First thing first, I love this cover. Something about the colours and the arrangement that really hits the spot for me. The cover and the title drew me to the book, the blurb cemented my will to read it. In the end, it disappoint slightly.
This is mostly on me, at least I think so.

Grief is a horrible thing and comes in many shapes and sizes, the way it’s described and experienced in this book is all encompassing and as a bit a guilt as well. I feel like I can’t really talk about the story itself because I will spoil the “experience”. We have one character who basically left her life behind to try and outrun her grief, and we have another who has a mountain of guilt to deal with. This guilt mountain is named guilt, I’d rather call it shame. Maybe a combination of guilt and shame. They do like to go hand in hand.
Anyway, they have a lot to deal with, they fight each other, they deny themselves what they want and need and we have a romance.

Why it disappointed me slightly is because of the repetitiveness of the story. I fully understand grief and guilt don’t just disappear, but the actions, the way it’s written about, they almost seem copy-paste. All in all it isn’t bad, it’s a bit of an emotional ride and I think people who experienced a loss like one of the mains will find it very moving. I am here for the setting, the cute characters and the short, but heartwarming appearances of the “sidekicks”.

A beautiful and methodically crafted story, this is one of those novels you have to be ready to take into your heart. It struck me that, while I’ve read stories about characters dealing with grief before, I wasn’t quite ready to deal with a story so close to the reality of our current post-Covid pandemic reality. But the words were so well chosen as they carefully laid out the details needed to address so many issues. I could feel the struggles, the humor, and especially the grief and insecurities for both characters. These kinds of stories can be very difficult to handle, but there is a delicate balance (some well-placed humor always helps out) between looking back and suffering pain anew while also looking forward and living life. It certainly made me consider the value in all our experiences, both past and present.

This story has been a nice surprise for me. I didn't know the author, and I think this is her first novel, but honestly, it hit me with all kinds of feelings.

The two main characters are Sloane, a woman who leaves her city, job, and everything in the US after a traumatic event to completely change her life in Australia. She's really the main character, as the author sensitively and movingly explains the grieving process through her pain and conflicting emotions.

The two main characters are Sloane, a woman who leaves her city, job, and everything in the US after a traumatic event to completely change her life in Australia. She's really the main character, as the author sensitively and movingly explains the grieving process through her pain and conflicting emotions.

The first meeting between them is surprising for the reader—at least it was for me. Their later reunion was more expected, which was good for the story because it set up a perfect foundation for the development of their relationship. From the start, things have been complicated because of how their first meeting went down, but also because of their pasts. Ava has her own regrets about things she's done that weigh on her in this potential new relationship. But mainly, Sloane's situation is what really sets the pace and the possibilities between the two of them.

The story has been awesome for me. I really liked how they handle different issues and tackle sensitive situations. I love how the environment around the main characters supports and wraps around them. I enjoyed it a lot!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

covid
found family
love

sloane life was grey and without colour..... after her wife died from covid she thought about ending it and joining her but she knew she needed to do something drastic to find colour again....

so australia beckoned

but what she found there..... was to change her life forever....

what a beautifully written book about grief. love and family....at times it was hard to read about the journey that sloane had to take and for poor ava and her daughter, their own journeys

but its also a book about hope and found family

Thank you NetGalley and YLVA publishing for allowing me to read the ARC of Southern Lights! Absolutely beautiful. I cannot praise this book enough. The way Liz Arncliffe writes is thoughtful, artful and full of purpose. I feel like I can feel her intention in every paragraph. The symbolism, continuity, humor, grief and character development the book showcases is beyond amazing. I literally highlighted so many quotes and other things. I will be getting the ebook when it comes out just to be able to add the highlights to my Goodreads account.

It’s a heavy read at times but it’s balanced out well with humor. I will say that if anyone lost someone to COVID, especially in the time of no visitors, you may want to read another book. I never experienced that and reading certain descriptions of Sloane’s wonderings of how her wife felt dying/being alone, etc was a lot.

I’ll always think of this book when I think about sea turtles and stones 😉


Totally unrelated to anything but I loved that Ava had her daughter at 41. I also love how it was pretty nonchalant and nothing more was really said about someone in their mid forties having preschool/kindergarten age kid. It was refreshing.

Sloane, grieving the loss of her wife, escapes to Australia and on her first morning, she meets Ava. A one morning stand with a stranger she will never see again, right? Not quite. What follows is an angsty slow burn, with Ava helping Sloane to re-capture the calours of life. A journey of healing through love, I trully enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

So sweet!

Sloane escapes to Australia after struggling to find colour in her life following the death of her wife. Upon arriving she meets actress Ava James, whose mother is the owner of the farm she is staying at. At first Ava isn’t keen on having Sloane around, especially after what happened between them when they first met, but when she starts to get to know her, and her daughter Grace takes a shine to their American visitor, the friendship forming quickly has the potential to be more.

I really enjoyed this story about love, life, and healing. Both Sloane and Ava are going through a difficult time, and for different reasons, but they find ways to connect that are small and meaningful to find a harmony that neither of them expected. It really is Grace at first to pushes them to spend more time together without a reluctance on Ava’s part because her excitement to have Sloane around is just precious. And even though Sloane is a teacher and used to children, given how she’d been feeling and everything that had brought her to the decision to go to Australia, I was actually surprised by how quickly she took to having Grace be part of her life.

There were lots of tender and sweet moments, building a slow burn romance between Sloane and Ava, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t drama. I loved how they were sandwiched between it at the beginning, and towards the end when Sloane was having to make decisions about her life as her year in Australia reached its climax. I really did hope she’d make the choices that would make them all happy, but again it couldn’t come without some heartache and dilemma after everything she had to consider.

A really good, enjoyable romance that had great representation for older women. Packed with lots of cute moments and references to melt my heart and make me happy.

Sloane Sullivan and Ava James have a one night stand when Sloane stopped over in Sydney Australia on a trip. Neither expects to see each other again.

Imagine Ava's shock when she discovers Sloane is renting a cottage from her Mom.... which she is NOT happy about.

Very good, a slow burn that starts with them sleeping together, but then finding themselves at opposite corners for various reasons. Ava is dealing with a bad romance in her past, Sloane is grieving her dead wife. Ava's daughter, Grace, is adorable and helps bring the two together too.

There IS a hated third act breakup, but it actually makes sense for the characters and I didn't entirely loathe it. Ha.

4 out of 5 stars.

Colorful and angsty romance
To say that the first crossing of paths between main characters Sloane and Ava is wild would be an understatement. From there it's drama and angst with each of them grappling with loss, grief, shame and other heavy emotions. There's humor in the story as well so it's maybe 'medium' on the angst scale. Sloane and Ava both handle their issues badly at times, resisting the steps to healing, and go at their own pace, often feeling torn in two along the way. I felt that keenly while reading and strongly suggest that a box of tissues is close at hand to dab away tears; the sweet moments will also summon them so happy tears will be in the mix. There are complicated emotions at play resulting in intense conversations between characters but certain secondary characters (one of whom has hands down the best and most enviable wardrobe of the entire cast) bring levity to tip the scale away from angst if only temporarily. COVID is a relevant factor in the story (in the past tense, while also being an inspiration for the book according to the acknowledgments which are best read after you've finished the story) but does not dominate the book. The writing has some full circle moments that are well done and the Dolly Parton references are a wonderful bonus.
Aussie slang and several sights and events in Australia are highlighted thru the book and may inspire a reader to travel and see them in real life. It's an angst laden romance though with a payoff that the reader and book characters earn but not until the latter are ready for it.
I hope this author has more stories in her to share and would love to read more of them, particularly if they include some that are lighter on the angst scale.

Achingly beautiful love story
After finishing this achingly beautiful book I had to sit for a while with all those feelings swirling inside of me, tears still in my eyes, grateful to have found and read this book which has waves, currents and undercurrents all of love, anguish, grief and love and joy again.
A debut novel, a debut! Arncliffe fills this book with love, love lost, love newly found, love on different levels and so much color and light. Look at the cover and your heart bursts and will be filled reading this book
Sloane runs away from her life in the US, from grief and bleakness from being totally lost after Covid took away the love of her life. Her destination: as far away as possible to Australia‘s brilliant lights of the Gold Coast. She‘s met by Charlie the dog and Ellen, the matriarch, Grace the precocious, vivid child and Ava. Ava!
The writing is sheer beauty. I marked so many passages which were profound, lovely, sad and uplifting: The colors woven into the story, Sloane after the gray fog of depression finding color again. Arncliffe leads us readers masterfully, relentlessly, breathlessly in a delicate dance between all those emotions - the strongest being the beat of life, love, laughter.
This book as you may have gathered from this review hit close to my heart: Having nearly lost the light of my life last year, having to battle the grey fog of LongCovid this book made my heart sing and stirred up grief and happiness and hope - hope is the thing with feathers …

I am grateful to Ylva to provide an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

A well written debut novel told the story of two main characters had a chance encounter and decided to giving in on impulse for a short fling, only to meet again and forced to live in closed proximity for the next year. Their reluctant friendship slowly grew into something more but each have to learn how to deal with their own emotional baggage and insecurities before they can fully commit to each other.

The author captured perfectly the grief and despair of Sloane's life after losing the love of her life, I felt deeply for her pain and care so much for her to find her own peace. The story was loaded heavily but beautifully with metaphors of color and light, I remembered feeling transfixed during the scene where Sloane described to Grace how the color of her eyes would be with various beautiful sceneries. Speaking of Grace, she is such a cheeky and lovable side characters, as well as Charlie the dog. I enjoyed the book very much and would love to read more from this author.

Special thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the arc.

Southern Lights follows Sloane—a widow desperate to escape the life she shared with her wife and to find a way back to the world that didn't end when hers did—from Tennessee to Australia, where she meets and enjoys a one-morning stand with Ava, an actress and single mother with her own ghosts. Two days later, Sloane arrives at the in-law cottage that's to be her home for the next year only to find that Ava and her daughter Grace live in the main house on the property. Sloane and Ava agree to pretend their encounter in Sydney never happened, but as Sloane slowly begins to surface from her sea of grief and becomes closer to Ava, something much deeper develops.

This one took me a little while to get into—I found it pretty exposition-heavy at the start—but once the narrative found its groove, I enjoyed it. Ava and Sloane's chemistry didn't hook me at first, either, but as they got closer and their relationship (first friendship) deepened, making space for their respective pasts and Sloane's grief, it became quite beautiful; the closer they became, the more compelling I found their dynamic.

.The story did a great job of honoring and grappling with Sloane's love for her late wife and her fear that moving through her grief was just another way of losing her: "Her pain and her grief were beginning to feel like an old but favorite pair of pajamas. They were worn and threadbare, and they provided less and less warmth and protection, but they were familiar and comforting. She knew she'd have to take them off sometime, but not yet. Not quite yet—she didn't feel ready."

There was a lovely array of supporting characters, including Ava's daughter Grace and mother Ellen. Grace was a delight, and the found family dynamic, one of my favorites, was really lovely and layered. Australia was a supporting character in and of itself—the setting was very rich—but with great tribute to the American South as well, in all of its complicated glory (speaking as a transplant from the American South).

Overall, this is a fairly light read that nonetheless explores themes of grief, loss, shame, and home with, while at times uneven, overall depth and dexterity.

This book made me feel so much. The metaphors were beautiful as well as the descriptions. I felt the emotions these women experienced! I cried. It was really a beautiful read, a beautiful story of life and loss and love. I really enjoyed this so much and devoured it quickly.

This is a very sweet romance about two women overcoming their past to find their place together.

Sloane lost her wife and after being unable to deal with her grief she decides to move to Australia, hoping that changing some things in her life will make it easier to move on. In Australia she has a one night stand with a mysterious stranger, only to find out the stranger is the daughter of the woman she's renting a cottage from. Making the one night stand a temporary neighbour, impossible to avoid.

I thought the book was pretty heavy handed with the metaphors, which is not necessarily my thing but in the end it didn't bother me enough to ruin the whole reading experience. The main characters are enjoyable and Sloane trying to deal with losing her wife felt very authentic. My favourite characters were definitely Grace, a precocious 5 year old, and Charlie, a very adorable pup.

It's a good book for some light reading with deeper themes of loss.

Every now and then you come across a book that really tears at your heart strings. This in one of them. Sloane and Ava are both broken women. They are each holding onto enormous emotional baggage that is shaping their current lives. Sloane is in mourning after the tragic death of her wife and takes a one year working hiatus to Australia in an attempt to get some light and sound back in her life. She is raw and can see no colour in her life without her wife by her side. Ava is fighting her own sense of grief and guilt over a past relationship that caused her to return home and give up on the career she dreamed about. A chance encounter between Sloane and Ava does nothing to alleviate the helplessness each feels.

As luck would have it, Sloane and Ava are reunited when Sloane arrives at her accommodation and finds it is owned by none other than Ava’s mother. The two now become unwilling neighbours. Soon a friendship develops with the help of Grace, Ava’s 4 year old daughter, who soon attaches herself to Sloane.

In this book, Arncliffe has captured the sense of grief and despair that Sloane feels in a beautiful way. The analogy of light and colour is perfect. Sloane has only been able to see in greys since her wife died. There is no hope, no joy, only grey. Arncliffe’s skill in developing Sloane’s character is exceptional. As a reader, you can feel her pain on a personal level and understand why she physically punishes her body in order to feel something other than nothingness.

The supporting characters, Ellen, Mo and Leota, and of course Charlie and Hope, all play a role in helping Sloane find her light again. And, it is with tentative hope and joy that we see Sloane slowly, with Ava and Grace’s help, regain that colour in her life.