Cover Image: 100 Days of Sunlight

100 Days of Sunlight

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Member Reviews

I went into this book expecting a YA book similar to Everything, Everything by Nicola Yoon, and I wasn’t wrong or disappointed. Similar to the movie adaption of The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, this book focuses almost entirely on the two protagonists with limited exchanges between characters outside of that. This works, however, because of the dual perspective and how meaningful those interactions are.

Tessa is a blogger and poet who is a bit of a shut-in— she prefers the safety of her home and the internet over the unpredictable nature of The Outside World. She’s temporarily blinded after a car accident. With a tentative timeline of 100 days until she gets her sight back, she’s stuck in limbo until then and is absolutely miserable (and understandingly so). I have to say, sometimes when characters are all “oh woe is me” I get annoyed because they tend to take it out on other people and I’m straight up not here for that. However, while Tessa is definitely wallowing in her self-pity a bit, and she does take it out on Weston, I found myself rooting for her particularly because she’s not taking her anger out on her grandparents (except when they advertise for a blog helper without telling her, which, like, fair). And her being snarky with Weston is a) totally understandable because, like, it’s kinda weird he’s just like up in here offering to help and she has every right to be annoyed about the whole situation and b) it’s freaking hilarious.

Weston is lovely and so strong and so brave and quite frankly inspiring. I loved hearing about how he rebuilt his life and how hard he worked to overcome the obstacles he faced. Like he said in the book, 13 is a particularly shitty age to go through this since it’s when everyone really cares what you look like and when everyone likes to be assholes. I went on Goodreads to look for Own Voices opinions on the writing of a disabled character (either for Weston or Tessa) but I didn’t find anything. I’d be really interested in hearing what people with these disabilities think about the portrayal. In my opinion, most of it seemed like it was really accurate.

One thing I think disability-wise might be problematic is how Tessa acts like her whole life is over when she is blinded, and it’s only temporary. Again, I don’t feel like I’m qualified to comment on this so I’d love to hear someone else’s opinion.

I can, however, comment on the unrealistic fading of Tessa’s PTSD. Other than the abrupt start to a chapter indicating her PTSD was fading, I think the portrayal was really spot on. As someone who has PTSD I can tell you it doesn’t go away all at once, and I think she returned to “normal” (for lack of a better way to say this) too smoothly. It’s not a smooth road— at least, not in my experience or in most people’s experience form the reading I’ve done.

As far as the actual writing and such, I really loved the characters’ voices and the complexity of the characters. Weston is an athlete who also brings a girl flowers so she can explore more scents (not much of a spoiler, I don’t think!) and does other really cute things that aren’t “masculine”. I did have trouble with two aspects of the language. One was that every once in a while the writing veered into “purple prose” which made it sound contrived. For example I was never sold on Weston routinely referring to Tessa as a volcano or the expansion of that metaphor. The other thing I struggled with was Weston’s use of “pansyass” which just didn’t sit with me well, perhaps because it vaguely sounds like they’re implying they’re “weak like a girl” but that could totally be me reading too much into it.

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This is such an adorable story.
At first, I didn't really like both Tessa and Weston. They were inconsistent, emotions all over the place... but after reading the entire thing I realized... They're teenagers. Teenagers are not predictable as they are trying to find themselves and build their personality.
The romance was also super sweet and healthy. I could see their feelings developing naturally throughout the entire story.
The only thing keeping me from giving it five stars was the occasional unnatural dialog. I have to admit I cringed a few times.

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I read 100 Days of Sunlight as an advanced copy. Tessa was in a car accident and loses her sight. Doctors believe it is transient and expect her sight to return in about 3 months. She’s withdrawn and struggling, until a boy shows up at her door who can relate to what she’s going through and helps her rediscover the world. ⁣

I loved this YA book and I’d give it a 4/5! I liked the transformation of Tessa’s character and the strength of Weston. It is a debut novel from Abbie Emmons and will be released on August 7th. Keep an eye out for it! ⁣

Thank you to @netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

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I read this book in a single day—I couldn’t put it down. It tells the beautiful story of Tessa, a teenage girl who has lost her sight, and her unlikely friendship with a teenage boy named Weston who has a secret of his own. Weston, we learn, lost his legs in an accident a few years back, and is constantly treated differently because of his disability. In Tessa, he finds someone who—for the first time—treats him like anyone else, simply because she cannot see what is “wrong” with him. I loved seeing the relationship between the two grow, and I poured through the pages waiting to see what would happen in the end. It’s a beautiful book for anyone who has ever felt different from everyone else—and anyone who has ever fallen in love.

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I received this ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. I loved this book! Tessa is suffering from temporary blindness as the result of a car accident. When a boy answers her grandparents’ ad to help her type her poetry until she regains her eyesight, she is not happy about it. But unbeknownst to her, Weston has a pretty good idea about what she’s going through: he lost both of his legs 3 years before. Told in both Tessa and Weston’s perspectives, 100 Days of Sunlight is a lovely YA romance that shows what a healthy relationship looks like and how teens can help each other overcome adversity. 5/5 stars!

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I decided to request to be an ARC reader for Abbie's debut novel because I've been following her writing advice videos on YouTube for a while now. Her series on book plotting, in particular, was particularly valuable to me. Because she’s helped me with my own writing, I decided to check out her book.

After reading 100 Days of Sunlight, however, I was disappointed. I attribute my rating to two major things, the first of which isn’t the author’s fault at all.

I Wasn’t This Book’s Intended Audience

If I read a contemporary romance novel it’s typically adult, probably has 1+ sex scenes, and will have a lot of swearing. Having scrolled through other people’s reviews, it seems like this book is targeted for a Christian girl aged 16 – 19 who likes squeaky clean novels. That is not me.

Other reviewers have said they would’ve rated this book five-stars, but knocked it down to four, because of the swearing in this book. Personally, I find this hilarious since I’m pretty sure Weston only says “hell” and “pansyass” (I don’t know a single 16-year-old boy who uses this word). And he says the latter so often that it just gets to be tedious.

Tessa’s grandfather is a preacher, Tessa invites Weston to church, and a couple of times the characters will talk about praying and psalms. As someone who actively avoids the religious genre, that was way more Christian themes than I was expecting.

I recognize that these are personal critiques on my part. The author can’t help the fact that their book is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. If I had known about the PG (barely) rating of this book and vaguely Christian themes, I wouldn’t have requested to receive an ARC.

The Writing

The writing in this book – everyone from Tessa’s poems to the dialogue to the imagery – just felt average. And sometimes, the metaphors didn't make any sense or weren't ever explained (“I can smell the fragrance of midnight in the air.”).

The plot was very, very slow. If I hadn’t become an ARC reader, I probably wouldn't have finished it. Since the bulk of the book oscillated between present day and flashbacks to Weston’s accident and recovery, I didn’t feel a sense of urgency.

Speaking of which, I had assumed Weston’s flashbacks would only be two or three chapters – but that wasn’t the case. Since Weston got most of the POV chapters, both in present day and in flashbacks, I felt like Weston was actually the protagonist of this book. The characterization of Weston and Tessa felt off-balance because of this – I feel like I didn’t get to know Tessa that much.

The side characters were all forgettable and none of them had that much depth. Also, while Weston got to interact with Tessa's grandparents and (through comments on Tessa's blog posts) her circle of internet friends, Tessa never even met Weston's best friend Rudy and only briefly talked to one of his brothers on the phone. This added to the weird unbalanced vibe I got between Tessa and Weston.

Conclusion

Even if I was the intended audience for this book, I probably would still have given it a low rating because the writing and plotting of this book frustrated me.

Although this book wasn’t for me and I feel bad about giving a one-star review to an indie author I follow, I want to make it clear that I am thoroughly impressed with Abbie. I admire anyone who finishes and edits and publishes a book about a story they care about. I wish Abbie all the best in her writing career.

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What an inspiring story! The way this story was written makes it impossible not to love. The characters were well developed and the story line was realistic.

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Tessa is struggling with the blindness that resulted from a car accident, and she is pretty angry at the whole world because no one could possibly understand what she's going through. She used to write poetry and run a popular blog, and she can't do either one of those things if she can't see, right? Enter Weston, a relentlessly optimistic guy her age who offers to write down her poetry for her and be her eyes on her blog by helping her answer comments. He's not scared by her defeated attitude in the slightest; annoyingly, he seems to look at it as a challenging game. Slowly he helps Tessa "see" that the world still has a lot of beauty in it if she allows herself to enjoy her other senses. Their friendship flourishes and turns into more. But Weston is hiding something kind of major: he has 2 prosthetic legs. Tessa doesn't know his story and can't see him for herself. For once, he is treated just like any other person and not like a kid without legs. When her sight returns, though, will it change the way she feels about him?

Ok, this book was really well done. The present-day story is interspersed with some jumps to the past to see who Weston was before his accident and what happened to him. These are timed just right to explain something going on between Weston and Tessa, and it deepens the reader's understanding of both characters. The supporting cast is really wonderful, too. Weston's best friend, Rudy, is the kind of pal every one needs: there when you need him, goes along with crazy ideas, but there with the tough love at critical moments. Also, Weston's mother is a badass Boymom who is all about comics and introduces her sons to her favorites. I couldn't love her more.

There are a lot of beautiful themes here, including the lesson that relying on the support of family and friends doesn't make you weak, the importance of learning to accept what life throws at you while continuing to fight to be yourself, and the value of getting out of your own way and letting yourself be loved. These are deep but important messages for YA, and they were handled really well. I was impressed that this was the author's first book. I'll definitely be checking out what she does next!

**Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review!**

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Even before I started reading this book, I was prepared to give it three stars.

*cringes* okay, okay, don't kill me, but if there's a looooot of hype about a book, I usually won't care for it.

The truth? *I l o v e d this book.* I mean, first of all, I looooove how the cover ties everything, every lil' bit of this book together. Ahhhh *happy sigh*

I was completely prepared to give this baby 5 whopping stars. But...there were two things that kept me from it.

1. The language.
Wait, did anyone see what just flew past? *looks out into the front yard* oh, that was just 3/4 of a star that just flew out the window.
Honestly, if I'd known how much swearing was in this book, I might've passed it up. I get it that most people use cuss words without a care. I, however, am not one of those people. Really, is it *necessary* to have so much cussing in a book? I don't like swearing, but add to that God's name being used frequently and flippantly retracted pleasure from the dialogue for me.

2. The romance.
*another quarter of a star jumps out the window*
So, the romance was actually pretty adorable. Until you contemplate the fact that these two people are 16 yrs old. SIXTEEN, PEOPLE. I know this opinion is kinda unpopular, but . . . I don't like. XD Thankfully, there wasn't a huge amount of romance, which is what kept this baby from being docked down another star.

What did I like??
-UM WESTON HELLO PEOPLE. Ahhh he was so amazing! And I could seriously relate to him more than I could to Tessa. I mean, I'm not exactly handicapped, but I totally got his suck-it-up-buttercup, don't-let-others-know-how-I-feel attitude. I mean, I really, *really* wanna wash his mouth out with soap. But otherwise he's fabbb. AND HIS RELATIONSHIP WITH HIS BROTHERS LIKE YASSSS PLEASE <3
-The writing style was o n f l e e k. The story wasn't fast-paced. At all. But somehow I kept reading . . . and reading . . . it was so engaging!! Ahhhh, Abbie's writing voice was so good . . . I could go on reading it forever.
-The plot!! Can I just express how much I AM IN LOVE WITH THE PLOT?? It's so genius!! Executed so flawlessly . . .

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-This is my first full review, and I tried to write it in the best way I can. And is no spoilers in it. Hope it will help.

-THIS BOOK IS A 5 🌟 READ. IT'S AMAZING. 💛

-This is my first ARC ever, so I was so excited to read it. And for real if I didn't receive the ARC of this book, I don't know how was I going to handle a long 3 mouths till it come out. I was so happy that I received that ARC.

-THIS IS DEFINITELY MY FAVORITE BOOK EVER! 💛

-This book deals with a very great topic. It talked about accepting who you are, and how to deal with your problems with so much optimism. And I feel that there isn't so many book that talk about that topic in such a beautiful way, like that book did.
I feel that the characters in this book are real, they exist somewhere out there. And I want to meet them so badly. Abbie I believe that you did a great job with creating them. And from what I know about you (thought it is not that much.) I feel that every character (specially Tessa and Weston) have something from you in it. And if I read that book with out knowing who wrote it, I will know it's YOU. 💛

-The plot of the story was so good, the back stories too. There is no scene or part of the book where I felt bored or unattached to this beautifully created book. The ending kept me so invested in the story I couldn't stop reading, and even though you can see it coming, but still will want to, you will want to read.

-Abbie, you are amazing.💛 Your writing is amazing.💛 Your undescribable, beautifully written book is amazing.💛
That book is ready to published, FOR REAL.
I beg you to keep writing, keep going, keep giving me a story to read, a story that I can't put down, a story to fall in love with! 💛
Now, if you haven't received an ARC and if you didn't read the book, GO PRE-ORDER IT! Seriously the whole world MUST read that book.

-One more thing, Abbie. You see that presentation about "change", I literally will print it, and put on the wall in front of my desk, TO JUST KEEP ME GOING! It's so obnoxiously optimistic, and so beautifully written.
Seriously I ran out of words for describing that book.

-I really can recommend it enough.💛
-I will put a full book review on YouTube in June; search Kamar Masri.

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arc received from netgalley!

I’ll be honest, I originally requested this arc mainly because the cover stood out to me. It turns out, the story is just as beautiful. I also love how you start to notice little things on the cover that relate to the story like the waffles, the carnations, the polaroid, the yellow ukelele, etc

I was hesitant to go into this because I often find myself being let down by books dealing with illness and/or trauma. But this one was just written so beautiful and Abbie was really able to express the emotions these two characters were going through.

Weston was a SWEETHEART. I don’t believe he has a mean bone in his body. He’s incredibly optimistic and despite Tessa snapping at him and purposely being mean to him, he continued to show her kindness and help her because he knew the pain she was enduring. I’m not a fan of flashbacks, but his story was so intriguing and I admired how hard he worked. The relationships he had with both Rudy and his brothers were so wholesome, my heart melted.

I found Tessa annoying at times, but I feel like that was intentional. You can’t really blame her since you aren’t going through what she is. I can’t imagine losing my sight and not knowing whether or not it will come back. And to have this stranger walk into your life and demanding to help you doesn’t quite help.

Tessa and Weston shared SO many cute little moments in this. The romance didn’t make me cringe at all, and was actually adorable. Tessa falling in love with Weston’s personality rather than his looks just made me love them so much more.

Overall, this was a fantastic debut, and I hope to see more of Abbie Emmons in the future!

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Tessa could see until a car accident makes her blind, hopefully temporarily but she suffers PTSD from the impact and her life suffers as she rarely leaves her bedroom, can't even write her poetry or update her blog.



Then her grandparents put and ad in the newspaper for a helper to type for her, queue Weston.



Weston knows what disability can cause you to feel, he lost his legs below the knees in an accident two to three years ago before meeting Tessa.



As he helps Tess he opens her up to the world around her again using her other senses, smell, taste, hearing, touch and so uses flowers, foods, instruments and Polaroids for her sight to see when or if she recovers.



This book is amazing, the chemistry the pair have is fiery but sweet and understanding. They remind me of Augustus and Hazel from The Fault In Our Stars. As a book debut it's so developed and emotional the depth is immense and a truly addictive, beautiful read.



Many thanks to the publishers for allowing me to review this book for them!

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100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons is a wonderful YA debut.
Tessa, the main character, is blind after a car accident and while doctors are hopeful her sight will return there is no guarantee. In line with her age and character, this causes her to retreat from the world until Weston pulls her out of her shell. The characters reactions/decisions can seem a bit predictable, they are two 16 year olds that are still figuring things out. Overall, I found this novel to be an enjoyable YA read.

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“100 Days of Sunlight” is a beautiful, inspiring, young adult novel about two teenagers, Tessa and Weston. Tessa was in a car accident causing her to temporarily lose her vision, and we soon learn Weston has to overcome adversity of his own. The two teens form a relationship and help one another in ways they never thought possible.

This is a book that will warm your heart, and you will not want to put it down-I finished it in a day. I will definitely recommend this book to my 8th graders next year for their independent reading project. This novel is a story of love, family, hope, and optimism. It inspires you to push through hard times and rise above the things that bring you down, a definite 5-star read!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free advanced copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

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I will start off my review with a disclaimer: despite being smack dab in the middle of the target age range for young adult fiction . . . YA is SO not my thing. That being said, I did still enjoy 100 Days of Sunlight at its core, even if the genre may not be my favorite ever.

First off, that cover! Well done, Ms. Emmons! It's stunning! I feel like so often indies cheap out when it comes to cover design, but it's clear Emmons put a lot of time and thought into her cover, and for that, I give her kudos.

Let's get onto characters. Y'all. Weston is adorable. I want him for a little brother! I loved his humor, his "arrogance," his optimism and take-whatever-life-throws-at-you-with-joy attitude. This dude is amazing. (Despite his potty mouth . . .) He was definitely my favorite character. Tessa, also, was a very well-rounded character, and while I struggled to relate to her and the way she handled certain things, nonetheless I think a lot of people will relate and empathize with her. The supporting characters of Weston's brothers (adorable!), and Tessa's grandparents and friends were a sweet addition.

The storyline, while not fast-paced, moved along at just the right pace and kept my interest from beginning to end. Emmon's writing style is unique and enjoyable. She tackles some tough topics in this book, and I think she did a pretty decent job doing so.

All that being said, there were some aspects of 100 Days of Sunlight that I did not like.

For one, the language. I know there's a lot of differing opinions, even among Christians, whether or not language is appropriate in fiction. And we don't need to go into my opinions on that right now. But for me, in this book, most if not all of the swearing was SO unnecessary. And there was a lot of it. More than I expected, which was disappointing. And this is being marketed as secular fiction (to my knowledge), so that gives it a little more leeway in my opinion, but still, there was just. so. much. swearing. That took away greatly from my enjoyment of this book.

My other main complaint, and this coupled with the swearing is what docked a star plus off my rating. The romance. Okay, okay, I know I am largely in the majority with this, but I. don't. like. teen. romance. There. I said it. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a sucker for a sweet romance storyline, but I just don't do teen romance. So, considering the fairly prominent romantic storyline in 100 Days, there's another reason I didn't enjoy it as much. Honestly, I think this would have been that much more unique if the relationship between Tessa and Weston was kept platonic. There are boatloads of YA romances out there, but it's rare to find a YA WITHOUT romance. But again, I don't know if that's a negative as much as just my thoughts. If you do enjoy teen romances, then I'm sure you will enjoy 100 Days.

All in all, I think 100 Days of Sunlight is a very promising debut, and I am excited to see where Emmons will go next with her writing career! This author shows a lot of promise. If you love contemporary YA, teen romance, deep storylines, witty characters, and WAFFLES, definitely check out 100 Days of Sunlight!


FTC Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book for promotional purposes from Netgalley. A positive review was not required. These are my honest thoughts and opinions.

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This story was beautiful from the beginning to the very end.

I thought it was a real page turner and I couldn't wait to see how it would all end.

The story was heartfelt and I could "see" and feel the characters with their struggles.

The author did a superb job of creating some fantastic characters that were believable and she really brought them to life for me.

No hesitation in giving this one 5 stars - I loved it and cannot recommend it highly enough

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What if you couldn’t see? What if someone couldn’t see you? Does it change how you judge people, judge the world? 100 Days of Starlight is a teenage love story, but it is also a story about resilience and learning to get back up when knocked down by life.

A car crash leaves Tessa temporarily blind. Now Tessa refuses to write her poetry or leave the house, so her grandparents place an ad for a helper. Weston sees the ad at his father’s paper just before it’s pulled from publication and decides Tessa is someone he can help. As a double amputee, the idea of someone getting to know him without seeing him is very appealing. At first reluctant to work with Weston, Tessa pushes him away in every way she can, but he doesn’t give up - determined to show her that life is about more than what she can see.

The chapters, split evenly between Weston and Tessa, focus almost entirely on their interactions. We don’t learn a lot about their lives outside of what is happening between the two of them - Tessa, mostly because nothing else is happening. Fortunately, half of Weston’s chapters take us back three years ago to the time of his accident and subsequent duel amputation, filling in backstory and giving readers a better idea of his life and motivations.

The first person narration places readers directly alongside the main characters. It also gives readers direct access to their thinking and, sometimes false, ideas. Tessa’s thoughts about being blind and how depressed that makes her, how she thinks that makes her pathetic are not exactly inspired or uplifting. Nor does it reflect in any way the true strength and abilities of those with visual impairment. 100 Days of Sunlight is not a book that starts out by promoting an ‘I can do anything, this doesn’t change my life’ attitude. Just the opposite in fact. Tessa is sad, whiney, and yes, while I understand it’s hard, it takes her some time and lots of help from Weston to come around to a more positive way of thinking. This book has to start with a sad, whiney character because that’s what gives us the character growth.

Weston is sort of a boy wonder. Positive, a great brother, strong and determined. His chapters reveal his doggedness and desire to take the hard road. He did, at times, sound like a therapy room’s motivational poster, but there is no denying his great attitude.

100 Days of Sunlight, with themes of positive attitude, acceptance and resilience woven throughout, is a fun teenage romance.

The publishers provided an advanced readers copy of this book for reviewing purposes. All opinions are my own.

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100 Days of Sunlight! A very cute and quick read. First, the book cover art and the color is what caught my eye. Which I’m sure is what the author was trying to do, and doing it herself... amazing job! The book description HOOKED me. I knew it was a book I had to read. The good that I liked about it is the characters stories, It makes the characters more mature for their age, especially Weston. I’ll have to admit that Weston wasn’t a favorite character of mine, but I had to see how he dealt everything at the end. The downside, in my personal opinion was that the whole story felt very very rushed. It makes sense because of...100 days. But I wish there was a little more going on. Really good story and amazing job to the authors first novel!

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Let me start by saying that having your MC wake up from a dream (or nightmare, in this case) to start your novel is lazy writing. It's such a cliché, and not a good one. This particular nightmare about Tessa's car accident was accompanied by like 10 pages of exposition regarding said accident and the subsequent hospital stay and doctor visits. Why not just start with all of that instead of starting with backstory????? If you have to give almost a full chapter of backstory at the beginning of your story, you started in the wrong place.

Honestly, the entire premise is so shaky for me to begin with, because blind people get by just fine everyday, even running blogs and writing. So Tessa needing a proxy for that just seems... unrealistic?

Also, if you're going to have multiple POVs, they need to be distinct. Tessa and Weston sounded almost exactly the same, because they were written in the exact same style.

Tessa's attitude about her temporary lack of sight was just.... ugh. There are legitimate blind people out there who have to live every day for the rest of forever without sight so it just felt so bratty and unlikeable, but not in a good way. The attitude towards blindness in the bit that I read felt borderline ableist to me. Being upset because you've been made blind after a lifetime of seeing because of someone else's actions is completely understandable. But I feel like Tessa's entire attitude takes it too far.

And listen. Weston KNOWING that Tessa's grandparents had retracted their ad for someone to help her and that they weren't looking for a boy, anyway, but stealing their address and just showing up is creepy. It's uncool and something that a stalker would do. I don't like that and I don't like the message that it sends, particularly in a novel aimed toward a young adult audience.

Now for some nitpicks:
WHY IS THE OWNER OF A NEWSPAPER ALSO DEALING WITH THE ADS????? IS THERE NOT A DEPARTMENT FOR THAT? WE KNOW HE HAS OTHER EMPLOYEES, MAYBE EVEN A SECRETARY. WHY IS HE HANDLING THIS?

Maybe that didn't deserve all caps. But it made me so irrationally angry when I read it because that's not how it works.

Tessa has a doctor that tells her she's "realistically optimistic" about her prognosis. First of all, that's not a thing. "Realistically optimistic" is not a thing. Also, it's irresponsible and almost entirely inconceivable that a doctor would say that to a patient, because that gets hopes up.

There's no explained reason for why Weston is in his dad's office listening to his phone call in the scene where he overhears about Tessa, either.

After reading other reviews and finding out that there are a lot of subtle faith/religious themes, I'm glad I didn't finish this one.

Overall--
The writing was no bueno and the story was crazy unrealistic. Not for me.

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When I heard that Abbie was publishing a book, I was beyond excited. I’ve followed her off and on through the years and read a short story of hers a long while ago. I knew it would be good.

And my expectations were not disappointed.

First, this COVER! Seriously one of the beautifullest works of art EVER. It’s gorgeous as is, but after reading the story, I love it even more! I adore how pieces of the novel come together in the cover. Seriously, SO. GOOD.

Secondly, the CONCEPT! I try not to read a ton of contemporary YA but the ones I’ve seen tend to have super cliché ideas. DUDE, THIS WAS THE FARTHEST FROM CLICHÉ. The plot was incredible! (I mean yes, okay – it was a bit predictable, but it was genius.) I love how she used all the senses and wound up with touch. Like, wow.

AND THEN THE CHARACTERS! I looooved how easily I could see the characters – one of my problems is when books haven’t enough description and I felt I could really see them – and everything was just so real! The dialogue made me laugh several times (Weston – the snark!) but I could totally emphasize with Tessa’s bitterness. I loved seeing her grow. I loved the backstory on how Weston came out of his handicap. And dudes, Weston is literally the epitome of RAD. That guy sort of stole my heart too.

And I loved seeing their relationship grow. SERIOUSLY THE CUTEST THING EVER. AND THE ENDING ALMOST MADE ME CRY. All in all, I loved this book!

Now since I come from a conservative Christian perspective, yes, there were some things I disliked. Such as the language (view spoiler) even though I did know I was going to be getting into it. I mean yes – Weston’s family and friends aren’t Christians and yes, that’s just real life there – but I didn’t need quite that much of it, if you know what I mean. The other thing is just that Tessa and Weston are 16 – too young for that kind of relationship, if you ask me – he’s not saved and she’s not really a strong Christian herself. Quite honestly, though, those aren’t flaws – they’re just my own reservations, coming from my beliefs and convictions.

I think my favorite thing about this book was all-in-all how very real it was. Seriously, nothing felt impossible or even implausible. I felt like it could very well be non-fiction, and everything was spot-on. You can tell Abbie has put her years of experience writing into this, along with some pieces of herself.

Well done. I can’t wait to read Abbie’s next work whenever it comes out!

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