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100 Days of Sunlight #1
100 Days of Sunlight
The #1 Amazon Bestseller When 16-year-old poetry blogger Tessa Dickinson is involved in a car accident and loses her eyesight for 100 days, she feels like her whole world has been turned upside-down. Terrified that her vision might never return, Tessa feels like she has nothing left to be happy about. But when her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper looking for a typist to help Tessa continue writing and blogging, an unlikely answer knocks at their Weston Ludovico, a boy her age with bright eyes, an optimistic smile…and no legs. Knowing how angry and afraid Tessa is feeling, Weston thinks he can help her. But he has one condition — no one can tell Tessa about his disability. And because she can’t see him, she treats him with screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it’s the most amazing to be treated like a normal person, not just a sob story. So he comes back. Again and again and again. Tessa spurns Weston’s “obnoxious optimism”, convinced that he has no idea what she’s going through. But Weston knows exactly how she feels and reaches into her darkness to show her that there is more than one way to experience the world. As Tessa grows closer to Weston, she finds it harder and harder to imagine life without him — and Weston can’t imagine life without her. But he still hasn’t told her the truth, and when Tessa’s sight returns he’ll have to make the hardest decision of his vanish from Tessa’s world…or overcome his fear of being seen. 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by author Abbie Emmons. If you like sweet contemporary romance and strong family themes then you’ll love this touching story of hope, healing, and getting back up when life knocks you down.
277 pages, Kindle Edition
First published August 7, 2019
449 people are currently reading
17487 people want to read
About the author
Abbie Emmons
8 books3,574 followersAbbie Emmons has been writing stories ever since she could hold a pencil. What started out as an intrinsic love for storytelling has turned into her lifelong passion. There's nothing Abbie likes better than writing (and reading) stories that are both heartrending and humorous, with a touch of cute romance and a poignant streak of truth running through them. Abbie is also a YouTuber, creative writing coach, traveler, filmmaker, big dreamer, and professional waffle-eater. When she's not writing or dreaming up new stories, you can find her reading a book or binge-watching BBC Masterpiece dramas in her cozy Vermont home with a cup of tea.
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August 7, 2019☀️U P D A T E ☀️
THE BOOK IS HERE!! 100 Days of Sunlight is now officially released and available everywhere books are sold online! Go order your paperback/hardcover OR get the ebook delivered instantly to your e-reader:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
Oh and be sure to check out my celebration video!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your love and support for this book. It has been an amazing journey publishing my first book and not a single day goes by where I'm not overwhelmed with gratitude for YOU. 💛 I love you all so much.
rock on,
Abbie ✨
_________________
-U P D A T E-
THE COVER IS HERE! I REPEAT, THE COVER IS HERE!!
Also, the ebook just went LIVE FOR PREORDER. Click here to preorder your copy of 100 Days of Sunlight!!
_________________
IT'S HAPPENING. My debut novel, 100 Days of Sunlight, is COMING AUGUST 7 2019!! ✨🎉
This book as been in the works for two years and I'm so excited to finally share it with the world! 100 Days of Sunlight is my favorite thing I've ever written. In a nutshell:
• IT’S CUTE YA CONTEMPORARY
• with strong family + friendship themes
• a hint of romance
• a touch of comedy
• but mostly DRAMA AND TEARS
So if you like…
• crying
• laughing
• summer vibes everywhere
• WAFFLES
• cute brother relationships (!!)
• FLOWERS
• the color yellow
• first kisses
• drama!
• MORE FLOWERS
• boys who cry
• hate-to-love romance
• protagonists with disabilities who live life to the fullest
…THEN YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS BOOK.
Please mark it as "Want To Read" and add a little note to your status saying why you're excited to read this book! Stay updated on the book's release by joining the email circle on my website: www.abbieemmonsauthor.com/
Content warning: this book is rated PG (ages 12+) for mild language and thematic elements, but if you are concerned about the content I recommend you check out the content guide before reading the book.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR AUGUST 7TH.
it's gonna be a good day. ;)
rock on,
Abbie
THE BOOK IS HERE!! 100 Days of Sunlight is now officially released and available everywhere books are sold online! Go order your paperback/hardcover OR get the ebook delivered instantly to your e-reader:
Amazon
Barnes & Noble
iBooks
Kobo
Oh and be sure to check out my celebration video!
Thank you all SO MUCH for your love and support for this book. It has been an amazing journey publishing my first book and not a single day goes by where I'm not overwhelmed with gratitude for YOU. 💛 I love you all so much.
rock on,
Abbie ✨
_________________
-U P D A T E-
THE COVER IS HERE! I REPEAT, THE COVER IS HERE!!
Also, the ebook just went LIVE FOR PREORDER. Click here to preorder your copy of 100 Days of Sunlight!!
_________________
IT'S HAPPENING. My debut novel, 100 Days of Sunlight, is COMING AUGUST 7 2019!! ✨🎉
This book as been in the works for two years and I'm so excited to finally share it with the world! 100 Days of Sunlight is my favorite thing I've ever written. In a nutshell:
• IT’S CUTE YA CONTEMPORARY
• with strong family + friendship themes
• a hint of romance
• a touch of comedy
• but mostly DRAMA AND TEARS
So if you like…
• crying
• laughing
• summer vibes everywhere
• WAFFLES
• cute brother relationships (!!)
• FLOWERS
• the color yellow
• first kisses
• drama!
• MORE FLOWERS
• boys who cry
• hate-to-love romance
• protagonists with disabilities who live life to the fullest
…THEN YOU’RE GONNA LOVE THIS BOOK.
Please mark it as "Want To Read" and add a little note to your status saying why you're excited to read this book! Stay updated on the book's release by joining the email circle on my website: www.abbieemmonsauthor.com/
Content warning: this book is rated PG (ages 12+) for mild language and thematic elements, but if you are concerned about the content I recommend you check out the content guide before reading the book.
I CAN'T WAIT FOR AUGUST 7TH.
it's gonna be a good day. ;)
rock on,
Abbie
July 21, 2019
1 Star
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
All quotes are taken from the e-arc and are subject to change
When I first saw this book on NetGalley, there were so many things that drew me in! It’s about a girl named Tessa who loses her vision for 100 days. She writes poetry and is in need of her outlet, and that’s where Weston comes in. Weston is an amputee who understands some of what Tessa is going through, and comes to write the poetry Tessa dictates despite her not wanting him around. Weston stays because he enjoys someone treating him normally since Tessa can’t see his disability.
Doesn’t that synopsis sound wonderful? There were so many things that drew me in from that synopsis. I love books that center around disability, and so I requested this book. As I was reading, however, I became increasingly frustrated with the way things were handled, and I realized that part of my frustration came from having read other books that I thought handled things better. So I decided to write a review that would go through my issues with this book, and instead of just leaving it there, I’d also recommend a book that I thought handled that aspect well in its place.
When I started this book, I was actually enjoying myself. I highlighted a quote I liked, and although the writing never wowed me, I was happy to keep on reading. But slowly things started piling up. At first, I was willing to ignore some of my issues because I thought they would get resolved, but when I kept reading and matters were only getting worse instead of better, my opinion started to change.
The first thing that bothered me was the main character Tessa. She’s obviously going through a very difficult time, but I did not like how she reacted to Weston’s presence. Part of this had to do with how one-dimensionally I felt she reacted to things. I could see Tessa’s anger, and I could understand it at times, but I never quite felt it. I felt detached from Tessa’s emotions and that kept me from empathizing properly. This tended to be a big issue throughout the book, where the writing kept me from relating to characters, but it was strongest with Tessa.
Now, one of my favorite books follows an unlikable blind main character. Not If I See You First was quite possibly the first book with a blind character that I read. But while Parker’s not likable, I loved reading this book because I understood exactly why she was acting in such an unlikable manner. She was processing a myriad of emotions and I could feel them all throughout the book. If you’re looking for a book with a blind main character, or just a good book in general, I definitely recommend this one.
But still, I could have handled all of that, and still given this book 3 stars. But Weston’s journey was what really made this a one-star read for me, and so I’m going to spend the rest of this review focusing on him. Things might get a bit spoilery, but I don’t recommend reading this book, so I don’t mind leaving those bits in.
It first started going downhill once we started getting Weston’s backstory. Now, you learn how Weston loses his legs, and I’m not really going to comment much about that aspect. Weston is an adrenaline junkie that makes the worst decisions he can on a daily basis, so skateboarding off a roof may not have been the stupidest thing he did in this book.
What really bothered me about his story was his recovery. I have several quotes from the ARC that made me reaaaaally mad when I read them. I want to preface by saying that I am not an amputee. However, I am in college at the moment for biomedical engineering. One of my ideal careers is making prosthetics. Because of that, I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject. So this topic feels very close to my heart.
It all starts when just days after surgery, Weston decides to have a positive outlook. While I was okay with this on its own, I disliked how that meant that Weston decided to be just as careless and stupid as possible, just without legs. Especially since I for one don’t see that as character development.
The first thing that bothered me was that Weston decided to completely disregard what his physical therapists told him. To the point where this was an actual quote from the e-arc.
“They gave me a piece of paper with safety guidelines on it. I crunched it up and tossed it out the window on the drive home.”
Ummm. What now? I understand that not everyone reads the directions their doctors give them, but to deliberately disregard what they said in that fashion didn’t sit well with me. And I was right to be worried.
What followed were a series of just idiotic actions meant to show that Weston wasn’t letting his disability stop him. But I don’t think it’s brave to climb the stairs in your prosthetics for the first time in the dark with no one around. I think that’s stupid. And rock-climbing without a harness? A bad idea whether you’re an amputee or not. And for both of these things, he was applauded! No one told him what he did was dumb. And you’d think that after the stunts he had pulled to get him into this situation in the first place, it would come up!
But that’s another thing that bothered me. No one but Weston is affected by him losing his legs. His mother continues to let him do whatever he wants without ever even telling him to be safe or showing much worry at all. His brother who was there when he first sustained his injury gets over his guilt for his part in the situation after the two hug it out once. I was so confused by this because I didn’t see how Weston’s disability affected anything or anyone. No one changed, not even Weston! The only way we see Weston’s vulnerability is through his attempt to push away any girl who can see his disability. But this wasn’t developed well and was just out of character in a variety of ways whenever this plot point was put into play.
So what can you read with better amputee representation? I have two books for this one. The first is The Running Dream. It’s one of my favorite books, and I love how we follow the journey that Jessica takes after she loses her leg. I think this book had all the nuance that I was missing in 100 Days of Sunlight. It had the ups and downs and had a character move forward after she lost her leg, with the help and advice from those that cared about her.
Brave Enough is another one I’d recommend. This follows a dancer who loses her leg, and her recovery process as she falls in love with a former addict. Again, this book has nuance and development that I didn’t find in 100 Days of Sunlight.
Moving on from the amputee aspect, I also got very upset with the way consent was handled in this book. Normally, if consent isn’t written out but there are no issues, I don’t take much issue, although I’d like for consent to be verbalized more. What bothered me about the consent in this book, is how it was clearly stated that she didn’t give her consent, but he kissed her anyway.
“Then I whisper, “I’m gonna kiss you. Is that okay?”
It’s not fair, because I don’t give her any time to reply. Instead, I press my lips against hers. Without permission.”
It’s specified and written out that he was kissing her without permission. What I don’t understand is why include a part about asking her in the first place? Either you’re overcome with passion and kiss her, which has its issues, but I’m more comfortable with that than this scenario where he’s taking the time to ask and them not even waiting for an answer. I don’t see any excuse there. If you took the time to ask the question, you can take the time to wait for the answer.
What’s more than that, Tessa’s reaction was just to assume that someone asking for a kiss was a rhetorical question.
“He kissed me.
He literally kissed me.
I’ll never forget the way that felt. Soft, sweet, dizzying. He asked my permission, but didn’t wait for a reply—and even if he had, I don’t think I would have been able to reply. How do you reply when a boy asks if he can kiss you? Especially when you’ve never even seen the boy? Especially when you want to kiss him back?”
I would say that you should answer yes. And that you don’t just brush this off as an impassioned kiss. It’s a matter of consent. And I actually have a book with great consent to recommend to you. I’ve mentioned it before, but Coming Up for Air was one of the best books I’ve come across when it comes to consent, YA or otherwise. The characters make it a priority to discuss everything and listen to one another, and to make sure they’re comfortable with the direction their relationship is going. And of course, I think the book is pretty great in general.
Those were my biggest issues with the book. I have so many other little issues and quotes, but this already is a long, ranty review and I think mentioning any more is unnecessary at this point.
I did not enjoy this book and was a bit upset to see all the wonderful reviews it has been getting. I understand wanting to support an indie author, and I’m glad people enjoyed her book, but there were so many problematic elements in this book that I’m a little worried that so few people have mentioned them.
I normally end my reviews saying that I’d recommend a book, even if I didn’t enjoy it. That’s not the case here. I cannot recommend this book after seeing the way things were handled in this book. This is one of the very few books I’ve rated 1 star, but by the time I finished reading, I couldn’t see myself giving it any other rating.
You can also find this review on Paper Procrastinators
I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review
All quotes are taken from the e-arc and are subject to change
When I first saw this book on NetGalley, there were so many things that drew me in! It’s about a girl named Tessa who loses her vision for 100 days. She writes poetry and is in need of her outlet, and that’s where Weston comes in. Weston is an amputee who understands some of what Tessa is going through, and comes to write the poetry Tessa dictates despite her not wanting him around. Weston stays because he enjoys someone treating him normally since Tessa can’t see his disability.
Doesn’t that synopsis sound wonderful? There were so many things that drew me in from that synopsis. I love books that center around disability, and so I requested this book. As I was reading, however, I became increasingly frustrated with the way things were handled, and I realized that part of my frustration came from having read other books that I thought handled things better. So I decided to write a review that would go through my issues with this book, and instead of just leaving it there, I’d also recommend a book that I thought handled that aspect well in its place.
When I started this book, I was actually enjoying myself. I highlighted a quote I liked, and although the writing never wowed me, I was happy to keep on reading. But slowly things started piling up. At first, I was willing to ignore some of my issues because I thought they would get resolved, but when I kept reading and matters were only getting worse instead of better, my opinion started to change.
The first thing that bothered me was the main character Tessa. She’s obviously going through a very difficult time, but I did not like how she reacted to Weston’s presence. Part of this had to do with how one-dimensionally I felt she reacted to things. I could see Tessa’s anger, and I could understand it at times, but I never quite felt it. I felt detached from Tessa’s emotions and that kept me from empathizing properly. This tended to be a big issue throughout the book, where the writing kept me from relating to characters, but it was strongest with Tessa.
Now, one of my favorite books follows an unlikable blind main character. Not If I See You First was quite possibly the first book with a blind character that I read. But while Parker’s not likable, I loved reading this book because I understood exactly why she was acting in such an unlikable manner. She was processing a myriad of emotions and I could feel them all throughout the book. If you’re looking for a book with a blind main character, or just a good book in general, I definitely recommend this one.
But still, I could have handled all of that, and still given this book 3 stars. But Weston’s journey was what really made this a one-star read for me, and so I’m going to spend the rest of this review focusing on him. Things might get a bit spoilery, but I don’t recommend reading this book, so I don’t mind leaving those bits in.
It first started going downhill once we started getting Weston’s backstory. Now, you learn how Weston loses his legs, and I’m not really going to comment much about that aspect. Weston is an adrenaline junkie that makes the worst decisions he can on a daily basis, so skateboarding off a roof may not have been the stupidest thing he did in this book.
What really bothered me about his story was his recovery. I have several quotes from the ARC that made me reaaaaally mad when I read them. I want to preface by saying that I am not an amputee. However, I am in college at the moment for biomedical engineering. One of my ideal careers is making prosthetics. Because of that, I’ve done quite a bit of research on the subject. So this topic feels very close to my heart.
It all starts when just days after surgery, Weston decides to have a positive outlook. While I was okay with this on its own, I disliked how that meant that Weston decided to be just as careless and stupid as possible, just without legs. Especially since I for one don’t see that as character development.
The first thing that bothered me was that Weston decided to completely disregard what his physical therapists told him. To the point where this was an actual quote from the e-arc.
“They gave me a piece of paper with safety guidelines on it. I crunched it up and tossed it out the window on the drive home.”
Ummm. What now? I understand that not everyone reads the directions their doctors give them, but to deliberately disregard what they said in that fashion didn’t sit well with me. And I was right to be worried.
What followed were a series of just idiotic actions meant to show that Weston wasn’t letting his disability stop him. But I don’t think it’s brave to climb the stairs in your prosthetics for the first time in the dark with no one around. I think that’s stupid. And rock-climbing without a harness? A bad idea whether you’re an amputee or not. And for both of these things, he was applauded! No one told him what he did was dumb. And you’d think that after the stunts he had pulled to get him into this situation in the first place, it would come up!
But that’s another thing that bothered me. No one but Weston is affected by him losing his legs. His mother continues to let him do whatever he wants without ever even telling him to be safe or showing much worry at all. His brother who was there when he first sustained his injury gets over his guilt for his part in the situation after the two hug it out once. I was so confused by this because I didn’t see how Weston’s disability affected anything or anyone. No one changed, not even Weston! The only way we see Weston’s vulnerability is through his attempt to push away any girl who can see his disability. But this wasn’t developed well and was just out of character in a variety of ways whenever this plot point was put into play.
So what can you read with better amputee representation? I have two books for this one. The first is The Running Dream. It’s one of my favorite books, and I love how we follow the journey that Jessica takes after she loses her leg. I think this book had all the nuance that I was missing in 100 Days of Sunlight. It had the ups and downs and had a character move forward after she lost her leg, with the help and advice from those that cared about her.
Brave Enough is another one I’d recommend. This follows a dancer who loses her leg, and her recovery process as she falls in love with a former addict. Again, this book has nuance and development that I didn’t find in 100 Days of Sunlight.
Moving on from the amputee aspect, I also got very upset with the way consent was handled in this book. Normally, if consent isn’t written out but there are no issues, I don’t take much issue, although I’d like for consent to be verbalized more. What bothered me about the consent in this book, is how it was clearly stated that she didn’t give her consent, but he kissed her anyway.
“Then I whisper, “I’m gonna kiss you. Is that okay?”
It’s not fair, because I don’t give her any time to reply. Instead, I press my lips against hers. Without permission.”
It’s specified and written out that he was kissing her without permission. What I don’t understand is why include a part about asking her in the first place? Either you’re overcome with passion and kiss her, which has its issues, but I’m more comfortable with that than this scenario where he’s taking the time to ask and them not even waiting for an answer. I don’t see any excuse there. If you took the time to ask the question, you can take the time to wait for the answer.
What’s more than that, Tessa’s reaction was just to assume that someone asking for a kiss was a rhetorical question.
“He kissed me.
He literally kissed me.
I’ll never forget the way that felt. Soft, sweet, dizzying. He asked my permission, but didn’t wait for a reply—and even if he had, I don’t think I would have been able to reply. How do you reply when a boy asks if he can kiss you? Especially when you’ve never even seen the boy? Especially when you want to kiss him back?”
I would say that you should answer yes. And that you don’t just brush this off as an impassioned kiss. It’s a matter of consent. And I actually have a book with great consent to recommend to you. I’ve mentioned it before, but Coming Up for Air was one of the best books I’ve come across when it comes to consent, YA or otherwise. The characters make it a priority to discuss everything and listen to one another, and to make sure they’re comfortable with the direction their relationship is going. And of course, I think the book is pretty great in general.
Those were my biggest issues with the book. I have so many other little issues and quotes, but this already is a long, ranty review and I think mentioning any more is unnecessary at this point.
I did not enjoy this book and was a bit upset to see all the wonderful reviews it has been getting. I understand wanting to support an indie author, and I’m glad people enjoyed her book, but there were so many problematic elements in this book that I’m a little worried that so few people have mentioned them.
I normally end my reviews saying that I’d recommend a book, even if I didn’t enjoy it. That’s not the case here. I cannot recommend this book after seeing the way things were handled in this book. This is one of the very few books I’ve rated 1 star, but by the time I finished reading, I couldn’t see myself giving it any other rating.
You can also find this review on Paper Procrastinators
September 24, 2019
What a beautiful Hufflepuff summer story!
Weston, man. Just....Weston. He's brilliant and I adored him and his outlook and I felt for his internal struggle so much. The broken, hurting, optimistic, bright boys are always my favorites. He reminded me a lot of one of my own characters in that respect. And all his brothers! I LOVED IT. He was such a unique, fresh, lovable guy. I loved it.
Tessa was slightly less of an instant connection for me, but I loved her too. I felt her pain as she struggled with being blind and wanting to write poetry but being too afraid to really LIVE. Also, her friend group and her group chat were some of my favorite things in the story and I wish they had more appearances xD So much fun. They reminded me so much of my group chats with my own besties.
(Also I think Abbie probably read my blog and copied comments from it into her book because GOOD GRIEF they sounded JUST like my comments xD)
Only four stars because:
-Contemporary isn't my genre
-It wasn't an instantaneous FAVORITE
-I wanted more with their families! Especially Weston's brothers!
Overall this book was REALLY REALLY good. I know other reviews have mentioned the language and stuff so I won't try to do a content review here but GUYS read this book okay? SO GOOD.
Weston, man. Just....Weston. He's brilliant and I adored him and his outlook and I felt for his internal struggle so much. The broken, hurting, optimistic, bright boys are always my favorites. He reminded me a lot of one of my own characters in that respect. And all his brothers! I LOVED IT. He was such a unique, fresh, lovable guy. I loved it.
Tessa was slightly less of an instant connection for me, but I loved her too. I felt her pain as she struggled with being blind and wanting to write poetry but being too afraid to really LIVE. Also, her friend group and her group chat were some of my favorite things in the story and I wish they had more appearances xD So much fun. They reminded me so much of my group chats with my own besties.
(Also I think Abbie probably read my blog and copied comments from it into her book because GOOD GRIEF they sounded JUST like my comments xD)
Only four stars because:
-Contemporary isn't my genre
-It wasn't an instantaneous FAVORITE
-I wanted more with their families! Especially Weston's brothers!
Overall this book was REALLY REALLY good. I know other reviews have mentioned the language and stuff so I won't try to do a content review here but GUYS read this book okay? SO GOOD.
March 17, 2021
Oh no no no no no. Oh no.
I was really excited to read this book. I watch Abbie's YouTube channel and her writing advice has been invaluable to me. I was really looking forward to reading how she applies her own advice. In saying that, I want to review this book as if I don't know who Abbie is. I also don't want to push support for something I didn't actually like. I've never been willing to sacrifice or adjust my reviews because someone is a famous author or because they have a following, and I'm not going to do that with Abbie's book either.
Unfortunately, this book was incredibly offensive. I did not like it, and I'm going to try to explain why to the best of my ability. I also want to point out that there will likely be spoilers in my review, so read at your own risk.
The Tessa Problem
The book is called 100 days of Sunlight, and it tells the story of a girl named Tessa who loses her sight for 100 days. I'm assuming the title is an ode to Weston being her sunlight, or maybe feeling the sunlight on her skin but not being able to see it. Either way, I was prepared for a really cute summer read with a main character learning to accept herself with her disability and I was really disappointed when that's not what I got.
The book starts on Day 21 for some reason, with a flashback, and Tessa takes us through a very brief retelling of what happened to cause the loss of her eyesight. It was full of repetitive words with absolutely NO tension. For a scene depicting a massive accident, it read very boringly. I don't know why she made the choice to spend the majority of the first chapter in a flashback instead of just starting with those scenes. The entire point of a flashback sequence is that we have something to compare it to. The character is experiencing feelings that relate back to the flashback, or you're in the middle of a chapter and it's important to explain in detail what happened for the following scenes to make sense contextually. That wasn't the case here. We got next to nothing in terms of meeting Tessa or understanding how Tessa feels or what she's going through before being hurtled into pages upon pages of flashback. It felt like an attempt to info-dump without info-dumping, but it didn't work.
The book also had a ton of repetitive words, usually back to back. Maybe the author was trying to mimic poetry or something, because I get that Tessa is a poet, but the way it read didn't give me that impression at all. I guess what I mean is that it felt like the repetition was intended to be a stylistic choice, but it felt more like it was making a mockery of what it feels like to have PTSD and experience trauma. This is a theme that runs through the entire book. It really just feels like she didn't research PTSD or seek out sensitivity readers, because this was painful to read. Just take this excerpt as an example.
It's from the first page.
I hear the
l o u d e s t c r a s h
It sounds like a bomb.
My head whiplashes and slams into something hard behind me, and pain explodes through my body. The world goes dark. I wake up, gasping for air. I open my eyes, but I see nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Darkness.
The poetry wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm not a poet nor am I a poetry critic (is that a thing?) so I'm not going to touch on that, but the prose in the regular writing just feels to be making a mockery of something that's really very serious. There were so many ways this could have been done better to properly depict what it feels like to live with trauma and have flashbacks.
Going out on another limb here, I just wanted to say that opening the book with Tessa having a nightmare and then waking up feels like SUPER lazy writing and I really didn't expect Abbie to make this choice. Sometimes it works out (like in the Hunger Games) and sometimes it doesn't - most of the time it doesn't. This really could have been a lot stronger if the book opened on a different note and it would have given Abbie a chance to depict how PTSD and flashbacks can hit you at any moment of the day, even just sitting at your desk or eating. Sometimes the smallest things will trigger a flashback. THAT is the reality of PTSD and it feels like this book completely missed the mark on that.
There was nothing about this first chapter that made me like or want to connect with Tessa and throughout the rest of the book I also felt like it was lacking in depicting her emotions and making me feel like I'm inside her head and I get her. I didn't connect with Tessa at all, and I'm sure that's part of the reason the book fell so flat for me.
But Tessa aside, Weston was also a really awful main character.
Is Disability a Joke?
Weston is an amputee, who is sent to help Tessa with writing for her poetry blog. He sticks around because Tessa treats him like an able-bodied person instead of treating him like he's fragile now because he's disabled. Which, of course, is what disabled people want. We want you to treat us like everyone else.
But Weston's family don't treat him different from what I can tell. Weston was reckless before his accident and he's reckless after his accident and his family don't seem to take any action on it or talk to him about it. In the end, it feels like Weston is sticking around Tessa because she treats him like an able-bodied person, but so does everyone else, and that minimizes the significance of his relationship with Tessa.
There were also a point in Weston's backstory where he made the decision that he wasn't going to let his disability run his life. Which, YES! GREAT!
But it's depicted all wrong. It's depicted as Weston deciding to ignore medical advice and toss out his papers and instructions from his physician - NOT BECAUSE HE'S OVERWHELMED AND ANGRY OR GREIF STRICKEN OVER HIS ACCIDENT, but because he wants to stick it to the authority and just decides that he's not going to follow the rules because he doesn't want to. And nowhere in the book does it seem like he regrets this choice or has a huge epiphany or learning moment where he realizes he's wrong.
This does not make him an admirable character. This is not a good example to set. This is not a positive character arc.
The Blatant Disability Porn
This was so frustrating to see from this author. Abbie is an able-bodied person and this story was meant to be inspiring and uplifting because the main characters are disabled and they're overcoming their disabilities and "getting back up when life knocks you down" while also falling in love with each other.
Sounds harmless, right?
Well, it's not.
It's almost become a subgenre of it's own to see disabled people used as an inspirational 'pick me up' for able-bodied people to feel good about themselves. The frustrating part in this case is that Tessa isn't even permanently disabled. The writer decided that 100 days was enough for Tessa to experience disabled life and understand what it means to live with a disability, and then she's going to get her eyesight back and be a better person because of it.
That's irritating.
The problem with a lot of this 'disability porn' content is that it's inaccurate. I've already said that I feel like the writer didn't do her due diligence in researching the disabled community or finding disabled sensitivity readers, and I stand by that, especially on this note. Disabled people would not write this book. Disabled people would not write a snobby ungrateful rude character who is only temporarily disabled and they learn a life lesson and get their ableness back.
Seriously, wtf. I'm beyond angry over this.
Consent is Still Important!!
Throughout the book, our lovely Weston makes several decisions that show he doesn't respect Tessa. When Tessa tells him that he needs to leave and not come back, Weston keeps coming back. He stands in her doorway looking at her instead of respecting her privacy. He's very 'in her face' instead of being respectful and slowly working Tessa into having someone around.
Tessa has PTSD. This is a HUGE NO.
I swear to god if anyone ever disrespected my boundaries like this I would chase them out of my house with a frying pan. This is so far beyond not okay and it's disrespectful of people's boundaries.
Tessa is still trying to figure out her life without eyesight. She's disabled, traumatized, and trying to learn how to handle PTSD and flashbacks, and in walks this asshole who has no respect for boundaries, and he's the main love interest?
Seriously?
Later in the book, he also demonstrates his lack of boundaries and lack of respect for Tessa when he asks if he can kiss her. Instead of waiting for her to respond, he just swoops in and kisses her. I'm very much of the opinion that someone doesn't have to ask every single time if it's okay to kiss someone else. Body language and relationship history have a lot of play in this though. Tessa and Weston have no history, and Tessa can't see his body language. It's in instances like this where explicit consent is CRUCIAL.
The relationship depicted in this book is very problematic and the portrayal of disability and PTSD is also problematic.
The Religious Agenda
To top the rest of it off, this book feels like it belongs in the religious fiction section of Barnes and Noble. The Christian undertones were SO PREVALENT and IN YOUR FACE it felt like every conversation Tessa had with anyone other than Weston was about church and faith. THIS NEEDS TO BE IN THE BLURB!
I was entirely unprepared for it, and as someone who is not Christian, it really put me off. I don't mind reading books with religious characters, but I got a very 'Bible Camp' feeling from this book. The fact that it features pushy parents/guardians/family trying repetitively to convince Tessa to come back to church is "content warning" worthy in my opinion. I probably would not have read this book at all if I knew how significant the religious undertones were going to be.
Overall
I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so upset to have disliked it so much. I just honestly wish Abbie had gotten a beta reader who struggles with some of these things or gotten input from the disabled community because I think I probably would have liked the book if it weren't for the way some of this was depicted.
This makes me sad, because I really wanted Abbie to succeed and do well, and I was really hoping for a magnificent book that would blow me out of the water. But now I'm just left wondering if this is really what she thinks about disabled people...
I can't recommend this book to anyone.
:(
I was really excited to read this book. I watch Abbie's YouTube channel and her writing advice has been invaluable to me. I was really looking forward to reading how she applies her own advice. In saying that, I want to review this book as if I don't know who Abbie is. I also don't want to push support for something I didn't actually like. I've never been willing to sacrifice or adjust my reviews because someone is a famous author or because they have a following, and I'm not going to do that with Abbie's book either.
Unfortunately, this book was incredibly offensive. I did not like it, and I'm going to try to explain why to the best of my ability. I also want to point out that there will likely be spoilers in my review, so read at your own risk.
The Tessa Problem
The book is called 100 days of Sunlight, and it tells the story of a girl named Tessa who loses her sight for 100 days. I'm assuming the title is an ode to Weston being her sunlight, or maybe feeling the sunlight on her skin but not being able to see it. Either way, I was prepared for a really cute summer read with a main character learning to accept herself with her disability and I was really disappointed when that's not what I got.
The book starts on Day 21 for some reason, with a flashback, and Tessa takes us through a very brief retelling of what happened to cause the loss of her eyesight. It was full of repetitive words with absolutely NO tension. For a scene depicting a massive accident, it read very boringly. I don't know why she made the choice to spend the majority of the first chapter in a flashback instead of just starting with those scenes. The entire point of a flashback sequence is that we have something to compare it to. The character is experiencing feelings that relate back to the flashback, or you're in the middle of a chapter and it's important to explain in detail what happened for the following scenes to make sense contextually. That wasn't the case here. We got next to nothing in terms of meeting Tessa or understanding how Tessa feels or what she's going through before being hurtled into pages upon pages of flashback. It felt like an attempt to info-dump without info-dumping, but it didn't work.
The book also had a ton of repetitive words, usually back to back. Maybe the author was trying to mimic poetry or something, because I get that Tessa is a poet, but the way it read didn't give me that impression at all. I guess what I mean is that it felt like the repetition was intended to be a stylistic choice, but it felt more like it was making a mockery of what it feels like to have PTSD and experience trauma. This is a theme that runs through the entire book. It really just feels like she didn't research PTSD or seek out sensitivity readers, because this was painful to read. Just take this excerpt as an example.
It's from the first page.
I hear the
l o u d e s t c r a s h
It sounds like a bomb.
My head whiplashes and slams into something hard behind me, and pain explodes through my body. The world goes dark. I wake up, gasping for air. I open my eyes, but I see nothing.
Nothing.
Nothing.
Darkness.
The poetry wasn't my cup of tea, but I'm not a poet nor am I a poetry critic (is that a thing?) so I'm not going to touch on that, but the prose in the regular writing just feels to be making a mockery of something that's really very serious. There were so many ways this could have been done better to properly depict what it feels like to live with trauma and have flashbacks.
Going out on another limb here, I just wanted to say that opening the book with Tessa having a nightmare and then waking up feels like SUPER lazy writing and I really didn't expect Abbie to make this choice. Sometimes it works out (like in the Hunger Games) and sometimes it doesn't - most of the time it doesn't. This really could have been a lot stronger if the book opened on a different note and it would have given Abbie a chance to depict how PTSD and flashbacks can hit you at any moment of the day, even just sitting at your desk or eating. Sometimes the smallest things will trigger a flashback. THAT is the reality of PTSD and it feels like this book completely missed the mark on that.
There was nothing about this first chapter that made me like or want to connect with Tessa and throughout the rest of the book I also felt like it was lacking in depicting her emotions and making me feel like I'm inside her head and I get her. I didn't connect with Tessa at all, and I'm sure that's part of the reason the book fell so flat for me.
But Tessa aside, Weston was also a really awful main character.
Is Disability a Joke?
Weston is an amputee, who is sent to help Tessa with writing for her poetry blog. He sticks around because Tessa treats him like an able-bodied person instead of treating him like he's fragile now because he's disabled. Which, of course, is what disabled people want. We want you to treat us like everyone else.
But Weston's family don't treat him different from what I can tell. Weston was reckless before his accident and he's reckless after his accident and his family don't seem to take any action on it or talk to him about it. In the end, it feels like Weston is sticking around Tessa because she treats him like an able-bodied person, but so does everyone else, and that minimizes the significance of his relationship with Tessa.
There were also a point in Weston's backstory where he made the decision that he wasn't going to let his disability run his life. Which, YES! GREAT!
But it's depicted all wrong. It's depicted as Weston deciding to ignore medical advice and toss out his papers and instructions from his physician - NOT BECAUSE HE'S OVERWHELMED AND ANGRY OR GREIF STRICKEN OVER HIS ACCIDENT, but because he wants to stick it to the authority and just decides that he's not going to follow the rules because he doesn't want to. And nowhere in the book does it seem like he regrets this choice or has a huge epiphany or learning moment where he realizes he's wrong.
This does not make him an admirable character. This is not a good example to set. This is not a positive character arc.
The Blatant Disability Porn
This was so frustrating to see from this author. Abbie is an able-bodied person and this story was meant to be inspiring and uplifting because the main characters are disabled and they're overcoming their disabilities and "getting back up when life knocks you down" while also falling in love with each other.
Sounds harmless, right?
Well, it's not.
It's almost become a subgenre of it's own to see disabled people used as an inspirational 'pick me up' for able-bodied people to feel good about themselves. The frustrating part in this case is that Tessa isn't even permanently disabled. The writer decided that 100 days was enough for Tessa to experience disabled life and understand what it means to live with a disability, and then she's going to get her eyesight back and be a better person because of it.
That's irritating.
The problem with a lot of this 'disability porn' content is that it's inaccurate. I've already said that I feel like the writer didn't do her due diligence in researching the disabled community or finding disabled sensitivity readers, and I stand by that, especially on this note. Disabled people would not write this book. Disabled people would not write a snobby ungrateful rude character who is only temporarily disabled and they learn a life lesson and get their ableness back.
Seriously, wtf. I'm beyond angry over this.
Consent is Still Important!!
Throughout the book, our lovely Weston makes several decisions that show he doesn't respect Tessa. When Tessa tells him that he needs to leave and not come back, Weston keeps coming back. He stands in her doorway looking at her instead of respecting her privacy. He's very 'in her face' instead of being respectful and slowly working Tessa into having someone around.
Tessa has PTSD. This is a HUGE NO.
I swear to god if anyone ever disrespected my boundaries like this I would chase them out of my house with a frying pan. This is so far beyond not okay and it's disrespectful of people's boundaries.
Tessa is still trying to figure out her life without eyesight. She's disabled, traumatized, and trying to learn how to handle PTSD and flashbacks, and in walks this asshole who has no respect for boundaries, and he's the main love interest?
Seriously?
Later in the book, he also demonstrates his lack of boundaries and lack of respect for Tessa when he asks if he can kiss her. Instead of waiting for her to respond, he just swoops in and kisses her. I'm very much of the opinion that someone doesn't have to ask every single time if it's okay to kiss someone else. Body language and relationship history have a lot of play in this though. Tessa and Weston have no history, and Tessa can't see his body language. It's in instances like this where explicit consent is CRUCIAL.
The relationship depicted in this book is very problematic and the portrayal of disability and PTSD is also problematic.
The Religious Agenda
To top the rest of it off, this book feels like it belongs in the religious fiction section of Barnes and Noble. The Christian undertones were SO PREVALENT and IN YOUR FACE it felt like every conversation Tessa had with anyone other than Weston was about church and faith. THIS NEEDS TO BE IN THE BLURB!
I was entirely unprepared for it, and as someone who is not Christian, it really put me off. I don't mind reading books with religious characters, but I got a very 'Bible Camp' feeling from this book. The fact that it features pushy parents/guardians/family trying repetitively to convince Tessa to come back to church is "content warning" worthy in my opinion. I probably would not have read this book at all if I knew how significant the religious undertones were going to be.
Overall
I was really looking forward to this book and I'm so upset to have disliked it so much. I just honestly wish Abbie had gotten a beta reader who struggles with some of these things or gotten input from the disabled community because I think I probably would have liked the book if it weren't for the way some of this was depicted.
This makes me sad, because I really wanted Abbie to succeed and do well, and I was really hoping for a magnificent book that would blow me out of the water. But now I'm just left wondering if this is really what she thinks about disabled people...
I can't recommend this book to anyone.
:(
September 6, 2021
Review from a blind person
I read this book a few months ago but every time I tried to do a review I would just get so angry and upset, and I would dissociate. I've been a fan of Abbie for over a year now and when I learnt her book featured a blind MC, I was ecstatic! I waited patiently for the audiobook, but because I had to wait so long which is not at all a criticism just in case it comes off that way) I learnt about things that occurred in the book and became incredibly nervous about how disability, especially blindness would be represented. Turns out I had every right to be.
The positives
Honestly, I don't really have any. The one positive I can give is that Abbie is a great narrator. She did a really good job voicing Tessa and Weston and her voice is pleasant to listen to. ONE thing that is actually accurate is Tessa's reluctance to use a cane. This is actually fairly common for newly blind people, I went through it and I know others who did too. However, there is no way she would have gotten one without O&M, they wouldn't just giver her a cane like they did in the book-that's absolutely not how it works.
The negatives
Boy, where do I start? Well, many previous reviewers have commented on the shocking lack of consent in this book. It saddens me that in the age of the "Me too" movement characters like Weston are still romanticised and have their actions portrayed as normal or desirable to young women. Not taking "no" for answer is a red flag, not something to be swooned over.
This is not disability representation, this is representation of how able bodied people see disability with the language the community have been fighting so hard against for years
So like Tessa I lost my sight suddenly, however unlike her it is permanent for me. The very first thing that confused me is...why does she need someone to type for her? As you can see, I'm typing right now. I'm navigating good reads and my entire laptop with its in built screen reader. Why would a blind person need someone to type for them? it's one of the easiest things for us to do.
It would have been more realistic to ask for someone to help her navigate the net and upload to her blog, this would probably require a bit of training-although all screen readers have in built training and a lot of it is fairly easy to pick up. But typing is something she would absolutely be able to do.
But if the not being able to type wasn't bad enough, when I first started listening and she explained how the only thing she could do with her IPHONE-ONE OF THE MOST ACCESSIBLE DEVICES IN THE WORD was ask Siri the weather, well I had to stop and take a breath and I was only a few minutes in.
If she'd actually learnt that her misbelief was wrong, then I'd be on board with it but she never does. Sure, Weston shows her she can use her other senses but that actual misbelief she started the book with "I can't do X,Y, and Z because I'm blind" is never actually corrected. It would have been great to see her embrace the cane and learn to walk outside, learn that she can run her blog even though she can see since that's something that's so important to her. By neglecting to actually address and correct these misbeliefs not only is Abbie ignoring her own advice, but it actually leaves readers with the impression that "Yeah, she can't do that because she blind" when actually her blindness isn't the reason, it's her attitude.
I think part of the reason this was never addressed is because we spent SO MUCH time on Weston flashbacks, especially considering he isn't even the protagonist. And some of his flashbacks and his attitude is where the real harm comes in, and I can see it in al the 5 star reviewers who think Weston is inspirational without acknowledging that again, he does not care about consent, and he is actually spreading a very harmful message about disability.
"I am not handicapped, I am a handicap". There is so much wrong with that sentence that I almost threw my iPad across the room when I heard it. 1. Don't use the word "Handicap", it's not on the level of the R word but it's still an insulting term with problematic origins that is almost never used anymore. I was quite shocked to hear it. But beyond that, we ARE disabled. There are a couple of disability groups that do prefer person first language (people with Down syndrome, and intellectual disability) but majority, subscribe to the social model of disability and prefer identity first language, which this book advocates against. The idea that we need specific language to remind people we are human is dehumanising in itself. But is also just feels like a attempt to ignore the disability. Our disabilities are part of our identity, depending on the disability they can affect every way we interact with the world.
Disabled people are often viewed as one of two extremes, inspiration porn full of toxic positivity that can't be stopped by anything, and helpless children that can't do anything. This book does a double whammy and shows both. Weston does everything he can to ignore his disability and everyone sees him as amazing because of it, and Tessa is helpless without other people.
What makes this so dangerous is that media, including books influences the way disabled people are perceived. The amount of times I've had to deal with people accusing me of faking my blindness because "How are you typing if you're blind?" is insane and I've only been blind two years! We are constantly having to advocate for ourselves against stereotypes and it's exhausting.
I believe there was good intention but it was executed so poorly. Also, bonus tip. Telling a blind person they're like Daredevil is the fastest way to make them uncomfortable around you.
I read this book a few months ago but every time I tried to do a review I would just get so angry and upset, and I would dissociate. I've been a fan of Abbie for over a year now and when I learnt her book featured a blind MC, I was ecstatic! I waited patiently for the audiobook, but because I had to wait so long which is not at all a criticism just in case it comes off that way) I learnt about things that occurred in the book and became incredibly nervous about how disability, especially blindness would be represented. Turns out I had every right to be.
The positives
Honestly, I don't really have any. The one positive I can give is that Abbie is a great narrator. She did a really good job voicing Tessa and Weston and her voice is pleasant to listen to. ONE thing that is actually accurate is Tessa's reluctance to use a cane. This is actually fairly common for newly blind people, I went through it and I know others who did too. However, there is no way she would have gotten one without O&M, they wouldn't just giver her a cane like they did in the book-that's absolutely not how it works.
The negatives
Boy, where do I start? Well, many previous reviewers have commented on the shocking lack of consent in this book. It saddens me that in the age of the "Me too" movement characters like Weston are still romanticised and have their actions portrayed as normal or desirable to young women. Not taking "no" for answer is a red flag, not something to be swooned over.
This is not disability representation, this is representation of how able bodied people see disability with the language the community have been fighting so hard against for years
So like Tessa I lost my sight suddenly, however unlike her it is permanent for me. The very first thing that confused me is...why does she need someone to type for her? As you can see, I'm typing right now. I'm navigating good reads and my entire laptop with its in built screen reader. Why would a blind person need someone to type for them? it's one of the easiest things for us to do.
It would have been more realistic to ask for someone to help her navigate the net and upload to her blog, this would probably require a bit of training-although all screen readers have in built training and a lot of it is fairly easy to pick up. But typing is something she would absolutely be able to do.
But if the not being able to type wasn't bad enough, when I first started listening and she explained how the only thing she could do with her IPHONE-ONE OF THE MOST ACCESSIBLE DEVICES IN THE WORD was ask Siri the weather, well I had to stop and take a breath and I was only a few minutes in.
If she'd actually learnt that her misbelief was wrong, then I'd be on board with it but she never does. Sure, Weston shows her she can use her other senses but that actual misbelief she started the book with "I can't do X,Y, and Z because I'm blind" is never actually corrected. It would have been great to see her embrace the cane and learn to walk outside, learn that she can run her blog even though she can see since that's something that's so important to her. By neglecting to actually address and correct these misbeliefs not only is Abbie ignoring her own advice, but it actually leaves readers with the impression that "Yeah, she can't do that because she blind" when actually her blindness isn't the reason, it's her attitude.
I think part of the reason this was never addressed is because we spent SO MUCH time on Weston flashbacks, especially considering he isn't even the protagonist. And some of his flashbacks and his attitude is where the real harm comes in, and I can see it in al the 5 star reviewers who think Weston is inspirational without acknowledging that again, he does not care about consent, and he is actually spreading a very harmful message about disability.
"I am not handicapped, I am a handicap". There is so much wrong with that sentence that I almost threw my iPad across the room when I heard it. 1. Don't use the word "Handicap", it's not on the level of the R word but it's still an insulting term with problematic origins that is almost never used anymore. I was quite shocked to hear it. But beyond that, we ARE disabled. There are a couple of disability groups that do prefer person first language (people with Down syndrome, and intellectual disability) but majority, subscribe to the social model of disability and prefer identity first language, which this book advocates against. The idea that we need specific language to remind people we are human is dehumanising in itself. But is also just feels like a attempt to ignore the disability. Our disabilities are part of our identity, depending on the disability they can affect every way we interact with the world.
Disabled people are often viewed as one of two extremes, inspiration porn full of toxic positivity that can't be stopped by anything, and helpless children that can't do anything. This book does a double whammy and shows both. Weston does everything he can to ignore his disability and everyone sees him as amazing because of it, and Tessa is helpless without other people.
What makes this so dangerous is that media, including books influences the way disabled people are perceived. The amount of times I've had to deal with people accusing me of faking my blindness because "How are you typing if you're blind?" is insane and I've only been blind two years! We are constantly having to advocate for ourselves against stereotypes and it's exhausting.
I believe there was good intention but it was executed so poorly. Also, bonus tip. Telling a blind person they're like Daredevil is the fastest way to make them uncomfortable around you.
January 13, 2020
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. Emmons' 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 minority 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's 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.
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. Emmons' 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 minority 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's 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.
February 23, 2021
This book has so many things I don't like to read about, but somehow the whole thing is just a beautiful piece of art. It's really easy to read, the writing style is amazing and gives you emotions, but not the kind that breakes you. Even with the tragic backstory it has an optimistic view.
With Tessa's pov you feel like giving up is the best option, but with Weston... he is such a ray of sunshine. Being in his head is something I needed to experience once in my life. He won't let you be pessimistic. If you get down, he will reach out to you and won't let you give up. And seeing this through his eyes is wonderful.
I even cried at one point. And that's something almost never happens to me while reading.
This book is cute and gives you hope, but also, it makes you think. It will surely stay with me for a long time, if not for ever.
With Tessa's pov you feel like giving up is the best option, but with Weston... he is such a ray of sunshine. Being in his head is something I needed to experience once in my life. He won't let you be pessimistic. If you get down, he will reach out to you and won't let you give up. And seeing this through his eyes is wonderful.
I even cried at one point. And that's something almost never happens to me while reading.
This book is cute and gives you hope, but also, it makes you think. It will surely stay with me for a long time, if not for ever.
August 18, 2019
WHAT JUST HAPPENED I CAN'T EVEN
December 6, 2025
Rating this book two stars kinda stings, because I wanted to support this author. She's a Youtuber I've watched her for a while. Unfortunately, I can't justify boosting the rating for that reason alone. I'll be reviewing 100 Days of Sunlight as though Abbie Emmons is just another author rather than an influencer. I assume she'd prefer honest feedback to empty fanfare.
I should also mention that none of my negative criticism is intended as an insult toward Abbie herself. The opinions I’m about to share are just that, opinions. This book might be your cup of tea, but it wasn’t mine, and that’s okay.
I won't be hiding the review due to spoilers since they're minor and scattered, but I will mention interactions and story beats that come later on. I’d like to touch on the cons first so that I can end this review positively; I've got three pages of notes and they’re all over the place, so buckle up.
CONS
First of all, I really, really struggled to identify with Tessa. A lot of my beef with this story has to do with her character specifically. Even as someone who has lived through the electric unease of being a teenager, she felt a little too hot and cold. One moment she was portrayed as a bright young poet dreaming of sunshine and then next she was lashing out at her caring, patient grandparents and proclaiming that no one could possibly help her. This back and forth was somewhat romanticized with the love interest comparing her to a volcano with some degree of affection, but there was nothing endearing about it. Her accident isn’t an excuse either.
Full transparency, I suffer from severe PTSD myself, and the portrayal of it in Tessa's character felt very lacking. It should be said that no person's trauma, or reaction to trauma, is going to look the same. Tessa's reaction to her circumstances made her much less...well, enjoyable to read.
Moping in bed and staying indoors? Sure! Been there, I get it. She was newly blind, it’s a terrifying situation to be in. I can’t even imagine all the fears that come into play. But the transition from sweet introvert to brooding, spiteful “volcano” felt unnatural despite Tessa’s injury, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. PTSD can involve mood swings, but it felt noticeably dramatized in this story.
Not to mention the fact that her grandmother had been in the accident too; not once did we see Tessa ask if she was okay, or if she too was struggling with the memory of it. That kind of event is terrifying and stressful no matter how old or experienced you are, and I think that there would have been a lot to be gained if these two had gotten to have a conversation about it. I think at one point Tessa considered asking, and looking back, that was a wasted opportunity.
Come to think of it, we didn’t really learn much about Tessa’s grandparents, but especially her grandmother. I can’t recall a single thing that she liked to do, how she spent her time, nothing. We know that her grandfather is a pastor, but...yeah, there wasn’t really much meat to these characters.
The same goes for Tessa’s “squad” (ugh). We hardly learned their names, but they insisted that Weston and Tessa were meant to be, and that they “shipped it”. I'll be blunt, the teen speak in this book was super cringe. By the end it felt like 90% of the side characters were only present to coax Weston and Tessa together or to try and convince Tessa to go back to church.
On that note, if I had known that this book had such notable religious/faith-based undertones, I wouldn’t have volunteered to write a ARC review (I don’t recall it being mentioned in the video encouraging people to apply, and it isn’t visible at a glance on Goodreads). Faith is a tricky topic for some of us, and religion has played a part in the trauma of too many people to count—myself included. I generally avoid books that involve Western religion in any kind of “come back to church” context, so that soured this read for me early on.
Anywho.
Tessa’s apology for her hurtful actions later on did little to help her character. I found myself more frustrated than not when she tried to right her many wrongs. We didn't get inside her head enough to know what initiated her apology, or how she arrived at the decision that it was something she needed to do. It just seemed like something the writer felt compelled to include to make her more likable, or at least more empathetic. It felt like the writer was simply dictating a series of events that would be expected happen rather than a real character taking action in their world, of their own volition.
This book could have benefited from another twenty pages or so just developing Tessa. We got to know her bedroom and her aesthetic more than we got to know her as a person, and that just rubs me the wrong way. (By the way, her aesthetic is just incredibly yellow...literally everything is yellow. Talk about heavy-handed.)
Tessa’s poetry felt underwhelming and lackluster, what you might expect from an average sixteen year old with minimal life experience. I would have expected a bit more from her, considering that she runs a super successful/popular writing blog? I want to make clear that this comment isn’t intended to be an insult toward Abbie herself, as I know she was the one who actually wrote those poems. I just didn’t find anything compelling there.
There were some stylistic choices made in the first half of the book that were completely abandoned a few chapters in. One example would be the way Abbie spaced certain words out like
t h i s
to make a moment more impactful. I found it more distracting than anything, and midway through the book I found myself wondering if we’d be seeing it again. Nope. Not when Weston loses his legs or when (minor spoiler) Tessa learns the truth about him. In hindsight, it was jarring as hell. A very...tumblr poetry move.
There are also a ton of points where the dialogue was super unnatural. This was particularly noticeable with the younger characters; I’m a former babysitter and aspiring elementary school teacher. I hate to say it, but most children just don’t talk the way Abbie wrote them. This is something I see in a lot of YA fiction and it’s honestly tiresome.
Oh, and this one is a big spoiler so I will be tagging it, but
A few other minor issues that brought this rating would be some iffy word repetition, grammar, and syntax. I also made note of a typo early on, I wish I’d written down the page to mention it here.
You know what? I have about three other cons I wanted to include (limited diversity and weakly developed POC being a big one), but this is my longest review to date and I’m a little tired of ranting. Let’s move onto the few things I actually enjoyed.
PROS
Let’s talk about Weston, AKA the only reason I’m giving this book a two star rating instead of a one star—probably the only reason I finished it. (Edit: I've since lowered the rating on my review.) We got to know him even more than we did Tessa, and I would argue that he could be considered the true main character of 100 Days of Sunlight.
This boy was sympathetic, likable, charismatic, insightful, flawed, and his motivation made sense to me. Who wouldn’t want to be treated like a normal person after years of being handled with kid gloves? I loved how far he was willing to go to maintain the charade, and how we got to see the rare slip-up. It encouraged me to question when Tessa would find out about his amputation.
Occasionally he acted in ways that felt too dramatic, mostly in the last 15% or so, but generally he was just a big bundle of sunshine. I liked his perspective.
The general vibe of the story was really nice, and I loved the main characters’ trip to Target. I used to work there and I could clearly imagine them rushing through the aisles, Weston beaming as he pushed Tessa around in a shopping cart. It was a precious scene.
I also loved the division of this book into the various senses. It was a clever way to let the characters explore the world and get to know one another, and it helped the reader know where we were in the story. That aspect was very well done.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This book had more downs for me than it did ups, but I tried to give it a chance. I can’t see myself rereading it, and I don���t know that I’ll be reading anything else from Abbie. I have no idea how to end this review when I’m not sure I can recommend the book. For those who do pick it up, I hope you can enjoy it for what it is.
EDIT, 05/22/2019: After several days of consideration, I've chosen to lower my rating to one star. The few aspects of this book that I enjoyed didn't improve my experience enough to justify two. Sorry, Abbie.
EDIT, 04/15/2020:
I'm still thinking about this book nearly a year after reading it, and not in a good way. The more I consider the implications of this story and it's characters, the more uncomfortable it makes me. This book uses both primary protagonists for what essentially boils down to what other authors have referred to as "disabled person inspiration p*rn", and it's true.
Abbie Emmons is an able-bodied person writing about two disabled individuals, one of which who is only disabled temporarily, as a plot device to...
A) To get her MC and the love interest together.
B) Reaffirm her belief in the Christian god, which, again, really should have been mentioned to ARC readers beforehand. I'm still irritated about that.
C) To make her empathize more with people who are disabled long-term, which I guess she didn't do before being temporarily blinded? (If anything, this just makes Tessa even LESS likable than I stated in my original review, wow.)
There are so, so many problems with this book that I don't even have the energy to touch on again, but I honestly just can't understand how it has any five star reviews at this point. There was nothing substantial here, it was a poor attempt at a post-TFIOS cash-grab that fell flat on the romance, as well as Tessa's redemption. She was a shallow character with weak motivations and a weaker apology in the third act. The fact that I'm still fuming about it a year later doesn't even surprise me, considering that this book put me off reading for months after.
If you're reading this and haven't yet picked up 100 Days of Sunshine, please just...take my word for it and don't. Don't support an author that willingly used disabled characters to push a half-baked romance and her own religious beliefs, one who wasn't even willing to do the work of making her main character's development feel earned or genuine. There are better writers with stronger stories who have taken the time to craft their characters with sensitivity and mindfulness; support them instead.
I should also mention that none of my negative criticism is intended as an insult toward Abbie herself. The opinions I’m about to share are just that, opinions. This book might be your cup of tea, but it wasn’t mine, and that’s okay.
I won't be hiding the review due to spoilers since they're minor and scattered, but I will mention interactions and story beats that come later on. I’d like to touch on the cons first so that I can end this review positively; I've got three pages of notes and they’re all over the place, so buckle up.
CONS
First of all, I really, really struggled to identify with Tessa. A lot of my beef with this story has to do with her character specifically. Even as someone who has lived through the electric unease of being a teenager, she felt a little too hot and cold. One moment she was portrayed as a bright young poet dreaming of sunshine and then next she was lashing out at her caring, patient grandparents and proclaiming that no one could possibly help her. This back and forth was somewhat romanticized with the love interest comparing her to a volcano with some degree of affection, but there was nothing endearing about it. Her accident isn’t an excuse either.
Full transparency, I suffer from severe PTSD myself, and the portrayal of it in Tessa's character felt very lacking. It should be said that no person's trauma, or reaction to trauma, is going to look the same. Tessa's reaction to her circumstances made her much less...well, enjoyable to read.
Moping in bed and staying indoors? Sure! Been there, I get it. She was newly blind, it’s a terrifying situation to be in. I can’t even imagine all the fears that come into play. But the transition from sweet introvert to brooding, spiteful “volcano” felt unnatural despite Tessa’s injury, and I can’t quite put my finger on why. PTSD can involve mood swings, but it felt noticeably dramatized in this story.
Not to mention the fact that her grandmother had been in the accident too; not once did we see Tessa ask if she was okay, or if she too was struggling with the memory of it. That kind of event is terrifying and stressful no matter how old or experienced you are, and I think that there would have been a lot to be gained if these two had gotten to have a conversation about it. I think at one point Tessa considered asking, and looking back, that was a wasted opportunity.
Come to think of it, we didn’t really learn much about Tessa’s grandparents, but especially her grandmother. I can’t recall a single thing that she liked to do, how she spent her time, nothing. We know that her grandfather is a pastor, but...yeah, there wasn’t really much meat to these characters.
The same goes for Tessa’s “squad” (ugh). We hardly learned their names, but they insisted that Weston and Tessa were meant to be, and that they “shipped it”. I'll be blunt, the teen speak in this book was super cringe. By the end it felt like 90% of the side characters were only present to coax Weston and Tessa together or to try and convince Tessa to go back to church.
On that note, if I had known that this book had such notable religious/faith-based undertones, I wouldn’t have volunteered to write a ARC review (I don’t recall it being mentioned in the video encouraging people to apply, and it isn’t visible at a glance on Goodreads). Faith is a tricky topic for some of us, and religion has played a part in the trauma of too many people to count—myself included. I generally avoid books that involve Western religion in any kind of “come back to church” context, so that soured this read for me early on.
Anywho.
Tessa’s apology for her hurtful actions later on did little to help her character. I found myself more frustrated than not when she tried to right her many wrongs. We didn't get inside her head enough to know what initiated her apology, or how she arrived at the decision that it was something she needed to do. It just seemed like something the writer felt compelled to include to make her more likable, or at least more empathetic. It felt like the writer was simply dictating a series of events that would be expected happen rather than a real character taking action in their world, of their own volition.
This book could have benefited from another twenty pages or so just developing Tessa. We got to know her bedroom and her aesthetic more than we got to know her as a person, and that just rubs me the wrong way. (By the way, her aesthetic is just incredibly yellow...literally everything is yellow. Talk about heavy-handed.)
Tessa’s poetry felt underwhelming and lackluster, what you might expect from an average sixteen year old with minimal life experience. I would have expected a bit more from her, considering that she runs a super successful/popular writing blog? I want to make clear that this comment isn’t intended to be an insult toward Abbie herself, as I know she was the one who actually wrote those poems. I just didn’t find anything compelling there.
There were some stylistic choices made in the first half of the book that were completely abandoned a few chapters in. One example would be the way Abbie spaced certain words out like
t h i s
to make a moment more impactful. I found it more distracting than anything, and midway through the book I found myself wondering if we’d be seeing it again. Nope. Not when Weston loses his legs or when (minor spoiler) Tessa learns the truth about him. In hindsight, it was jarring as hell. A very...tumblr poetry move.
There are also a ton of points where the dialogue was super unnatural. This was particularly noticeable with the younger characters; I’m a former babysitter and aspiring elementary school teacher. I hate to say it, but most children just don’t talk the way Abbie wrote them. This is something I see in a lot of YA fiction and it’s honestly tiresome.
Oh, and this one is a big spoiler so I will be tagging it, but
A few other minor issues that brought this rating would be some iffy word repetition, grammar, and syntax. I also made note of a typo early on, I wish I’d written down the page to mention it here.
You know what? I have about three other cons I wanted to include (limited diversity and weakly developed POC being a big one), but this is my longest review to date and I’m a little tired of ranting. Let’s move onto the few things I actually enjoyed.
PROS
Let’s talk about Weston, AKA the only reason I’m giving this book a two star rating instead of a one star—probably the only reason I finished it. (Edit: I've since lowered the rating on my review.) We got to know him even more than we did Tessa, and I would argue that he could be considered the true main character of 100 Days of Sunlight.
This boy was sympathetic, likable, charismatic, insightful, flawed, and his motivation made sense to me. Who wouldn’t want to be treated like a normal person after years of being handled with kid gloves? I loved how far he was willing to go to maintain the charade, and how we got to see the rare slip-up. It encouraged me to question when Tessa would find out about his amputation.
Occasionally he acted in ways that felt too dramatic, mostly in the last 15% or so, but generally he was just a big bundle of sunshine. I liked his perspective.
The general vibe of the story was really nice, and I loved the main characters’ trip to Target. I used to work there and I could clearly imagine them rushing through the aisles, Weston beaming as he pushed Tessa around in a shopping cart. It was a precious scene.
I also loved the division of this book into the various senses. It was a clever way to let the characters explore the world and get to know one another, and it helped the reader know where we were in the story. That aspect was very well done.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This book had more downs for me than it did ups, but I tried to give it a chance. I can’t see myself rereading it, and I don���t know that I’ll be reading anything else from Abbie. I have no idea how to end this review when I’m not sure I can recommend the book. For those who do pick it up, I hope you can enjoy it for what it is.
EDIT, 05/22/2019: After several days of consideration, I've chosen to lower my rating to one star. The few aspects of this book that I enjoyed didn't improve my experience enough to justify two. Sorry, Abbie.
EDIT, 04/15/2020:
I'm still thinking about this book nearly a year after reading it, and not in a good way. The more I consider the implications of this story and it's characters, the more uncomfortable it makes me. This book uses both primary protagonists for what essentially boils down to what other authors have referred to as "disabled person inspiration p*rn", and it's true.
Abbie Emmons is an able-bodied person writing about two disabled individuals, one of which who is only disabled temporarily, as a plot device to...
A) To get her MC and the love interest together.
B) Reaffirm her belief in the Christian god, which, again, really should have been mentioned to ARC readers beforehand. I'm still irritated about that.
C) To make her empathize more with people who are disabled long-term, which I guess she didn't do before being temporarily blinded? (If anything, this just makes Tessa even LESS likable than I stated in my original review, wow.)
There are so, so many problems with this book that I don't even have the energy to touch on again, but I honestly just can't understand how it has any five star reviews at this point. There was nothing substantial here, it was a poor attempt at a post-TFIOS cash-grab that fell flat on the romance, as well as Tessa's redemption. She was a shallow character with weak motivations and a weaker apology in the third act. The fact that I'm still fuming about it a year later doesn't even surprise me, considering that this book put me off reading for months after.
If you're reading this and haven't yet picked up 100 Days of Sunshine, please just...take my word for it and don't. Don't support an author that willingly used disabled characters to push a half-baked romance and her own religious beliefs, one who wasn't even willing to do the work of making her main character's development feel earned or genuine. There are better writers with stronger stories who have taken the time to craft their characters with sensitivity and mindfulness; support them instead.
July 22, 2024
second time reading and this ended up being a 4.5 instead of 5, but it was still so so good!
July 30, 2019
OMG...the 🅵🅴🅴🅻🆂 😭 YA romance isn't 𝓾𝓼𝓾𝓪𝓵𝓵𝔂 my jam 🙈, but a heroine that has тeмporally loѕт нer ѕιgнт and a hero that loѕт вoтн нιѕ legѕ sounded like a 🅤🅝🅘🅠🅤🅔 and 🅘🅝🅣🅔🅡🅔🅢🅣🅘🅝🅖 story. 👀 And it was all that and more. 🙌 I ₳ĐØⱤɆĐ this book. 💕 It was well 𝕨𝕣𝕚𝕥𝕥𝕖𝕟. 👍 Well ƤÃČẸĎ. 👍 The plot was ⓔⓝⓖⓐⓖⓘⓝⓖ. 👀 It was s♥w♥e♥e♥t. 💘 It was 𝓱𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓽𝓫𝓻𝓮𝓪𝓴𝓲𝓷𝓰. 💔 It was 𝖈𝖚𝖙𝖊. 💝 🆃🅴🆂🆂🅰 was a likable heroine 👧...
I loved the sεcση∂αяү cнαяαcтεяs (especially Rudy). 👊 However, the real 🌟 of this book was 🆆🅴🆂🆃🅾🅽 and his backstory. 🌟 I 𝓽𝓮𝓪𝓻𝓮𝓭 𝓾𝓹 SO many times. 😭 He just owned my 🅗🅔🅐🅡🅣 with his strength. 💪 His sᴡᴇᴇᴛɴᴇss. 🍭 His ĦỮΜØŘ. 😄 His ĶĨŃĎŃĔŚŚ. 💓 His 𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕣𝕒𝕟𝕔𝕖. 💯 Gaaah...I loved (almost) ⓔⓥⓔⓡⓨⓣⓗⓘⓝⓖ about this book. 🌼 The only 🆃🅸🅽🆈 🅽🅸🅶🅶🅻🅴 I had with it was the ending was very ₳฿ⱤɄ₱₮. 😪 I would have liked at the very least an 𝓮𝓹𝓲𝓵𝓸𝓰𝓾𝓮 of some sort. 🔮 Still, that was just a 🅜🅘🅝🅞🅡 🅘🅢🅢🅤🅔, and yours truly is giving this book, two 🅷🆄🅶🅴 thumbs up. 👍👍
January 26, 2022
2. 5 Stars
CW:
Well that was a sweetish squeaky clean teen romance!
I thought this was a sincere exploration of living with emotional and physical injuries after accidents. It didn't draw me in emotionally but I can see it having considerable appeal in the library. There were a lot of charming moments as the two teens established a fragile friendship that then grew from strength to strength. Still, overall it was just okay for me.
CW:
Well that was a sweetish squeaky clean teen romance!
I thought this was a sincere exploration of living with emotional and physical injuries after accidents. It didn't draw me in emotionally but I can see it having considerable appeal in the library. There were a lot of charming moments as the two teens established a fragile friendship that then grew from strength to strength. Still, overall it was just okay for me.
January 30, 2021
Light spoilers for the first couple chapters. Nothing crazy.
So, okay. Here we go. Be prepared for nitpicks and bad section headers.
The Writing Style aka Meta Complaints
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. I don't want to read about the MC thinking about things that have happened--I want to read about those things happening!
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.
The Characters and the Creepiness
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.
The 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.
So, okay. Here we go. Be prepared for nitpicks and bad section headers.
The Writing Style aka Meta Complaints
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. I don't want to read about the MC thinking about things that have happened--I want to read about those things happening!
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.
The Characters and the Creepiness
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.
The 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.
May 29, 2019
I received an ARC of this book via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
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.
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.
August 8, 2019
THIS IS MY FAVE BOOK OF THE YEAR I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!!!!! I'm sure that no other book of 2019 can top this!!
(Would love to be proven wrong cos anything better than this is a heckin masterpiece, but I'm not counting on it)
WOW okay i need to organise my thoughts cos I have so manyyyyyyyy
Characters?! A HUGE 10/10 LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
The romance?! MY HEARTTTTTTT Literally so cuteeeeee I want a Weston in my life so baddddd this was literally the cutest thing I've ever read!!
And it was just so heartfelt and the emotions, and the rep, and just everything was so spot on!!
Also this gorgeous yellow cover gives me LIFE!!
Definitely cannot wait to get my self a physical copy of this masterpiece!! 😍
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a review copy! All opinions are my own.
(Would love to be proven wrong cos anything better than this is a heckin masterpiece, but I'm not counting on it)
WOW okay i need to organise my thoughts cos I have so manyyyyyyyy
Characters?! A HUGE 10/10 LOVE LOVE LOVE!!
The romance?! MY HEARTTTTTTT Literally so cuteeeeee I want a Weston in my life so baddddd this was literally the cutest thing I've ever read!!
And it was just so heartfelt and the emotions, and the rep, and just everything was so spot on!!
Also this gorgeous yellow cover gives me LIFE!!
Definitely cannot wait to get my self a physical copy of this masterpiece!! 😍
Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for providing me with a review copy! All opinions are my own.
December 20, 2021
100 Days of Sunlight was such a fun read. My emotions are still a mess, so we’ll just jump right into the review. 😉
•WHAT I LIKED•
-The aesthetics. Yellow, polaroid cameras, waffles, blogger love, sunshine, obnoxiously optimistic boys...what’s not to love?
-Weston. He was my favorite little bean and I kinda love him a lot. 🥺
-The section dividers being the different senses. It makes sense once you read it, I promise.
-The concept. Blind girl + boy with no legs = A BOOK I NEED IN MY LIFE YO.
-That scene by the window with the sunset and my favorite duo *cough* Tessa and Winston *cough cough*
-The ending. I was really nervous about how the author was gonna wrap everything up, but I’m proud to announce that the ending was ABSOLUTE PERFECTION AND EVERYTHING I NEEDED.
•WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE•
-The story kind of read like a really intense outline??? I felt like the author kind of pounded the theme over my head with almost every paragraph, which was a little...distracting? Idk, I had some problems with the grammatical side of things, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.
-I agree with some other reviews that starting the book with a dream sequence in order to deliver information about Tessa’s accident feels a little like lazy writing. This is probably just because it’s a common trope in YA fiction, so I’m not taking point off for it, but it did feel a little forced.
-The characters taking the Lord’s name in vain. I get it: real people say this kinda stuff and #relatability. But since I thought the author was a Christian, it caught me off guard that her characters took the Lord’s name in vain as frequently as they did. This is a personal preference, so do with that what you will. 🤷♀️
Overall, I really enjoyed Abbie’s debut novel. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but as a reader, I’m happy to say I’m satisfied with my care. 💛💛
•WHAT I LIKED•
-The aesthetics. Yellow, polaroid cameras, waffles, blogger love, sunshine, obnoxiously optimistic boys...what’s not to love?
-Weston. He was my favorite little bean and I kinda love him a lot. 🥺
-The section dividers being the different senses. It makes sense once you read it, I promise.
-The concept. Blind girl + boy with no legs = A BOOK I NEED IN MY LIFE YO.
-That scene by the window with the sunset and my favorite duo *cough* Tessa and Winston *cough cough*
-The ending. I was really nervous about how the author was gonna wrap everything up, but I’m proud to announce that the ending was ABSOLUTE PERFECTION AND EVERYTHING I NEEDED.
•WHAT I DIDN’T LIKE•
-The story kind of read like a really intense outline??? I felt like the author kind of pounded the theme over my head with almost every paragraph, which was a little...distracting? Idk, I had some problems with the grammatical side of things, but it wasn’t too big of a deal.
-I agree with some other reviews that starting the book with a dream sequence in order to deliver information about Tessa’s accident feels a little like lazy writing. This is probably just because it’s a common trope in YA fiction, so I’m not taking point off for it, but it did feel a little forced.
-The characters taking the Lord’s name in vain. I get it: real people say this kinda stuff and #relatability. But since I thought the author was a Christian, it caught me off guard that her characters took the Lord’s name in vain as frequently as they did. This is a personal preference, so do with that what you will. 🤷♀️
Overall, I really enjoyed Abbie’s debut novel. It wasn’t exactly what I expected, but as a reader, I’m happy to say I’m satisfied with my care. 💛💛
May 29, 2021
Another book that’s going to get my ‘man card’ taken away, but I loved it. The author has a YouTube writing vlog that I watch, so I decided to give her book a shot. And I’m really glad I did. It’s a sweet, innocent story of a girl who’s suffering from temporary blindness, and a handicapped boy who befriends her and helps her experience life through her other senses. I listened to the audiobook that was narrated by the author, and she did a fantastic job. Look forward to her next book.
May 23, 2019
I teared up a lot and smiled even more. I considered taking off a half star for my very slight qualms. But no. This book is wonderful and necessary and its own ray of sunlight. Fuller review to come
July 23, 2021
No comments.
Cause of seizure Insta love...
This book was okay....but 😐 idk
I didnt love it
Read Aashi's review which describes my feelings perfectly
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Cause of seizure Insta love...
This book was okay....but 😐 idk
I didnt love it
Read Aashi's review which describes my feelings perfectly
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
May 28, 2019
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 . . . 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 . . .
*coughs* okay, um, yeah. That sums up my thoughts. In another long review. XD
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
*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 . . . 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 . . .
*coughs* okay, um, yeah. That sums up my thoughts. In another long review. XD
I was given a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
August 31, 2019
oh my word, one of the best books ever. thanks Abbie ❤️
September 10, 2021
“Besides, no one has ever seen the light by being told there are darker places out there.”
Disclaimer: There might be minute spoilers in this review that are like so predictable. So, go ahead and read them. They are not much of a spoiler if you can already guess it. BOOM plot twist. Yeah, I expected that. The opinions in this review are subjected to me, myself and only I. So don’t embarrass yourself by arguing against my views.
I just want to read one book that’s not disappointing. The name ‘100 days of sunlight’ sounds really beautiful. The cover is really beautiful. The writing is not :/ I know Abbie Emmons from YouTube and had high expectations for her. 😌 It did have the beauty in it, but it wasn’t written in the way it should have. I wanted it to be relatable. The whole blog thing, poetry and stuff. But it felt distant. Everything in this felt surreal.
The Plot
Tessa Dickinson has lost her eye-sight temporarily due to a car accident. So instead of trying to make her life better, instead of trying, just like every other typical teenage ya girl, she has self-esteem issues. Yay! She snaps at everyone who tries to help her and bickers about how she is all alone. Like SHUT UP, It’s just temporary.
Tessa’s grandpa tries to help her by asking for any employees to type Tessa’s blog posts as he apparently thought writing always helped her. But what does Tessa do? She snaps at both her grandparents and
“I love you and your broken wings.”
Cheesy plotlines wouldn’t matter if the writing was good. If the author presented it a passable manner but NO. It has to be cheesy, ‘typical’, slow-paced and boring. Weston helps Tessa that’s it. They ‘fall in love’. Great. *yawns*
I am struggling to write anything in this review. There is literally no content and I seriously don’t get the hype for this. I wanted to get more of the blog content but NO. I wanted them not to ‘fall in love’ but NO. I wanted the writing to be exciting but NO. I wanted it to be really heart breaking, tearful et cetera but NO. I wanted it to live up to the hype but NO.
The Writing
Dis killed me. My brain is still loading to process the slow pacing here. The middle part of this book was so slo~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o~o
By now many of you must have been annoyed at the big ~o~ thing. This book made me feel in the same way. I also apologize for making you suffer the ~o~ torture. And have I even mentioned how cheesy it was. In my school, some certain people used to talk about this thing called ABCDEFG and no, I am not talking about the alphabets. They have a full form.
A ~ A
B ~ Boy
C ~ Can
D ~ Do
E ~ Everything
F ~ For (a)
G ~ Girl
And its reverse
G ~ Girl
F ~ Forgets
E ~ Everything
D ~ Done (and)
C ~ Catches (a new)
B ~ Boy
A ~ Again
Sexist, isn’t it? Fortunately, this book follows only the first theme. Weston does everything for Tessa, someone he has never met in his life, someone who hated his guts, someone who is unwilling to do anything, someone who is a cry-baby. Geez, cut me some slack. My poor brain cells (that are left which is unfortunately really less). Weston tells the story of how he lost his legs. No offense, but it was written in a really boring manner. It’s actually huge shock that I did not dnf this during that part.
“The second road was rocky, hard, and painful. It was challenging. It was unnatural. It was a mountain range. It was a fighting ring, a boxing match with Life. It was a road that would make me stronger, even if it hurt. This road was called Happiness. It tasted like insanity, like How can I possibly be happy when I have every right to be miserable?”
It just got too descriptive there. He literally describes everything which I am pretty sure is impossible even for the inner monologue.
Maybe it wasn’t as bad as I make it seem but I just didn’t like it. :/ Sorry not sorry.
The Characters
Oh, Saints!
Tessa Dickinson
First of all, she should be sued for having ‘Dickinson’ as her last name. She is an insult to Emily Dickinson. HOW DARE ABBIE GIVE THE LAST NAME ‘DICKINSON’ FOR SUCH A SHALLOW CHARACTER.
”Its dangerous for me to be alone with my thoughts and my world of darkness.”
Welcome to another character who has not personality. Another typical ya girl. Some might be wondering why the word ‘typical’ is italicized two times in the review…or is it thrice? Never mind. I was simply imitating Tessa.
The number of times she says ‘typical teenage boy’ is infuriating! She is a typical person who stereotypes. And what is her deal with describing Weston as ‘stubborn, infuriating, obnoxiously optimistic boy’? He is just trynna help you dam! Do you know who is ‘stubborn, infuriating, obnoxiously pessimist person’? Yup, you didn’t guess it. Its Tessa ‘Dickinson’.
And this is how Tessa describes herself as.
”I’m selfish. I’m lazy. I’m depressed. I’m bitter. I’m cynical”
And they are all true.
I am all about having strong, independent female leads. I mean why would a woman need a man to show her the beauty of life yada yada? She doesn’t! By strong female characters, I mean strong. Strong in every way. They should have faults. There is a difference between strong and annoying. I have to like a character (most of the time) to actually enjoy the book otherwise I will be spending every moment hating the book, thanks to the character. A character who has to get their way, a character who ‘suffered so much’, a character who has some issues with parent (s) et cetera are overused now a days. I wouldn’t mind those type of characters if it was written in a good way!
”Tessa doesn’t talk much. She’s one of those people who thinks a lot, but only says about one percent of what she thinks.”
SAINTS! WHY?
Tessa was such a cry baby. Bye.
It was really good at the beginning but then it got boring and also the ending happened all at once. I decided on three stars at first but the last 50% of the book ruined it.
Tessa is a cry baby and I hated how she constantly calls Weston as ‘typical teenage boy’ etc.
So, in the end, I can say that Tessa ruined this book for me. WHY DO MOST FEMALE LEADS TEND BE ANNOYING AS HECK?!
Weston
Boy, I don’t know how to start this. I have a hate-like relationship with him. Sometimes I like him, sometimes not so much. Eh. SAINTS I AM TURNING INTO A CANADIAN!!
I also don’t remember his last name. Ahem *clears throat* moving on, I thought Weston was sweet. Not the candy kind of sweet but sweet sweet. He was kind and helped Tessa and she in return calls him a typical teenage boy and ‘stubborn, infuriating, obnoxiously optimistic boy’.
”Tessa: love is patient, love is kind. We have to show each other love.”
He was sweet until he became not sweet anymore. He became Obsessed with a capital O. Tessa this, Tessa that, Tessa everything.
”She has small, pale, delicate hands: made for writing poetry.”
How creepy can he get? He clicked random pictures of Tessa without her consent. I liked him better when he wasn’t ‘in love’ with Tessa. It was okay at the beginning but then it just got infuriating not ‘awwww they are so cute together, imma ship them eeeeeeeeek’.
Tessa’s Grandparents
The only characters I liked which is saying something. Both of them were really sweet and kind and helpful, except Tessa ‘didn’t want to be helped’. It’s a pity. I don’t have much to say about them since they don’t play a big role, but trust me, these are the kind of grandparents one would want. Ahhhhh I especially love the grandmother.
The Ending
This was another thing that I hated in the book. It was cramped. Like literally nothing interesting happens other than the predictable thing. I feel it could have been written better, more exciting, more ‘ah, that was a nice read’ kind of thing. Disappointed. And also, not a big fan of the romance! :/ I mean…it was cliché insta love.
“Weston is everything
And all at once.
Weston is gentle
And harsh.
Weston can be blindingly bright
But then he can also be
Delicately soft.
Weston is a paradox.”
My thoughts
Everything was sailing smoothly but it just got on a bad track. I forced myself to complete the book. Obviously the one thing that I liked was element of poetry and blog. If you know me well, you would know that I am a big fan of poems. I read this book for that very purpose but was disappointed to see that, even poetry theme, wasn’t shown much. Overall, I was disappointed that it lacked many things that I would have liked to see in this book. I am not saying this is badly written, its just not my taste.
“Letting go feels like giving up. But if you don’t let go, you’ll drown. I know the feeling. And it sucks. But Life sucks sometimes. And yeah, it gets back up. But you don’t have to stay on your knees.”
Would recommend this for people who don’t mind
• Slow paced books
• Predictable plot line and characters
• Annoying female lead who thinks she is strong/best/superior/un-typical but in fact she is nothing but annoying
• Having significantly less brain cells
Thank you for reading something that came from my sick mind! Now excuse me while I go rest my rotten brain.
May 15, 2019
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 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!
Oh yeah, and I got a free copy in exchange for an honest review from Abbie through NetGalley. :)
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 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!
Oh yeah, and I got a free copy in exchange for an honest review from Abbie through NetGalley. :)
June 14, 2019
5 stars
// 1 0 0 . d a y s . o f . s u n l i g h t
If you like contemporary romance: read this.
If you don't like contemporary romance: read this anyway.
😉😍💖✨🌻🌞
// 1 0 0 . d a y s . o f . s u n l i g h t
If you like contemporary romance: read this.
If you don't like contemporary romance: read this anyway.
😉😍💖✨🌻🌞
August 17, 2019
WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO MY HEART
Abbie is able to craft such a raw and emotional and beautiful story. I was hooked and entranced the whole way through. A glorious story of love, healing, and punching Life in the face. Such a sweet summery read.
UM SO ARE THERE WESTONS IN REAL LIFE PLZ???
AND oh my word I was so happy to see that Tessa was a blogger! How come you don’t see that often in YA? It was awesome.
All the characters were unbelievably great. Weston and his brothers were so cute and made me smile all the time. And Weston and Rudy? ❤️❤️❤️ Tessa’s grandparents? ❤️❤️❤️
Gave this book four stars instead of five because of the consistent use of swear words from Weston and some inappropriate humor.
Abbie is able to craft such a raw and emotional and beautiful story. I was hooked and entranced the whole way through. A glorious story of love, healing, and punching Life in the face. Such a sweet summery read.
UM SO ARE THERE WESTONS IN REAL LIFE PLZ???
AND oh my word I was so happy to see that Tessa was a blogger! How come you don’t see that often in YA? It was awesome.
All the characters were unbelievably great. Weston and his brothers were so cute and made me smile all the time. And Weston and Rudy? ❤️❤️❤️ Tessa’s grandparents? ❤️❤️❤️
Gave this book four stars instead of five because of the consistent use of swear words from Weston and some inappropriate humor.
May 7, 2024
Ocena nie mogła być inna, cudowna 🥺⭐️
#100dnisłońca , a ja miałam dzięki tej książce taki cały jeden rozświetlony dzień ☀️ bo jest dosłownie jak promyczek, który rozświetli najczarniejsze chmury i da nadzieję na coś lepszego. Niesamowita historia pełna wartości, którą każdy może i wręcz powinien chcieć przeczytać. Szczególnie w młodym wieku. Ale oczywiście nie tylko! Dałam 5/5 i zostawiam kawałek serducha zarówno Tessie jak i Westonowi ❤️
Książka opowiada o dziewczynie, która uległa wypadkowi samochodowemu i straciła na 100 dni wzrok. Nastolatce wali się świat, jest przerażona i czuje, że już nic dobrego jej po tym wszystkim nie czeka. Nie jest nawet pewna, czy go odzyska. Musiała porzucić pisanie poezji i swojego bloga, czym właściwie żyła, więc jej dziadkowie, z którymi mieszka, wpadają na pomysł, by zamieścić ogłoszenie w gazecie w poszukiwaniu osoby, która jej w tym wszystkim pomoże - będzie jej słuchać i pisać za nią, tak, by dziewczyna dalej mogła się rozwijać i by wróciła do niej choć cząstka nadziei i motywacji.
I wtedy wkracza on - Weston, chłopak golden retriever, który zyskał moją sympatię już od pierwszych stron. Sam ma niepełnosprawność i brakuje mu traktowania go w „zwykły” sposób przez innych. Nie chce, żeby ktoś mówił dziewczynie o jego niepełnosprawności, dzięki czemu czuje się przy niej w końcu tak jak pragnął, bo ona jedyna nie patrzy (brzydka gra słów, ale właściwie używając tego w poście mogę od razu Wam napisać, że książka mimo trudności tematu jest połączona z dobrze wyważonym humorem na tej podstawie i potrafi wywołać ogromny uśmiech na buzi) kontynuując - nie patrzy na niego poprzez pryzmat smutnej życiowej historii, a jednak dzięki niej chłopak doskonale może rozumieć dziewczynę.
Tessa nie jest na początku chętna na pomoc chłopaka, jednak ten się nie poddaje i wraca. Wraca. Wraca.
A na końcu to ona będzie musiała zawalczyć o niego i wracać, wracać, wracać.
Kocham podział tej książki na części pt węch, smak, słuch i dotyk… (i jeszcze jest wzrok) - to jak Weston chciał pokazać Tessie, że można doceniać świat i go nie widzieć, a czasem nawet właśnie to czego nie widzimy, jest najpiękniejsze… ❤️
Współpraca reklamowa z @wydawnictwoyoung dziękuję! 5/5⭐️
#100dnisłońca , a ja miałam dzięki tej książce taki cały jeden rozświetlony dzień ☀️ bo jest dosłownie jak promyczek, który rozświetli najczarniejsze chmury i da nadzieję na coś lepszego. Niesamowita historia pełna wartości, którą każdy może i wręcz powinien chcieć przeczytać. Szczególnie w młodym wieku. Ale oczywiście nie tylko! Dałam 5/5 i zostawiam kawałek serducha zarówno Tessie jak i Westonowi ❤️
Książka opowiada o dziewczynie, która uległa wypadkowi samochodowemu i straciła na 100 dni wzrok. Nastolatce wali się świat, jest przerażona i czuje, że już nic dobrego jej po tym wszystkim nie czeka. Nie jest nawet pewna, czy go odzyska. Musiała porzucić pisanie poezji i swojego bloga, czym właściwie żyła, więc jej dziadkowie, z którymi mieszka, wpadają na pomysł, by zamieścić ogłoszenie w gazecie w poszukiwaniu osoby, która jej w tym wszystkim pomoże - będzie jej słuchać i pisać za nią, tak, by dziewczyna dalej mogła się rozwijać i by wróciła do niej choć cząstka nadziei i motywacji.
I wtedy wkracza on - Weston, chłopak golden retriever, który zyskał moją sympatię już od pierwszych stron. Sam ma niepełnosprawność i brakuje mu traktowania go w „zwykły” sposób przez innych. Nie chce, żeby ktoś mówił dziewczynie o jego niepełnosprawności, dzięki czemu czuje się przy niej w końcu tak jak pragnął, bo ona jedyna nie patrzy (brzydka gra słów, ale właściwie używając tego w poście mogę od razu Wam napisać, że książka mimo trudności tematu jest połączona z dobrze wyważonym humorem na tej podstawie i potrafi wywołać ogromny uśmiech na buzi) kontynuując - nie patrzy na niego poprzez pryzmat smutnej życiowej historii, a jednak dzięki niej chłopak doskonale może rozumieć dziewczynę.
Tessa nie jest na początku chętna na pomoc chłopaka, jednak ten się nie poddaje i wraca. Wraca. Wraca.
A na końcu to ona będzie musiała zawalczyć o niego i wracać, wracać, wracać.
Kocham podział tej książki na części pt węch, smak, słuch i dotyk… (i jeszcze jest wzrok) - to jak Weston chciał pokazać Tessie, że można doceniać świat i go nie widzieć, a czasem nawet właśnie to czego nie widzimy, jest najpiękniejsze… ❤️
Współpraca reklamowa z @wydawnictwoyoung dziękuję! 5/5⭐️
June 30, 2019
*ugly sobs*
This book is so beautiful. It is so heart warming. It is so inspiring.
I loved this book so much. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this piece of art is. This book *sighs* has to be one of my all time favorites.
The characters were amazing and to die for. Every single one of them I loved. I want them to be real so I can become friends with them.
The feelings were authentic, real, and so heart breaking at times. I literally nearly started sobbing at a few parts.
I loved the portrayal of handicaps. I am the older sister of an amputee. My younger brother, who we adopted from China, is missing one of his legs from his knee down. He lost it due to health problems. The portal of handicaps made my heart cry out. It made me nearly start to cry. It made me cheer, "yes, finally someone says it!" You are not the handicap. Your handicap does not define who you are. This is why I loved this book so much.
The romance was so adorable and so realistic. I highly enjoyed reading how Tessa and Weston fell in love.
Y'all this book was amazing and deserves so much recognition. This beauty comes out in September. Y'all really need to go check it out and pre-order it. It is worth the money!!
*FTC: I received this book from the author through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinoin. All thoughts are my own.*
This book is so beautiful. It is so heart warming. It is so inspiring.
I loved this book so much. I cannot even begin to describe how amazing this piece of art is. This book *sighs* has to be one of my all time favorites.
The characters were amazing and to die for. Every single one of them I loved. I want them to be real so I can become friends with them.
The feelings were authentic, real, and so heart breaking at times. I literally nearly started sobbing at a few parts.
I loved the portrayal of handicaps. I am the older sister of an amputee. My younger brother, who we adopted from China, is missing one of his legs from his knee down. He lost it due to health problems. The portal of handicaps made my heart cry out. It made me nearly start to cry. It made me cheer, "yes, finally someone says it!" You are not the handicap. Your handicap does not define who you are. This is why I loved this book so much.
The romance was so adorable and so realistic. I highly enjoyed reading how Tessa and Weston fell in love.
Y'all this book was amazing and deserves so much recognition. This beauty comes out in September. Y'all really need to go check it out and pre-order it. It is worth the money!!
*FTC: I received this book from the author through Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinoin. All thoughts are my own.*
June 1, 2021
Review to come, because I am still DECEASED. But that was one of the best books I have ever read. I cannot wait for you all to read it. :')
-----
8/10/19
100 Days of Sunlight tells the story of teenage blogger Tessa Dickenson. After Tessa is involved in a car accident, she finds herself completely blind. Doctors have hope that her sight will return in a little over three months, but for the time being, Tessa is trapped in a world of darkness. She's bitter and doesn't know how to cope with this new way of life. She's no longer able to write, and she doesn't see how life can hold any beauty for her any longer.
Enter Weston Ludovico. When Tessa's grandparents place an ad for someone to come and help Tessa maintain her poetry blog while she is without her sight, amputee Weston decides that he just might be the right person for the job. He gets what Tessa is going through even when she feels like no one does, and thinks that he can help her. His one condition? Tessa can't know that he lost his legs.
Slowly, Weston coaxes Tessa out of the darkness she's trapped herself in, far darker than any blindness. But when Tessa's sight slowly begins to return, is Weston ready to be seen?
Going into this book, I had a pretty good idea that I was going to be a fan. My love for Abbie aside, it sounded right up my alley. However, there really aren't words for just how much I fell head over heels in love with 100 Days of Sunlight.
This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. It was everything I could want in a book and more. From the characters to the setting to the plot to the themes to the aesthetic of it all, I was obsessed. Like, come on. It's a book with a precious hate to love couple that takes place in a small town and involves waffles and poetry and finding hope in the darkness. What on earth is there for me not to fall in love with here? I can quite literally say after reading it that 100 Days of Sunlight is Abbie's soul on the page. There is so much of her within this book, and maybe that's why I love it so. It's so genuine and truthful and real.
Abbie did such a brilliant job with this book. One of my favorite parts is that this book is told in five parts, with each part titled as one of the five senses. It was such a small detail that wove everything together so well. (You'll understand when you read it. Which you have to do. Just trust me.)
Every single one of the characters grabs your heart. Tessa isn't necessarily always likeable, but you feel for her. You understand why she's lashing out even when it's not pretty, and you just want her to get back up on her feet again. Weston is singlehandedly one of the most precious characters I have ever read. If we all had a little more of Weston in us, the world would be such a better place. He's a fighter with a smile that lights up any darkness, and he's filled with more hope and optimism than one would ever think possible. He hasn't had the easiest road, but his strength will both break your heart and warm it, all at once.
Then you have each and every side character, from Tessa's grandparents to Weston's family to Rudy, Weston's beyond loveable best friend. Rudy and Weston's relationship was actually one of my favorite parts of the book. They've grown up together, and they're such BOYS, but they have a really special friendship that I loved seeing the dynamics of.
I also feel the need to mention that there are a few scenes in the book involving Tessa's blogger tribe that quite literally made me cry. You'll see why when you read the book, but Abbie, I love you endlessly for doing that. You have my heart always. ♥
Tessa and Weston's relationship is so simple and pure and wonderful. Seeing them slowly learn to trust each other as they begin to fall in love is the most beautiful thing. Their growth and individual character arcs were stunning, and their relationship along made me never want the book to end. Because the book revolved around their story, it wasn't very fast-paced, but I quite literally never put it down. I read it cover to cover in the span of an afternoon, totally obsessed. It was two seventeen-year-olds falling in love in the most natural, beautiful way, and I couldn't get enough.
It was also incredible to me how much detail Abbie went into regarding Tessa and Weston's disabilities. It's clear that she did a ton of research, and it paid off. It was so interesting to learn more about what it would be like to be blind, or to be an amputee. I know that making sure that those situations are accurately represented is super super important, and I was so impressed with how it was all written.
Beyond all of this, though - beyond the characters, and the plot, and the research, and the aesthetics of the book, 100 Days of Sunlight is a book about hope. At its very core, it is a book about hope and light and falling but getting back up again. It's about strength and about sunlight, and about realizing that your only real limitation in life is yourself. I can honestly say that I've never read a book as hopeful as 100 Days of Sunlight, and that is without a doubt my favorite thing about it. If you're in a place right now where you feel like you're running out of options, or that things are never going to get better, or that you don't know how to pick yourself back up - this is the book for you. So Abbie, thank you. Thank you for reminding us all that there is still hope. Even when "obnoxious optimism" doesn't feel like it will ever be a reality, this book is a reminder to keep fighting.
I couldn't possibly love it more.
-----
8/10/19
100 Days of Sunlight tells the story of teenage blogger Tessa Dickenson. After Tessa is involved in a car accident, she finds herself completely blind. Doctors have hope that her sight will return in a little over three months, but for the time being, Tessa is trapped in a world of darkness. She's bitter and doesn't know how to cope with this new way of life. She's no longer able to write, and she doesn't see how life can hold any beauty for her any longer.
Enter Weston Ludovico. When Tessa's grandparents place an ad for someone to come and help Tessa maintain her poetry blog while she is without her sight, amputee Weston decides that he just might be the right person for the job. He gets what Tessa is going through even when she feels like no one does, and thinks that he can help her. His one condition? Tessa can't know that he lost his legs.
Slowly, Weston coaxes Tessa out of the darkness she's trapped herself in, far darker than any blindness. But when Tessa's sight slowly begins to return, is Weston ready to be seen?
Going into this book, I had a pretty good idea that I was going to be a fan. My love for Abbie aside, it sounded right up my alley. However, there really aren't words for just how much I fell head over heels in love with 100 Days of Sunlight.
This book is unlike anything I've ever read before. It was everything I could want in a book and more. From the characters to the setting to the plot to the themes to the aesthetic of it all, I was obsessed. Like, come on. It's a book with a precious hate to love couple that takes place in a small town and involves waffles and poetry and finding hope in the darkness. What on earth is there for me not to fall in love with here? I can quite literally say after reading it that 100 Days of Sunlight is Abbie's soul on the page. There is so much of her within this book, and maybe that's why I love it so. It's so genuine and truthful and real.
Abbie did such a brilliant job with this book. One of my favorite parts is that this book is told in five parts, with each part titled as one of the five senses. It was such a small detail that wove everything together so well. (You'll understand when you read it. Which you have to do. Just trust me.)
Every single one of the characters grabs your heart. Tessa isn't necessarily always likeable, but you feel for her. You understand why she's lashing out even when it's not pretty, and you just want her to get back up on her feet again. Weston is singlehandedly one of the most precious characters I have ever read. If we all had a little more of Weston in us, the world would be such a better place. He's a fighter with a smile that lights up any darkness, and he's filled with more hope and optimism than one would ever think possible. He hasn't had the easiest road, but his strength will both break your heart and warm it, all at once.
Then you have each and every side character, from Tessa's grandparents to Weston's family to Rudy, Weston's beyond loveable best friend. Rudy and Weston's relationship was actually one of my favorite parts of the book. They've grown up together, and they're such BOYS, but they have a really special friendship that I loved seeing the dynamics of.
I also feel the need to mention that there are a few scenes in the book involving Tessa's blogger tribe that quite literally made me cry. You'll see why when you read the book, but Abbie, I love you endlessly for doing that. You have my heart always. ♥
Tessa and Weston's relationship is so simple and pure and wonderful. Seeing them slowly learn to trust each other as they begin to fall in love is the most beautiful thing. Their growth and individual character arcs were stunning, and their relationship along made me never want the book to end. Because the book revolved around their story, it wasn't very fast-paced, but I quite literally never put it down. I read it cover to cover in the span of an afternoon, totally obsessed. It was two seventeen-year-olds falling in love in the most natural, beautiful way, and I couldn't get enough.
It was also incredible to me how much detail Abbie went into regarding Tessa and Weston's disabilities. It's clear that she did a ton of research, and it paid off. It was so interesting to learn more about what it would be like to be blind, or to be an amputee. I know that making sure that those situations are accurately represented is super super important, and I was so impressed with how it was all written.
Beyond all of this, though - beyond the characters, and the plot, and the research, and the aesthetics of the book, 100 Days of Sunlight is a book about hope. At its very core, it is a book about hope and light and falling but getting back up again. It's about strength and about sunlight, and about realizing that your only real limitation in life is yourself. I can honestly say that I've never read a book as hopeful as 100 Days of Sunlight, and that is without a doubt my favorite thing about it. If you're in a place right now where you feel like you're running out of options, or that things are never going to get better, or that you don't know how to pick yourself back up - this is the book for you. So Abbie, thank you. Thank you for reminding us all that there is still hope. Even when "obnoxious optimism" doesn't feel like it will ever be a reality, this book is a reminder to keep fighting.
I couldn't possibly love it more.
July 21, 2020
12-9-19
This book... this book always hits me in the feels so hard. I love this book and will forever be rereading this book! <3
Original Review
OH. MY. WORD.
THIS BOOK!!!!
Okay, so looking at this cover and the description, you might think it's a simple, fluffy, contemporary romance.
HA!
No, this is a deep book about standing up when life knocks you down, and never giving up even when it seems like there's nothing else to do.
This book is amazing.
Writing Style? On POINT!
Characters? LOVE THEM!
Weston?? Okay, y'all know I love Fin from The Blood Race, which means Fin is the standard. Is it so wrong to say Weston and Fin are almost on the same level??? (Fin is my number one because he's Fin, but you get the idea!)
I am IN LOVE with this book and everything in it. Besides that, you can see Abbie's dedication and hard work shine through.
Yes, it is a contemporary romance, but it is so much more than that.
Five shiny stars.
This book... this book always hits me in the feels so hard. I love this book and will forever be rereading this book! <3
Original Review
OH. MY. WORD.
THIS BOOK!!!!
Okay, so looking at this cover and the description, you might think it's a simple, fluffy, contemporary romance.
HA!
No, this is a deep book about standing up when life knocks you down, and never giving up even when it seems like there's nothing else to do.
This book is amazing.
Writing Style? On POINT!
Characters? LOVE THEM!
Weston?? Okay, y'all know I love Fin from The Blood Race, which means Fin is the standard. Is it so wrong to say Weston and Fin are almost on the same level??? (Fin is my number one because he's Fin, but you get the idea!)
I am IN LOVE with this book and everything in it. Besides that, you can see Abbie's dedication and hard work shine through.
Yes, it is a contemporary romance, but it is so much more than that.
Five shiny stars.
October 17, 2022
I wish there was a 6th star because this book is way beyond a 5 star rating!!!! I seriously have NO WORDS!!!!! Every word in this book, every 'chapter' in this book, and every single thing made my heart ache!!!! I would recommend this book to ANYONE!!!! For sure one of my favorite books ever!
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