I love books about grief and this was a great one. I loved the way Evie's relationship with those around her developed. I loved the photography aspect too. This was a heartbreaking read.

If you're looking for a book to pack an emotional wallop, I happen to have a suggestion. There is so much emotional turmoil here, but it does have some moments of levity, romance, and ultimately healing.

While grief isn't a new thing in YA, I have yet to come across something that deals with loss and family secrets in quite this way. I thought this was really well done and the way Evie has to process how to balance her grief with the secrets she is holding (previously her dad's secrets) was fascinating. I can definitely understand the idea of holding onto someone else's secret to not to hurt another family member. This can be particularly tricky when you are holding the secret of one parent from another, which is what Evie has to deal with.

The romance was adorable. Declan is great and impossible not to love. He really pushed Evie to be her best self without coming across too aggressive.

I would read more from Richards for sure.

This is such a raw and honest look at the stages of grief!

Evie Parker is shocked when her father is killed by a sudden heart attack. Upon arriving home, immediately from the hospital, she seeks comfort in her parent's bedroom. It is there she realizes that everything her father owns is packed. Her Dad had been planning to leave her mother. In a daze and to protect her mother from more pain, Evie unpacks her father's belongings. Soon she uncovers that her father had been having an affair, and her mother knew. Meanwhile, Evie's uncle signs her up for a photography class which adds new characters to her life to lean on while grieving. Not to mention, it allows an opportunity for her to hide behind a camera to learn more about what her Dad's secrets.

As Evie grieves, the reader is treated to the ugliest and most honest truths about mourning. She is forced to face the fact that the person she misses is gone forever. That he could be her hero, and also imperfect. That she can miss him and be angry with him at the same time. That it is easy to take those left behind for granted. And finally, that life is short and we must chose to LIVE it.

This book is a gentle, compassionate reminder that the feelings we experience when grieving are normal, understandable, and that we are not alone.

I was given an early release copy of this title from the publisher on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

I'll start by saying that I was skeptical about this book before ever reading it because the plot sounded a bit confusing to me... and it was. Teenager Evie Parker's father dies suddenly and with his death comes a host of discoveries. Most notably, her father had been secretly planning to move out of their house to be with his much younger receptionist who he had been having an affair with and was set to have a baby with. I love complicated family dynamics but this book was too windy without enough resolutions and explanation.

This book was just what I needed. Bree has just lost her dad to a heart attack but she knows that her dad was planning to move out. This YA novel shows that there are always secrets.

Imagine your parent dies, and the day they die, you find out they were about to leave your family for someone else, you hide the evidence they were going, and it leads you to find the person they were leaving for.
IT IS A WILD RIDE WITH NO STOPS, FOLKS!

TW: adultery, stalking, body image issues, death, grieving

I enjoyed this book, and it left me thinking about forgiveness -although please don't stalk your dad's mistress.
I felt for Evie, and I could understand and be on her side for the rage for losing her dad and his choice to have an affair and wanting to leave her family. But like Evie, I went on a journey of anger and forgiving but not forgetting as she came to know and be there for Bree.
The understanding was a strong emotion in this book for the reader; you can understand the feelings and paths of Bree, Evie and Evie's mum as we see their reactions and choices and regrets.

BONUS: Supernatural reference had me happy and cringe, but I was like that as a teen.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Seventeen-year-old Evie Parker is devastated in the wake of her father’s sudden death. But she knows something her mother doesn’t: the day of his heart attack, her dad was planning to move out. After finding his packed bags, an impulsive Evie puts everything away, desperate to spare her mom more heartache.
To make matters worse, Evie soon learns the reason her father was going to leave: he had been dating his twenty-two-year-old receptionist, Bree, who is now six months pregnant. Desperate to distract herself, Evie signs up for a summer photography class where she meets a motley crew of students, including quirky and adorable Declan.

This YA tale was emotional and a little dark. Evie deals with the grief of her father's death and learns how to connect with others.

I strongly disliked this story :( The female MC, Evie, is an annoying whiny brat for like 98% of the book, and the male MC Declan keeps showing interest in Evie, but whyyyy? She’s one of the most annoying characters I’ve read in a while. She’s rude at time, doesn’t want to apologize, so why would this guy who just met her keep pursuing her?
She’s mad at the world because she found out shortly after her fathers’ death that he was going to get a divorce, and Evie is just fuming for a lot of the book. Her grieving makes sense, but everything else just felt way over the top…

The cover alone was enough to make me want to read the book, as I am also a photographer. As I dove in to the story, I learned that the main character is advised to take a summer photography course as a way to take her mind off of the grief she deals with after the sudden passing of her father. I loved that she is encouraged to find some sort of creative outlet and it was great to see her find a newfound love and passion for photography over the course of the book. There were also some surprising plot twists throughout the book and that kept me even more engaged. Overall, I thought this was a very interesting book and it was probably one of my favorite YA novels I've read this year.

After the death of her father, Evie's uncle enrolls her in a summer photography course to help her focus on something besides her grief. When she learns that, not only was her father having an affair, but the affair was with his young secretary, who is now incredibly pregnant, Evie becomes a bit obsessed.

All of this felt very reasonable and a realistic response for a teen in such grief, except for the part where she has a big fight with her mom and suddenly her mom throws her out of the house for several weeks.

A little bit of romance is thrown in with an out-of-towner taking the same photo course, and a lot of it is them being platonic, which I enjoyed. The writing is fast-paced, and the ending was much sweeter than I was expecting, so overall I enjoyed it, but wasn't completely blown away.

We read this a prospective for our internal Printz Awards committee. It did not make the final cut of 10 nominees.

Right from the start, you are drawn into this story. There were twists and turns, anger and compassion. An emotional cornocopia. The plot kept moving and secrets kept being revealed.
This is a strong read and very well done.

Overall, this is a good book to read. It contains elements of pain and loss, but it is balanced well with hope and growth. To some, this story may not be believable. I say to those people that life is stranger than fiction. Give it a try. The writing is good. The characters grow. It's worth your time.

For a full review, visit my blog at https://awildfloweramongtheroses.blogspot.com/2021/10/when-we-were-strangers-released-july.html

I didn't expect to fly through this book, but Alex Richards wrote a compelling YA novel that delved into the life and growth of Evie Parker after the sudden death of her father. The book was filled with emotional highs and lows, and watching Evie's new relationships flourish was extremely enjoyable. For a girl who lost her father, found out he was cheating, and that he had a baby on the way, Evie took on the world.

While the family secrets were nothing unexpected, they were gut wrenching, especially seeing everything through the eyes of Evie. Richards understood Evie's voice extremely well, which helped making this a fast and very enjoyable read.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC of When We Were Strangers by Alex Richards.

Seventeen year old Evie Parker's world has turned upside down. Her young father has passed away suddenly, leaving her and her mom shocked and grieving. But even worse, they are both dealing with the hard truth that up until his death, he was being unfaithful. And even harder than that, but his mistress Bree, who is only five years older than Evie, is pregnant.

Reeling with a variety of huge emotions, Bree is talked into taking a photography class, hoping to have something to take her mind off of this fresh tragedy and betrayal. But her art is now just a vehicle for her obsession, and she turns her camera onto Bree, using any excuse she can to get close to her. She has to learn how things have gotten so far, even to the chagrin of her mother.

This is a YA book full of an incredible amount of heart, grief, forgiveness, redemption, romance, friendship and love. I was surprised and impressed at how deeply the author allowed the characters to go on some of these difficult topics, and how forgiving and empathetic she made them. I also liked that not everything was resolved, and that there was still a long, difficult, unwritten road ahead of all of them. This was a great YA book, I definitely would recommend it.

When We Were Strangers was an interesting book, but I found the writing and overall story hard for me to get into.

Messy, complicated, authentic teen protagonist in a messier, more complicated situation. I am so here for this. Everything about this story hit home to me - and I do mean EVERYTHING. I felt so connected to Evie and this story holds a very strong spot in my heart. I cannot say everyone will love it, but I know I did.

This was my first book my this author, and now I have to check out all of her others because this just made me feel all of the feelings in the best way possible. I truly have not read a book that is at all similar to this one. I think that the incorporation of photography was clever, and that the pain of family secrets was heart wrenching. I think that this is a story that rips you a part but also puts you back together in a way that is arguably better than you were when you started this book. I also loved the fact that Evie was far from perfect, but it was her flaws that truly made her someone who readers could relate to. I think that his book is amazing and I cant wait to read other work by this author.

I loved the premise for this one and I was excited to read it but it ended up not working very well for me. I didn't love the writing of the dialogue and I found it difficult to connect with the main character. I think it had a lot of potential but it just wasn't for me.

Equal parts emotional and interesting, a gripping book I couldn't put down. Families are messy and this book shows how navigating a mess can be a real challenge.