I absolutely adored this story. It is a best friend to lovers romance and I am all for it. The chemistry is off the charts and I enjoyed the slow burn of the book. There were times were I was blushing, giggling, and smiling.

3.5 STARS!
~~~~
I am a sucker for love. I love reading heartwarming romances that are not full of drama and angst. I’m trying to escape from life when I dive into a story.

This book had such a wonderful vibe to it. Their love was amazing in this best friends-to-lovers story.

The author did an amazing job with the character development and their connection was just on fire. I loved it so much.

But that is not to say I didn’t have some things that rubbed me wrong. What killed it for me was the female lead character who just could not let herself go and love him the way he needed to be loved. As a lover, not just as a best friend.

This book has everything in it that we crave in a romance. The touches, the fire, the first time saying the magic words. And especially the first time getting physical. But she just couldn’t let go soon enough in the story to let us feel everything they were building together.

I love so many parts of the story, but I really wish we could just get an early buy-in so we can enjoy the couple a lot longer in the story. Give us a wonderful epilogue. Bring us that closure instead of a rushed ending. That to me is what makes an amazing story.

Will I read this author again? Absolutely. I love her style and her flair with words. Neilson has the ability to bring sensual passion to light. I can’t wait to see what else she brings us in the future.

This was such a beautiful beautiful love story that will stick with me forever! I absolutely love love stories that span a number of years and span the test of time! Very much looking forward to sharing more on this title.

A stunning romance! I will be seeking out more of Riss M. Neilson's work from now on. This was exactly the character-driven romance I have been yearning for.

I just finished Riss M. Neilson’s adult debut, A Love Like the Sun, and I’m still feeling its warm glow!

Laniah and Issac have been best friends since childhood, bonded further by the loss of his parents and her father. Everything they do is shared first and foremost with the other, and they’re each other’s biggest cheerleaders and safest space through life’s ups and downs. Together with Laniah’s mom, Vanessa, the three are like family.

As adults, the affection and support is still there, but life has pulled them in different directions with Issac now in California gaining fame for his modeling and successful art videos on YouTube, and Laniah “Ni” using her business degree to help her mom run Wildly Green, a natural beauty products shop in Rhode Island. Ni is feeling their distance more these days.

When Issac finds out their shop is in danger of closing down for good, he suggests a plan to use his internet celebrity and a fake dating scenario with Ni to gain visibility for the store. The assumption is that those who love him will love her by extension and be curious to buy whatever she makes, and then they can just quietly “break up” at summer’s end. Ni is skeptical and extremely private, but Issac asks her to trust him and she does.

Issac and Ni have always been strictly platonic, treating their friendship as something almost sacred, but with this new spotlight on them, are they still just playing their parts? Ni is feeling things for Issac she’s never felt before and the way Issac looks at her now … is she just imagining it? Each new day brings a new facet to their “relationship”.

One thing Ni isn’t imagining is the health symptoms she’s experiencing. Her doctor keeps dismissing them as anxiety, but Ni knows it’s something more. She hasn’t shared this with Issac, not wanting to worry him, but when the truth comes to light, will it be more than they can endure?

I loved Issac and Ni. I loved Ni’s mom, Vanessa, shop assistant Lex, best friend Katrina (Kat), and so many others. It was an engaging friends-to-lovers story with OFF the charts chemistry between the MCs and a storyline that had unexpected depth with Ni’s chronic illness thread. It shed light on the issues women, and even more so black women, face in being underdiagnosed or misdiagnosed when facing health issues.

The themes of not wanting to ruin a lifelong friendship by chancing romance felt believable and resonated with my own experience, as did Ni’s struggle to open up about her feelings and not be so self-protective. Having an MC you can relate to makes the reading that much more special, and I truly enjoyed every minute of my read. If every woman could find herself an “Issac”, we’d all be so lucky! His unwavering dedication and support of Ni was a thing of beauty.

My one and only complaint is that the tonal shift when things got spicy was a little more 'down and dirty' than I prefer as far as the descriptiveness and dialogue goes, but it’s only a couple scenes and that’s just my personal preference - not a fault of the book.

I highly recommend this adult debut for those who enjoy a solid friends-to-lovers romance with emotional depth to it. It does have some heavier themes of grief and chronic illness, but Neilson handles them sensitively and sheds light on worthwhile issues in the process, which she can do with authority since Laniah's health scenario is inspired by her own personal experience!

★★★★ ½

An absolutely stunning book that was like drinking in sunshine directly through to my soul. Every moment was like refreshing my palette. Something I ended on with a smile and still smile about now with fondness.

Laniah and Isaac have a complicated story. A love that is so evident from the very beginning and yet one that requires gentleness to explore. An avid reader can tell where the story ends, but Riss unfolds this story in a way that builds your emotional investment. The love and feelings are palpable from every page. The story is relatable. Laniah and Isaac don’t live in a world without consequences. At every point, Laniah is considering the effects of every action, maybe a little too much.
Real life topics are explored; being dismissed by healthcare professionals or the feeling of having your dream slip away from you because it’s no longer yielding profit. There’s something for everyone.
I enjoyed this book thoroughly. Reading about how Riss drew inspiration from her personal life also made this especially special. Thank you for inviting me to read this book.

A sweet friends to lovers, fake relationship romance. If you're a fan of slow-burns, this is the romance for you!

A Love Like the Sun
By: Riss M. Neilson
Contemporary Romance
Thank you @Berkley for my free copy. This book was fantastic. I did not know it’s partially set in Rhode Island which made it even better. This was a beautiful story of friends to lovers, family dynamics and unconditional love. I love the subplots of the story as much as the main story line. I invested in this story until the last page. Bonus: The cover is gorgeous! I need a copy for my shelf!

This was book was so good, I had to force myself to put it down last night and go to bed. I haven’t finished a book this quickly in so long. Like, ‘good’ isn’t the right word to describe how much I absolutely loved this story.

It’s a perfect best friends to lovers romance with fake dating (Issac is a famous artist/media creator and Laniah owns a small business, Wildly Green, with her mom). After a tough breakup, Issac finds out that Wildly Green is closing, and suggests they fake date to help promote the shop and fix his dating reputation.

Their chemistry is off the charts and I loved the slow burn so much, I was literally giggling and had my face smushed into the book. I honestly didn’t mind the few small bumps they both had, because it felt real and like how any couple would deal with a long distance relationship (fake or not), especially when one of them is a celebrity.

Plus, with the third act break up and when the readers find out about Laniah’s health, which she’d been anxious about throughout the book, was totally valid and I feel like it needed to happen. But in the end, I was crying happy tears because their love and bond is literally all I want in life.

“There's an achy, knowing feeling in the base of my throat about how small we are in a beautiful way, the same as when we're by the water together. Two star-shaped souls who happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to find friendship in each other among billions of other souls.”

I’m not usually a friends to lovers girlie, but this book changed my mind. Thank you Berkley Publishing for the free PR box and arc! The cards that came with it were a fun and unique experience I got to read throughout the book, it was like I was in Riss’s mind while she was writing!

What to expect:
💛Childhood Friends To Lovers
💛Fake Dating
💛Slow Burn
💛Chronic illness / Disability Rep

I don’t think this one was for me: but the writing and plot will appeal to a wide range of readers. I will recommend this book to the right audience 💛

Engaging, heartwarming, and so very fun. The characters are well-rounded with joys and heartaches that make you fully invested.

"A Love Like the Sun" by Riss M. Neilson follows the intertwined lives of Laniah Thompson and Issac Jordan, childhood best friends with vastly different lifestyles. Laniah, a privacy-seeking homebody, runs a struggling natural hair store with her mom in Providence. In contrast, Issac, an internet sensation hounded by paparazzi, boasts an international brand. When Laniah's dream is jeopardized, Issac concocts a plan to boost her business by pretending they're dating. As they navigate the blurred lines between friendship and romance over a scorching summer, they confront their long-suppressed feelings. Neilson's tale celebrates shared history, the transformative power of friendship, and the complexities of love.

This has made it to one of my favorite reads of 2024! A Love Like The Sun is a beautiful and heartwarming romance about friendship, growth, and taking chances. The main characters have been best friends since childhood and have loved each other for so long while going through life together. The tension, steam, and progression of the main characters' romance was so good. I am always here for fake dating but this was done well. I loved the way this book was written, it read so poetic and beautiful. The characters were very nuanced, especially the fmc, I appreciated the author showing the disparities that black women face when navigating the health care system because it was accurate. If you like tender and steamy slowburns then you should add this to your tbr! Some content warnings for this include the death of a parent, medical discrimination, and kidney disease. Thank you to the publisher for this arc for an honest review.

Read for:
- Childhood best friends to lovers
- Black romance
- Chronic illness rep
- Slow burn
- He falls first
- Diverse characters

"Lifelong best friends spend a fateful summer discovering what might happen if they were to be something more."

I'm a huge sucker for a friends to lovers romance, and A Love Like the Sun fit the bill perfectly! Our main characters, Laniah and Issac, are childhood best friends who have been there for each other through the hard times. When Laniah's mother's business is in trouble, internet-famous Issac tells the world that they're dating, and while this helps the business, it causes them to confront the torch they've been carrying for each other.

This was such a sweet, fun, and realistic romance story. Both Laniah and Issac had their issues, and while Lanish tried hard to push Issac away, he fought for their love. The slow-burn pining was great and I liked the side characters as well. I though the spice was well-written and the ending was beautiful.

This book is one of the most beautiful friends to lovers/fake dating stories I've ever read. Ni and Issac's love story outshines the sun.

PERFECT. JUST PERFECT. this book made me so emotional and teary but so full of love and hope all at the same time. i love how many different love stories we get to experience through this one. Not only do we get a steamy and slow burn childhood friends to lovers with fake dating, but we also get to see glimpses of Laniah's parents' love story that parallel with Laniah and Issac's love story which i was just obsessed with. The romance tropes that were used in this were so classic and effortless at the same time. The author really took some of the most beloved romance tropes and expanded on them. They are classic but also unique in this story which I think makes for a really fun reading experience.

Overall, this was a masterpiece and I loved every second of it.

I was completely captivated by this book and finished it in just one day! Riss M. Neilson has definitely hit it out of the park with A Love Like the Sun! The plot cleverly combines two beloved romance tropes - best friends to lovers and fake relationship - to create an absolutely delightful novel. The entire cast of characters, from the main protagonists to the supporting ones, were well-developed and added so much depth to the story. The novel had a great flow, and every page was filled with emotion and genuine feelings. A Love Like the Sun is, without a doubt, a 5-star novel that I didn't want to end. I highly recommend this book to anyone who loves a good romance novel, as it will leave you feeling warm and fuzzy inside!

I love a good childhood friends-to-lovers story. The pining and "it's always been you" gets me every time.

Isaac was like a unicorn - he was sweet and would do anything for Laniah. It seemed he clearly knew that he wanted her but it took her a bit longer to come around to realizing it.

This was a very slow burn and maybe a bit too much of a slow burn for me. I wanted more of them together instead of scenes of them apart with their friends an family.

This was enjoyable and I'm looking forward to more books by this author.

Steam level: 🔥🔥🔥

I can't wait for the girlies to eat this book up this Summer!

A Love Like the Sun is for those who love friends to lovers, soulmates, and like somewhat low-stakes conflict that isn't centralized on the relationship. It follows best friends Laniah and Isaac, who have been one another's rock for years. While Laniah is working with her mom to follow their small-business dreams, Isaac is Instagram famous for his honest conversations on love and art. When Isaac discovers that Laniah and her mom's business is far from thriving, they pursue an unconventional path to save the business, rehab his public image, and possibly (FINALLY) admit their long-standing feelings for one another.

I adore Laniah, Isaac and the cast of characters that Neilson has written in this world between Los Angeles and Rhode Island. Laniah and Isaac are absolutely the dream, and I wanted to lovingly throttle them so many times so that they could more quickly reach their HEA. I appreciated Neilson's representation of a WOC navigating the medical industrial complex and think a lot of folks will find it relevant. However, what really irritated me was the continuous use of the phrase "Cali" and small snippets that truly misrepresented/showed a lack of knowledge of Los Angeles and California as a whole. It's a small thing, but it did irritate me as someone from Southern California, who has lived in LA. I hope the final edition of this story fixes some of those things, because I'm pretty sure everyone is going to go feral for these two and their love story!