‘Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)’ is an emotional story about parental loss, grief, and the different ways people react and cope with trauma.

Our main protagonists, Tate and Penny, both are dealing with grief and loss in different ways. For Tate, she lives with the fear of losing her mum to cancer. For Penny she’s trying to cope with watching her father die, and losing her mu, to her own grief in the process. I love how Sharpe portrayed these different types of grief and loss, not just through our main protagonists, but through the supporting characters such as the mums and Penny’s Gran.

I really loved how this story was a slow burn romance between Tate and Penny. Both of them had a lot to figure out, and still do, but the way they began to open up to each other (and the idea of being with each other, romantic styles) felt organic and truthful to the characters.

Overall, I really loved this story. I loved how it didn’t end with all the relationships magically fixed, or with the characters suddenly ‘cured’ of their problems (if such a thing is even possible). It ended with them willing to try, standing up for themselves (particularly Penny) and that felt hopeful. It was a good ending.

(I also wouldn’t mind a spin off short story set in the future, or with the besties).

This book had me in tears numerous times.
This was such a beautiful and emotional story that was so much more than the romance I expected. This is a story of love, grief and mental health. (Please be aware it does have many trigger warnings!)

I loved Penny and Tate so much. They have both gone through so much and were each struggling in their own ways and dealing with it all so differently.

I love that we got to see flashbacks and that some parts of this story was told in text messages! I love mixed media in books!

Honestly just go pick this one up right now. I need to buy myself a physical copy now!

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Six Times We Almost Kissed is one of those books that has so many layers, you can't help but relate to something.

It is honest, authentic and raw. The characters are flawed, gritty and their relationships are so easy to relate to, they could be people in your life.

Easy to read, fast paced and emotionally charged. This angsty book, filled with love, loss and the importance of therapy and healing, is a must read.

Penny and Tate’s mom decide that the four of them are moving in together to save on costs and make things easier when Penny’s mom gives Tate’s mom part of her liver. Penny and state have known each other since they were born, because their moms are ride or die besties - the only problem is they can’t stand each other. Oh, and they keep almost kissing.

Tess Sharpe is probably most known for her YA thrillers, which are also amazing, but damn can she throw a romance out of the park too. I loved reading about Penny and Tate’s history together and the flashbacks in the story, but I also loved reading about Penny and Tate growing with each other and learning now to navigate each other in this new scenario. Mostly, I appreciated how this wasn’t just a romance, but it very much focused on the friendship between the girls as well, and how it can be messy and complicated and unconventional and still be a solid as a rock relationship.

And yes, I cried.

Here’s a run down of what’s featured in the book:
🔥 slow burn romance
🖤 enemies to lovers
🛏️ there’s only one bed
👨‍👧 parental loss
💙 mental health discussion
🏞️ rural health care access
🧸 a six foot tree trunk bear

And so much more!

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Okay.
For personal reasons (life, school etc...), I wasn't able to finish the book in time BUT I'm still going to review what I read because I loved it and I'm definitely gonna get myself a copy of the book so I'll be able to finish the story.

I read around 40% of the books. The slow burn from now on is done reallyyy well, it's tense between Penny and Tate but this long time before anything happens between them is necessary considering their past and their own personal issues.
Parental issues and trauma are handled greatly.

It's the first Tess Sharp book I've ever read and it won't be the last, The Girls I've been is gonna leave my physical TBR soon.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for their trust, I'm glad I got to discover this story !

4.5 stars.

Thank you to the publisher via NetGalley for the eARC of this title in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is a really sweet coming-of-age Sapphic romance about two teenage girls playing a lifelong game of romantic chicken. Penny and Tate's mothers are best friends, but Penny and Tate have always butted heads. When their mothers announce that Penny's mother will be donating part of her liver to save Tate's mother, the girls are forced to move in together to help keep things afloat. Penny is working through her grief for her father, who died a few years earlier in a rafting accident; Penny's mother is doing the same, but handling it extremely poorly. Tate is just trying to hold everything together.

This has a fairly conventional YA plot, but carries the tropes so well - it's got enemies to lovers, it's got forced proximity, it's got 'there's only one bed', it's got 'I didn't know where else to go.' The book is, in a way, an homage to fanfiction, but it avoids veering down into saccharine play-by-play predictability. I often find that these kinds of slow burns manufacture silly reasons for them to not be together, but I felt this one got the tension between the two just right. The stakes are there, and you know what kind of leap it would be for one of them to make the first move.

I think this does relationships between teenage girls and their mothers exceptionally well. It would be easy to make Penny's mother the straightforward villain of the piece, but the fact that the writer gets the nuances of that grief just right so that you understand her decisions even when she gets it so cataclysmically wrong.

This one will play so well with our pupils. Added to the library order list!

This book... this is not fluffy and heart-warming, its raw and emotional! It's fantastic! I had my heart come up into my throat a few times when reading this and it was just so full of pain, love and the things we don't say.

This tells the story of not only two girls, not really friends, but not at all just acquaintances, their mothers and their relationship and ties, the steps through a traumatic life event, followed by a big life decision all while navigating life, sexuality and trying to keep their heads afloat in what is the deep pool of life.

I've read Tess Sharpe's work before and if this is anything to go buy, I'm sold. New auto-buy author. Always hitting me with the raw, emotional and entertaining reads. Cheers to that!

Thank you so much to HachetteKids, TeamBkmrk and Tess Sharpe for this digital copy! After loving The Girls I’ve Been Before, I knew I had to read Sharpe’s latest. And what a book this was!

This story follows Tate and Penny. Two teenage girls that are hardly best friends, which gets a little problematic when their mothers’ (who are best friends) agree that they will all move in together following life changing surgery. Could anything make this situation more awkward? Perhaps the fact that Penny and Tate have almost kissed… six times, something that no one else knows. What could go wrong?

This was such a great book! I loved reading about these two characters, getting to know them and their stories. Honestly, the whole cast of characters were great to read! Meghan and Remi were fab sidekicks! On the outside, this may look like a super happy read but these two girls haven’t had it easy at all. 6 Times deals with grief, sexuality, friendships, families. It’s a really beautifully written story of these two trying to find their way through their teens while overcoming a lot, and in the end, finding each other.

* Please research any trigger warnings before reading *

I'm reading so many queer books lately and I am living! This one broke me though. It was so sad! The relationship between Penny and her mum and the trauma that had happened to cause it were so tragic. I could really feel the pain in the words.

I wasn't so into the relationship between the two girls. The kisses were good, but other than that I just didn't really feel the tension between them. It was however beautiful writing. There were some really touching metaphors that I'm certain are gonna be picked up and quoted from the book for years to come.

It was definitely worth reading. I enjoy books that discuss trauma and healing and I was very interested in those parts of the story.

L O V E D. I expected a cute rom com, but Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) was way more than that. I twas heartbreaking, it was healing, it was anxiety inducing and it was swoon worthy. Absolutely and utterly in love with this book.

This was such a good book! It took me a while to get into it but once I'd gotten into it, I was absolutely hooked, I could not put it down! Tess Sharpe has now become an auto-buy author.

A beautiful story, with fantastic LGBTQ+ rep. I loved the friends/enemies to lovers trope, and the heartwarming story of the respective mums. I did find the pace quite slow at the start, however I was soon engrossed and enjoying the read.

"I will find you when you need me," she said, "And I will stay if you want me."

Penny and Tate have known each other since they were born. With both of their mothers being BFFs, their lives have been bound together since day one. But one thing you should know is, they are not friends. They are just Penny and Tate.

Penny and Tate who have almost kissed six times...

Penny and Tate will now be closer together than they ever expected. with their mothers doing something neither of them expected.

But will their forced close proximity push them closer or further apart?

This slow-burn romance was an absolute pleasure to read! As a lover of Sharpe's other books, I was excited to dive into it and be thrown into Penny and Tate's world. To read about their relationship with each other and see how much both have suffered in life, with the other girl by their side, I was itching for them to get together!

If you are a lover of slow-burn romances with a scene with only one bed and a lot of angst, then this is a must-read for you!!!

Thank you so much to the publishers for providing me with an eArc in exchange for my honest review.

If you are entering into Tess Sharpe's latest novel expecting a fluffy romcom, reassess. This book was surprisingly intense with a tragic accidental death, cancer and mental health struggles prominent themes in the narrative. Penny and Tate's mothers are best friends (NOT sisters! I first thought Penny and Tate were cousins which confused me for the first few chapters. Not cousins, not cousins...). At the beginning, they announce that Penny's mother will be donating part of her liver to Tate's mother to save her life. We see the process of the medical procedure whilst also flashing back to the turbulent history of this rag tag family unit. Including Penny and Tate's will they, won't they romantic tension.

This was a tough read (particularly Penny and her father's rafting trip) but the structure was pulled off really skilfully. The gradual reveal of the past and how it has shaped the characters' present is heart wrenching but leaves the reader convinced that Penny and Tate are endgame - anything but them admitting their love for each other would be a nonsensical conclusion to their story. Tess Sharpe has written something special here which I would highly recommend. 4.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher who provided an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) tells the heart-warming coming of age story of Penny and Tate, two girls who have always clashed but whose lives constantly overlap through their mothers who have been best friends since childhood. When parental illness means that Penny and Tate have to live under the same roof they are forced to address the one thing they keep ignoring: the fact that they keep almost kissing.
Penny and Tate’s story is a beautiful slow-burn romance, perfect for fans of the enemies to lovers trope and the everyone can see it trope. The book is structured into multiple parts, with each part telling the story of an individual time the pair has almost kissed, gradually building up to them actually kissing and becoming a couple. We have two really strong female leads in Penny and Tate and I instantly warmed to the both of them.
The story goes beyond the typical light-hearted love story you’d expect from a YA romance novel. Both girls have had to grow up incredibly quickly and I think Tess Sharpe explores this really well. Tate has had to manage having a single parent with a long-term illness and this has included taking a role in managing the family finances despite only being a teenager. Penny is recovering from the trauma of the water sports accident which injured her and killed her father and interjected within the narrative are occasional chapters which provide a flashback to the events surrounding the accident. This really helps readers to understand the trauma Penny has as a result and the way it has impacted on her relationship with her mum. We see real character development in the character of Penny throughout the story as she learns to stand up to herself against her Mum and demand what she needs in order to be able to start to heal from her trauma. The mental health representation we have in the book through the exploration of the PTSD and trauma Penny has is truly fantastic and a really sets Six Times We Almost Kissed apart from other YA books.
Overall, Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) is a beautiful queer love story which is incredibly heart-warming whilst also not being afraid to tackle some really hard-hitting topics. Although it’s a YA novel, I feel that adult readers such as myself can take so much from the story.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
I have posted an extended review on my blog www.yourschloe.co.uk and the post is linked.

Emotional, sad book about grief and families that don't get along but also it pulls at your heartstrings and ends in a good way.

It was so sweet, I loved Tate and Penny. It really is a slow burn romance waiting for them the realise.

The writing was fantastic, the scenes with Penny's Dad were horrific and amazing side characters, the best friends, Mums and Gran were fantastic.

I would have liked Anna to have stepped up a bit. I think she was a bit blind to Lottie and Penny's relationship.

I can't wait to dive into more Tess Sharpe books.

Six times we almost kissed is a delight. Well, a delight, but with some very real, very painful parts - including death, grief, injuries, illness, and one broken mother-daughter relationship.

The best way I can describe it, is that this story flows. It is NICE to read, it is not confusing, it does not over-intellectualise every theme, and it features some beautiful friendships. When I heard the author describe this as a book dedicated to fan-fic readers, I kind of got it. Because it reads THAT nicely: like your favourite fan-fic writer, that you would read until the early hours of a Sunday morning, because their story just MADE SENSE.

Anyway, I might be making this sound a little air-headed, and it absolutely is not. Six times we almost kissed offers great perspectives on recovery, generational trauma, consent, and accountability.

Not to mention that it is OH SO SAPPHIC AND EVERYTHING I WANT YOUNG READERS TO HAVE ACCESS TO!

Honestly, if you want something sweet, heartwarming, and decidedly NOT dumb, read this.

Thanks a mil to Netgalley and Hachette for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review

Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) is already on my list for best reads of 2023 and will no doubt be staying there. It is a wonderful young adult slow-burn romance story with LGBTQ+ characters and heavy-hitting themes. It is one of those books that I will not be forgetting about any time soon.

Penny and Tate have always clashed. Unfortunately for them, their mothers are lifelong best friends. So, the girls’ bickering has carried them throughout their lives. When Penny’s mother decides to become a living donor to Tate’s mother, ending her wait for a liver transplant, things go from clashing to cataclysmic. That’s because, in order to help their families recover emotionally, physically and financially, they combine their households the summer before senior year. So, Penny and Tate make a pact to play nice. To be the drama-free daughters their mother need through this hopeful and scary time. There is one little hitch in their plan, Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.

I adored this book. It is such a refreshing read and is bold and honest in its storytelling. The story itself is touching, heart-breaking and hopeful. I was not expecting this one to be as emotional as it was but I loved that it shocked me in that way. Penny and Tate are dealing with so many other things outside of their relationship. Penny is dealing with the death of a parent and Tate is dealing with her mother being sick for most of life. The discussion that stem from both of the characters surrounding these things are honest, raw and beautiful. It is certainly a thought-provoking story!

I loved all the characters in this book. Penny and Tate are extraordinary main characters. We watch both of them grow so much throughout the book as they come to learn more about themselves. I adored both of the girls’ friends and the part they play in the story too. The mothers are amazing and their friendship is one that we all strive to have. A special mention to Penny’s grandmother who is a star.

The story flows beautifully and completely engrosses the reader. One second I’d read one chapter and the next I’d completely devoured an almost 400 page book, as if it was nothing. Tess Sharpe has done a stunning job of making this an amazing slow-burn romance whilst discussing themes such as trauma, mental health, grief and complex family relationships in a delicate and truthful way. Tess Sharpe is an author who I feel I can now always rely on for an exceptional book.

Overall, I would highly recommend Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did)! It is an incredible slow-burn YA romance that discusses heavier themes and keeps the reader hooked. I adored it and cannot recommend it enough.

This was such a beautiful young adult novel that follows Penny and Tate. This is a coming of age story and the writing was just poetic.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Tate and Penny have a... complicated relationship. They aren't friends, but they definitely aren't enemies, either. They are something else. Something neither of them is ready to admit. Because both girls are deeply scarred. They've known each other forever; they're mothers are best friends and their small family has been in a precarious everything-is-fine limbo ever since the accident that killed Penny's father. But now, Penny's mother Lottie is giving up half her liver to save Tate's mom's life. And the glass house they've been living in begins to crack...

This book made me feel... a lot of things. The story was incredibly raw, in a way I wasn't expecting. I was expecting a cute sapphic romcom and this was many things, it definitely wasn't cute. It was painful. It was heartbreaking. This is a story of trauma and how it effects different people. How we hurt people and while we might have our reasons, they aren't excuses. How healing can be both needed and incredibly painful. How important our support systems are.

This reminds me of A Scatter of Light in that the characters are both young and so, so flawed. They heal and they hurt people along the way. They stay silent when they shouldn't because they are terrified of breaking the status quo. And the most groundbreaking? This book is so, so queer and complex and upper YA and also not about coming out. Both main characters are sure of their sexuality. But that isn't the only confusing or uncomfortable feeling queer people have. Especially not queer people who have survived intense trauma.

This book was hard to read at times, simply because of how emotional and raw it was, but I definitely recommend it.

Because the version provided to me does not have any trigger warnings, I do have to criticize that. Please let me know if this was added in the final version. Trigger Warnings are: neglect, sexual assault, cheating, graphic depiction of traumatic situation involving death of a loved one.