Tag: Books

Hey daydreamers! Happy Easter, everyone! As I’m writing this, it’s currently still Easter Sunday and I have no idea if I’ll get this post up by the end of the evening, but oh well. It’s definitely been a different Easter than normal for all of us, and even though we’re camping in our backyard instead of the beautiful state park and we’re watching church from our couch instead of at the service it still doesn’t change the fact that Jesus has Risen. 🙃

My mom always makes these cute and fun Easter baskets to give to us every year (thanks Mom!) and this year, one of the things I got was the book 100 Days of Sunlight by the insanely talented Abbie Emmons! Since I didn’t get a post up yesterday on Saturday like I was supposed to, I decided to post a review of this wonderful and amazing book that I devoured in one sitting. Let’s get straight into the review! ⤵⤵⤵

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 door: 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 contempt — screaming at him to get out of her house and never come back. But for Weston, it’s the most amazing feeling: 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 life: vanish from Tessa’s world…or overcome his fear of being seen.

100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant and heartfelt novel by debut 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. AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE

Source: https://www.100daysofsunlight.com/about-the-book

💛 my thoughts 💛

I read this book in practically one sitting. Most of it I read outside, feeling the sunshine on my face, the warmth of the beautiful Easter spring day enveloping me…ahh, it was the best feeling. 😌 And add on an absolutely amazing, fluffy contemporary book filled with cute characters, ukeleles, blogging, waffles, and the color yellow? YES PLEASE! 💛

From the first page, I was captivated by the story. It goes on to follow Tessa, who’s lost her sight for 100 days, and Weston, who’s determined to show her that there’s beauty in other things besides sight. But then they start falling for each other, and Weston’s afraid she’ll stop treating him like a normal person if she figures out his secret.

First off: I loved (most of) the characters! Weston was my absolute favorite. He’s such an amazing big brother and he makes amazing waffles and is “obnoxiously optimistic” and plays the ukelele. And for some reason, I kept picturing his character as Joshua Basset (except with no legs) the whole time. 😂

I didn’t like Tessa that much at first, and I definitely preferred reading Weston’s chapters a lot more. Especially because sometimes she would write like this:

i

a m

d r o w n i n g.

It was slightly annoying at first, but then I grew to love her character more and more as the story progressed. It was so cool to “see”, or rather hear, touch, smell, and taste the story and the world through Tessa’s eyes, even though she was blind. And she was so relatable: she’s a writer, has a blog and a super amazing and supportive group of blogging besties, and she writes poetry!

I didn’t care for the character Rudy that much, but I adored Weston’s little brothers and Tessa’s grandparents! And her grandpa’s church and her grandma’s concern for her and Weston’s brothers who literally think he’s a superhero. I loved them all! 💛

Second, the story was amazing! I don’t read very many YA contemporaries (I normally read MG contemporaries or YA fantasy/dystopian), so I was a little worried about the plot going nowhere. It turned out to be a super solid and thoughtful plot, showing the relationship between Tessa and Weston go from hate-to-love with amazing flashbacks to Weston’s past sprinkled in at the perfect moments, and ahh, it was such a cute story! I especially love how it was separated into sections of smell, sound, taste, touch, and sight.

And that cover – I know you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover and everything, but seriously, I can’t stop admiring the cover and all of its gorgeousness. And every little adorable artwork has something significant to do with the story, and you appreciate it so much more after reading the book! At first, I thought the cover was beautiful, but after reading it I was like, “And those are the waffles, and there’s her laptop, and that’s the polaroid camera, and ASFDKASLKDFJ; THAT’S THE YELLOW UKELELE!” The yellowness and aesthetic of it is so gorgeous, and I love the cover so much I ended up taking a ton of aesthetic-looking pictures in the backyard with it. XD

Content: I was very surprised when the characters would swear out of nowhere. One of my main complaints about the book was that sometimes they would say curse words (it wasn’t terribly frequent, thankfully, and I guess it was technically a YA book, so 🤷‍♀️) Also, there were one or two scenes where Weston and Rudy would fight, but it was always a sort of game and it wasn’t described in horribly violent detail or anything. There was also a very brief scene where a creepy dude harasses the main character, Tessa, by grabbing her wrist.

Overall: This book was so incredible! It was a cute, romantic, and poignant read that left me thinking about beauty and made me appreciate the sights I see around me in a whole new way. 10/10 recommend this book and I 11/10 recommend reading it on the porch with a refreshing drink and lots of sunshine. 😉

Whatdduya know, I finished this by tonight! I hope you guys check out the book because I loved it and think you will, too. Have a happy Easter everyone! Christ has Risen!

Have you ever read this book? Isn’t Abbie Emmons amazing? Do you love waffles? Opinion on the color yellow? Did you like the photos I took? What did your family do for Easter today? (We did online church, Easter baskets, an egg hunt, and me and my sister are going to go camping in our backyard tonight!)

And remember, if you share this post by reblogging, pinning on Pinterest, sharing on social media, emailing a friend, or any way you’d like, leave a comment letting me know how you shared it and you’ll get 3 FREE desktop wallpapers delivered straight to your inbox! This month’s theme is fruit and I’m super excited to share it with y’all!