Thank you NetGalley and Mia for this copy in exchange for a review. This one was unfortunately not for me, I think the story absolutely could have been interesting but it just didn’t land. Tuck was the only bearable character, and although Emily seemed to redeem herself, I only liked how she was viewed through Tuck’s eyes. Disappointed 💔

It’s not the usual romance we are used to, from Mia Sheridan. The love story is a sub plot. The main focus in on the doomsday apocalyptic situation the characters find themselves in , and how they deal with it

I can with 1000% certainty say that I have never read a story like this before! Mia's writing always captivates me and I find her storytelling so easy to escape into and even though this wasn't my absolute favorite of hers, I did really enjoy how unique this book was.

Emily and Tuck have known each other since birth and have spent decades in each other's orbit until their lives go in veryyyy opposite directions. After years of not speaking, Emily has become an extremely popular musician under the stage name "Nova", where Tuck is freshly released from prison and is working to get his life back on track. When Emily's mom convinces her to hire Tuck as part of her security team, the two are back to spending most of their time together and are on their way to an event across the country with Emily's boyfriend, Charlie, when their plan suddenly drops from the sky. For a reason unknown to them, the entire electrical grid has collapsed and all technology has stopped working. The world as they know it has turned into survival of the fittest and the three of them must hike across the United States back to safety.

I enjoyed this! This story definitely kept me entertained and was action packed from the beginning. Again, this isn't my favorite Mia Sheridan book by any means, but I think if you are interested in dystopian stories full of adventure- this book is for you!

- childhood friends to lovers
- second chance (ish)
- enemies to lovers
- bodyguard romance
- famous singer FMC
- dystopian world

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the advance read!

Heart of the Sun focuses on Emily and Tuck, childhood friends, who meet again when life has taken them on two very different paths. Tuck is an ex-con while Emily is on her way to stardom. When their worlds are plunged into darkness, everything changes. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance reader copy of this title in exchange for my honest review.

Let me just say, I have loved every other book that I have read by Mia Sheridan and this book was no different! I was captured by the characters right from the start. The main male character could make a girl swoon and give Archer a run for his money. The main female character was bold and made me laugh at times. The banter between them was fantastic. It was gut wrenching, pulled at your heart strings, exciting, but also very thought provoking. I love how the book told a realistic story of how things could be if a major catastrophe hit the nation.

I loved this the second it started, but then it shifted. I knew from description that it would become about survival, but I didn’t realize how extreme it would get. The love story aspect I liked so much BUT the rest, just wasn’t for me. I finished it by skipping a lot of the storyline once it got further along. I could have skipped to the epilogue and just had it all summed up. This wasn’t my cup of tea, but it was interesting so I’m giving it 3 stars. Thank you NetGalley for ththe ARC.

3.5 stars.
This is my first Mia Sheridan book and I had no idea what I was in for. First, I don't really think "a love story" should be on the cover as this is a slllllooooow burn. It is way more of an end of the world/dystopian setting book for me. I'd love more of the before: the tension building in their childhood, Emily thinking about her unrequited love for Tuck as she becomes a star or how Tuck inspired her music career.

I read some dark stuff, but I could have used trigger warnings for this one as I started reading it on Inauguration day as a 40 year old mom... do not recommend that as my anxiety was booming.

Ultimately I enjoyed this book, but I still think marketing it as a love story is misleading. It is a survival story. They aren't just sharing a bed/sleeping bag to keep warm like I was expecting.

Thank you to Net Galley and Harlequin Trade Publishing | Canary Street Press for the ARC.

Childhood friends Tuck Mattice and Emily Swanson are now adults. After being separated for 13 years later, they are now back in each others lives. Emily is now a rising pop star and needs to hire security. She hires Tuck an ex con who is trying to start over. As they are traveling together , the solar flare hits and life as we know it has changed. Emily and Tuck has to learn to work together to survive. They find themselves falling in love and protecting each other at all costs. This childhood friends to lovers and second chances has it all. I couldn’t put this book down until I knew if they were safe and sound. I highly recommend this book.

I liked the tropes that this book had like celebrity
+ bodyguard, childhood friends and the end of the world plot. But the follow through on these were not great in my opinion. The MMC Tuck was only Emily’s bodyguard for like 2 chapters. They were childhood friends but lost touch after his mom died while he was teenager. There’s tension when he becomes her bodyguard but I’m not really understanding why she’s upset with him for being distant after such a traumatic life event like his mom’s death. The end of the world plot was more of the main focus over the romance. Emily is literally in another relationship for half the book but even when her and Tuck start to fall for each other the world ending stuff overshadowed it. Like the details about all the death/destruction or the parts about someone they encountered tryna steal resources were much more fleshed out than the romantic parts. I usually like this trope because there’s not much else to do at the end of the world besides survive and fall in love but this book focused too much on survival for me and was kind of depressing.

Thank you Netgallery for the ARC. I loved this book. I kept wanting to pick this book up and dive back into this world. So different from any romance I’ve read before. I really enjoyed the dystopian aspects that this book brought and it was so fun watching Tuck and Emily navigate this world.

This book was more than a little unnerving, with the fires still raging in the Palisades and climate change becoming increasingly destructive. The plot centers around the premise of a solar flare that knocks all power grids offline and the resulting chaos and mayhem that our hero and heroine, Tuck and Emily, are forced to confront as they travel across the country to their childhood homes. It's a little bit of a second chance romance, but I wish there had been more history laid out in the beginning, to help bolster the emotions on the back end. The middle of the book is a tad slow, but Ms. Sheridan picks up the pace toward the end in a satisfying way. It was good and I liked it, but it had potential for even more. Hopefully, someone in editing catches the errors that are still remaining, including the copied and pasted paragraphs I found a few chapters apart.
Thank you for NetGalley and Harlequin Trade for the eARC! All opinions are my own.

“The earth is on fire. Why is the earth on fire?”

4.5 ⭐️

I finished this book several days ago, and I can’t stop thinking about it. I have read several Mia Sheridan books and this one is a little different. Needless to say, I loved this book.

Emily and Tuck grew up as best friends on neighboring farms. Years later, they are living different lives: Emily is an up and coming Pop star and Tuck just got released from prison. Emily’s mom encourages her to hire Tuck as her bodyguard for her cross county tour. On the plane ride from LA to New York, their world changes forever.

Emily and Tuck (along with Emily’s actor boyfriend) find themselves hiking across the United States after a solar flare wiped out the electrical grid. Imagine no power, very few working cars, no running water or plumbing, and no food in grocery stores. The world changed in a blink of an eye, what was important isn’t anymore. Real life skills have value. Violence rises up as the struggle to survive kicks in. This book left such an impression because it makes you see how fragile our electoral grid is and how scary this situation would be.

“Because the world needed heroes now and their motivations didn’t much matter”

Along the way, Emily and Tuck find themselves drawn to one another. They are reminded why they were best friends and almost lovers once. “you light me on fire”

This books comes out 5/20/25. Definitely recommend!

Thank you NetGalley and Canary Street Press for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

Mia Sheridan does it again! This book is incredible! Tuck and Emily's story of survival thru an EMP from a Solar flare hitting Earth is suspenseful, riveting and heart wrenching. This book had me laughing and crying. Highly recommend!

Heart of the Sun was a great but very different type of story than what I'm used to from this author. This childhood friends, second chance at romance, dystopian survival story is one that will take you on a journey with characters you will eventually fall in love with. It took me a while to warm up to Emily, and I can't say that I liked Charlie, but I loved Tuck from the beginning. The connection and feelings that between him and Emily were undeniable and I enjoyed the moments between them. Although, this story was different, I still enjoyed it. I do wish that there was a little more romance in this story, and some parts of the story flowed a little faster, but overall, this story was still a good read.

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

The concept of what society would be like after a solar flare is such a great idea for a book. I really felt like I was going through these desperate times with the characters. I just felt like the book had such a build up and slow burn and then it just ended. I would have liked to have seen the story let us see what happened to some of the other characters.

This is my first time reading a book like this, and I believe it’s the first one of Mia’s in this style. It’s a unique blend of romance and apocalypse. While I was initially captivated by the story, I eventually lost some of my interest. However, I was determined to find out how it would conclude. I felt that the ending was a bit rushed, and I had hoped for more in the epilogue.
I gave this book a 3.5 stars. ⭐️

Thank you Netgalley for the advance copy.

Thanks to Harlequin Trade Publishing and The Hive for the ARC of this one! I have loved so many books by Mia Sheridan and I was so excited to read this one. Just like the rest of her books, this one was a five star read for me, but it was incredibly different than anything I have read by her before. This one still packed quite the emotional punch, much like her other books that I have read. It also had a beautiful and emotionally deep second chance love story that I was rooting for the whole time. The connection between Emily and Tuck was real and raw and extremely emotionally charged. That being the case, as I said, this one was so different than her other books because of the details of the setting and the circumstances of the world that it is set in. Essentially, its a love story set in an apocalyptic and dystopian setting. See below for a brief synopsis. I really loved this one and devoured it. Mia Sheridan surprised me a little, but it was an incredible book!


The book follows Emily, a pop star, who is doing her best to make her label happy and dating Charlie, the hottest heartthrob in Hollywood. Tuck was her neighbor during childhood and circumstances forced him on a very different path than her own. When she hires him to run security for her, they connect again. When a cataclysmic solar flare disrupts the electrical grid of the world, they are forced on journey of survival together and they learn to rely on one another all over again.

4.5 stars

Mia has always been a one click for me. I love her stories and writing style. So when she announced she was releasing my favorite genre, dystopian survival romance I went straight to Net Gallery for an ARC!

This book did not disappoint. Our two main characters Emily and Tuck were childhood friends. Growing up together as neighbors in an Orchard community in San Fernando Valley, California they were inseparable until tragedy struck sending Tuck away and vastly changing the course of his life.

13 years later, Emily, now a famous singer known as Nova, is living her dream and dating an A-list actor named Charlie. She’s preparing for a tour and needs to hire a bodyguard. At the recommendation of her Mom, she decides to hire Tuck who is in need of work and purpose in his life.

Emily and Tuck have many preconceived notions about
each other when he starts his job as her bodyguard. Not having contact for so many years has put a gaping hole between them but that undercurrent of chemistry is still palpable. I must admit that I hated she had a boyfriend and when this solar flare event happened, they were all together on a plane heading to New York.

There was nonstop action from the moment the plane crashed and Tuck, Emily, & Charlie were stranded in Illinois, with no electricity in the world. Charlie was entitled and absolutely useless, and I despised him. Emily wasn’t much better in the beginning, and was often selfish, acting like a spoiled brat. I was so thankful for the dual POV between Emily and Tuck. It deepened the connection for me and gave clarity with their thought process. The character growth for Emily was a welcomed relief. She was strong, confident, and kind. I was happy to see her shed the Nova persona.

During the darkest of days, with the world falling into chaos and ruin, Emily and Tuck really found themselves. Both were deeply flawed but as the layers are peeled away, their deep seated issues are explained. I absolutely fell head over heels for these two. The entire time I was reading this, I felt like I was immersed in this world. The world building, the characters, the engrossing story-line, were all perfectly done and held me spellbound. And the evolution of Emily and Tuck was like a beautiful back and forth dance, neither of them wanting to give in but realizing it was beyond their control. I wasn’t sure where their story would lead, but it kept me guessing until the very end!

This was a heartfelt story about love that transcends a lifetime. As Emily and Tuck navigate the new world they’re faced, they truly find themselves… and find their way to love.

I enjoyed this read, even though it is quite daunting to think about the events of the book being a possible reality in the old we live.

I’m a huge fan of Mia Sheridan’s novels, and I’ve read almost all of them, but sadly, this one didn’t live up to my expectations. Not only did it lack the signature angst that I love in her characters, but the apocalyptic setting took me by surprise—and I’m not particularly fond of those types of stories. As a result, I couldn’t connect with the characters, and their love story just didn’t resonate with me. I’ll definitely keep reading your books, Mia Sheridan, but please bring back that heart-wrenching angst that makes your stories unforgettable!