Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for providing this eARC.

Someone You Loved follows teens Sarah and Jake as they connect through their grief over the death of Sarah's boyfriend, Alex.

Told in a dual POV, Someone You Loved is gut-wrenching in the best way. It's easy to love Sarah and Jake, and the narrative's takes on grief and on love are beautiful and feel fresh, even as the plot was generally pretty predictable. In all, this was a quick read that had me feeling all kinds of things, and I'd definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a pleasant and thematically rich YA read.

Thank you to @netgalley and @harpercollins for an advanced copy of this book.

Someone You Loved tackles a hard subject matter, not withstanding the general potential trauma of high school. We see Jake and Sarah, and those around them, deal with grief and, more importantly, deal with grief in different ways. I wish the book tackled depression and panic attacks to a greater depth, but that might have changed the whole tone of the book, taking it to a much darker place. I loved the scenes of Jake with his therapist. We don't see enough therapy in fiction.

How these two bond over tragedy is beautiful and reflective of their ages. With that said, they do read older because of the relatively mature ways of addressing situations and feelings. Perhaps grief matures a person? I kept thinking they were college students; had to remind myself they were still in high school.

Apart from that observation, it was a solid, captivating read. The writing is not remarkable but it's good and sufficient to capture the character development. It makes me wonder if Jake and Sarah make it long-term.

This book just wasn't for me! I originally wanted to read it to see if it was a book my niece might enjoy. It just didn't keep my attention like I was hoping. I will still recommend this to her as I do think she would enjoy it. It may be a book I try to read again at a later time.

My grateful thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for this ARC in return for an honest review.
I can already imagine the thousands of eager readers who'll gravitate to this book with just one glance at its striking cover, featuring two teens with a decided resemblance to....well, no one will have any trouble guessing. who.....
And they'll be in for an even nicer extra bonus.......the book inside between the covers....
What I loved most about "Someone You Loved"......for a refreshing change, it offers a sweet, poignant teen romance without an excess of plot baggage that might threaten to bog down its forward momentum.
The tragic accidental death of Alex a much beloved high school basketball star, leaves a cloud of grief over the community......and most of all, those closest to him who loved him dearly. Those deeply grieving for Alex include his younger sister Ash, Sarah, his girlfriend who's also Ash's best friend and Jake, Alex's best friend and fellow teammate.
Even more conflicting feelings run through these three well drawn characters. The stricken Ash can't even look at Jake because she resents and blames him for her brother's death, since he was there when it happened. Sarah, whose romance with Alex was brief but fiercely intense, can hardly deal with her sense of crushing loss while consoling Ash. And Jake, guilt-wracked and uncomfortable in replacing Alex as the team's captain and guiding light, also contends with his lifelong crush on Sarah. He's held an unrealized love for her long before she ever became Alex's girl.
From that primal, basic set-up, you can easily see there this is going. Connecting in their shared grief and thrown together to plan a fundraising event in Alex's memory, Jake and Sarah.......well do I really need to say more than simply.....Jake and Sarah.
The slow but sure development of their romance is handled with exactly the right amount of tenderness and the anxiety that threatens to tear them apart. Sarah fears her growing union with Jake will anger and hurt the already wounded Ash, while Jake dreads anyone thinking he's appropriated every aspect of Alex's life......as both star of the team and boyfriend to Sarah.
You can't help rooting for Jake and Sarah every step of the way and even better. author Robin Constantine deals with the supporting characters around them with a knowing gentle sympathy.....even when a few of them might annoy you at times.
Not an earth-shaking story by any means, but you can never have enough heartwarming experiences like the one this book delivers. Never mind who's on the cover.....the really good stuff's in the pages.

“Someone You Loved” by Robin Constantine, is a poignant and emotionally charged novel that explores the complexities of grief, healing, and the unexpected bonds that form amidst tragedy. With a delicate touch, the author takes us on a journey through the lives of Sarah, Alex's girlfriend, and Jake, Alex's best friend, as they navigate the aftermath of a devastating loss.

The story begins with a tragic accident that claims the life of Alex, leaving Sarah shattered. Seeking solace following her profound grief, she finds herself clinging to her friendship with Ash, Alex's sister. She also takes refuge in her aunt's café and in rehearsals for the school play. It is through her nightly talks with Jake, however, that Sarah discovers a semblance of peace and understanding.

Jake, feeling adrift, and haunted by nightmares, is unable to come to terms with the loss of his best friend. His deep connection with Alex, coupled with his guilt and fear of overshadowing Alex's memory, complicates his growing bond with Sarah. As Jake grapples with his inner turmoil and newfound responsibilities as the captain of the school basketball team, he struggles to determine whether his happiness is an act of betrayal to his deceased friend.

The strength of this novel lies in its exploration of grief and the various coping mechanisms people employ. The characters are well-developed and show their struggles and weaknesses in a way that makes the reader feel for them.

Constantine’s prose is engaging and evocative, effortlessly conveying the characters' emotions and capturing the essence of their grief-stricken world. The pacing is steady, allowing the reader to become fully immersed in the story while maintaining a sense of anticipation.

The novel does have a tendency to lean towards melodrama at times, with certain plot points feeling slightly contrived. Additionally, some readers may find certain aspects of the characters' behavior or decision-making unrealistic or lacking sufficient exploration.

Overall, “Someone You Loved” is a thought-provoking tale that skillfully portrays the profound impact of loss on individuals' lives. Through its well-drawn characters and emotive storytelling, the novel offers a touching exploration of grief, healing, and the delicate balance between holding on to the past and embracing the future. Readers seeking an emotional journey filled with love, loss, and personal growth will find solace within the pages of this captivating book.

The way loss, grief, processing a loss and moving forward is shown in this book really touched my heart. It was such a roller coaster for my emotions watching Jake deal with everything, Having your best friends family blame you for his death because you witnessed it and trying to process it all was just heart wrenching for me! He was doing his best to deal with it all and I felt he just constantly had new obstacles to handle and I felt for him so much!

While Someone You Loved is touted as “for fans of You’ve Reached Sam, I actually found this book to be more enjoyable!

Grief and young love are already so fraught and mired in high-intensity emotional landscapes, but gratefully, this novel focused on the after and the finding a way to live and love again versus being trapped by the grief.

The take is refreshing and wholly enjoyable with so many instances that made me chuckle and smile.

From the synopsis: A deeply emotional and highly romantic tale of two teens who fall in love while grieving the one person who makes their love impossible. Sarah lost her boyfriend, Alex, who was Jack’s best friend. As they console each other, only they understand what the other is going through. Sarah cannot confront her feelings about Jack because her best friend Ash who is sister of Alex still blames Jack for the night of the accident where Alex fell and passed away. Someone You Loved carefully talks about grief, the need for therapy, and how difficult it can be to continue on after a loss. I think this was a well done story about love and loss.

i enjoyed this! it wasn’t my favorite but it touched on a very important topic to me, grief. i loved the touch on grief but also the way they made it about embracing your life and seeing silver livings in everything. it definitely made me cry several times but i loved every second of it.

the cover is definitely taylor swift and brenden urie in my head

This one didn't really land for me - I just couldn't connect with it. The characters are supposed to be juniors/seniors in high school but read much younger but some of the content would make me hesitant to recommend to my younger patrons.

Sarah has been dating her best friend Ash's older brother, Alex, since her sophomore year in high school. A few months, Alex unfortunately passes. His best friend, Jake, was with him when he died, and now the three of them. Ash, Jake and Sarah are all trying to deal with grief over losing the person who meant so much to them. Through their shared grief Jake and Sarah find themselves being drawn to one another as they share feelings over late night telephone calls, and a romance sparks between them.

Someone You Loved is a wonderful ya novel that touches on grief, friendship, and love, and is so beautifully written. Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins/Balzer and Bray for giving me an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was so well written, following Sarah and Jake, while they figure out their grief and also what their grief means when it comes to their relationship is beautiful and this author did such a good job, the build up from friends to more, and the struggle was just articulated wonderfully! Definitely worth the read! Check it out!

I easily could have finished this book in an afternoon, but it had me so emotional that I needed a few breaks. This was such a beautiful story of grief and healing. I loved it. Both Jake and Sarah were written extremely well. I loved how Jake had Alex’s voice in his head and how he and his therapist worked through his complicated feelings about his best friend. And Sarah’s feelings of her grief not being as important as Alex’s family’s and ex girlfriend’s since they were only together a short amount of time were really beautifully expressed. I loved Jake and Sarah together immediately, but I’m glad it was more of a slower burn as they dealt with their feelings for each other and also about Alex. The writing is simple, but effective. You feel for these characters so much. I’m so glad we had a dual narrative for this one. I did find the ending a little abrupt, but it was a lovely end to the story. Overall, such a great book.
TW: mentions of death, grief, panic attack

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This is a heart touching story that you need to go in ready for. It will hit at your emotions but it is a great story.

Sarah and Ash are best friends and when Sarah spends time at Ash’s house her older brother, Alex, is always near. In her sophomore year she begins dating him. Only after a few months, however, Alex dies. Jake was Alex’s best friend and he was with him when he died. Ash, Jake and Sarah are all trying in their own ways to deal with grief over the death of someone who meant so much to them. Through the process Jake and Sarah are drawn together as they share feelings over late night telephone calls and a romance ensues. Told in the alternating voices of Sarah and Jake, this is a powerful young adult novel exploring the intricacies of grief, friendship, and love. Thanks to Netgalley and Harper Collins/Balzer and Bray for giving me an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.

This book was easy to read and you can easily read it in one sitting. Grief is something not talked about and I can't imagine losing someone at such a young age and not knowing how to navigate the rest of your life without your person. I loved how Sarah and Jake navigated those feelings with one another and had each other.

Unpopular opinion: i felt no spark. I had many issues with this novel. I pick it because Jandy Nelson is my all-time favorite author, but contrary to what this book advertises, this is nothing like Nelson’s novels. First, there are a lot of moments we readers don't get to read about, scenes just breaking abruptly. I mean, I understand that it's a convenient device to let us know that time passes, I guess, but most of them felt important and I couldn’t wrap my head around the reason behind such gaps in the story. Then, there's the dialogue, which feel mundane and unnatural at times, making the two main characters, Sarah and Jake, sound like kids in middle school rather than high school. Something that hugely annoyed me was the fact that Sarah keeps her friendship with Jake hidden from Ash (her best friend) and everything from the execution to her reasons to her personality failed to convince me, so I found myself rolling my eyes every time Sarah reminded us what was at stake (“The odds of seeing anyone I knew diminished the farther we got out of town.”), which told me one thing: the author wasn’t overtly convinced, either. When it comes to fiction, there are the bad decisions you kind of expect, and there are the bad moves that are simply out of character. (Do we talk about that breakup call?) I could literally read the outline as I went—chapter where they argue, section where they make out… Anyway, this story didn't work for me.

Grief is never easy, after the sudden and tragic death of her boyfriend, Sarah is left feeling unmoored, it doesn’t help that she has begun to have complicated feelings for the one person who understands how she feels and is completely off limits, her boyfriend’s best friend Jake. Sarah and Alex were together for two months before Alex died in an accident. Alex was Sarah’s best friend Ashley’s brother, they’ve known each other for so long and now suddenly he is gone. Sarah is dealing with not only her grief but looking after Ash. She is constantly stuck reliving the moments and memories of their relationship and feeling his loss, but at the same time feeling like she doesn’t know what to do now that he is gone. Then suddenly Jake is talking to her, Jake, Alex’s best friend who was the witness to Alex’s death, who somehow understands exactly what Sarah is feeling. Jake is a mess, he’s feeling guilty that he’s alive after witnessing Alex’s death and he has a little secret, he’s been in love with Sarah before Alex was, in fact he still has a crush on her despite how hard he wants to deny it and fight yet he can’t help but want to talk to her. it doesn’t help that he keeps hearing Alex’s voice in his head. Jake has been different ever since Alex’s death, according to his girlfriend, he’s been mopey and distant, but Jake knows they don’t understand that he is wracked with guilt over witnessing Alex’s death. The only happiness he feels is when he talks to Sarah. What starts off as a run in at a cafe soon turns into more as Sarah and Jake navigate grieving together and their growing bond. From late night phone calls, cafe hang outs, and everything in between, they are getting closer but it’s more complicated than they could ever imagine as they both deal with other relationships and the complication of what people would think if they did begin a relationship. This was a story about healing and grief, about finding comfort in a time of extreme emotional pain and loss. Jake and Sarah have a complicated relationship and their third act breakup and make up was a bit convoluted but it made sense when you think about young highschoolers dealing with a lot of emotions. Overall, it was a great and emotional read.

*Thanks Netgalley and HarperCollins Children's Books, Balzer + Bray for sending me an arc in exchange for na honest review*

First off, let's talk about that cover. I loved the Taylor Swift/Brendon Urie feel of it. Perfect cover for a YA novel.

Now, as for the book, I can't even begin to imagine how hard it would be to lose your first real boyfriend at such a young age, and one who is so deeply connected to your life. How do you maneuver dating someone new? How do you deal with the conflict warring inside your heart as you try to navigate this loss, while also being there for your best friend who just lost her brother at the same time? How do you deal when you begin to have feelings for your dead boyfriend's best friend? How do you do all this as a teenager?

That's exactly what Sarah is going through and just like any teenager, and really any young person who doesn't have the benefit of life experience, she isn't perfect or even all that graceful in how she handles it, but she's real and authentic and despite the fact that she makes some monumental mistakes with multiple people in her life, she still tries to be better and do better.

This book is just a brief glimpse into real and deep pain as experienced by a handful of teenagers. Adult grief is also touched on, but I did enjoy this look into how teenagers experience and process complexity in grief. I too experienced deep and life changing loss as a young person when my best friend passed away from leukemia. I saw myself in Sarah and Jake as they both tried to navigate this loss.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone who has lost someone important in their life, particularly any young person who has or is facing anything similar. This is a beautiful and poignant story that offers hope at the end of a tragic loss.

Someone You Loved was such a sweet, emotional read. We meet Sarah, who is having a difficult time moving forward after losing her boyfriend, Alex, who was also the older brother of her best friend, Ash. Sarah is spending her summer working as often as possible in an attempt to distract herself from her sadness. She finds herself gravitating to the chair Alex always chose when he visited her at work, and her family has noticed that she seems to be stuck, always working, not really getting out and living her life. Enter Jake, Alex's best friend, who was with him when he died. Jake has long been interested in Sarah, but is also grieving the loss of his friend, so when he hears about a memorial bench that's been erected in Alex's memory, he invites Sarah to visit it with him.

Jake has been dealing with the loss by having conversations in his head with Alex, usually about Sarah. Alex had known of Jake's interest in Sarah, but then Sarah and Alex started dating, so it stands to reason that Jake hears his friend when he is thinking of her because he is uncomfortable being attracted to his dead friend's girlfriend. When classmates decide to put together a scholarship in Alex's name, it brings them together. But will Sarah be able to move on? Will Jake's conscience allow it? And what about Ash? She says that Jake is a walking reminder of everything that happened, so how will she feel if something starts to happen between Sarah and him?

Someone You Loved carefully talks about grief, the need for therapy, and how difficult it can be to continue on after a loss. I was surprised at how quickly I became invested in the characters; my eyes were wet almost from the beginning. I felt like the falling in love aspect was pretty realistic in that it wasn't instant, it took months to build and progress. The ending left me feeling satisfied and a bit uplifted. I would definitely recommend this book, whether you usually read YA or not.

Favorite quotes:

"Grief is sneaky and weird, and there's no right way to experience it. You just gotta go through it."

"But it's nice to think about, isn't it? We're all just energy, right? And if energy isn't created or destroyed, something must happen to all that potential."