Spoilery Book Reviews

Six times we almost kissed (and the one time we did) by Tess Sharpe

Back of the book

Six fun facts about Penny and Tate:

1. They've known each other their whole lives

2. Their mums are best friends

3. Penny and Tate are definitely not friends

4. They keep almost kissing

5. They don't talk about it

6. Thanks to their mums, they're moving in together

But when almost becomes 'I am now wearing your lip gloss', Penny and Tate have no choice but to finally face the music...

My Thoughts

This was not the light-hearted read I expected. It was great, a very slow burn, but the characters were holding more trauma than I expected. The author really went all out in creating traumatic backstories for everyone, and putting the characters in one of the most emotionally fraught situations possible. Their Mums' friendship origin story had a rape mention, Penny watched her father die to essentially save her, Tate's Mum has been chronically ill with the shadow of death hanging above her their whole lives. The event the book follows is Penny's Mum donating part of her liver to Tate's Mum.

The books format made for a confusing read. Firstly, chapters were split unevenly between Penny and Tates' POV. Secondly, the book did some time sliding with a few chapters set in the past. Thirdly, Mums. Each character refers to their own Mum, as Mum (and the other Mum as their name, Lottie or Anna), so depending on the POV of the chapter, 'Mum' is a different character. I generally struggle a little to keep POV's straight in my head unless the author makes it really obvious (think, Will Grayson, Will Grayson) and all these factors made it a little more challenging.

I had some idea this was going to be a slow burn book, but this was very slow. Somehow it managed to drag out the characters not getting together in a reasonable way that wasn't too cringey. Some slow burn stories are either: not slow burning, or, dragged out beyond rhyme or reason. It made sense each time they didn't kiss. The timing was bad every time, with too much else going on such as just breaking up with a girlfriend or upset by a family crisis in some way. These characters had so many problems to run from it could have never ended.

This was the first book that I really noticed the young adult tone of writing. It took a little while to get used to juvenile tone, especially after reading an adult romance. This didn't detract from my reading experience once I got into the groove. Perhaps I am finally a grown adult.

Overall I enjoyed this story despite it delivering much more trauma than I was expecting. Despite the young adult tone, both characters were deep and complex due to their backstories. One bonus to this story was that being gay wasn't a thing. It was an accepted fact that both girls liked girls and I loved that. I love a gay love story that isn't about coming out and coming to terms with who you are. It just is gay and is great. Also it wasn't gay, it was lesbian! Either lesbian books are rarer or I just haven't read enough of them. A great read, but I think I prefer adult books that include a tasteful amount of adult intimacy. 😉

TL:DR

Not as light-hearted as it first appears. Slow burning, a little confusing keeping track of who's who. Enjoyable lesbian love story.