Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Six Times We Almost Kissed (And One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe

56 reviews

farfetched's review

challenging emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book. I picked it up, thinking 'oh, a cute little sapphic romance, I'll read it then I'll be done with it'. I was fooled. In my defence, it was not really made clear from the outer cover that this cute little sapphic romance was going to tear me apart, in the best kind of way. This is a book about sapphic desire and romance. It is childhood friends to lovers. And it's fanatic at that. But it's also about grief, trauma, and learning to heal. Being there for someone when they need it. Leaning on people. 

This book genuinely blew me away. The writing is fantastic, the turns of phrase are great, I love the way it's structured, going between past and present and referencing things in ways that feel natural, rather than dropping hints. 

Fair to say, I will be keeping this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, and Infidelity

yellowflowermai's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

This is one of my new favourite books. It’s only flaw is its lack of an epilogue, but otherwise I LOVE it.

I was hesitant to read it at first because I found the title cringy and I feared it was going to be a case of “author wants fanfic tropes for their ocs without realising fic works because readers already know the characters” AND BOY WAS I WRONG because if there’s something this book definitely has is full fledged, fully developed, 3 dimensional characters AND SO MORE MUCH ANGST THAN I EXPECTED WITH SUCH A CUTESY TITLE????

I cried so many times and I also highlighted literally half of the book because it was that good oh my god please read it you won’t regret it 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Panic attacks/disorders, and Suicidal thoughts

handove's review against another edition

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders and Medical content

ashcats's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

sea_sea's review

challenging dark emotional funny sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

I thought this was going to be a cute romcom, but it was so much sadder T-T… 
The book was still absolutely amazing! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Cancer, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

piastri's review

4.0

i really wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as i did - i started reading with the expectations of a light, cute romance novel, but then pretty quickly was hit with a much more ‘real’ story of mental illness, grief, disability, mother-daughter relationships, etc.
tess sharpe has a lovely way of weaving together an interesting storyline with much darker themes and complicated characters, which i really enjoy

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Death of parent

Moderate: Ableism and Alcohol

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

mariie_al's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Okay, this was cute. Really cute. The good points are that the characters are very lovable and the prompt itself is very fun and lighthearted, although the story is sparkled with tragedies and talk of mental illness (that part was also excellent.) 
However, I’ve had some issues with the flashbacks and back and forth between past and present. Sometimes, it felt like the characters in the present hadn’t lived what they were supposed to have lived before which made them sometimes act incoherently. For example,

Rémi tells Tate that what she has with Penny is love. Why is she shocked when she had literally expressed it herself 5 months ago?

.
I’m also a bit meh on the « enemies » (for lack of better words) to lovers. They seem to be bickering and annoyed at each other for like 2 chapters until that is erased and they’re suddenly clearly in love with each other. That was a bit disappointing. 
But all in all, that was a fun quick read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical content, Grief, and Death of parent

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Sexual harassment

ashlislibrary's review

emotional hopeful lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Suicide attempt, and Death of parent

biscuitgale's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

The tension between the two leads was frustrating to witness, but ultimately an enjoyable read. This story has elements of romance, angst and is written like a fanfic, but mostly focuses on processing trauma and grief. It also displays the inaccessibility of medical systems and a toxic parental relationship.

I wish Tate's character were developed a bit more since her persona fell a bit flat to me. We really go much deeper on Penny and Penny's family. Aspects of Tate and Penny's relationship feel unrealistic,

especially given that they grew up together. I didn't get the impression that they hated each other even though they kept saying they did. I guess they just hate loved each other the whole time (lol??).

While reading I felt confused about what they have going on there. There's a lot of drama that I didn't really get; it felt unnecessarily intense at times. There are parts that were hard to read. I'm definitely not going to jump into or raft in a river any time soon.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Infidelity and Suicidal thoughts

nightworldlove's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I genuinely enjoyed this (audio) book! The characters all have their own personality, with both strengths and flaws. There's some very serious stuff, but all of it is handled beautifully. No loose ends or questions left unanswered by the end, which is fantastic! <3

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Grief, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Gaslighting

Minor: Ableism, Cancer, Cursing, Infidelity, Blood, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment