Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author, for an ARC of this book, in exchange for an honest review.
The synopsis of this book sounded intriguing to me so I requested a copy to read.
Unfortunately, I have tried reading this book on 2 separate occasions and during this 2nd attempt, I have
decided to stop reading this book
and state that this book just wasn't for me.
I wish the author, publisher and all those promoting the book much success and connections with the right readers.

Disclaimer: I was granted an early copy of the book by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

First of all, look at that cover! Second, the plot draws you in because we're all a little vulnerable and sometimes, we need a good cry. This book holds a special place in my heart! It shows that there is no one way of dealing with grief and people cope up with it in their own ways. This has a touch of magical realism, so be prepared for that!

This book is out now, so please make sure to grab your copy!

You’ve Reached Sam is a young adult contemporary love story with a paranormal twist. It’s the story of high school senior Julie and her ability to reach her boyfriend Sam on the phone despite the fact that he has passed away and how hard it is to say goodbye to someone you love even when you have more opportunities.

Julie’s boyfriend was tragically killed in a car accident and she’s stuck in a spiral of grief and depression. When a impulsive phone call to Sam’s cell phone is actually picked up by Sam Julie realizes that she doesn’t have to say goodbye...yet. And over the next few months she’ll be torn between moving forward with her life and staying behind to talk to Sam.

What drew me to this book was the concept of the phone calls between Julie in Washington and Sam in the afterlife but sadly it was the part the plot I got tired of the quickest. The conversations never seemed to move the book forward and I never felt any connection or chemistry between the two. Even when their love story is told in a series of flashbacks they felt more like best friends than an actual couple and there is very little romance or intimacy.

Overall, I liked the concept but the actual book fell a little flat for me. I never connected with Julie or Sam as characters and only in the last pages was I actually moved by anything emotionally.

3 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This one was just okay for me. I had a lot higher hopes for how this one would turn out but for me it just fell flat. I enjoyed the plot and characters, but really had a hard time connecting with any of them. I was prepared to have a good cry with this one, but I didn’t shed a single tear. I also felt the ending was rushed and a bit thrown together. Overall an okay read, but not a favorite.

DNF @ 30%


Might be willing to try this again in the future but I just couldn’t get into it. I can’t pick out anything in particular I was just so bored reading it??

Julie is wracked with grief after her boyfriend Sam dies in a tragic accident. Desperate to hear his voice again, she calls his cell phone, and somehow, he answers. Julie has a second chance to say goodbye to Sam but finds it harder and harder to let him go again.

You've Reached Sam is the epitome of bittersweet. The book is super character-driven, but it's a quick read and it really pulled me in right away. I've seen the book categorized as romance, and I'm not sure that's where I'd put it - this is mostly a book about grief, letting go, and healing.

Overall I liked the book a lot, but I need something MORE in terms of explanation on Sam's end. I know the focus was on Julie but I needed more about what was happening for Sam.

Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the review copy!

Thank you to Wednesday Books and NetGalley for the eARC to read and review!

An astonishing story. I really enjoyed "You’ve Reached Sam."

Julie is having a difficult time coping with the recent death of her boyfriend, Sam. Miraculously, when she calls Sam’s phone number, he answers. They have an envious second chance to reconnect and say goodbye, but now Julie struggles even more to let go and live.

Readers will easily be able to connect with this story and empathize with what the characters are experiencing. Not only are characters grieving over Sam but also dealing with the stress of their last year of high school.

There are a myriad of reactions to Sam’s death. Angry, guilty, sad, lost, barely staying afloat. Grief brings some together and tears others apart, as seen between Julie and Sam’s cousin, Mika, and his best friend, Oliver.

I like the fantasy element of the story, of Julie being able to talk to Sam through their phones. It’s what initially piqued my interest in this story. There’s lots of questions about how this is possible, and I like how that’s kept open ended. It also makes sense for them to reconnect by phone based on events prior to the story’s beginning. Julie has to keep this a secret because there are certain (sometimes vague) rules involved and telling someone else could end their connection for good.

I love Sam’s character and appreciated him more and more as the story progressed. In life, Sam was friendly, compassionate and outgoing. He and Julie had a really strong bond. How they met was so adorable; Sam is such a romantic. In death, Sam is still that same kind, caring, loving person, looking out for the ones he left behind but also trying to grapple with being dead. Knowing his hopes and dreams, it’s especially tragic Sam died so young.

The goodbye when it finally came was bittersweet, but really well done by the author. Thao built the story up to a satisfying climatic moment.

"You’ve Reached Sam" is beautiful, heartbreaking, and feelings. The title and cover art are perfect! Julie and Sam’s relationship was great. I’m glad there were chapters that took place in the past so we could really see the depth of their love.

I highly recommend "You’ve Reached Sam." It’s an all around lovely and emotional read.

This book will rip your heart out. Magical realism at its finest, I could not put it down and these characters were incredible. First and foremost this is a book about grief - and one that I would recommend to help people get through the loss of a loved one. It also reminded me of Your Name, for anyone who loves that film.

2 stars

You’ve Reached Sam seemed like the kind of book that would rip my heart out and have me sobbing for days. But neither of those things happened.

This YA contemporary had all the makings of a good emotional read that would break you. But it ruins that by giving you a very unlikeable MC. I immediately disliked Julie, I tried to give her the benefit of the doubt since she was grieving. But the flashbacks didn’t help her. It was very frustrating as a reader trying to connect with a character who frustrates you so much.

I also would have liked to know more about the phone calls. WHY and HOW would have been some pretty good questions to answer. I don’t like not fully understanding a big part of the plot.

And while I didn’t care for Julie, I did like Sam. We don’t get a lot of him, but I did like what I saw. The romance in the flashbacks was a bit cheesy, but nothing wrong with a bit of cheesy love. I just wish their relationship was a bit better developed so that maybe I could have been a bit more emotionally invested.

Overall, I wish I liked this one more. I thought going into it that I was going to love it. Bit disappointed that I didn’t.

Anyone who has ever lost someone has wondered what if it would be like to be able to have one last conversation. Julie gets that opportunity when she dials Sam's number expecting to just hear his voicemail. Instead she hears Sam.... I like a book that is a good tearjerker, and this didn't disappoint. The story isn't ever really about Sam but about Julie's process of grieving, forgiving herself, and letting go.

If you want to cry buckets of tears and feel like your heart has been ripped out, then this is the book for you. The aching and longing and trying to move forward when you’ve lost someone is captured so well and I kept finding myself wanting to hug my husband close to me because I don’t know what I’d do if I lost him.

I really liked how the relationship between sam and Julie is shown progressively through the story by sharing flashbacks to moments and memories Julie has, so that the longing and wishing they could remain connected grows as you read.

An amazing and stunning read, heart breaking, emotional and so worth it! I highly recommend this book that will give you a good ugly cry!

This is a really well-written book. The prose is beautiful, and the writing works well with the emotions covered. Unfortunately, I didn't feel really connected to the characters or their romance. I think this book is supposed to make you cry - not a single tear left my eyes.

Overall, a bit disappointing, but worth a read if you're interested in the synopsis.

You've Reached Sam by Dustin Thao is a YA novel about love and loss. Seventeen-year-old Julie has planned her future with her boyfriend Sam; but then he tragically dies, and she doesn't know what to do without him. Julie calls his voicemail, just to hear his voice, but he answers. How can this be? Their connection is temporary, but being able to talk to Sam helps Julie figure out her new future without him. Even though this book is highly unbelievable, I still found it encouraging and delightful. Thanks to NetGalley for the free digital review copy. All opinions are my own.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Something didn’t feel right from the beginning when I started this book, during the read and at the end.

Sometimes it dragged and sometimes I just wanted to stop reading.

I couldn’t connect to the characters, like I wanted to 😔

This is the story of Julie and Sam. They started dating when she moved to town. For three years, they were together. Then Sam dies. Julie is having a hard time with her grief and at a low point, calls him on the phone. She is surprised when he answers. Through these phone calls, Sam and Julie help each other deal with what happened.
Opinion
I was lucky enough to get an audio and ebook copy of this book from Net Galley. The narrator was excellent and conveyed emotions well. Being able to both read and listen to the book, I was taken back to when I was in school. It helped to enhance my opinion of the story.
Overall, it is a very tough topic. No one wants to hear about teen's deaths. However, this book was done very eloquently and with sensitivity. While some scenes are blunt for how they show teens reacting to the death, Thao conveys the emotions in the scenes and the driving force behind said emotions. This is a great book, especially for someone dealing with a loss in their own life. It may help them through the cycle of grief.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book.

This is a bittersweet novel about facing loss and letting go. When Julie's boyfriend, Sam, dies in an accident, she doesn't want to let go. She calls his phone just to hear his voice and is surprised when he picks up the phone. However, she is not sure how long she will be able to keep calling him, and speaking with him at all may be keeping them both from being able to move on. This book reminds us that there is no one way to deal with grief, but to deal with it at all is important. Thus, although the idea of second chances is appealing, ultimately the heartbreaking conclusion of this book is inevitable.

**Thank you to NetGalley and Wednesday Books for the advanced copy for review. All opinions are my own.

I went into You've Reached Sam knowing that it would be an emotional read. It delivered on that promise.

You go into it knowing that Sam has died, but there's a magic that's keeping him and Julie tethered through their phones. They get a second chance to tell one another goodbye.

I have never lost anyone as close as a significant other so I'm not sure if I would disregard family and friends in the same way as Julie did, but I felt it was a little much. She's also very young so I guess is entitled to that.

I really liked this story and loved how the author brought it through all the way to the close. It pulled some tears out of me.

When you look at the (beautiful) cover and read the synopsis of You’ve Reached Sam, you know it’s going to be a sad book. I’m the kind of person who very easily starts crying while reading and yet… I’m not sure a book has ever made me cry because of the first chapter. By the time I reached the epilogue, I was sobbing so hard that I had to put my Kindle down.

Dustin Thao starts the story a week after Julie’s boyfriend Sam unexpectedly and tragically passed away and it follows our main character as she not only grieves but also learns to let go. It’s about healing and first love and friendship and how the future might not always turn out how you imagined.

I was immediately impressed by Dustin Thao’s beautiful writing style and some of my favorite scenes in the novel were the magical flash-backs. We learn about Sam and Julie’s relationship through montage-style “clips” that felt like watching a movie. Knowing how their time together ends, reading about how they met, about their dates and their quiet moments was absolutely heartbreaking but also made me really invested in their relationship.

One of the main plot lines is of course the unexpected connection that Julie and Sam still have through their phone calls. (This will come as surprise to absolutely no one but many of them made me cry as well.) It made the story really intriguing as the reader (along with Julie) is left wondering why this is possible, why they got a second chance and if everything is real or if Julie is imagining it.

Julie is an aspiring author who is about to graduate and head off to college. I really liked seeing her character development, her struggles to move on from such a devastating loss and how not only her plans for the future but also the relationships with the people in her life changed.

Sam on the other hand was a musician and we only really get to see him through Julie’s perspective. He is a great love interest and I was very much heartbroken by his death, but the focus of the story is definitely on Julie. I did also like the diverse cast of side characters with Sam’s cousin Mika, his best friend Oliver and the group of classmates they all used to hang out with together. Sam and Mika are Japanese-American and there are several queer and BIPOC side characters. While Sam’s heritage was not the central focus of the story, the references to Japanese culture and the brief discussion of xenophobia at school added a lot of depth.

Despite the many (MANY) times I got teary-eyed, You’ve Reached Sam somehow still manages to feel comforting and hopeful. It made for a cathartic crying session instead of being a book so devastating it’ll leave you hollow. I really enjoyed this beautiful exploration of grief, coming of age and first love, and I highly recommend that you check it out. Dustin Thao is a promising new voice in YA fiction and I can’t wait to read his next novel.

4.5 ⭐️
This is a realistic and heartbreaking story about grief and the different ways that people cope with losing a loved one. And showing the experiences one can face with their strong feeling of grief as seen in the side characters and main character Julie. The emotions in this book is palpable, I felt everything the characters felt and in the writing itself it carried so much emotion. The writing was fantastic and very engaging and was well paced from beginning to end. And the characters were all so likable and easy to follow along with. I really liked all the characters from the main characters Sam and Julie to the side characters we barely see like James. But the reason this is not a five star for me is that I wanted a little more from the characters I don’t know what, but I wanted to see more of them especially Sam, and I would have liked to seen more of his connection with other people like Oliver. Also, I wished that Oliver got a call with Sam, I’m a bit upset he didn’t get one. Overall, even with all the heartbreak, this is a very moving and beautiful story about loss that I would recommend.