Emily and Tuck are childhood friends who grew up and grew apart. Years later, they reconnect when Tuck is down on his luck, and Emily needs a bodyguard after her music career takes off. When a solar flare disrupts the plane they are on, they crash land and are forced to put aside their differences in order to survive.

Thoughts 💭
I went back and forth between the audio and digital book while reading this one, and both versions were a treat! The audio has two narrators who each read the dual points of view from Emily and Tuck. This book starts off with a pop star needing a bodyguard to keep her safe as she rises in popularity. An extra twist was that they were childhood friends who always seemed to clash. I loved the tension between the two main characters that started when they were children and carried over to the present day. This alone would have been an amazing story, but then phase two hits. Their plane stops working, as all electronics seemingly cease to work. What I thought would be a light romance turned into a fight for survival and a slow burn romance instead. I really liked this dystopian world and the journey that both of these characters went on. Tuck was a sweetheart, I'm glad he found his footing after having it rough in the beginning of the book. I couldn't put it down!

Archer’s Voice is one of my all-time favorite books, so I was extremely excited to receive an ARC of another Mia Sheridan story.

Sometimes I like to go into books with very little info on what the story is about (especially if it's a reliable rec or from a beloved author). Part of me is glad I did for this one because this wouldn’t be the type of book I normally go for! So if that’s you then all you should know is this is a second chance romance (childhood friends) where our main characters undergo a huge life-altering event that forces them to rely on one another. Okay stop reading there and pick this up on May 20th!

If you are someone who needs a little more detail… especially because this book was shockingly (to me) heavier than I expected. This romance comes with a side of apocalypse. Tuck and Emily are childhood best friends – they grew up next door to each other but when life takes an unexpected turn, Tuck moves away and Emily doesn’t see him again until their mid-twenties. Life looks nothing like when they were kids – Emily is an up and coming popstar and Tuck has just been released from prison. Emily takes a chance on hiring Tuck as her bodyguard, and as they’re on their way to start her tour, their plane goes down in the middle of nowhere… the world as they know it is about to change forever, and Tuck and Emily will have to rebuild their trust in one another in order to survive.

This book started out so strong for me! I thought the character development was phenomenal. The suspense kept me on my toes – my heart was racing with different elements wondering what would happen next and where this story was going. The one main downside was that this was a touch too long for me. Coming in at over 460 pages… I felt like some things got repetitive and a bit anxiety-inducing until the ending picked back up. Overall, it was really different than my usual reads, and I love the depth that Mia Sheridan brings to her characters!

Heart of the Sun is a dystopian story, set amidst a powerful solar flare that takes down the country's entire electrical grid. Emily, a young rising pop star, and her childhood friend-turned-bodyguard Tuck, survive a plane crash together when the solar flare hits. Together, they have to make their way from the midwest back to California while fending off threats at every turn along the way. At first, Emily and Tuck struggle to find common ground, but are forced to stay together to survive. As their journey continues and the reality of their new world sets in, they begin to understand each other and connect on a deeper level.

I have been a fan of Mia Sheridan's novels in the past, but this one was just okay for me. I found the first half of the book to be quite slow, and there was not enough character development to balance the action/suspense plot as Emily and Tuck make their way across a dystopian USA. The end of the story was better, and I did enjoy the arc of Tuck's redemption story.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC!

Tuck and Emily are childhood friends, torn apart by life circumstances that include Tuck's mom dying, him going to prison, Emily becoming a pop icon, etc. You know, the usual. When they're reunited for Tuck to be a part of Emily's security team, the unthinkable happens and a huge solar flare completely destroys all electronics, particularly on the plane they are currently flying in. In their attempts to survive and make it back home, they see the best and worst in humanity as well as start to learn one another all over again as adults.

I really had a blast with this one, I gotta be honest. I think it's unfair for people to say it reads like a Wattpad story because that's a little mean to fanfic authors in general. Was it the best written book on the planet? Not really. Did I have some doubts that two people could walk from Illinois to Los Angeles in a little over a week? Obviously. But it was a fun romance at the end of the world.

I am a little disappointed to see that it wasn't an original idea from Sheridan, but I also don't know how publishing works and she was very up front about it in the acknowledgements.

This was unlike anything that I have read by Mia so far…BUT It was good!
I’m a slut for dystopian reads, but most of the dystopian's I’ve ever read were already set a few years into it. So when I was reading and found out that we get to read about the START up of a dystopian way of life, I was super stoked! 😆

I will say I am NOT a fan of Emily… like AT ALL ! I found her really annoying and ESPECIALLY found the side character, Charlie even MORE annoying! BUT there was a purpose in making them annoying, so I’ll forgive it… lol 😆
Now Tuck on the other hand was a different story ! I hung on tight for his POV’s 😩 big, brooding, muscle man straight out of prison… I need 14 of him right now! 😆

The only downfall for me was that I felt like it was lacking passion …. I just felt like I couldn’t really connect with the characters enough to care for them… which sucks because like I said the premise of the book was really cool !

But all in all I did enjoy this book, and I was just happy to be part of the ride for the adventure that unfolded. 😊

Thank you so much NetGalley for my arc copy in exchange for an honest review

My ARC was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. In true Kelsey fashion, I started reading this book with no idea what it was about simply because I recognized the author. Imagine my surprise when I figured out it was not only a love story but was set in a post-apocalyptic world with the main characters struggling to survive. After that initial shock, it was good!

DNF at 66%. I did somewhat enjoy what I was reading, but could not finish it. My apologies and thank you for the e-ARC.

Mia Sheridan is my girrrrl when it comes to f’d up thrillers with romance, so I thought I’d take a chance on her exploring this new concept. Was fine, but would prefer more messed up thriller romances from her!

A singer and her childhood best friend reunite - right before the world ends.

Tuck, fresh out of prison for serving a crime he didn’t commit, gets hired as Emily’s bodyguard. They set off for her first tour on a private jet — but the jet goes down. Turns out, an ESP has hit the earth and the entire grid is down.

Emily and Tuck (and Emily’s boyfriend Charlie) set off to walk back to California from Illinois. The book details their travels and hardships, and they deal with reacquainting themselves on this trip back.

They deal with a lot of death and a changing world, Tuck feeling unworthy/needing to make it up to the world for his crimes, Emily feeling like she’s not helpful/have any skills, and more.

Overall, the premise was interesting and definitely had me questioning what I would do if this happened. It could’ve been much shorter, and I feel like it was marketed too much as a romance - it’s moreso a post-apocalyptic drama with some romance.

There were some inconsistencies, repetitive things, and formatting issues that I hope are fixed before the final book, but overall I was entertained and intrigued as to what would happen.

Thanks to Harlequin, Canary Street Press, and Net Galley for the ARC!

𝑯𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒐𝒇 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑺𝒖𝒏 by Mia Sheridan
⭐️ 4/5
🌶️ 1.5/5
Pub date May 20 2025

Oh boy, I was NOT expecting this at all. This is the second book I’ve read by Mia Sheridan, and in my true fashion, I went in completely blind. Tuck is our selfless, too-good-to-be-true hero, while Emily initially came across as self-centered, but I was intrigued by her talent and complexity. I was curious to see how their characters would grow.

I didn’t realize where the story was going to go until… everything FLIPPED. What started as a bodyguard romance quickly became a survival story—and more importantly, a journey. The depth of their romance wasn’t just tension, but it was rooted in their childhood memories and early friendship. It was the ‘almost-love’ that’s lingered quietly in the background through life until their paths cross once again, and the world as they know it is falling apart. Were there over-the-top cinematic and far-fetched action scenes? Yes. Was the HEA story predictable? Absolutely. Was there an annoying side character? You got it—and I’m pretty sure Charlie was on purpose lol. My honest opinion? All these things worked, because Tuck and Emily were perfect for each other.

The audiobook narrators did an incredible job bringing their characters to life and I enjoyed their storytelling while I was busy with chores just as much as when I read the story on my Kindle during downtimes. As a busy career mom, I truly appreciate being presented the opportunity to read the eARC and ALC from Harlequinn Trade Publishing, NetGalley, and Canary Street Press.

I definitely have some mixed feelings on this one. There were aspects of this book that I really enjoyed, and other parts that I did not. I always love a good dystopian, sci-fi book, and throw in some romance? And yes, I am here for it! But, this book felt a little slow. The pacing was a bit off. I enjoyed the first part of the book, and then the middle felt so incredibly slow, and then I was invested again by the end. I enjoyed Tuck and his brooding, selfless personality. But Emily was a bit of a brat for most of the book. I did like her character arc and was glad that she was much more likable in the end. I will say this book was thought-provoking and inspires me to be a little more prepared for a catastrophic event. This book did a great job of highlighting what society would devolve to in the face of a catastrophe. I was also a little turned off when I found out that this book wasn’t Mia Sheridan’s story, but one given to her and she was tasked with filling in the details. Overall a fun read, but probably one I wouldn’t be itching to read again.

Thank you Netgalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing and Canary Street Press for the ARC of Heart Of The Sun.
I really loved reading Heart of the Sun. Tuck and Emily childhood friends who grew up next door to each other in the orange groves of California and were close and, ended up in living separate lives as adults. Emily becoming a pop star and Tuck finding trouble that ends him in prison. When Tuck gets out Emily's mom reaches out to Emily to get him a job as her bodyguard. When their plane crashes in Illinois due to a solar flare the whole country goes dark. The stories of Tuck and Emily from state to state on their path back home to California through the looting and famine where the only things that mattered was food, water and safe shelter I was hooked on what they were going through! Dystopian, end of the world, survival, enemies to lovers, second chance, childhood friends and reminiscent of the way things were with reminders of how we take things for granted. A definite must read, the ending made my heart melt. Thank you, Mia Sherdian for another great read!

Unfortunately, this was my first Mia Sheridan novel (who I've heard incredible things about)... I was severely disappointed. This novel felt Watt-pad written (and not in a good way..), and the genre being "romance" is a little questionable as there are frequent survival and almost... dystopian themes? The romance was lacking up until the very end - a failed slow burn. The characters were NOT memorable and practically had 0 flaws.... very unrealistic. In the acknowledgements she states the idea of this novel wasn't even her own which is a bit odd??? I dunno, this book was just BORING.

I'm not sure what I was expecting with this one, but having read and loved Mia's books before, this one fell short for me. The characters and plot sounded much more interesting than they ended up being on the page, and it overall just missed the mark.

Mia Sheridan romances always do it for me and Heart of the Sun was no exception. I did not know much about this book going in and I was pleasantly surprised with the interesting speculative nature of this book! While not my favorite Mis Sheridan, this was a solid novel and I would recommend for a dystopian romance.

Sending a huge thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this e-arc and for Harlequin Audio for the ALC!

This was my first Mia Sheridan book and I was expecting so much more than what this was, and what it offered. I've had Archer's Voice sitting on my shelf for the longest time and now I wonder if the hype has gotten my expectations far too high. The expectations were far too high for this book! It just was not what I was hoping for, and it fell so short of everything I was expecting.

The characters were written in such a way that made me feel no connection to them whatsoever, and I really didn't care either. Emily was utterly annoying and insufferable for 85% of the book, and Tuck? I'm not sure if he had an personality whatsoever because he was so bland on the page... and. really his descriptors were only "brooding ex-con", and that just also didn't work. There was no depth of personality to any of the side characters either and I really didn't care about anyone. The romance was also just flat... considering it was supposed to be a second chance romance, I saw and felt no chemistry, no connection even. Where was the joy, the laughter, the witty banter? The rehashing of old memories? Something. It just was not a romance, and for a book that is marketed as a romance well it left a lot to be desired.

The pacing was also all over the place - all of the action stemmed from this problems that just spun out of nowhere and really had no desire to really be solved or fixed - they were just there and used as moments for the characters to be together?

The narrators didn't do anything to bring this book to life for me - I figured that listening to the book might help, and I just found myself getting more and more frustrated with each scene.

Overall this book was just not what I wanted or expected at all.- the characters were boring, the entire plotline was so slow and there was just no emotion whatsoever.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing /Canary Street Press for the ARC. I went into this book without reading the blurb expecting a friends to lovers/romcom. I got a bit of the friends to lovers but mainly it was Dystopian Fiction. It was a good enough story but it could have been more face paced, more likeable characters, more emotion…ehhh…not sure. Glad this wasn’t the first Mia Sheridan book I have read.

Honestly? I’m not sure how to rate this one. I knew going into this, it was a dystopian society story, but I also didn’t take into account that with everything that’s currently going on in the world- it would be such a difficult read. The romantic in me, I suppose, had hoped that the love story would overshadow too much darkness. Unfortunately, not the case. The love story didn’t really happen until around the 70% mark. For a majority of the book, our heroine, Emily, had a boyfriend, Charlie, who was also present during this time. Our hero, Tuck, was clearly the better choice even if he had been harden by life, and constantly having his past thrown in his face. But first, to explain, I need to back track a bit. The story starts out with the world changing event happening to our three main characters and their pilot, Russell. Russell tells Tuck that he’s lost all engines and electrical components to the plane and he is no longer able to communicate with air traffic control or anyone. He says he’s going to land the plane the best he can, and tells Tuck to get back to his seat, buckle in, and tell the others to brace for impact. The pilot is doing the best he can while Tuck looks at Emily and realizes he’s next to the girl he loves and not the girl he hates. This is confusing because the next chapter we get, is set eleven years ago when Tuck and Emily are fourteen and living on their respective families citrus farms, you follow them through their day and as the two share their first kiss, when sudden tragedy strikes. It then jumps to present day, but eleven days before the prologue/crash, as we find Tuck has been fired from his dishwashing job because his employer found out he is an ex con. If you are as confused as I am, join the club, because there is almost too much information thrown at you in those first few chapters with time jumps. This book suffered a lot of telling you important character history, but not showing you. As it was, this book was around 460 pages, so I understand there’s only so much you can cover and still get to the heart of the story, but it was just a lot to digest with an already crumbling society. To fast track a bit more, Tuck visits Emily’s mother, we’re told his mother died years ago before he went to prison and his father had sold his mothers legacy, the farm, moved to Florida and remarried, all without any care of what happened to Tuck. We find out this is the reason Tuck is estranged and also part of why he ended up in prison, he went to live with an uncle and fell in with a rough crowd and rebelled. We aren’t told at this point, why he was in prison, just that he was. We find out Emily is now a rising pop star, with a rising star boy-next-door-type actor boyfriend, and Emily is in current need of a bodyguard. Her mother tells Tuck, Emily will be thrilled to give him a job! Emily is anything but thrilled. In fact, she’s pretty shallow and absolutely judgmental about her old friend, Tuck and his ex con status and new found predicament. Finally after some guilting, she tells her mother Tuck can have the job. The two clash almost immediately. They come from different worlds now and old hurts that never healed have festered between the two, and unfortunately as the reader you don’t know what those hurts are yet. And you won’t find out until much later in the book. But of course, the biggest conflict between the two is that she’s judging him for being an ex con, and he’s judging her for being a sellout who now lip syncs and is barely clothed onstage.
We’re also now introduced to Charlie during this time, who seems nice at first, but Tuck is unsure of. Sure enough, Tuck on a search for water and a bathroom, overhears Charlie asking his bodyguard to pick up a variety of drugs, “his usual.” Tuck realizes he definitely doesn’t know the girl he once grew up with anymore, if she’s hanging around and dating guys like Charlie. He says nothing, which comes back to bite him in the butt while on a plane with the couple. Emily finds the drugs after dropping some items out of an overhead compartment, she immediately blames Tuck, who pleads his innocence to Emily and tells her they are Charlie’s. Emily doesn’t believe him, so Charlie doubles down and points the finger back at the ex con who clearly needs money selling drugs. Emily immediately tells Tuck that he’s fired as soon as they land. However, this is the doomed flight from the prologue. Soon, the plane is going down. The pilot, Russell, has died landing the plane, ensuring that his three passengers are safe. Charlie and Emily stand around completely helpless, as Tuck goes back into the plane to get the dead pilot and as much food and supplies as he can before the plane explodes from leaking fuel. Tuck also buries the pilot, whom the other two didn’t even know his name, and they began a trek to look for civilization and find out what happened. This is where the story truly begins as we travel with the trio as they discover the world has fallen to chaos amid some type of solar flare or emp. If you are a fan of The Walking Dead or The Last of Us, you can imagine all the different types of people they encountered and their struggles to adapt and survive. Obviously, as I was given an ARC, so I can’t spoil the ending, but I can tell you feelings and truths are revealed as they struggle to survive in this new world and try to get back to their families.

The struggles these characters faced were difficult to read. The characters suffered from being unlikeable at first, but you eventually grow to care for them once all their defenses are stripped away. They are honest and raw and at their core very good people. You are rooting for Tuck and Emily by the end. While the writing was interesting enough to keep my hold and keep me turning the page, I’m not sure how other readers will feel about the characters from the jump. I think if there had been some more time with the characters years ago, and we could have felt and seen their sort of antagonistic, loving banter more - their love story would have also felt more believable. It sort of felt at times, like Emily was only impressed with Tuck because he could thrive and provide in this new environment. I wish we had a couple of chapters of their backstory and a few less chapters of encounters with people in the dystopian style world. The ending felt a bit rushed and abrupt. We were left hanging about certain characters and places and I wanted more of those details or for those things to have been left out in the first place. Which, I can’t really specify in an ARC review, but perhaps that was the point - in a dystopian society you can’t know what happens to everyone.

As a whole, the book was a page turner, but I don’t think I would be interested in re-reading it again. This author is fantastic writer and I will definitely continue to read more of her books in the future. Heart of the Sun just wasn’t for me.

ARC provided by NetGalley.

I'm a huge Mia Sheridan fan and this was a bit out of her norm, but I absolutely loved it. Tuck and Emily are childhood friends growing up together as neighbors and mom's who are best friends. Through a series of tragic events Tuck winds up as an adult with a mission. Emily on the other hand has found success as a music star. Tuck ends up becoming Emily's bodyguard and, through an apocalyptic event, find themselves relying on each other for literal survival, forcing them to relive past traumas.

Most romance books aren't 'deep' per se. I found it refreshing that the author dove into the realities of how humans react to complete crisis. Some rise to the occasion, some become their best selves and some become the worst of humanity. Throughout their journey Tuck and Emily learn this and what it means to them and how they chose to react to it and each other. I really loved this take on romance and ultimately the story of two people trying to find who they are in unimaginable circumstances.

I have no clue what I thought I’d be reading but this was not it. Don’t get me wrong, loved Tuck downnnn & Emily too but the whole apocalypse went over my head. My fault because I didn’t read the description. But honestly, it was hard to put down. I just wished we had more Tuck & Em time post-disaster and even in between.

Mia is my girl though! Her books are always so hard to put down but not the typical read.

This book was a little different than Mia's normal writing. It took me a bit to get into it but ended up enjoying it. I feel like this book might not be for everyone but it should be given a chance!