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Julie is about to graduate high school, and she is ready to move on with her life: She’s getting out of her small Washington town to attend college in a big city, she’s going to write, and her boyfriend is coming with her. She and Sam have been inseparable for several years. But then he dies in a car crash, and she is devastated. She throws out mementos, she doesn’t attend his funeral, she skips school and avoids friends and Sam’s family. But then she just wants to hear his voice, so she calls his phone number — and he answers.
Neither one knows exactly how they have this connection, and Sam doesn’t share details about where he is. He does tell her she’ll continue to be able to reach him when she calls, but it won’t last forever. Their time is limited. He has to move on, and so does she. They’ve been given a chance to say goodbye. But Julie doesn’t think she’ll ever be ready.
She has to keep their calls secret or risk losing their connection. They do help her slowly get back to life, but she stumbles when her other plans and expectations don’t go the way she’d hoped either. And when there comes a time his family needs her, Julie comes to a crossroads.
You’ve Reached Sam is told in the present, as Julie comes to terms with heartbreak and grief just as she is at a critical time in her life, but it features flashbacks of how she and Sam met and of other moments of their time together. They have a very sweet relationship, and Sam is a good young man who has been loving and supportive of Julie. So it’s hard for the reader to know that it’s over and Julie has to look ahead to a life without him. It’s a poignant book about love, friendship, family and grief, about figuring out how to change plans when life throws curveballs (which it always does). This clean young adult romance book is sad but satisfying.
Rated: Mild. Profanity is very limited, with one instance of moderate profanity and a dozen uses of the name of Deity in vain. There are only references to kissing. There are references to a car crash that killed the young man in the title but nothing descriptive.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
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