e-Audio, 10:21:41
Narrated by: Frankie Corzo
Release Date: June 11, 2024
Published by: Books on Tape (Berkley)
Read from: June 17-20, 2024
Stand-alone
Source: PRH Audio App (I received a copy of this e-audio from the publisher’s audio app in exchange for a just and honest review. This did nothing to influence my review.)
Content Warning: Grief, Medical Trauma, Medical Content, Racism, Death of a parent, Cursing
For Readers Interested In: Romance, Realistic Fiction, Racial/Ethnic Diversity (Biracial), Tear-Jerkers, Acute/Chronic Disorder, So Good I Read the Acknowledgements, Stand-alone, Social Media, InfluencersLifelong best friends spend a fateful summer discovering what might happen if they were to be something more in this radiant, heart-clenching adult debut.
Laniah Thompson is a homebody who craves privacy. Issac Jordan is internet famous and spends his days followed by paparazzi. She runs a small business with her mom in her hometown. He runs an international brand.
And they’ve been best friends since childhood.
When Issac comes home to Providence for the first time in months and discovers Laniah’s dream is slipping out of reach as she and her mom struggle to pay the bills at Wildly Green, their natural hair store, she refuses to take a dime from him. And so, he does what any self-respecting best friend would do: tells the world they’re dating.
Suddenly business is booming, and Laniah agrees to his ridiculous plan to pretend to be lovers for the course of the summer. Just long enough to catch the eye of an investor and get her dream back on track, like she helped him do so many years ago, he reminds her.
Too soon, though, Laniah knows she’s playing with fire, because for as long as they’ve been friends there’s an undeniable pull they’ve never given in to. And as the lines between art and life—real and pretend—blur, it becomes harder and harder to see where friendship ends and something else begins….
Told over the course of three sizzling summer months, A Love Like the Sun is about shared history, those who make us our bravest selves, and love in its many forms.
*MY THOUGHTS*
This was a pretty hard review to write. When I don’t like something I can give you 350,000 reasons why. But when I loved a book, it’s so hard to put into words exactly what I’m feeling. I can’t ever really explain what it is that made me fall for something. It’s almost like I can’t put it into words. And this is exactly how I felt with this one.
Ok so I went into this with a little trepidation. I was a little scared because her previous YA books weren’t for me. But I decided that this was adult romance and it might actually be a lot different. And I’m so glad I went ahead and read it! I ADORED this book! I mean from the writing style, to the romance, to the actual writing that didn’t seem like it was doing it for the trope, just EVERYTHING. I couldn’t stop reading it. I was supposed to be buddy reading this and read like 20% everyday and ended up finishing it in 2 days. (More like 3 because on the third day it was like 2 am lol) But I just could not stop reading this. And I really hope we get another or at least a book from his POV because that was the only thing I missed from this one.
The other thing that I really loved about this was the number of individual things I love in a book. I know this is cliche or whatever, but this book was like written for me lol I As a loud proclaimer of friends to lovers, I knew it was coming and I was excited for it. But imagine my surprise when I realized there was also my other favorite trope, Fake Dating! I hadn’t seen anyone talking about that part of it, and I was like WTF I would have read this way earlier lol Idk man I just got even more excited! And then of course there was a mirror scene that if you KNOW me, then yeahhhhh. Definitely went on my favorite books immediately lol I also liked the social media aspect of it. The author showed all sides of it, the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good is how he is looked at as a celebrity. A friend once said, “influencers are today’s celebrities” and it definitely made me realize that she’s right. Because the way people were falling all over themselves for Isaac (and I mean rightfully so lol) was like he was a movie actor or something lol And then there was the bad and ugly part. The Darius like people of the world and what he did. My skin crawled every time he was on the page. (In my headphones?) You’ll understand when you read it lol
The other thing that was in there that I loved was the rep. I knew the MC was going to be biracial, but that was it. I didn’t realize there was also acute/chronic disorder rep as well. I won’t say what, but I know that it pissed me off, but it was so for real. There is a serious issue in Medicine surrounding Black women, and I was glad that this one went there. I won’t say much so it’s not a spoiler, but I did enjoy it. And to find out that this might be like the author’s journey (according to the author’s note) And that made me rage. I hate that she went through that.
The romance was literally everything I wanted. She was an anxious mess around him, but the way he loved her, gah! It was so amazing. The way he loved on her? And the way she couldn’t see it? Like how could you NOT see it? I think I remember saying, “GIRL HOW CAN YOU NOT TELL HE LOVES YOU?!” Idk if she was really like not seeing it or if I’ve read too many romance books, but here we are. Isaac is definitely my Book Boyfriend of the Month for now. Because Lordt, that last like quote that I highlighted made me cry. Ugh it was beautiful. I really wish we what his thoughts were like. (Although I was a bit scared at that one part because girl what?!)
Ok so maybe I lied lmao I can’t stop talking about this book lol But I still don’t think I did it justice. This was a book I know I’m going to be thinking about for a very long time. I really hope there’s another romance book coming to us. I know she wrote this during Nano (which damn, that’s bad ass) so Idk if there was plans for another. But if sooooooooo……. Yeah, I need that lol
Overall, I give this
