Riss Neilson better write more in this genre, because this romance had me swept away, squealing in happiness, crying softly into the pages, and falling in love with love. A Love Like the Sun was a stunning debut into the adult romance category, and I'm so excited for more!

I love a good fake-dating trope, but make it between childhood best friends who genuinely love each other? And then fall IN LOVE with each other?? Oh my god, I was smiling and kicking my feet at every interaction. There is a certain added gravity to this romance that reminds me of Tia Williams' Seven Days in June. While there are plenty of lighthearted, fun scenes of Ni and Isaac there is a grave health scare undertone that addresses the medical malpractice women of color statistically experience at a higher rate. Combined with past traumas, I can see why our obviously-meant-for-eachother couple struggle to find their way past fake-dating. But the journey was worth it!

Thank you @berkleyromance @prhaudio @netgalley for a copy of this book.

Laniah and Issac have been bff since they were kids and Issac is not a famous artiest while Laniah is struggling with her mom on their hair business. I always enjoy a fake dating trope and this hits the spot. Issac was a total cinnamon roll and falls first for Laniah. This was a total slow burn and I wanted them to get together. Laniah's support system added depth to the story. I enjoyed Frankie Corzo's narration but wished it was a dual POV story.

So fake dating is not usually my favorite trope because I spend the whole time yelling at the characters to share their feelings with each other. This one was a little different though. Laniah and Issac have been best friends since childhood. Isaac gets famous and Laniah likes her privacy. Laniah and her mom have a small business and it is not doing well so Issac posts that him and Laniah are dating to get her shop some business and it works. So this one is not a case of not sharing their feelings it is more about does she want to live in the spotlight. They know if they cross a line it will change their friendship forever but Laniah has to decide what she wants. If they do get together her life will change forever. I do love friends to lovers though. Laniah is also dealing with a medical condition so she has a lot to consider. I enjoyed this one and I liked the author's note at the end. Women, you know your body. Get a doctor that will listen to you!

-"What are partners for if not to help?"

A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson is an exceptional novel that captivates readers with its raw, vulnerable, and breathtaking portrayal of love. The author's writing evokes a sense of warmth and tenderness that is both dazzling and romantic. As you immerse yourself in the pages of this book, you will feel the intensity of the love story unfolding before you.

(4.5) Beautifully raw and well written. Wow. I am so mad this went under my radar for so long. This is exactly the type of books I love. It’s a love story through and through but there is so much added to it. The layers making it a deeply rich, reliable, emotion filled story. From the get go I was really invested in Laniah. I found her to be very relatable and someone I would want to be friends with. Her friendship with Isaac is what friendship dreams are made of. They know each other to their core and love each other through it all while remaining only friends. The story of them is so sweet. What I didn’t expect was the medical aspect, but it’s the part I appreciate the most. What laniah goes through is so incredibly real. Layer that with her grief journey and it’s even more real. I’m so grateful to the author for touching on this very real issue in the medical field for countless women. I have felt exactly how Laniah does at multiple points in this story and it just felt so good to know I’m not alone. And then to read that Riss herself went through essentially the same thing just made it hit that much harder. The writing was great, the feelings were spot on, and the love was moving. I just wish we got more of them together in love, but I loved their journey so much. I will absolutely be grabbing a physical copy for my shelf, I loved it!

All I can say about this book; is that I’m glad that I exist at the same time as it and @rissmneilson 💕.

The characters were so real and relatable. The tension and love between the characters was delectable, AND THE CHRONIC ILLNESS REP IN GENERAL WAS SPOT ON! BUT, THE BEING A BLACK WOMAN WHILE CHRONICALLY WAS ALMOST TOOOOO SPOT ON👏🏾🥹🥹🥹

This book emotionally broke me in all the best ways and I wouldn’t hesitate recommending this to anyone looking for a solid pull on your heartstrings and give you all the feels kind of romance!

⭐️A LOVE LIKE THE SUN, out JUN 11th⭐️

4.5⭐️

Thank you to @berkleypub @berkleyromance for the review copy of this book!

#alovelikethesun #rissmneilson #berkleypub #berkleypublishing #berkleyromance

Childhood friends to fake dating to lovers. This romance offers a sweet but very slow burn narrative. "A Love Like the Sun" has its charming moments, but overall, the story felt a bit lacking and predictable. Although, this one just didn't hit the spot for me, I think it would be a fine read if you are in the mood for something light, with a familiar romantic plot.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Berkley Publishing and Riss M. Neilson for the opportunity to read and review "A Love Like the Sun" prior to its publication date.

3.5 ~ I wanted to love this one. The premise sounded so good. I just did not feel the chemistry between the main characters - Laniah and Issac. I liked them as friends but felt like they both shared their lives and also didn’t share things. I am not quite sure, but something about them fell flat for me. I did appreciate the storyline about Laniah’s health. It felt honest and raw and frustrating. I think the other that frustrated me about the story was how quickly things were resolved. There wasn’t big drama necessarily, but it just felt like things changed a little too nicely. The pacing was a bit off, and the story felt a bit lacking. I just found the purpose to be missing. It could have used some polishing. Overall good, but won’t be a favorite.

Unfortunately, I was not able to finish this book. The writing style wasn't for me, and I had a hard time connecting with either of the main characters or their connection. It felt like the story was being written around the tropes, rather than the story being at the core of the book.

Read this if you like:
•fake dating
•friends to lovers
•flirting for days

This book was such a delight and the audiobook was great too. A beautiful story about friendship, love, and growth. How do you navigate a long distance friendship turned lovers? Both being afraid of losing their friendship but also in love with each other.

Thank you Berkley Romance for eARC & PRH for ALC

This is a lovely book. Friends-to-lovers, he falls first, he falls hardest (?), she bottles up her emotions. There’s some rather heavy subject matter here, which apparently the author drew from her own experiences, along with some fairy tale moments.

This contemporary friends to lovers romance follows Laniah Thompson as she navigates dating in the modern day, grief, medical gaslighting, and running a business. Laniah fosters time and space for well rounded relationships with many people in her life, including her mother and their business Wildly Green. But Laniah does not ever want to burden others with her most difficult troubles or challenges. Even though Laniah has always been able to rely on Isaac. Their duo has been around since adolescence, and they grew together through tragedy and chose each other as family. But as they try to explore what their relationship could become Laniah, determined to not ruin Isaac’s career, cut’s Isaac off as she begins to cope with her most difficult challenge. Fans of Tia Williams might enjoy Neilsen’s adult romance debut!

I wanted to love this so bad, and I do think a lot of people will! It’ll be the perfect summer romance for a lot of people. Just not for me. I was already frustrated with the way Issac started the whole fake dating thing, especially when Laniah doesn’t like social media and that’s his whole life.

I did like the writing style! And like I said I do think people are going to love this book.

dnf @35%

Well I really enjoyed this one. There was more depth to it than I was expecting and Neilson did a great job capturing the love story between Laniah and Isaac. I loved the health aspect because of how realistic it is for many people of color. Love how she pulled inspiration from her real life experiences to create this great story!

This was a very emotional friends to lovers, fake dating romance. I really liked Laniah, and I thought her character was well fleshed out and developed. I appreciated that part of her story was inspired by the author. I didn’t love Isaac’s character as much. He didn’t seem as developed, and maybe I would’ve liked him better if he had his own pov.

Overall, a romance that I recommend. And I really loved the ending.

This is a super cute story about friendship and love. Laniah and her mother started a natural hair store and the business is going under. But when her childhood friend Isaac who is a famous internet celebrity offers to help by posting that they are dating- suddenly everyone wants to come into their store! Laniah agrees to the pretense just long enough to attract an investor- but the lines of real and make believe begin to blurt. Again- a cute store that was entertaining to read.

Stunning prose, hilarious wit, touching and raw emotions. Riss M. Neilson's adult debut packs a punch in the genre. She is here to stay with her contemporaries like Emily Henry and Carley Fortune.

Thank you Netgalley and the publisher of A Love Like the Sun for this accepting my request for this arc.

Where do I start? This book was absolutely heartwarming and inspiring. So many lessons were in this novel and I think it’s important we all take note of that. Laniah and Issac are childhood best friends, who have been through the ups and down together and continue to be through all those together as they’ve gotten older. Learning more about each of their lives was such a nice touch and definitely helped me to stayed interested with the story. They both have been through hardships and continue to strive and push forward. I think it’s beautiful and just made me happy to see their relationship really flourish along the way. Such a lovely story :)

If you enjoy
- friends to lovers
- fake dating
- family
- community
- love
Then this is a novel for you, I’m sure you will not regret giving it a go! 10/10 recommend 🌟

A Love Like The Sun is a heart-warming childhood friends to lovers story. The story starts off with the type of relationship they have in their adulthood while living on separate ends of the country. It can be tough to keep up with each other but they make it work. When Liniah comes clean to Issac, her best friend, about her struggles to keep her haircare business running he comes up with the idea to announce on to his massive social media audience that he has a new girlfriend which happens to be her. The plan is crazy but it work because it brings in business, but being in a fake relationship with her childhood best friend forces her to navigate her feelings for her best friend.

I think this was solid adult romance debut. While it had many pros, it also had cons. I was nervous, but I am a friends to lovers fan, but not a childhood friends to lovers so I was happy to see as I continued reading that the element of fake dating was a part of this story. It made it more interesting.

Even being only one POV I personally could feel the chemistry oozing off of the pages. Laniah was extremely delusional and I really loved that, however, at a certain point it became frustrating. I understood her fears but it was quite obvious how he felt and I was ready for her to let go and fall into his love Forreal.

One issue that I shockingly had was the slow burn. I am a huge fan of slow burns and I understood why it was present in this story, but at a certain point I do think that this dragged out a little too long. I think the tension and chemistry really it saved it in keeping me entertained, but I found myself screaming “just kiss already!!!!!!” often. I was so happy when they finally did though (amongst other things 🤭) and I felt satisfied after the build up.

Overall, I enjoyed this read.

Thank you to Berkeley Publishing and NetGalley for this digital ARC.

This book is wonderful. I appreciated Laniah's struggles and her determination to handle them on her own. I also connected with her about the health struggles and the feeling of forcing someone else to deal with them. It's touching and so, so true.