, terminal illness, alcohol abuse and grief but understand they were all treated with care. 

So happy to have Some Other Now sent to me! 

#bnjreads #bookishthoughts #bookish #someothernow #saraheverett #HMHbooks #diversespines #youngadult #YAReader #bookstagram #bnjreadsreview

I loved reading this book!!! It's stunning !!
Beautifully penned down. It's emotional and close to my heart! Whether you're sixteen or sixty, you'll fall in love with Luke, Ro, and Jessi's story and you'll keep coming back for more. Really enjoyed!!!

This was a fantastic and cute read that did not focus on the black struggle which I can truly appreciate. However, I felt that even though it did not focus on it, I felt like their could have been details that solidified that the characters within these pages were people of color. For example, it could have been a detailed about Jessi doing her hair or the way others viewed her. However, I did appreciate how Everett was able to explore different relationships throughout this book. She explores the importance of having a true and dependable support system and being able to forgive yourself and figuring out who you are. 

I loved how I was able to go on this journey with Jessi on her path of self discovery. Traveling between her past and her present made me truly understand her but I wish it made me understand the other important characters. I felt as if I was only able to get a sense of who the characters were through Jessi and not who they were on their own. It is like I could only see them through Jessi's lens and they didn't have their own personality.

Overall, I truly did enjoy this book, even though there were a few faults.  I found this book to be cute book of YA Contemporary.

This book is such a good read! I loved the characters and the diversity that this book has. This book will make you go through all the emotions at once or at different times, but it is definitely worth it. However, each character had their faults, and at some points in the book, some of the characters just fell flat. But the love triangle trope worked well here.

I received an advance copy of this book from Publishers on behalf of Hear Our Voices Blog Tours. All thoughts in this review are my own.

After the death of her best friend, the loss of her boyfriend, waiting to lose the woman who's always acted as a mother to her, and struggling with the "return" of her actual mother who's spend the last 18 years in bed battling depression, Jessi moves through the world as a shell of a person filling ever hour of her day to keep the darkness at bay.

Jessi and Rowan Cohen were best friends for 10 years. Older brother Luke Cohen and Jessie spent a few beautiful months as more than friends, finally, but all of that died the night Ro did. Mel Cohen had always been the mom Jessi craved but as she dies slowly from cancer, Jessi, Ro, and Luke begin to fall apart as well. 

A year after Ro's death and the end of Luke and Jessi, Luke reappears out of nowhere, insisting that he and Jessi pretend to be dating again, for Mel's sake, Jessi can't say no, she;d no anything for Mel and has never forgiven herself for hurting Luke. As Jessi and Luke walk the tight rope between pretend and the flame that never actually burned out, Jessi is forced to deal with the gradual loss of Mel, her need for Luke but aversion to close relationships, her parents who pretend as if the last eighteen years never happened, and what she did to Ro. 

I feel like I traveled with Jessi on this journey. Moving between Then and Now was so fantastically jarring because, although Jessi's life was never "perfect" we were able to see what she "had" with the Cohen's, and what her life turned into when she lost them. Having recently had my own family loss this summer, the darkness of it can act as an accelerate in a world that's tough and unforgiving in the best of circumstances (let alone during Covid and this circus of an election season).  

I love that we are beginning to see more books that tell stories of black suburban families. While Jessi's story isn't exactly exploding with joy, the addition of books like Some Other Now with The Hate You Give, I Am Alfonso Jones, and Dear Martin begins to show the world that there is more than one black narrative. While the history of African American's begins with some of the most oppressive moments in American history, we are more than oppressed people. We will always walk through the world with dark skin, and there will always be some that hate us for it, but we're allowed friendships, love, family. We're allowed to play tennis, go camping, bake cupcakes, and live our lives with all the joy we can carve out of this world.

This book would likely appeal to a YA audience that enjoys romance and sad books. The author does a great job jumping between time lines and keeping the reader engaged in the story. She address mental health and the what is really a family. One aspect of the book that I didn't enjoy was that it had diverse characters but that didn't really play a role in the novel. It seemed like they were diverse for the sake of diversity but not to add anything to the characters or the story.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to read this book. I'll be posting my review on Goodreads and Amazon

It is quite rare that a book bring me to the brink of tears, and that’s exactly what SOME OTHER NOW did for the last 25%. My heart feels heavy after this book. Sarah Everett builds an emotionally grounded, complex, two-timeline narrative from the perspective of a Black girl working through her own feelings of abandonment whilst simultaneously finding and losing her found family all at once. This book is a rollercoaster of emotions, laughter, grief, and self-reflection. Jessi is a character that you just want to grab by the shoulders and shake but also hug. There’s themes of grief, self-sabotage, self-hatred, and also acceptance. Everett’s supporting characters are deep wells of personality and they add to this world in rich ways. This book filled my soul in ways I wasn’t expecting, and I’m excited to see what Sarah Everett writes next.

𝙎𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙊𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙉𝙤𝙬 𝙗𝙮 𝙎𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙝 𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙩

Thank you @hearourvoicestours @hmhteen @netgalley for this egalley in exchange for an honest review!

𝙎𝙮𝙣𝙤𝙥𝙨𝙞𝙨:
Before she kissed one of the Cohen boys, seventeen-year-old Jessi Rumfield knew what it was like to have a family—even if, technically, that family didn’t belong to her. She’d spent her childhood in the house next door, challenging Rowan Cohen to tennis matches while his older brother, Luke, studied in the background and Mel watched over the three like the mother Jessi always wished she had.

But then everything changed. It’s been almost a year since Jessi last visited the Cohen house. Rowan is gone. Mel is in remission and Luke hates Jessi for the role she played in breaking his family apart. Now Jessi spends her days at a dead-end summer job avoiding her real mother, who suddenly wants to play a role in Jessi's life after being absent for so long. But when Luke comes home from college, it's hard to ignore the past. And when he asks Jessi to pretend to be his girlfriend for the final months of Mel’s life, Jessi finds herself drawn back into the world of the Cohens. Everything’s changed, but Jessi can’t help wanting to be a Cohen, even if it means playing pretend for one final summer.

My thoughts:
This was kind of a heavy YA read, but it was well written and kept me invested the whole time. This one is sad, so prepare yourself lol. As the story unfolded, I kept feeling like Jessi was always blaming herself for things more than she should or overthinking but I also knew that whatever happened must’ve been big. I felt for Rowan because he seemed like he was going through a lot, and I’m not sure how I feel about Luke lol. If you’re into YA and love a good story, I’d recommend this one, which comes out on February 23, 2021.

Thank you to the publisher for providing me with a free ARC of this book. I requested this book based entirely on the this sentence, "For fans of Far From the Tree, Emergency Contact, and Nina LaCour." It didn't disappoint. If enjoyed any of those novels you will probably like this. Added bonus- (or not depending on your persuasion) it made me cry at the end.

Everett handles quite a lot of tough material very deftly. It could have gotten very muddy very fast as Jessi is dealing with a mom with severe depression, and her surrogate mother, Mel, being "sick" (I assume cancer, but it was never really clarified).

The format of the book successfully keeps the reader engaged but alternating between the present and past and slowly spooling out the details to keep you reading. I won't spoil, but within the first 25% there is a reveal that throws off what you were expecting to happen.

I was expecting a more standard, coming of age, young adult novel, but this actually developed into something of a romance after its initial setup. The conflict between the two characters being grief over their shared loss and impending losses. It is one of those books that you don't find out the big reveal until the very, very end. I often like books that keep you guessing.

One thing that didn't' really work for me though was the representation. Jessi is mixed race, as are the boys, Luke and Rowan, but it felt more like a throwaway attempt at representation than anything real and substantial. I guess it is good that authors are now writing more diverse characters, but I don't feel that it informed much in the book. It was a few sentences at the start of the book and then never really addressed again. It would have been easy to rewrite the book and make all the characters white and not really change the story in any way. Which I guess is both good and bad in terms of representation. There was a small subplot dealing with the prejudice and racism Jessi's mom and dad faced as a mixed-race couple from the mom's family, but it felt a bit unnecessary.

On the whole, I enjoyed this a lot. I liked both Jessi and Luke and I thought they had a nice character arc.

I'm partnering with @hearourvoicestours to share some thoughts on Some Other Now by Sarah Everett. SON revolves around three childhood friends, the Cohen brothers Rowan and Luke, and Jessi, the girl next door. Rowan and Luke's mom, Mel, is like the mother Jessi never had. As they get older, life gets more complicated. Mel has terminal cancer, Rowan is gone, Jessi is in a dead end job she hates, and Luke hates Jessi. But as Mel enters her final days, Luke asks Jessi to be his pretend girlfriend to make Mel happy. Whew, okay, so there is definitely a lot going on in this story, and I probably made it sound more complicated than it actually was. Goodreads calls it "This is Us for teenagers," which is a pretty accurate description, although it was definitely emotional for me as an adult. As a mother, my heart went out to Mel, who just wanted to see her "kids" happy again. I'm sure it would be hard to leave your family behind knowing they were all unhappy and struggling in their lives. I'm not always the biggest fan of love triangles between siblings, but this one worked. I found myself emotionally invested in the characters, and although I knew some things were inevitable, I wanted the characters to get their happy ending. Their lives were messy and complicated, yet completely genuine. I gave this one 4/5 stars.

I really liked this book! When they tell you that it’s like This Is Us but YA... that’s 100% true. If you like This Is Us, I’m positive that you will enjoy this book a lot. It has a really similar vibe, with all the important and complex themes, a story narrated in a split timeline, the powerful lessons that will have you highlighting left and right, and the heartbreaking moments mixed with the heartwarming moments. 

And yes, you will probably cry. 

The story deals with important themes like depression, race relations, family / found family, cancer, grief, and survivor’s guilt. It also has romance, fake-dating and some good friendships.  The pacing is great, the characters are multidimensional and the twists are  unexpected.

The story shows glimpses of hope, but it’s also heartbreaking, so you better have some tissues ready before reading this book. You’ve been warned. 

4/5 stars

This storyline has been done before, two brothers one girl. This book was beautiful and I was hooked from the beginning. The dual timelines were done superbly. Highly recommend this read. TW for death.