6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did)

 Book 68 of my 2025 Reading Challenge

read on September 7

6 Times We Almost Kissed (and One Time We Did) by Tess Sharpe

published 2023

Summary (via the book jacket)

After years of bickering, Penny and Tate have called a truce: They'll play nice. They have to. Their mothers (lifelong best friends) need them to be perfect, drama-free daughters when Penny's mother becomes a living liver donor to Tate's mom. With the girls forced to live together as the moms recover, their truce is essential in keeping everything - their jobs, the house, the finances, the moms' healing - running smoothly. They've got to let this thing between them go.

There's one little hitch: Penny and Tate keep almost kissing.

It's just this confusing thing that keeps happening. You know, from time to time. For basically their entire teenage existence.

They've never talked about it. They've always ignored it in the aftermath. But now they're living across the hall from each other. 

And some things - like kisses - can't be almost forever.

Told through two girls' present and six moments from their past, this dynamic love story shows that sometimes the person you need the most has been there for you all along. 

My Opinion

4 stars

The non-(almost)kissing parts were so well fleshed out and the characters had real troubles that weren't glossed over but also weren't overwhelming.  I really liked the book as a whole and read it in a day.

The way the sections were broken up kept things moving and didn't dwell on any one miss or event too much.  By the end I thought maybe 6 "almosts" was one or two too many but I was enjoying the rest of the story so much I didn't mind.