Hey y’all! Welcome, welcome. I’m so glad you’re here!

Buckle up for this review because it’s a tear jerker! As was this book. I can’t get over it. So, without further ado, let’s get right into it!

Thank you to NetGalley and St Martin’s Press for the ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

“And I wish I knew what to say to make things better, or at least tell you how to go through this, Julie. But the truth is, no one experiences grief the same way, and we all come out of it differently.”

For the first time in a long while I’ve had to fully decompress from a book before writing a review. The truth is, I don’t think I’ll ever fully decompress from this. It left a handprint on my heart. Books that can make you feel are so special, but books that leave you feeling profoundly different are a whole new ball game. You’ve Reached Sam had both affects on me. It’s a book I’m not likely to forget anytime soon. Grief is strange and will manifest in so many different ways after you lose a person, but the grief immediately following that loss is one of the toughest I’ve ever dealt with. It was the same for Julie and Dustin crafts this so beautifully that you feel her pain, devastation, and grief too.

Julie throughout the entire book is juggling two hats: how to deal with the grief of losing someone you love and how to feel if you had a second chance to say goodbye. There were parts of this book I envied Julie for that ability. The ability to call Sam and he picks up, just like he always said he would. I had a similar experience to the regret Julie felt over Sam’s death. I lost my grandpa my freshman year of college. He called me the morning of his passing but I’d been so sick I slept right through the call. Just like Julie, I called him, except he never picked up. The way Dustin describes the regret and torment Julie is putting herself through because she feels responsible and people tel her she’s the reason Sam is dead, is a similar guilt to what I felt. It’s a hard emotion to describe and it’s done so beautifully that it’s hard not to cry or grieve with Julie as she tried to grapple with her regret.

Everything about this book is emotional. But, it’s a beautiful way to explore grief and how holding on to someone who’s passed can hold you from living your own life. It also explores the subtle weight of letting go when you stop living for the person who’s gone and you live for yourself. It still feels like I can’t put into words how much I fell in love with this book and all of its characters. Her support system was so beautiful. I loved that even through each of their own grief they were there for one another. They were all struggling in their own ways and had each other’s backs. I loved that. I loved the way this book was able to convey so many different emotions you go through in grief and how you can come out on the other side. I also love that while you may have lost that person physically, they will always be in your heart was a major theme. It was just so well done.

I wish my brain was functioning and I was able to flawlessly write a review that was powerful, but the true power is in this book and you should absolutely read it!

✈️✈️✈️✈️✈️ from me!

What book made you emotional? Let me know in the comments! Until next time…

Safe Flights & Happy Reading Nights!

XO

B