“I don’t want to forget what happened. I don’t want to go back to normal. And I don’t want to be the person I was. It was like your dad said the other day: My soul woke up. And now I’m different. I know more. I feel more.”

Next-door neighbors and ex-best friends Hannah and Emory haven’t spoken in months. Not since the fight-the one where they said things they couldn’t take back.

Now, Emory is fine-tuning her UCLA performing arts application and trying to make the most of the months she has left with her boyfriend, Luke, before they head off to separate colleges. Meanwhile, Hannah’s strong faith is shaken when her family’s financial problems come to light, and she finds herself turning to unexpected places-and people-for answers to the difficult questions she’s suddenly facing.

No matter how much Hannah and Emory desperately want to bridge the thirty-six steps between their bedroom windows, they can’t. Not anymore.

Until their paths cross unexpectedly when, one night, Hannah finds Luke doubled over in his car outside her house. In the aftermath of the accident, all three struggle to understand what happened in their own ways. But when a devastating secret about Hannah and Emory’s argument ultimately comes to light, they must all reexamine the things they hold true.

In alternating chapters, a skeptic and a believer piece together the story of their complex relationship with help from the boy caught somewhere in the middle. New York Times best-selling author Tamara Ireland Stone deftly crafts a moving portrait of faith, love, and friendship.

This story resonated with me more than it might have if my own son didn’t have an eerily similar experience as Luke and very recently too! (Eerily almost identical) So this made reading the book so much more personal to me. Any parent would most likely feel the same.

“Little Do We Know” is one of those rare YA books that even every adult should read. Luke suffered a freak accident that changed his life forever; physically, emotionally, and spiritually. Many adults will never experience what Luke experienced which makes his revelations so much more valuable when they are passed on to others.

“I think you can spend your time thinking about what could have happened,” I continued. “Or you can be here and be happy about it. I’m definitely happy about it.”

After his traumatic accident, he experienced a NDE (near death experience) which raised questions about life and death that he never had. Luke came to terms with death in ways many who think they are spiritually connected never have.

“If anything, this experience has taught me to soak up every second of every day, because we never know when it will be over. I’m not afraid of what happens next. I honestly don’t care. I’m just damn glad to be here.”

But, Luke is also caught in the middle of some very real HS drama that forced him to reevaluate the relationships he has. Luke and his girlfriend Emory have planned the best- more carefree summer before setting off for college. Emory and her life long best friend Hannah had a falling out 3 months ago and haven’t spoken since.

Hannah, deeply spiritual and the daughter of a pastor could not be more polar opposite of Emory. Emory, a skeptic on the verge of non-believer in any kind of higher purpose & is the daughter of a single mom who is about to marry a man that Emory DOES.NOT.LIKE! The reader won’t know why or what happened to so deeply cut the throat of their friendship until the end. Knowing what happened between them will shock you!

I LOVED this story because the characters grow spiritually, emotionally, and exponentially in maturity. I believe readers will love these characters, root for them, and pray alongside them as they find their way in life together❤️ LOVED LOVED LOVED this book!!!

If you knew you were leaving this Earth forever, what would you want to say good-bye to?”

TAMARA IRELAND STONE writes young adult and middle grade novels. Her New York Times bestseller, Every Last Word, won the Cybils Young Adult Fiction Award, the Georgia Peach Book Award, the Buxtehuder Bulle German Youth Literature Award, and was a YALSA Teens’ Top Ten pick. She is also the author of Time Between Us, which has been published in over twenty countries; its sequel, Time After Time; and Click’d, the first book in her new middle-grade series.

Before she began writing fiction full time, Tamara spent twenty years in the technology industry. She co-founded a woman-owned marketing strategy firm where she worked with small startups as well as some of the world’s largest software companies. When she’s not writing, she enjoys skiing, seeing live music, watching movies, and spending time with her husband and two children. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

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