Review: You’ve Found Oliver by Dustin Thao

Name: You’ve Found Oliver
Series: You’ve Reached Sam #2
Author: Dustin Thao
Publisher: First Ink
Format: Audio & Hardback
Genres: Young Adult, Contemporary Romance, LGBTQ+, Magical Realism
Spice Rating: 🌶️
😭? – No tears in sight

Rating: (Actual: 3.75 stars)

Synopsis: Goodreads
It’s been a year since his best friend, Sam, died. Even though Oliver knows he won’t get a response, he can’t stop texting Sam’s number, especially as the anniversary of his death approaches.

Then one day he accidentally hits the call button, and someone picks up.

Sam’s number was reassigned and a stranger has been receiving Oliver’s private and vulnerable messages for months. But Ben, a college student in Seattle, won’t remain a stranger for long. When they finally meet in person, their spark is undeniable.

Everything seems perfect until Oliver discovers something impossible and strange that will keep them from being together . . .

Review:

You’ve Found Oliver is the inter-connected stand alone sequel to You’ve Reached Sam by Dustin Thao. You do not have to have read You’ve Reached Sam in order to read You’ve Found Oliver, but there are heavy over lap in terms of characters. I’d recommend reading them both! There will be spoilers for You’ve Reached Sam in the below, but any of You’ve Found Oliver will be hidden as normal.

You’ve Found Oliver follows Sam’s best friend whom had a long time crush on his very much taken best friend… We meet Oliver in You’ve Reached Sam as he sort of befriends Julie, Sam’s girlfriend, and they try to navigate their loss together. But we don’t get much of him, thankfully a few years later Dustin revisted Oliver and wrote his beautiful story.

I really enjoyed this story, I went from not being Oliver’s biggest fan to really liking him and cheering him on in his own tale. Our brief amount of time with him in Julie’s book just wasn’t enough for us to really get to know him. I’m so grateful that Dustin gifted us this instalment. Oliver spends the year after Sam’s unexpected death texting his number as a way of holding onto him. But after accidentally hitting the call button, he decides to wait and hear Sam’s voicemail… the last thing he expected was for someone to pick the call up.

This was beautiful. The friendship between Oliver and Julie felt like it had really developed in the time between book one and two, and I really enjoyed the snippets we got of Oliver’s friendship with Sam too. But the shining relationship of this story was that of Oliver with the mystery man at the end of the line when he calls Sam’s number, Ben. I loved Ben and the way he and Oliver interacted with each other. Aside from the magical realism funny business, their friendship and blossoming romance was so so sweet, and I loved following it!

Oliver and Ben’s situation is, I think, the least of the gut wrenching and heart breaking ones I’ve read from Dustin – and that was why I couldn’t rate this that highly. I’m not sure, however, that the intention was to have us sobbing from page 1 through till the epilogue with this one… Which is why I still gave it a 3.75. I started to lose interest in towards the end and I can’t explain why but that was why it didn’t get the 4 star rating. I did however love the epilogue Dustin included for Oliver.

I’m glad to see this story through to finish, and I do think it was a story that needed to be told. I just didn’t require tissues to get through this one!

“I love you. I wish I had told you that in person.”

Reading With Tyler