"The Bright Side Running Club" by Josie Lloyd is a testament to the strength and power of friendship!

Keira has just been diagnosed with breast cancer and it's rocking her world! How will she share this news with her family? What will she say to them? Will she be able to take the time away from work she'll need for her treatment?

Keira soon learns it's as simple as placing one foot in front of the other from a group of women who also have breast cancer. They're going through treatment just like her and it's joining 'The Bright Side Running Club' and running with this diverse group of women that gives Keira a spark of hope and normalcy.

Day to day life, being what it is though, does have a habit of getting in the way. Keira's family life and work life seems to ebb and flow a bit more than she would like. At times like this, she's so grateful for her friends from 'The Bright Side Running Club'!

This is a wonderful story about getting through a deep valley in your life, retaining your whole self without allowing that challenge to define you. Living life through kindness, focusing on the positive and being hopeful is what inspires me about this book. That, and the humor, mixed with sadness, mixed with reality that life throws at you!

Friendship is a key topic in this story. Coming together to help one another during low moments, cheering each other on during their runs, lending an ear, a shoulder, or a warm hug when it is so sorely needed, these beautifully drawn characters prove the strength and power of friendship during the most troubling of times.

This audiobook narrated by Danielle Cohen was a notable experience. Her voicing skills and ability to bring this story to life made this an unexpected listen for me in the best way!

I thoroughly enjoyed this story and I highly recommend it to other readers who love audiobook's as much as I do!

3.5 rounded up to 4 on socials. it was a cute and easy read, and though some of the characters felt under-developed, but I still smiled at Keira running the 10k and taking her business back. I could see this being a great book for a specific audience.

I really want to thank the publisher for the opportunity to listen to this audiobook. Unfortunately, as a breast cancer survivor, this one was too triggering and ended up being a DNF for me.

I adore the narrator for this title! She is so relatable and funny and feels like a friend.

The writing is witty and tender and authentic and this story felt so engaging and nuanced with the layers of not just going through treatment for cancer, but of living your life. Between the work issues, marriage issues, parenting issues, and friendship issues this book is multilayered and relatable in the many things happening simultaneously and the balance of trying to decide what gets the most attention when.

I really enjoyed this story. I love the group of friends that come together and support one another in such difficult times.

For a Roman e novel, it was okay. I don’t like romance novels, but something about the description caught my eye. I should listen to my instincts: I don’t like romance novels.

This was a great story with some great characters. The conflict towards the end built with a lot of intensity, and I’m so glad it was resolved the way it was. While the story still had an open ending, I didn’t mind it. The narrator did an excellent job too!

Moving, uplifting, and full of hope, this beautifully crafted novel about love, family, and the power of finding your tribe is based on the author’s own experience with cancer and community. These words were what led me to give this story a listen. Such a sweet story.

Keira, a wife, mother, and business owner, is diagnosed with breast cancer. she joins a running club to build solidarity among women battling cancer. overall more of a cancer book than a running book, BRIGHT SIDE RUNNING CLUB does a great job at showing the human side of cancer & how it affects all aspects of life. a bit long & overwritten, probably reflecting the length of a cancer battle.

I loved this book so, so much. I laughed, I cried, and I fell in love with these characters. The audiobook was beautifully narrated, and I couldn’t stop listening to this beautiful book.

I really enjoyed this - heartfelt, powerful story about friendship between women. It reminded me of the vibe of The Friday Night Knitting Club.

Uplifting, encouraging and utterly enjoyable. This book gave me all the feels - some sad and tearful and others had me smiling and giggling. The book is full of fun characters who are very relatable. I felt the description of the monotonous, day to day drudgery of unappreciated parenting was spot on! Overall a delightful book that I highly recommend!

Special thanks to #NetGalley #TheBrightSideRunningClub #dreamscapemedia

Thank you to NetGalley, Dreamscape Media and Josie Lloyd for this ALC of The Bright Side Running Club in exchange for my honest review.

I'm a bit late posting about this book since publication day was Feb. 17, 2022....but better late than never, right?!
This book was a welcomed surprise! I'm not exactly sure what I was expecting when I requested this audiobook, but I got so much more! I loved the story. The friendships, the journey, the heartache...ALL OF IT worked for me and I did not want it to end.

This beautiful, witty, entertaining and heartbreakingly honest story was just what I needed to read at this time. Well done, Josie Lloyd!

Novel: 4.5 STARS
Narrator: Danielle Cohen 5 STARS

Keira’s world is turned upside down with her sudden breast cancer diagnosis, but she finds comfort and friendship in a group of women who have or have had breast cancer and run together regularly.

Wow. This book blew me away. I feel like this is a different side of cancer/chronic illness that we rarely see in pop culture. We see examples of people struggling through diagnosis and treatment in pop culture all the time, but what we don’t see or hear about much are those inner thoughts. I was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease at 25, and, something that the Keira said is something that I felt and said more than once - one day I was healthy & the next day I wasn’t (paraphrasing). Keira also talked about body betrayal and guilt - all things that I have felt too. She is one of the most realistic and relatable characters I have seen in a long time.

Aside from that, I loved that there were moments that were funny, sad, inspiring, maddening, and honestly, everything that people feel in life.


I would like to thank NetGalley, Dreamscape Media, and Josie Lloyd for a free copy in exchange for an honest review.

As someone who's mother suffered from an unexpected breast cancer diagnosis I knew they book might be a bit hard to listen to. What I wasn't expecting was for me to fall in love with this book completely.

To see Keira's strength as she decides to put one foot in front of the other while undergoing cancer treatment, with other women who are also going through what she is, is to put it mildly inspiring. The narrator did a wonderful job of making me feel engaged and as if I was in the story. I will be recommending this book to anyone I can!

The Bright Side Running Club by Josie Lloyd was a bit disappointing and I stopped listening to the audiobook around 40%. I truly enjoyed the narration by Danielle Cohen and would love to listen to more of her work, so it was definitely not the narrator but the story itself.

I'm typically drawn to cancer stories as I find a lot of comfort in them after losing my dad a few years back, but I felt like I was forcing myself to listen to Keira's story. I found her character somewhat unlikeable and the story also lacked a balance between positive and negative. It seemed that everything in Keira's life was wrong and completely out of her control (like the way her partner and her partner's husband were taking over her business) and she was just a bystander. People of course deal with such news in different ways, but the word choice often made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

Unfortunately this wasn't for me but thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I stopped listening to this a million times! I don’t know if I was scared or just drifting. Cancer has always been a scary thing and I wanted to be in the mood for it.
The narrator was Danielle Cohen and she gets a 5 ⭐️. I enjoyed her voice. But everything else was mediocre. I hate that I’m saying this but I’m trying to be honest. It didn’t pull me in. I didn’t connect with the story. So there it is…
My thought about the book.
Thanks Dreamscape Media via NetGalley

The Bright Side Running Club follows main character Keira after she is diagnosed with breast cancer and joins a running club with other cancer patients. It dives into the lives of these women as they handle the emotional and physical complications of a breast cancer diagnosis.

When I read the premise of this novel, I was really excited about it. I went in with high expectations and really wanted to love it. Unfortunately, it fell a little flat for me. It was a book that I liked, but didn't love.

What I liked about this audio book:
- It gave good insight into living with a breast cancer diagnosis. It highlighted a perspective that I hadn't read about previously
- It did bring out an emotional response
- The relationships of the women in he running club

What didn't work for me:
- The dialogue was fairly brusque (ex. "It's like having your tit chopped off.") A lot of the book was written in that voice, which is generally not how I speak. I understand that people are going to have different voices/attitudes, but listening to it on audio book tended to take me out of the story. I think I may have enjoyed it better (or been able to overlook it easier) had I been reading it.
- The gaslighting of Kiera's business partner. The whole mystery there felt a bit weird and out of place. It felt unnecessary
- The main character (for the first half). It feels weird to not love the main character, a woman living with cancer, but I struggled with her at times. It was usually in the times having to do with her business/business partner. I liked her much better in the second half of the book, but in the first half, when she was being gaslit and her husband didn't support/believe her, it was a uncomfortable to read. As I look back, I'm not sure if it's that I didn't like the character or if I just didn't like that whole story line. I liked her much better outside of that setting.

Overall, I am glad I got to listen to the book, as it gave me a broader understanding of what cancer patients go through, but it didn't quite live up to what I was expecting.

Truly an inspiring book about the power of relationships in difficult times. When she receives her breast cancer diagnosis, Keira is completely blind sighted. The women in this book show strength and determination and the bond of their friendship full of hope. Keira's story is honest and heartfelt but also full of humor and enlightenment. The author carefully examines the physical as well as emotional tole this diagnosis takes on her. I enjoyed the narration of this book as well as she brought the characters to life for me.

I received a complimentary copy of this book by Josie Lloyd from Dreamscape Media via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for the opportunity.

Email: DaniReadsTooMuch@comcast.net
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Sadly, I never connected with any of the characters, and after awhile stopped caring about what happens in the book, ergo it became background noise. I think, overall it wasn't the book's fault. It was more a case of expecting something different. It doesn't happen often, but sometimes the book just doesn't click with me, as it happened with this one.