A sweet friends to lovers, fake relationship romance. If you're a fan of slow-burns, this is the romance for you!

A LOVE LIKE THE SUN by Riss M. Neilson was the first book I read my the author and it would not my the last. This book was beautiful and heartwarming that’s about friendship, growth, self-confidence, and chances. During the read we follow two childhood friends that love each other deeply yet unable to express their emotions to each other. The connection and interaction between them was amazing and organic. Their progression from friendship to romance was done beautifully, there was so much passion and intensity between them. I love seeing their journey throughout the read see them overcome their diverse struggles and insecurities. Although the FMC was a bit frustrating at times it was important to understand the trauma she had in losing her father as well as witnessing him deteriorate before her eyes. That’s not something that can be easily forgotten. I also admired how the author discussed important issue in society such as the disparities black women face in the health care system in their health concerns being ignored or taken less seriously than others. Overall I really enjoyed this books and excited for what the author has in store next!

A Love Like the Sun
By: Riss M. Neilson
Contemporary Romance
Thank you @Berkley for my free copy. This book was fantastic. I did not know it’s partially set in Rhode Island which made it even better. This was a beautiful story of friends to lovers, family dynamics and unconditional love. I love the subplots of the story as much as the main story line. I invested in this story until the last page. Bonus: The cover is gorgeous! I need a copy for my shelf!

This was book was so good, I had to force myself to put it down last night and go to bed. I haven’t finished a book this quickly in so long. Like, ‘good’ isn’t the right word to describe how much I absolutely loved this story.

It’s a perfect best friends to lovers romance with fake dating (Issac is a famous artist/media creator and Laniah owns a small business, Wildly Green, with her mom). After a tough breakup, Issac finds out that Wildly Green is closing, and suggests they fake date to help promote the shop and fix his dating reputation.

Their chemistry is off the charts and I loved the slow burn so much, I was literally giggling and had my face smushed into the book. I honestly didn’t mind the few small bumps they both had, because it felt real and like how any couple would deal with a long distance relationship (fake or not), especially when one of them is a celebrity.

Plus, with the third act break up and when the readers find out about Laniah’s health, which she’d been anxious about throughout the book, was totally valid and I feel like it needed to happen. But in the end, I was crying happy tears because their love and bond is literally all I want in life.

“There's an achy, knowing feeling in the base of my throat about how small we are in a beautiful way, the same as when we're by the water together. Two star-shaped souls who happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to find friendship in each other among billions of other souls.”

I’m not usually a friends to lovers girlie, but this book changed my mind. Thank you Berkley Publishing for the free PR box and arc! The cards that came with it were a fun and unique experience I got to read throughout the book, it was like I was in Riss’s mind while she was writing!

What to expect:
💛Childhood Friends To Lovers
💛Fake Dating
💛Slow Burn
💛Chronic illness / Disability Rep

I don’t think this one was for me: but the writing and plot will appeal to a wide range of readers. I will recommend this book to the right audience 💛

Engaging, heartwarming, and so very fun. The characters are well-rounded with joys and heartaches that make you fully invested.

"A Love Like the Sun" by Riss M. Neilson follows the intertwined lives of Laniah Thompson and Issac Jordan, childhood best friends with vastly different lifestyles. Laniah, a privacy-seeking homebody, runs a struggling natural hair store with her mom in Providence. In contrast, Issac, an internet sensation hounded by paparazzi, boasts an international brand. When Laniah's dream is jeopardized, Issac concocts a plan to boost her business by pretending they're dating. As they navigate the blurred lines between friendship and romance over a scorching summer, they confront their long-suppressed feelings. Neilson's tale celebrates shared history, the transformative power of friendship, and the complexities of love.

This has made it to one of my favorite reads of 2024! A Love Like The Sun is a beautiful and heartwarming romance about friendship, growth, and taking chances. The main characters have been best friends since childhood and have loved each other for so long while going through life together. The tension, steam, and progression of the main characters' romance was so good. I am always here for fake dating but this was done well. I loved the way this book was written, it read so poetic and beautiful. The characters were very nuanced, especially the fmc, I appreciated the author showing the disparities that black women face when navigating the health care system because it was accurate. If you like tender and steamy slowburns then you should add this to your tbr! Some content warnings for this include the death of a parent, medical discrimination, and kidney disease. Thank you to the publisher for this arc for an honest review.

Read for:
- Childhood best friends to lovers
- Black romance
- Chronic illness rep
- Slow burn
- He falls first
- Diverse characters

"Lifelong best friends spend a fateful summer discovering what might happen if they were to be something more."

I'm a huge sucker for a friends to lovers romance, and A Love Like the Sun fit the bill perfectly! Our main characters, Laniah and Issac, are childhood best friends who have been there for each other through the hard times. When Laniah's mother's business is in trouble, internet-famous Issac tells the world that they're dating, and while this helps the business, it causes them to confront the torch they've been carrying for each other.

This was such a sweet, fun, and realistic romance story. Both Laniah and Issac had their issues, and while Lanish tried hard to push Issac away, he fought for their love. The slow-burn pining was great and I liked the side characters as well. I though the spice was well-written and the ending was beautiful.

This book is one of the most beautiful friends to lovers/fake dating stories I've ever read. Ni and Issac's love story outshines the sun.

PERFECT. JUST PERFECT. this book made me so emotional and teary but so full of love and hope all at the same time. i love how many different love stories we get to experience through this one. Not only do we get a steamy and slow burn childhood friends to lovers with fake dating, but we also get to see glimpses of Laniah's parents' love story that parallel with Laniah and Issac's love story which i was just obsessed with. The romance tropes that were used in this were so classic and effortless at the same time. The author really took some of the most beloved romance tropes and expanded on them. They are classic but also unique in this story which I think makes for a really fun reading experience.

Overall, this was a masterpiece and I loved every second of it.

I was completely captivated by this book and finished it in just one day! Riss M. Neilson has definitely hit it out of the park with A Love Like the Sun! The plot cleverly combines two beloved romance tropes - best friends to lovers and fake relationship - to create an absolutely delightful novel. The entire cast of characters, from the main protagonists to the supporting ones, were well-developed and added so much depth to the story. The novel had a great flow, and every page was filled with emotion and genuine feelings. A Love Like the Sun is, without a doubt, a 5-star novel that I didn't want to end. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance novel, as it will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside!

I love a good childhood friends-to-lovers story. The pining and "it's always been you" gets me every time.

Isaac was like a unicorn - he was sweet and would do anything for Laniah. It seemed he clearly knew that he wanted her but it took her a bit longer to come around to realizing it.

This was a very slow burn and maybe a bit too much of a slow burn for me. I wanted more of them together instead of scenes of them apart with their friends an family.

This was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to more books by this author.

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥

I can't wait for the girlies to eat this book up this Summer!

A Love Like the Sun is for those who love friends to lovers, soulmates, and like somewhat low-stakes conflict that isn't centralized on the relationship. It follows best friends Laniah and Isaac, who have been one another's rock for years. While Laniah is working with her mom to follow their small-business dreams, Isaac is Instagram famous for his honest conversations on love and art. When Isaac discovers that Laniah and her mom's business is far from thriving, they pursue an unconventional path to save the business, rehab his public image, and possibly (FINALLY) admit their long-standing feelings for one another.

I adore Laniah, Isaac and the cast of characters that Neilson has written in this world between Los Angeles and Rhode Island. Laniah and Isaac are absolutely the dream, and I wanted to lovingly throttle them so many times so that they could more quickly reach their HEA. I appreciated Neilson's representation of a WOC navigating the medical industrial complex and think a lot of folks will find it relevant. However, what really irritated me was the continuous use of the phrase "Cali" and small snippets that truly misrepresented/showed a lack of knowledge of Los Angeles and California as a whole. It's a small thing, but it did irritate me as someone from Southern California, who has lived in LA. I hope the final edition of this story fixes some of those things, because I'm pretty sure everyone is going to go feral for these two and their love story!

To be 100% honest, I would have loved this book so much more if it was less focused on a fake-dating romance, and instead focused on Laniah's (the main character) health journey and her becoming more confident in herself and business. But with that being said, I didn't dislike this book at all. I had a fun time and LOVED the parts that focused on Laniah's health and her constant gaslighting she is at the receiving end of despite her real and valid concerns which eventually result in a diagnosis, though received way later than it should have. Oftentimes, the romance got in the way of plots that I was way more invested in. And the love interest Issac got on my nerves time and time again as he asked Laniah to leave her job or fly somewhere so she could come to an event of his. He got better as the novel continued, but as I said before, this could have been so much better if it was less focused on being a romance novel and more focused on being a self-disovering, women's fiction book.

They've always loved each other and have been best friends forever but when Isaac finds out that Ni's dreams are crashing down he finds a way to save them by taking their relationship to social media and letting everyone believe that their relationship is more than it is. There was always love between the two of them and as they start sharing their feelings in an honest manner it opens up a space in the world for them to figure out if they're forever or just friends. This book while a romance also touches on an incredible topic of advocating for your health and trusting yourself and your symptoms and looking for a second or third opinion. This book is so warm and envelopes you in a warm hug from beginning to end.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this title in advance.

Laniah and Issac have been best friends since they were children- back when Issac was still just a neglected foster kid. Now adults, Issac is an accomplished artist while Laniah is trying to keep her failing business selling homemade natural hair products afloat.

When a photo of them looking like more than just friends goes viral, they take advantage of the situation and embark on a mutually beneficial fake relationship. Issac’s reputation is bruised from a recent high profile breakup with a model so he jumps at the opportunity to rehabilitate it by dating the ‘girl next door’ while Laniah’s business will get a boost in sales from her association with Issac.

Everything is going as planned until their genuine feelings of love become too obvious to deny. Additionally, Isaac’s fame begins creating problems for Laniah, who dearly values her privacy, so she decides to break it off. But Issac, convinced that Laniah is his soulmate, is not ready to give up that easily.

This slowburn, sexy friends to lovers romance deals with emotionally difficult issues like grief and chronic illness but also includes themes of friendship, family, hope, and learning to trust in the power of unconditional love.

This was such a gorgeous, life-affirming, steamy and fun friends to lovers/fake dating romance. The connection between the MCs was deep and meaningful, and watching them support each other and find their way from friendship to love was beautiful. I also really appreciated the arc of supporting someone with a chronic illness, and the love that Neilson gives to everyone who may be grappling with their own feelings of lovability. This will be a future comfort read for me and so many!

This was a really enjoyable book, but I didn’t feel very invested in the romance. It was beautifully diverse and I loved the touches on foster care, art, and illness but I wish it dived more into the main characters’ pasts — it definitely would’ve added a bit more connection for me. However, this is a fun summer romance and it was a fun time!!

Thank you to Berkley for the advanced copy!

I recommend this one if you are looking for a fresh and meaningful lifelong friends-to-lovers experience. This one made me cry towards the end because it was so satisfying when this lovely couple finally found their true path. I did wish that it hadn’t taken them quite so long to get things worked out.

The sweetness of this story doesn’t mean some deep real-life topics aren’t covered, including a chronic and serious disease. However, the ultimate tone of this book is hope and happiness. I especially enjoyed the cast of interesting characters, the settings of both Rhode Island and California, and the charming hair and skin care business.