If you would have walked in on me while I was reading this book, you may have seen me with my hand covering my mouth, holding in my gasps. You probably would have seen me with tears streaming down my face. I did those two things a lot while reading Max and Ella's story: gasped in horror and cried my eyes out.

The prologue of this book is one of those that just grabs you and this story never lets go. Even now, hours after I turned the final page, it hasn't let go. Not even a little bit.

I truly believe that it's best to go into this story blind, so I'm not going to tell you much here. This story starts with two innocent children and ends with two adults who have endured so much throughout their young lives. This is a tragic tale and it's heartbreaking. It is gut-wrenchingly heartbreaking, but it's beautiful at the same time. My heart hurt for Ella. My heart hurt for Max. They both earned my tears and they both deserved a HEA.

There are definite triggers in this story, so please read with caution. I read much of this book with my breath held, with my heart in my throat, and with tears filling my eyes and falling over at the worst of it. I also smiled, and laughed, and loved...oh my, how I loved these characters and their love story.

This will undoubtedly be one of my top reads of this year and it will definitely be one of my all time favorites.

Jennifer Hartmann does it again! She has singlehandedly destroyed me and put me back together again.

The book gave me all the feels. I cried, I laughed, and I loved this book so much. Ella and Max went through so much trauma together and separately.

I was in absolute shock during certain points in the book, empathizing with Ella and her situation. Max is the boy every mother wants for her daughter. He was patient, kind, and always putting Ella at the forefront of his priorities (in a healthy way).

Catch the Sun is a coming of age love story, Ella and Max are each other's first everything. It was sweet, it was tragic, and it was a very hard faught happily ever after.

It was a little slow to begin with, but after a certain point it was impossible to put down!

This book is advertised as YA, but it does have on page spice and very dark themes. If you're looking to give this to a younger family member or friend, be aware! If I was reading this without knowing ahead of time, I would have never thought it!

Trigger warnings:
▪️On page parental violence
▪️Alcoholism
▪️Gun violence
▪️Attempted SA***
▪️Mention of murder


I know it's late, but I appreciate the opportunity to ARC read this through Netgalley!

This book was perfection for me. It broke my heart. Then healed it in the way that Jennifer Hartmann does. Such a great story of love and loss and love. She has a way of making you feel her characters in all ways.

Every book I’ve read by Jennifer Hartmann has been so beautiful!! This one is just as beautiful as every book I’ve read!

The most beautifully raw young-adult novel from Jennifer Hartmann. Such a beautiful book that I enjoyed every second of.

If Jennifer writes it it's for sure a 5 star read. The amount of emotion she puts in her books, her storytelling skills, the rawness of her stories. Everything is just perfection and this book was no exception. This book teared me apart, made me laugh, cry, mad, it made me feel every single damn emotion. Just as Jennifer always done she put it back together gracefully.

This book is love, loss, and everything in between. It’s emotional, devastating, but also redeeming, and peaceful. There’s so many “moments” in this book that it keeps you captivated literally from page one.

Jennifer Hartmann is an auto buy and an auto read author for me and that will NEVER change. She’s quickly become my favorite author and if you know you know.

Her books have triggers, they aren’t light and fluffy reads, but they always come out on the light side, even through all the trauma, devastation, and emotional crap the characters suffer through.

Thank you so much for Catch the Sun. It was perfection in a book.

Where do I begin?

If you remember the first time you met a special person in your teen years and how much joy and pain it can bring into your life, then this book is for you.

I love books that break my heart and shed tears, and I was teary-eyed during parts of Max and Ella's journey. I also felt joy and love during this beautiful story.

I love that life brought Max and Ella together several times. Their friendship was genuine, and I appreciated all the little things between them.

“I made you a list.” I freeze. My throat rolls as his words register and I slowly turn around to face him. “A list?”“Yeah. You said you love lists, so I made one for you.”

But life throws an incredible amount of hurt into their lives and the people surrounding them. I had to stop myself from flipping ahead because the anxiety and tensions were high.

There were many swoon worthy moments - Max was so freaking pure. From notes to listening, he was a dream. He brought of the absolute best in Ella and vice versa.

A five-star read for me. If you need me, I'll be over here thinking about this book.

This was a cute story. I really liked it, However i do think it was too young adult for my tastes but the characters were intriguing and I was sucked into the story

jennifer hartmann has a true gift with words, and i am grateful to experience them 🫶🏻

her characters have so much depth, and she never fails to make me cry in the best way

Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for an ARC of this book.

I have never read a book by Jennifer Hartmann that I didn’t enjoy, and this was no exception. My heart was in my throat for the majority of this book, on edge with the relationship between our two main characters and the battles they face.

I loved both Ella and Max. They were so good together and for each other, and I read the book in one sitting because I just had to find out if everything turned out how it should.

There are some really heavy topics in this book, much like Jennifer Hartmann’s other books. She handles these topics well, and doesn’t shy away from the characters living in their hurt.

Anything by Jennifer Hartmann is an instant buy for me, even though I know I should be terrified for my heart. As expected, this book put my heart in a blender. Just when I thought it couldn't possibly have more gut wrenching twists, it does.

I seriously felt so many emotions while reading this book. It took me back to days of playing on the playground with my best friend and him giving me dandelions. Then it took me to high school where I was the weirdo kid with the orange backpack. I forgot a lot of those memories, but this instantly transported me back. I had the biggest smile on my face as I read the happy parts.. followed bye ugly crying at some of the emotional parts. I wish I could bottle up the happy feelings of nostalgia and the love these two share for one another.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

WOW!!!

Okay this seems like it will be a sweet little story about young love, but it is so much more!!!!!!

Max and Ella are childhood friends and neighbors. Ella moves away, but finds herself back there 10 years later, where they reconnect. This is a story filled with trauma, tragedy, love, and heartbreak. There were several plot twists that I didn’t see coming!

Jennifer Hartmann books leave you thinking about them for days after you’ve finished reading them. They are so powerful and well written that i really get emotional reading them! She is an auto buy author for me and I can’t wait to read what is next from her!



📘: Catch The Sun by Jennifer Hartmann
🗓️: July 16, 2024

Thank you to NetGalley, Jennifer Hartmann, and Sourcebooks Bloom Books for this ARC!

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

*Reviewed on NetGalley, Amazon, and Goodreads.

I’ve read a few Jennifer Hartman books, so I knew going in to expect a heartbreaking storyline. This did not disappoint. I love Ella (Sunny). I loved Max. Watching them both overcome trauma, then endure even more trauma together was rough. I can easily say I didn’t suspect what happened was about to happen, and I love being surprised.

I didn’t cry, but I felt so much for these two and what they were going through. I wish we had even more glimpses of Brynn! because I loved her character. It would have been interesting to see some of what happened through her eyes and mind.

I really enjoyed this book and definitely plan to continue to read Ms. Hartman’s stories. Thank you to NetGalley and SOURCEBOOKS Bloom Books for allowing me to read and review!

In the usual Jennifer Hartmann style this story bleeds heartache, tragedy and healing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫/5 (rounded up for Goodreads).

At a glance:
▪️Childhood friends to lovers
▪️Slow burn romance
▪️Dual POV
▪️Bonded through trauma
▪️New adult (on page bedroom scenes)
▪️Both virgins
▪️First love / only love
▪️Found family
▪️Small town

My thoughts:
📍If you’re familiar with Jennifer Hartmann the content of this book will come as no surprise. If you’re not, may I introduce you to her heart wrenching formula: backstory, tortured souls grow close, tragedy strikes, separation, healing and reunion. As they say, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it and she should definitely not fix it! This book was deeply emotional, true to her usual style.

📍I’m not sure why though, I didn’t feel as engrossed in this book as I normally am with Jennifer’s stories. Perhaps it was the main character’s ages (17/18). I didn’t really connect with them. Perhaps it was the beginning 20% which I found slow.

📍That being said, I would still say that the novel had a great cast of well built characters. The exceptions being MMC Max, who was swoony sure, but too ‘perfect’ to be realistic and the FMC’s brother Jonah who required more depth. As a true crime aficionado, I was interested in Jonah and while I knew the story was not his, I would have loved more of an insight into his mind and crimes.

📍Overall this book features a solid, engaging plot and poetic writing but there were moments that felt too melodramatic.

📍I must confess being confused by the YA marketing of this book. When I first heard this author was releasing a YA book I thought it would be lighter in terms of content (compared to her other novels) and not have on a page bedroom scenes. The opposite is true. This book has dark themes, on page spice and the characters are 18 for a large portion. To me, this read as adult. So I present that warning to parents.

Other:
✨All comments here are my own, are my honest thoughts and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Thank you to Jennifer Hartmann, Sourcebooks Bloom Books and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this.

☀️ARC REVIEW - COMING 16TH JULY☀️

Thank you to @valentine_pr_ and @author.jenniferhartmann for the opportunity to receive this ARC in return for an honest review🏵️

4.5/5 ⭐
2/5🌶️

☀️ YA
☀️ Tearjerker
☀️ Small Town
☀️ Coming of age
☀️ Childhood friends to strangers to friends to lovers.

How can I possibly begin this review? Ella lives in a place where she is vilified for sobbing on TV as a child because her brother was convicted of murder. It drives people, particularly at school, to ridicule, mock, and mistreat her.

Ella's narrative alone was tragic, but when pieces of her recollections with Jonah, her brother, were added to the mix, emotions became jumbled and frustrating. Jonah was undeniably a killer at times, but Hartmman, by opening the doors to Ella's inner world, helps us experience what she does. It was astounding how the author was able to let you perceive Jonah through Ella's eyes by giving you a deeper and more personal connection with her. Her unshakeable trust in his innocence because...how could her beloved brother have done what he was accused of? However, as the narrative advances, questions surface, and the reader eventually doubts their own suspicions.

Max, who appears detached at first, has his own issues. His upbringing was, eventually, similarly unhappy and turbulent. Max has so many responsibilities on his back that I was astonished it was not dragging him down more.

This narrative is terrific with hope represented by the rays of sunlight between the trees. Max and Ella were always intended to be together, even as kids, before anything with Jonah happened.

Prepare a pair of tissues before reading this because watching the sweetness of children's friendships being inverted by pain trauma and so on...will undoubtedly shatter your heart.

Another amazing book by Jennifer! It hooked me in with the first page. Although it was a slower build than her other books to me, when it got to around 55ish percent it was full throttle. I didn't know what our fmc or mcm was going to do with the situation at hand. And I felt myself on the fence of what I would do in that situation it felt impossible. Jennifer was already a top author for me, but she continues to shock me and pull at my heart strings every book.

Jennifer Hartmann knows how to write - REALLY!!!!!!

She is amazing in everything she does and omg, I ADORE EVERYTHING SHE WRITES.

This one was a surprise, I found myseelf reading more and more everyday!

"Catch the Sun" by Jennifer Hartmann is a poignant and beautifully written novel that explores themes of love, loss, and healing. Hartmann's evocative prose and well-developed characters create an immersive reading experience that tugs at the heartstrings. The story's emotional depth and compelling narrative make it a must-read for fans of contemporary romance. Highly recommended!

♾️/5 ⭐️

My face is covered in snot + tears.

This is my new favorite Jennifer Hartmann book!

I looooved everything about this book. These characters are everything.