You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao

I’d been hearing so much hype about this book from the beginning of this year, I’m excited to finally get a chance to dive right in!

Thank you Wednesday Books for my gifted ebook in exchange for my honest review.

Synopsis: Seventeen-year-old Julie has her future all planned out—move out of her small town with her boyfriend Sam, attend college in the city, spend a summer in Japan. But then Sam dies. And everything changes. Heartbroken, Julie skips his funeral, throws out his things, and tries everything to forget him and the tragic way he died. But a message Sam left behind in her yearbook forces back memories. Desperate to hear his voice one more time, Julie calls Sam’s cellphone just to listen to his voicemail. And Sam picks up the phone. In a miraculous turn of events, Julie’s been given a second chance at goodbye. The connection is temporary. But hearing Sam’s voice makes her fall for him all over again, and with each call it becomes harder to let him go. However, keeping her otherworldly calls with Sam a secret isn’t easy, especially when Julie witnesses the suffering Sam’s family is going through. Unable to stand by the sidelines and watch their shared loved ones in pain, Julie is torn between spilling the truth about her calls with Sam and risking their connection and losing him forever.

Unfortunately, this one did not live up to my expectations. I was shocked at how uninterested I became so early in the story. I think the story was supposed to be full of emotion, and the only emotion I got was confusion. I felt there were so many missing pieces that were left unresolved for most of the book. I also didn’t really get this raw emotion from Julie that I would’ve expected from how the story started off. The writing was jumbled and the pace was too. A nice premise for a popular trope, but not a great execution.

2/5 Stars