Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of Six Goodbyes We Never Said by Candace Ganger.

Unfortunately, this was a DNF. It didn't take long, the interactions felt way over the top and borderline predatory. I was too uncomfortable to want to continue.

I really wanted to like this book. The synopsis held so much promise, but the book failed to deliver as much as I hoped for from it. I enjoyed it well enough, but with a few tweaks it could have been an even more enjoyable read.

This book might not be perfect, but that doesn't mean it isn't a special read. There are so many good, touching moments sprinkled throughout the story that I do recommend giving this one a look. The author managed to come up with something that felt unique in the YA genre.

I do not remember the last time I cried so much reading (this is not a bad thing). This story takes you one emotional journey so have tissues ready. I love the formatting of this book it is very unique and clever!

Absolutely not for me. I couldn't get into the story at all. It could be the writing or the plot.. but it did not draw me in, Wouldn't recommend.

I wanted to like this book more than 3 stars, but in the end, I just couldn't bring it to that level. Maybe it was because I kept comparing it to other books I've read about mental illness, including the Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time and Helen Hoang's romances. The book is well written. Dew and Naima are well developed, even though I will be frank and say that I never really had a picture of them in my head - there was no description of either of them beyond a few details like green eyes which I realized about halfway through and which drove me a bit batty. But I never really liked either of them enough to invest in their stories. Part of that is deliberate, because it is intended to show how those of us not dealing with mental illness to this degree judge others. But it detracted from my ability to really empathize with the characters. I liked Dew but did find that his near obsession with Naima was unhealthy and stalker-y. I wanted to like Naima, but she did so many hurtful things that it was hard to look past that. I do understand some of those hurtful things were as a result of dealing with her psychological disorders. She just wasn't likeable to me even when I was being sympathetic to her. Pushing people away even when she claimed to love them was just odd. I also wondered what was going on behind some of her family interactions. Like why does her dad keep leaving and leaving her not with her stepmother but with her grandparents? Many questions weren't answered for me.

But I found this to be very well written. The poems Naima sends to her father were really interesting and wove some key elements together for me. And the book is very much a capture of Naomi's time with very little to fill in the gaps like the bullying at school. It's there. She mentions it. But we don't really get to see what was involved.

I do think this book does a good job of capturing the mind of someone struggling with loss who is also struggling with a different mental state. Just wish that I could have gotten into the characters more.

Note: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. All of the opinions are my own and this did not affect my review in any way.

I have been putting off reading this book for a while because in all honesty I was no longer very interested in the topics it dealt with. Currently I have been reading a lot of books that deal with grief so I think that is why I had a hard time with this book, because honestly, compared to other books about grief this unfortunately felt a little short.

In Six Goodbyes We Never said we follow Naima Rodriguez who doesn’t want patronizing sympathy as she grieves over the death of her father. We also follow Dew who just needs a little more time to process the loss of his parents. Naima and Dew meet and everything changes, not in the way anyone expects.

Like I said I was a little disappointed by this book, the idea was fantastic, two people suffering coming together to deal with their own grief, however the execution was a bit disappointing. My first complaint has to be the pace of the book, the beginning of the book is slow, very slow, we get extremely unnecessary details about things that don’t matter in the end. When Dew and Naima meet is so anticlimactic it was painful to watch and finally by the end everything happened so fast it made no sense how fast the characters changed (especially if the author spent almost most of the book detailing how flawed they were).

Now talking about the characters, for me the main two characters are 50/50 (I love Dew and I didn’t like Naima at all). First of all, Naima, oh god it was painful to read, I’m sorry but I had no sympathy for her at all, I get where she is coming from but it was so frustrating to see someone refuse to get help, sorry but no. Dew on the other hand has my heart forever and ever, I felt all the sympathy in the world for him he is a flawed human being that wants to get better and for me that is everything. Dew is kind, sweet and very wholesome and it was a joy getting to know him. The secondary characters are honestly what saved this book for me, Dew´s sister is so funny and his parents are the best.

Finally the plot, honestly there was no plot in this book, they are flawed human being, they meet, they are a little less flawed human being the end. This book is not perfect but that doesn’t mean it is not especial, I am sure that a lot of people will feel seen and represented and for that I have to give it prompts.

Honestly this book is a solid 3 star read, I had my problems with it but that doesn’t mean it was a bad book. I would recommend this book if you have a family member in the army or are grieving.

First of all, what a beautiful cover. That's definitely what drew me in initially, and I'm really glad for it now. This book deals with a lot of heavy topics, and oftentimes author's don't handle these subjects well. Thankfully, Candace Ganger did, and I'm so glad for it. It really tugged at my heartstrings and I ended up really falling in love with the characters. I can't wait to read more from this author!

I will not be giving feedback on this book as I couldn’t really get into it but I think others may enjoy it.

This was a beautiful exploration of grief and trauma. I never grew up close to anyone who had a parent in the military so this was a very eye-opening story that really rugged on my heart strings.

I appreciate that the story shed some light on mental illness. I felt the characters were well developed and I believed them. The only thing that kept this from being a 5 star for me was that I felt the writing was a bit choppy? It just seemed a bit disjointed to me. Overall, I think it was a great story.

This book was not for me. I could not get into it. It may be because I was in the mood for something lighter or the pacing was off.

Sadly this book was not for me. I had a hard time getting into the story. In general, I am having a hard time with YA and that does not mean this book is bad. I hope to try something else from this author in the future.

I honestly did not finish this book. I didn't like the writing flow and that made it really hard to get into.

I did not connect very well with this novel. I think the subject matter of mental health is very important, but the writing style was not for me. I did enjoy the dual view points between the two main characters, and the fact that it was a male/female relationship that was platonic. That was refreshing to read.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with and ARC. It did not influence my review.

This was a book that I Really enjoyed this read and I would recommend to others easily, I will be looking out for other titles by this author.

This was a pretty average read for me. I didn't love it but I didn't hate it and I recognize that this will impact others differently. This one hit hard for grief and anxiety but there were quite a few moments where I was just bored.

This book was the best YA book I have read in a long time. Refreshing, joyful, encouraging, I loved celebrating the females in this novels world in both their triumphs and successes. A must read for fans of Gilmore Girls.

Unfortunately, I have not been able to read and review this book.

After losing and replacing my broken Kindle and getting a new phone I was unable to download the title again for review as it was no longer available on Netgalley.

I’m really sorry about this and hope that it won’t affect you allowing me to read and review your titles in the future.

Thank you so much for giving me this opportunity.
Natalie.

DNF- read only up to 25%, this was just not for me. Nothing wrong with the story or writing, just a little to triggering for me personally.