The first thing that drew me to this book was the stunning cover. It reminded me of some of Morgan Matson's covers with contemporary photography. I really thoroughly enjoyed this book and based on the ending, hoping that this becomes a series. I quickly fell in love with the main love interest, Raj, a 22 year old aspiring writer/ bartender working his way through film school. Raj is main character Becca's neighbor in their shabby apartment complex situated right in Hollywood. The story follows Becca's journey into becoming an actress right out of high school. What I loved about this story was how real Howland made it feel. This isn't all happy unicorns and rainbows, it follows Becca through the ups and downs of trying to make a name for yourself in the real world.

The only character I really did not enjoy was Marisol. She just seemed very ingenuine and her story arc just kind of fell flat for me. I also thought that the book description itself was slightly misleading. I went into the story thinking id be reading about an aspiring actress who turns into a successful youtuber, but the youtube thing was such a minute detail in the plot. Also, this book is classified as YA and suitable for ages 14-18 but I would say this is definitely a New Adult novel.

I was surprised and disappointed that Disney/Hyperion is the publisher of this book. As a librarian, I can usually look at the publisher and know if the book will be appropriate for my audience. I would recommend this book not to 14 and up but 18 and up. Not all young adults use the f-word or hook-up and the description of porn was unnecessary, in my opinion. I love the cover, the title and the premise of the story - which would attract many Middle School aged girls - but the themes are too mature for this age group and I would have a lot of explaining to some parents if their child read this book. That being said I strongly believe there are lessons that could be learned from the book, follow your dreams, don't give up, be passionate etc. But I could not get passed the language or sexual content to recommend this book.

I received this eBook from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. See this and other reviews at my blog 24 Hour Library.

In Leila Howland’s Hello, Sunshine, Becca Harrington has been rejected from every college she’s applied to. With dreams of becoming a star, she packs her things and makes a cross-country roadtrip from Boston to LA with her boyfriend, Alex, who has plans to attend Stanford. Things come crashing down when Alex breaks up with her at the end of their trip, leaving Becca feeling like an utter failure. Despite plans to live with her cousin, Becca finds an apartment of her own where she meets a new friend, Marisol, and a cute aspiring director, Raj. With a list of goals in hand (including finding an agent and getting paid acting work all while working a bummer job as a waitress), Becca sets out into the shiny world that is Los Angeles while learning to get out of her own way.

As a first-person narrator, Becca is hyper-everything. Much like the overexposed picture that makes up the cover to Hello, Sunshine, the narration style is fast and bright, as if living inside the head of an extravert (which Becca clearly is). While Becca uses a lot of words to tell her story, particularly toward the beginning, she doesn’t say a whole lot. In addition to a selection of sentence structure and vocabulary that makes Becca seem as if she’s talking a million miles a minute, the plot structure, too, moves at a rapid pace. While so many events happen to bring Becca to the end of this chapter in her life, Howland might have done better to focus on fewer things and committed to fewer false starts in Becca’s attempts at an acting career. While this may be an accurate representation of trying to get famous, it doesn’t work well for a narrative.

The choice of present-tense adds tension to the story -- will Becca “make it” in Hollywood, or will she not? -- but doesn’t leave Becca much time for reflection, which she sorely needs. As a character flaw, this is slightly resolved later on, but not convincingly. Meanwhile, Howland uses f-bombs and other profanity relatively liberally. This isn’t a problem in and of itself, but doesn’t suit the reading level, prose style, or the book’s personality (or, frankly, Becca’s personality). Obviously not a piece of literary fiction, Hello, Sunshine’s writing style revolves around immaturity and a lack of sophistication. This does quite a bit to characterize Becca, but doesn’t make her particularly interesting and doesn’t serve to show the author’s skill, nor does it do the book as a whole many favors.

All said, Becca’s narration, though fast (and, wow, the last quarter of the book or so is like whiplash in terms of events), is matter-of-fact and not totally unlike eighteen-year-olds I’ve known.

Howland does bring the book to life with some interesting characters. Though she’s never mentioned, real-life Kesha seems a natural model for Marisol. Marisol’s background is far more interesting than any other character’s, Becca’s included. With an unexpected twist toward the end regarding Marisol which sends Becca running back to her cousin, Marisol’s personal story may be a little trite, but her characterization is the strongest. Meanwhile, the ever-present “juice man” has a predictable role toward the end of the novel. Main players in the book, Becca, Raj, Marisol, and even Becca’s mom and cousin, all are fairly well-developed. Even more-secondary characters, like Reed, are the stars of their own lives. Perhaps the one flaw in Howland’s character description is Becca noting Raj’s “coffee-colored skin,” which is borderline, if not straight-out problematic (I’ll leave that up to PoC to decide).

A fair amount of themes and symbolism seem present in the book, although I approached this as a leisure read and didn’t overanalyze things. One point that did come to my attention was Becca’s near-constant talk about stomach problems early on. It was so frequent it seemed like this would later become a plot point, like some kind of diagnosis that would interfere with her goals. Alas, it never returned and was just a case of some heavy-handed show-don’t-tell as readers learn that Becca is upset with her new single status. Hello, Sunshine is also solidly grounded in the modern world with mentions of Instagram and Ikea floating about. Whether or not this is included to color Becca’s world or provide fodder for symbolism (Ikea comes up multiple times as part of a running bit of wisdom; personally, I find mentions of specific establishments that exist in reality to be distracting and unnecessarily dates the book, but I feel similarly about made-up institutions meant to stand in for something well-known, like an author referring to a fast food restaurant as Burger Prince, but I digress), it makes the novel a touch more relevant for the right here, right now.

I suspect fans of Morgan Matson’s Since You’ve Been Gone will enjoy Hello, Sunshine. Not only is the cover art strikingly similar, but the overall feel of the stories are about the same. Hello, Sunshine isn’t a literary masterpiece, but works as a palate cleanser or a quick weekend read. For two-and-a-half hearts, what you see is what you get.

3.5/5 stars This novel was super quirky and fun! It's cute cover was what attracted me on netgalley, and the story was just as fun!

Howland's book follows Becca Harrington, an aspiring actress who has been rejected by all the colleges she applied to. She decides to move to LA all on her own, where she meets her new friend, Marisol and the adorkable Raj.

I really appreciate the perspective of a young person who realizes college isn't the best option for them. Although I love college myself, it's not for everyone. And it is possible to be successful and happy even if you don't go to a university.

And this is a relatable book for anyone who is in their late teens or early twenties. It's about the struggle of being on your own for the first time. As a broke college student I totally related to Becca's money problems and the stress of trying to pay for bills.

Although it was a super fun and relatable story, I didn't give it a full 4 stars. Although I enjoyed it, it sometimes lacked a certain uniqueness to it's dialogue and characters. But I would still recommend it for any fan of contemporary novels. I am definitely interested in reading more from this author in the future :)

Loved it! Fabulous writing and the characters truly captured my heart. As a drama teacher/college coach, this book resonated with me in a lot of ways because I'm often with theater students in the trenches as they make similar decisions as Becca. Do you go to college for the next four years studying your craft and delaying your start in the business, or do you wing it and pursue the Great American Dream? Becca chooses the path less taken because she doesn't get into any theater program (or college). That's a reality of theater kids because the competition is fierce for those few spots. Right off the bat, Becca loses her boyfriend. Then she realizes all that glitters is not gold and she might not achieve the Hollywood ending she has banked all of her hopes and dreams on. However, her journey to adulthood and success is right around the elusive corner. Becca, with the help of some really great friends and somewhat chill mother, learns while there's no straight and narrow path to achieving her acting dreams, it's those twists and turns life throws you that make all the difference.