A Love Like the Sun
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4.5 • 19 Ratings
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
THE USA TODAY BESTSELLER!
“Perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez, Kennedy Ryan, and Carley Fortune (aka me).”
–Emily Henry
“Beautifully blending beloved tropes and smooth, often lyrical prose… Two lovers navigate challenges related to mental health, racial identity, grief, and a chronic illness” –NPR
Lifelong 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.
"Dazzling, tender, and romantic." —Carley Fortune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
YA author Neilson (Deep in Providence) makes the leap into adult fiction with this sweet tale of best friends with a soulmate connection. Laniah and Isaac bonded in their youth over their mutual losses. Laniah's father died when she was a teen and she has since become a self-proclaimed "hermit" to protect her heart. Meanwhile, Isaac was orphaned at 12 and neglected in foster care, but he's now finding success as an internet-famous model and artist. When Isaac learns that Wildly Green, the natural beauty company Laniah and her mother have poured their hearts and souls into, may be forced to shutter, he first tries to offer the women money. They're too proud to accept, however, so he comes up with a more radical scheme to save the company: he and Laniah will pretend to date for the summer, using Isaac's rising fame to generate publicity. Laniah agrees, but she's unprepared for the spotlight. As the pair navigate paparazzi and press releases together, the line between real and pretend blurs. The couple has serious chemistry, but some flashbacks to their past, exploring the history of their relationship, feel redundant and unnecessary. A moving subplot about Laniah trying to get a diagnosis for a mystery illness adds depth, though it sometimes jars with the frivolous fake dating scheme. Still, the pining and sexual tension throughout this slow-burn romance will keep readers hooked.
