This book follows a family. The husband has a high powered PR company that works with over 80 clients including countries.

One day, his wife takes the dog for a walk, and is killed. Dealing not only with his grief, but now he has the stress of spending time away from his child.

The pressure mounts, and he ultimately finds his way into prioritizing his family.

This book has a slow start for me, but hits home to a mom who has a full time busy job.

I received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review

I started this one a few times and I was just not interested in finishing it. Just not the right book for me at the time I tried to read it. This one felt disjointed as I tried to read it

When I think of literary fiction, I think of books just like this one, that gives all the feels. This is a perfect book to snuggle up with on any day.

This book was very choppy. It could be hard to follow at times. A father who’s wife dies and now has to raise his son by himself, nothing that happened seemed relatable or realistic, and required a lot of suspension to follow. Would not recommend.

I found it quite difficult to get into this book. The main character has recently lost his wife and is trying to continue his life as normally as possible until he can’t pull it off any longer. This book seems more like a glorified travelogue than the mid life crisis that is the reason for the story but to me, it was boring and never felt quite real and truthful. It’s not that it’s a really bad book but for me just couldn’t feel anything but relief to have it finished.

Good book overall. Took a while for it to take off but then settles into a good story. I gave up on my first try but glad I came back to it.

A captivating read, A great read! This is the captivating and moving story of Mark White, a man trying to run a multi-million dollar Public relations company, take care of his son, contain himself, and deal with the grief of his wife’s sudden death. I enjoyed the detail and the characters in this book. A great read.

This was an interesting look at a man's grief after losing his wife. Mark is left to raise his young son, Colin but travels extensively for work so he can't be there as often as he'd like. When Colin starts to act up, Mark realizes he is needed more that he realized but his job suffers and he has to make some tough choices. I think I would have enjoyed this more if I hadn't read it during the pandemic because the prose is lovely; it is certainly worth a look!

As with the namesake REM album that the author references, this book is also inconsistent, melancholy, and although there are flashes of insight, is ultimately a bit underwhelming. Also, similar to the band when they made the album, the main character is burnt out and coping with a major loss. His wife's death has left a hole in him similar to the departure of the drummer that provided a ton of drive and kept the band centered in alt-rock. He's spinning off into Radiohead-esque dreamy reverie -- popping pills (and downing drinks) to regulate his mood and even getting his young son hooked on them.

Mark White has totally lost interest in the PR firm he built and managed. Part of it seems to be the ludicrous nature of his life -- being paid obscene amounts of money to spin the media the way countries and power brokers want to aggrandize themselves. It may have been more impactful to see a bit more of his rise or plateau -- at the start he is demanding an obscene amount of stock options as payment for helping a tech startup with powerful investors deal with a scandal.

There are definitely sweet moments with his son when he's able to pop his head up and see reality a bit, and their vacation escapes are very vivid and lead to some hope, if only Mark can keep his self-destructiveness at bay.

This book was not my cup of tea. I had high hopes when I began reading, but it lagged making it difficult to finish. Overall, I found it boring and lacking in a hook to keep the reader's attention.

I liked this book until the end then I loved it! Best ending ever. Well written with great prose and timely story. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher!

Around the Sun is a novel with a large amount of depth. It tackles a father whom is way in over his head with work while grieving the loss of his wife. The father thinks he may have his life under control with the help of a nanny, only to learn that he is not connecting enough with his son. I think we can all relate to this. You try to focus on one part of your life and that causes you to ignore other parts of your life. This was very complex, emotional and entertaining. I would recommend this to every type of reader that I know.

Around the Sun by Eric Michael Bovim is the story of recovering from heartbreaking grief. Unfortunately, I find the telling of the story pull away from that heartbreak because of the focus on Mark's business deals and because of wordy descriptions that cause the bigger point to be lost for me. Perhaps, that hyper-focus on details is a manifestation of grief and a need for grounding in facts. Unfortunately, it makes for challenging reading.

Read my complete review at http://www.memoriesfrombooks.com/2020/11/around-sun.html

Reviewed for NetGalley.

Around the Sun had such promise but I just could not get past all of the business information. I work in the medical field so none of this stuff makes sense to me.

This is a great debut novel that focuses on the story of Mark trying to have a relationship with his eight year old son after the tragic car accident of his wife. He is trying to learn what life is like now without her. The book is full of emotions! I loved the character development and the pace of the novel. A lovely read. Thank you to NetGalley and Epigraph for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Maybe this story gets better but at 22% I’m not willing to devote any more time. Extremely depressing and just not for me...

Thanks to NetGalley and publishers for the free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

So when I'm not with my nose stuck in a book, I make a living (to buy all the books) as a publicist, much like the main character Mark in Around the Sun. But when we meet Mark, he's at the high point of his PR career while personally, he's nearing rock bottom. Still reeling from the death of his wife, Mark is riding an increasingly thin line of trying to balance his grief, higher and higher profile clients and being a Dad to his also grieving son -- and soon the imbalance of too many pills, too much self medicating with alcohol and neglecting his grief topple the balance after a very public, very embarrassing live TV appearance that sets off explosions in his life. Faced with the reality of his dependence on pills, the loss of millions in business thanks to his freefall - Mark takes his son traveling to try to work things out, from the islands to Barcelona.

Overall, I was really into this book - my favorite bits where the descriptions when Mark is traveling - in this time of being grounded it felt great to be transported to places like Barcelona, so lovingly and intricately described. The scenes with father and son are very moving, and for me - the PR bits were fascinating. My jaw dropped reading how much Mark charged his clients - throwing out six figures randomly because he knew they'd pay it.

At times, the book felt very weighty -- spending a lot of time on some details that went on for a bit and I kind of zoned out. It gets wordy and into a lot of depth with his business that many non-PR readers might get a little lost in.

At the end, I was satisfied as a reader and would love to see what happens to the characters next - a good sign of a good book in my opinion.

Definitely a slow burn and heavily character driven. I thought some of it was wordy but I guess it all leads to how it ends. I thought the story was good with how the main character develops, very heart warming and touching. I went into this book not knowing what it was about and didn’t really have my hopes up but I was pleasantly surprised. It’s sweet and sad at the same time, which is my favorite type of fiction.
Thank you to Netgalley and to the publisher for the digital copy of this review.

Around the Sun
by Eric Bovim
September 18, 2020

After a slow start, this novel grabbed hold of me and didn't let go. The material was a different sort of read for me and an enjoyable one. Mark's career focuses on fixing companies and situations and making them look good - - from the outside anyway. Now, after the tragic death of his wife, Mark must concentrate on himself and his young son - and his own image. I look forward to more books from this debut author.

This was an interesting debut novel and a compelling story of a grieving man trying to balance his life and his business. The story explores the grieving process and the relationship with his son. It was quite moving in passages.
Many thanks to Epigraph and to NetGalley for providing me with a galley in exchange for my honest opinion.