Seventeen years ago, Harlow Smith found herself pregnant at seventeen. Broken-hearted, she decided to put her son up for adoption. Ultimately, she knew she made the right decision for her in that moment and in her circumstance.

Now, Harlow is living in Cape Cod. Her family is near and she helps run - along her her grandfather, cousin Cynthia, and friend Destiny - the bookstore she inherited from her grandmother after she passed. Her life has been good. Then one day her son walks into her shop. And everything changes.

Harlow is beyond happy to get to know her son, but this forces her to reexamine her past decisions and brings to light the secret she kept from her family. As Harlow navigates a summer with her son, she wonders if they can have the relationship now that they missed out on before.

I've always enjoyed Kristan Higgins' books and I feel like her more recent ones have really taken a deeper look at some often difficult topics such as loss, grief, and dealing with one's own mortality. Always, however, these things are done with a sense of hopefulness. A Little Ray of Sunshine deals with adoption from all angles. Not only do we get Harlow's perspective as a woman who put her child up for adoption, but we get the perspective of Monica - part of the pair who adopted Harlow's son Matthew - and then we get Harlow's cousin Cynthia's perspective as someone who was adopted but had a totally different experience than Matthew.

I appreciated the different viewpoints I think it made for a very well-rounded story about adoption because obviously everyone's experience is different. There may be similarities between people's stories, but ultimately everyone is shaped differently by there experiences.

There were a few times that I thought the narrative read too much like reading bullet-points from a list of what to talk about when talking about adoption. Where the story really shined, for me, was in conveying the idea of adoption as both beautiful and heartbreaking. Something that effects everyone involved - sometimes for good and sometimes for bad, often both at the same time. The story had some very poingnant moments when talking about what adoption can mean for different people and different experiences.

I like that, overall, the story is kind of like this snapshot of Summer. Not a typical summer for many, but a summer none-the-less. I always feel like summers are very transitional times. There's the whole regrowth of nature that has happened in Spring and carries over into Summer. Also, it's the period of time for children as they end one school year and prepare to begin another - or graduate and head off into full adulthood. So it just felt right that their meeting would happen in such a time.

I almost felt like Harlow had been frozen in time a bit after the birth of Matthew. She didn't really allow herself to move forward. Then she meets her son and it's almost like she can move again. Like she realizes there's a lot she wants to be doing that she's kind of kept herself closed off from. As much has Harlow and her family and Matthew and Matthew's adoptive parents have to go through over the course of the book, it's as though it's all just opening a door for what's to come.

As is typical with a Kristan Higgins book I was at times laughing then crying. The small-town vibes and family dynamics are a staple in her stories and I never get tired of it. I really liked the feeling this one left me with, kind of seeing a life-changing moment in progress.

I've read many previous books by this author and I was really looking forward to this new one-- a story of what happens after a teenager finds his birth mother. Harlow was a teen herself when she made the very difficult decision to give her son, Matthew, to Monica and Sanjay Patel to raise. Now Harlow owns a bookstore on Cape Cod.

I appreciated the various viewpoints the author raised concerning adoption. Matthew's feelings were naturally all over the place and his actions felt very realistic. My heart went out to Harlow and Monica who were both struggling to do the right thing. I liked the bookstore and summer Cape Cod setting. This is contemporary fiction and not romance, but I wish we could have had more time with Harlow and Gray and their developing relationship.

Thank you to the publisher for my ecopy of this book.

Thank you Netgalley and Berkley for access to this arc.

Told in Harlow’s first person POV and the third person POVs of Monica and Cynthia this is a female centered story of motherhood and life changes. It’s 496 pages long and a lot will happen to almost everyone in it.

It’s obvious from the start that all three women need to examine their lives. All three will do so but they’ll face the “Higgins authorial wringer” before it’s all said and done. There are issues simmering for all of them. Harlow is suddenly faced with the son whom she has loved every day of his life but whom she has played no role in bringing up. Her family are stunned and hurt at her actions but also ready to open their hearts to this great/grandchild/nephew. Monica has been Matthew’s mother for almost all of his life – there for the good and the (sometimes insolent teenager) bad and his actions have shredded her. But how she and her husband react to what’s happened also opens a few cracks in their parenting styles. When someone contacts Cynthia from out of the blue and someone else begins to pay her attention, she is faced with an emotional turmoil but also possible new outlooks on life.

There are reasons to dislike almost all the characters and most of them do need character growth. I wanted to shake a few but they’re written so that I could also sympathize with them. As Harlow realized then and now, some choices can be both right and wrong. You can try to do the best you know how but will usually have to guess and then live with the consequences. These characters felt real to me and while I mentally shook my head at some of their actions, those also felt as if they were organic to how the characters were written. There is a lot of telling in the book. Past actions need to be laid out but some of this felt excessive to me. Descriptions of the town, shops, restaurants and weekly trivia games meandered on too long. A good 50-100 pages could have been lost. And yet I easily sank into the writing and wanted to know what would happen next. It is much more women’s fiction, with a background romance for two characters that readers will easily clock from the start, but I still sucked it down in two days. B

This is my second book by Higgins and it didn’t disappoint. This book touches upon adoption, forgiveness, and family. I loved that it was told in multiple POV. Really enjoyed all the characters!

I adore Kristan Higgins books and love that her books are so well written with wonderful characters that have such depth to them and emotional plots.

A Little Ray of Sunshine is set at a bookshop on the Cape and the owner Harlow gets the surprise of her life when the son she put up for adoption 18 years ago walks in. His family is on the Cape for the summer and didn't know about his plan are in for a surprise as well. Told from the viewpoint of both mothers this book is a beautiful story of motherhood and choices.

I highly recommend reading A Little Ray of Sunshine or any of Kristan Higgins books. It's the perfect book to read on a hammock! It came out yesterday - June 6th.

A Little Ray of Sunshine is a complicated family drama with a theme of adoption and a side of slow-burn romance.

Eighteen-year-old Matthew arranges a trip to Cape Cod to meet his birth mother for the first time. This is a surprise to his birth mother, who has had no contact with him, and his adoptive mother and his family. Both mothers (and families) are shocked by his actions and a great deal of drama ensues as new relationships and understandings are formed.

An adoption story begins with loss and sacrifice. It’s sobering to consider that the child placed for adoption might carry this sense of loss (in varying degrees) throughout life. I appreciate the complexities of an adoption story. And this one is well told from various perspectives: the child placed for adoption, first mother, adopting mother and father, grandparents, siblings, aunts and uncles, and friends. The author is thorough in her attention to each perspective and helps us understand emotions from all sides. It feels realistic.

Stories are always better when we can make personal connections: my husband is adopted and met his birth mother and biological sister as an older adult; my sister has an adopted child, and my friend placed a baby for adoption and later adopted a daughter; an aunt placed a baby for adoption and I recently met my biological cousin for the first time. Probably adoption has touched your family as well. Exploring adoption is emotional and complicated. Although each person’s experience with adoption is different, I feel the author did a great job addressing conflicting emotions, expectations, secrecy, fear, reconciliation, and forgiveness.

Life is short. Choose love. Set a longer table!

It can be fun to have a side of slow-burn, friends-to-lovers romance in a story. In fact, I prefer substantial content with a side of romance more than a typical romance where the relationship is the only focus.

I’m wholeheartedly recommending A Little Ray of Sunshine for fans of substantial women’s fiction with complicated family drama and hopeful endings, for readers who appreciate reading about adoption, and for book clubs (keeping content warnings in mind).

Content Consideration: unplanned pregnancy, adoption

Thanks #NetGalley @BerkleyPub #BerkelyWritesStrongWomen #BerkleyBuddyReads for a complimentary e ARC of #ALittleRayOfSunshine upon my request. All opinions are my own.

I received a complimentary advanced copy of A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by Kristan Higgins. Thank you to Berkley Publishing and Netgalley for the chance to provide an honest review.

A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE is a family drama set on Cape Cod. When Harlow was in college she had a baby she kept secret and gave up for adoption. Eighteen years later her son Matthew walks into her bookshop and shocks her and everyone around her. Harlow has a close knit family on the cape, apart from this one big secret. Matthew and his family will be spending the summer and his eighteenth birthday on Cape Cod.

In the aftermath of the initial shock, Matthew wants to spend time getting to know Harlow and her entire family. His adoptive family is supportive, but also reeling from his decision to make contact without telling them. Harlow has a lot of leftover baggage from the tough decision to give her baby to his adoptive family and this ripples into her work, family, and dating life.

The story is told in multiple POVs from Harlow, Matthew’s adoptive mother Monica, and a cousin to Harlow’s family providing a bit of an outside perspective though she also has some inner turmoil of her own. I really liked getting this balance of POVs as I think this would be a tough story to tell from a single perspective. There are a lot of moments where knowing what is right is a challenge and different characters definitely feel differently.

I really liked the big and complicated network of people the author builds around Harlow. They’re a collection of family and friends who are close, but who are imperfect. There are a lot of messy relationships and hard feelings and flawed characters and this felt very natural to the story. This is the type of book that lends itself well to book clubs and discussions.

Thanks to Let's Talk Books Promo and Berkley for the advance copy of this book.

Kristan Higgins really knows how to pull at the heart strings! A Little Ray of Sunshine centers around the story of an adoption and how it impacts two families. I love that this story is told from the perspectives of both Harlow (birth mom) and Monica (adoptive mom) and really show the hard dynamic that occurs between the joy and grief of the adoption process. I was a little nervous about how it would be handled since the synopsis uses the outdated term "put up for adoption", but Kristan did an excellent job with the adoption language in this story, which really allowed for a focus on the emotional elements. My only stipulation is that her books are VERY long -this one is almost 500 pages and I feel like the story could have been told more concisely. Anyway, this is a really great look at adoption, so get out the tissues when you read!

Welp Kristan Higgins did it again, she made me cry, and I’m pretty upset by it. People told me this one would be lighter, so I read it on my flight up to New York last week. It’s a good thing I had a window seat and nobody next to be because I was bawling my eyes out, yet again from her on the nose storylines. A few years ago, when I read Pack Up the Moon, my dad was in the mists of chemo, radiation, and major surgery. So, while not exactly the same circumstances, it still hit extremely close to home. This time, Higgins focuses on adoption and motherhood. Being a newer mom, with a 1-year-old son, I was continuously putting myself in the story, and had all the emotions.

It’s been almost 18 years and Harlow never imagined she’d see Matthew Patel show up at her bookstore. So, when he unexpected arrives with his family in-tow, Harlow is forced to come to terms with all the feelings she’s been hiding and face the consequences that come with hiding a secret pregnancy and adoption from her over involved family.

Motherhood, and what it means to be a mother is at the center of this story; so I adored the fact that not only do we get Harlow’s voice, but we get Monica’s (Matthew’s adoptive mother) voice and perspective as well. We get a look into both of the women’s thoughts, experiences, emotions, and the way they view motherhood. The contrast between these two women was wonderfully woven. Along with tactfully addressing the topics of adoption, infertility, and the pressures social places on women to be an ideal mother; Higgins did a wonderful job of ensuring both sides were ‘even’. I enjoyed every part of this story and would have given 5 stars but at almost 500 pages it did feel a bit long. Otherwise, it’s an amazing story.

With an attempt to capture the juxtaposition of motherhood, this is an absolutely beautiful story of adoption that will tug on your heart strings. Whether you’re a new mom or a empty nester, you’ll be able to relate to so many points in the story. With a beach town setting, this will make a great beach or summer read; just make sure you have sunglasses on to hide the tears.

A Little Ray of Sunshine is out now. Huge thank you to Berkley Books for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest opinion. If you liked this review, please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my instagram @speakingof.books.

When Harlow's son walks into her bookstore 18 years after she gave him up for adoption, her world comes crashing down around her. Now only is Matthew's arrival a surprise for Harlow, but for Matthew's adoptive family (from whom he kept finding Harlow a secret) as well as for Harlow's family, who never knew she was ever pregnant. Kristan Higgins once again pens an emotional rollercoaster with Cape Cod as an idyllic backdrop. Higgins explores the tale of two mothers, Harlow, who is embracing the second chance to be a mother and get to know her son, and Matthew's adoptive mother, Monica, who is left reeling with the surprise visit and the idea of losing her son. Matthew struggles with finding where he belongs, while Harlow and her family come to terms with some harsh realities she's been carrying around with for years.

labeled as "chick lit" (not a usual read for me), i found #alittlerayofsunshine to be "comfort lit" - it wraps you in a warm blanket of beach and bookstore vibes, two of my favorite things. were some aspects a little too perfect? absolutely. but, to ms. higgins' credit, there is also plenty of dysfunction. and humor. these characters feel like real people, and i found myself thinking about them when i wasn't reading (always a good sign). i enjoyed the journeys that matthew, monica, harlow and rosie take. and look forward to reading more by @kristan.higgins.

p.s. many thanks to #netgalley for the ARC.

Oh my sobbing heart! Here Kristan Higgins have your five stars! 😂 I need chocolate.

This book was utterly perfect in that it captured the chaos of motherhood in such a beautiful way. I was uncertain of where everything was going, but I was hoping for that beautiful bow at the end.

And we got it indeed!

Thank you so much to Berkley Romance for taking a chance on this story. We NEEDED it! Also, thank you for the chance to read an advanced reader copy! I will definitely be adding a copy to my own shelves!

#berkleywritesstrongwomen

A Little Ray of Sunshine by Kristan Higgins is an amazing, warm, emotional, and captivating story about adoption, the trials and joy of families, and characters you grow to love and root for. This beautiful story that will tug at your heart, make you laugh, and will remind you how important a mom, or two, can be. Higgins pulled on our heartstrings with this highly emotional, riveting delight. I was hooked from the very first page of this coming of age enlightenment with the various players making strong arguments in this complex situation of love, sacrifice and greater good, while both families as they navigate the situation

A Little Ray of Sunshine is an emotional, healing journey, a story of family, both adoptive, blood, and chosen; filled to the brim with heart, sacrifice and happily ever afters. I highly recommend A Little Ray of Sunshine to other readers.

I voluntarily reviewed a complimentary copy of this book, provided by the publisher.

Such a warm, captivating story about adoption, the trials and joy of families, and characters you grow to love and root for. Recommended!

Harlow is flabbergasted—and overjoyed—when Matthew, the son she placed for adoption nearly 18 years ago, enters her bookstore. How will Matthew's reunion with his birth mother affect not only Harlow and her family—who didn't even know he existed!—but also his parents, Monica and Sanjay, and younger sister, Meena?

Harlow's "little ray of sunshine wasn't so little anymore. Right now, it felt like the entire sun beaming with enough light and warmth to last a lifetime."

Well, wow. I wasn't expecting such a tranquil cover to evoke so many emotions! Since my mom was adopted, I felt an instant connection to this story. All of the character's reactions felt real and raw, and I loved every minute. Except for Cynthia. She was irritating and I couldn't help but wonder why she was included in the story. Alas, it all came together in the end and I shouldn't have doubted Ms. Higgins haha. 12 year old Meena was perky and hilarious and definitely stole quite a few scenes. I also loved the surprise cameo by Ophelia from Out of the Clear Blue Sky (4 stars) as well as the flirtation between Harlow and childhood friend, Grady. This was a powerful story about the meaning of motherhood, and my heart was tugged in all different directions as Harlow and Monica tried to figure out the next step in their adoption journey.

"Being a mother wasn't one thing. It was an indefinable, eternal state of love and acceptance, sacrifice and forgiveness. And hope. Because being a mother was nothing if not hope."

4.5 stars

Pack Up the Moon (5 stars) remains my favorite by this author!

Location: Cape Cod, Massachusetts

I received an advance copy of this book. All opinions are my own.

#NetgalleyARC I wasn't sure how I would like this book, it's by a favorite author of mine but the topic isn't one I usually read. I was surprised by this book and really enjoyed it. I think the author did a great job of capturing the emotions and feelings of all the different characters and they felt very true to how real-life people in this situation would feel. It's not the usual topic for this author but I definitely recommend you read it if you enjoy her other works.

First off, Harlow, our main female character is part owner of a book store. On Cape Cod. Perfection!

Coming from a large family, the big family dynamic appealed to me. I loved most of them. If you've read it, you know who I don't love. The family interations were so realistic.

I do not have experience with adoption, but feel this book gave me a good look at it from all persepctives.

I love a book with many POV, so that was a plus for me. I feel like you get much more of the story that way.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Berkley Pub for an ARC in exchange for my honest review and to Let's Talk Books Promo for allowing me to take part in this Berkley Buddy Read!

A Little Ray of Sunshine is a heartwarming tale that explores the complexities of love, gratitude, frustration, fear, and failure within the context of family. This uplifting story is sure to captivate readers with its relatable characters and poignant themes.

I just love and adore Higgins writing and characters. This book is another winner set in Cape Cod like her last book and even has some cameos by past characters. Some of the characters are not like able but it actually made me want to read even more about them. I also liked the adoption angle as I have an adopted brother and it’s something I’ve definitely thought a lot about- how it affected him, our family and who his birth family might be (he’s never been interested in finding them). Overall this has similar feel to Higgins last book Out of the Clear Blue Sky…it’s got heart and humor and a pleasure to read.

have always wanted to read a book by Kristan Higgins. I have so many in my TBR. I finally did and I just loved it. What a great read. I enjoyed these characters, and escaping into their lives. The setting is in Wellfleet MA, on Cape Cod. (I LOVE Cape Cod) 😍 This was such a tender, heartfelt story, and really pulled at my heart.

So this is about Harlow Smith who is part owner at a bookstore. She has a tight knit family and has 4 siblings. No one in her family knows her secret that she gave up a baby boy 18 years ago while away at college. Then one day, that boy, Matthew, finds her and shows up at her bookstore. She is BEYOND surprised. Matthew's parents were blindsided as well because they were talked into renting a cottage in Cape Cod by Matthew but had no idea Matthew had found his birth mother. They all are dealing with a range of emotions, as you can imagine. I'm not going to say more because this is one you'll want to read for yourself. Highly recommend you pick it up! Can't wait to read more by this author.