Heart of the Sun by Mia Sheridan is what happens when you take a second-chance romance, a brooding ex-con bodyguard, and a rising pop star… and then throw in a cataclysmic solar flare for good measure. This book is gritty but romantic, intense but tender, and honestly, the perfect blend of heart-racing chemistry and actual survival stakes. Think Bodyguard meets The Walking Dead but make it romance-first. Sheridan’s writing keeps you hooked, the tension is immaculate, and Tuck? Yeah, he’s about to ruin you for all other fictional men.

Emily and Tuck grew up together, but tragedy hit, and then they grew apart, going on separate paths. They rekindle their friendship as adults and are forced into a closer relationship when a solar flare caused the grid to go down and cut off electronic communications, putting them in a dystopian world. Surviving catastrophic events together and journeying to get back home only push them back closer together. This is a story about redemption, discovery, survival, and love, and I absolutely adored it!

“I’d find you in the dark.”

Listen, I am the worst at reading a synopsis, so this book was a rollercoaster ride for me. This is definitely one of the most unique romances I've ever read. It started off giving Reminders of Him vibes. The characters are childhood best friends, the MMC, Tuck, was just released from prison, and something seems to have gone down between them but you don't know what it is. Now, the FMC, Emily, is a famous popstar, who is giving Tuck a second chance by hiring him as her body guard. While in a plane, a solar flare hits the earth, sending the world into chaos. I haven't seen The Last of Us, so I kept picturing The Walking Dead minus the zombies. It almost felt like the author had an idea for three different books and thought, lets combine them all together. It actually works really well.

Here's why not reading a synopsis worked against me though... I was looking to read a cozy romance with a little bit of drama like Archer's Voice. The world is crazy right now and I was looking for a little bit of an escape. This was not that, however I did really enjoy this book outside of the existential dread it added to my life. Every day I try to tell myself I don't need a "go-bag" or an apocalypse kit, but this book chipped away at my refrain.

Tropes: Slow burn, childhood friends to enemies to lovers, popstar x body guard, dystopian/ post apocalyptic

Thank you to NetGalley, Harlequin Trade Publishing, and Harlequin Audio for the opportunity to read the ebook/audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

Thanks Harlequin for the eARC/ALC!

I really loved the beginning of the book and was super excited to read more about Em and Tuck’s story but the longer it went on the more bored I got. 😅

I love second chance romance and that plot line was great but the entire dystopian journey home was SO boring. It felt like they were just doing the same thing over and over again just with different people.
The ending felt rushed - it seemed like an ending just to end. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Maybe this one wasn’t for me. I do think the narrators did a fantastic job at each of their roles!

This book will be the fluffiest dystopian romance that you will ever read, but it is so good and so worth the time to listen I would do this audio just based on how amazing these narrators did me Sheridan can do no wrong in my eyes. She has the best plot to romance with lots of drama and angst. This is the first dystopian. I think she’s done, but she could definitely do more in this genre. Y’all have to get this. No spoilers, but this is a second chance romance, childhood friends rekindled after many years California setting.

I didn’t love the characters which made it hard to get into the story. At 50% mark, I couldn’t believe there was still 50% more to the story….definitely a slow read in the middle with a lot of extra that didn’t feel necessary for the overall story. I gave 3 stars for the dystopian story that left me feeling uneasy.

4.5/5

I had a GREAT time listening to this book! The last thing I would have expected to read was a dystopian, sci-fi from Sheridan, but she delivered!

This book follows a singer and her body guard (childhood friend) as they navigate a world that has seemingly gone dark. They travel across the country and survive many challenges in search of their home.

Tuck & Emily are such a sweet couple and their story is absolutely precious!! I loved following their story and I was on the edge of my seat for at least 50% of the book!!

Audiobook due out May 20!

Tuck and Emily have grown up on neighboring farms. Our novel begins with Emily teasing Tuck for reading educational books. When Emily breaks a car windshield (while teasing Tuck for working out with weights), Tuck takes the fall for her so she can go away to singing camp. This is pretty much all Tuck in a nutshell.

Having gone their separate ways for several years (Tuck to prison, Emily to become a popular singer), Tuck goes back to Emily's family farm looking for work, which is hard to find as an ex-felon. Emily's mom convinces Emily to hire him for security. Which is how they end up on a private plane with Emily's boyfriend Charlie (an actor and complete knob) that crash lands.

What follows is them traveling home through an America that's becoming a hellscape in the wake of complete electric/electronic failure. They walk, hitch rides, trade on the good looks and popularity of Emily and Charlie, while being protected by the smarts of Tuck. There are bodies and murders and a complete lack of sanitation, but somehow our lucky trio find themselves encountering people willing to house them, drive them, feed them, etc. There are a couple dangerous moments, but luckily Emily and Tuck are farm animal friendly and also down with murder when necessary.

I had a lot of trouble wanting Tuck, who is a sincere and decent dude, to get involved with Emily, who is clearly a horrible judge of character as well as being about as deep as a puddle.

Finally, a little comedy: As a native San Diegan, I can confirm that La Jolla Farms is not literally a "farming" community. Those are full sized backyard tennis and basketball courts, not garden plots. The homes are adjacent to the Torrey Pines Golf Course, and the cliffs and beaches below are city land. Unless you consider a citrus tree to be a farm, there are zero foods being grown here.

The narration was excellent, I just feel like this book was trying for too much, so that neither the harrowing action nor the romance felt well done.

Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Overall, I liked this book. I go in to most books completely blind, without reading a synopsis. I’ve been doing it for a little over three years and I find it to make the book more mysterious and exciting.

This book had everything! It had romance, suspense, mystery, action, and a few other things (triggers; like murder, world ending, kidnapping, etc.), well I enjoyed it, I only gave it three stars because it wasn’t absolutely mind blowing or heart wrenching for me.

I think that if you enjoy a book with a little bit of everything that you would like Heart of the Sun!

What an interesting premise. Reminds me of the song If the World Was Ending by JP Saxe.
I think if someone is coming for this book looking for more Archers Voice, I wouldn't recommend, but if they enjoy Sheridan's author voice, her easy to follow and gently emotional writing that isn't over the top flowery, but rather gritty at moments, I recommend.

I think the narrators did such a great job, especially Annalee Scott. There were a couple of high emotion moments that she truly nailed. I think that André Santana captured the spirit of the character he was tasked to portray, I appreciated some of his more subtle changes when his characters loosened or tighten back up.

Thank you for this opportunity to review and help this book find its audience.

I have been wanting to read Mia Sheridan's books for a while now and was so glad to start with this one!

I really got the vibe of the show The Last of Us from this, but without so much gore. She did so amazing of mixing issues of a world wide emergency with the aspects of romance. Tuck and Emily go their separate ways after their childhood and are reunited years later when Tuck is in a bad spot and needs a job. She brings him on to her team and while they are traveling their plane crashes from an unknown natural disaster. They journey together to survive while everything is off grid and their childhood love for each other grows.

I've never read a story like this before with a mix of dystopian themes with a slow burn romance. I really enjoyed it! There were some parts that I didn't fully vibe with but overall the story was fun and the ending was full of drama and I couldn't stop listening. The narrators did a great job of bringing out the emotion from the story. I truly felt like part of the adventure.

Thank you so much Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for this ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Okay, so let me start by saing that I’m a *huge* Mia Sheridan fan. I’ve loved every book of hers I’ve read… until this one. It just didn’t have that usual Mia magic, and I can’t quite put my finger on why, but it fell flat for me.

The concept was super intriguing, but the execution? Not so much. The romance felt all over the place, the pacing dragged forever and then suddenly sped through the ending, and overall, it just felt kind of shallow. It had potential, but it was missing that heart and emotion that usually makes her books so special.

That said, the whole dystopian, end-of-the-world vibe was cool, and some scenes even had a creepy, almost horror-like feel, which I actually liked. The way society unraveled after the solar flare felt *way* too realistic, and those parts really stuck with me. But the book just didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be. It wasn’t really a romance until the last third, and even then, it wasn’t great. Some characters, like Charlie, felt pointless (seriously, why was he even there?), and I just wanted *more*, more action, more depth, more of that gripping storytelling Mia usually delivers.

It just didn’t feel like her usual writing, and I think that’s why it lacked the passion I love in her books. It wasn’t bad, just… not great. Honestly, I think it would work better as a movie. Would I recommend it? Ehh… maybe, but with caution.

Thank you Netgalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing for the ARC & ALC!

To start I want to say I have never once listened to an audio book and I was very concerned I wouldn’t finish it. My house is clean, I baked (which I hate doing), did laundry, washed and prepped all the fruit and veggies for the week - all so that I had a reason to keep listening to it!

When I first started this I was not sure if I would get through it, hearing a narrator try to do the voices of many people isn’t my thing, however it was a nice surprise to get to chapter six and get two narrators!

The story was fantastic.

Where were you when the power went out?

When Emily gets talked into giving her once friend Tucker a second chance at life after prison by being her body guard, she certainly couldn’t have expected that he would be her saviour when the world comes to a crashing halt. After a solar flare that has caused all electricity including planes to shut down Tucker and Emily must find their way home in the wilderness and vastly changing world. Through every hurdle they work together and realize that they might be able to go back to who they use to be.

I loved both of their characters as they changed and helped people along their way. I LOVE a good world changing and adapting to the new world kind of story. This book had me hooked from beginning to end.

Thanks so much for this audiobook arc!

I loved Archer’s Voice so I’m always tempted by Mia Sheridan.

Heart of the Sun begins in the childhood of Emily & Tuck. We get a gauge of who they are as children. Fast forward to now. Emily is an emerging pop star. Tuck is fresh out of … jail. Their moms were best friends (Tucks mom has passed.) Emily’s mom gets the idea that Tuck could work as security for Emily.

We automatically see the years of history between them. Only issue is- Emily has a boyfriend. He happens to be a famous actor too. The 3 of them are on an airplane when they have an argument. Next thing we know- the plane goes down. Not only do they have to survive where this plane crashed but they find out the world has completely changed.

Tuck is such an asset at this point. The pop star and actor would never have survived without him. This is when the book takes a fun, flirty turn to scary and apocalyptic. It feels like watching The Walking Dead. They’re journeying on foot to find food, shelter, water and many people are turning on each other.

This was not my favorite kind of love story. I couldn’t figure out how they were going to get rid of the boyfriend (without it being tragic) so that Emily & Tuck could face their feelings. This book made me so anxious. This was probably heightened by the audio. I did love the narration. But the concept of this story is terrifying. Everything just loses power and the people seem to snap- all for survival. How terrifying! Not exactly a peaceful love story. I’m sure there’s an audience for this but this concept stressed me out.

This is a great but crazy story about two childhood best friends, Tuck and Emily who go separate ways after a tragic occurrence in their lives.
Years later a solar flare hits the electric grid and the world is in chaos. Tuck and Emily are back to their bickering and bantering like they were back in the day and the things they go through during this very difficult time brings them closer than ever.
This story is like no other I’ve read recently and I’m so glad I was given the chance by NetGalley to read the ARC.
I highly recommend reading this book when it releases!!

This was my first read by this author. The cover definitely drew me in - beautiful! I had a hard time getting into this story and didn't want to finish it. It definitely dragged and felt like it needed to be cut down.

Thank you to Netgalley, Mia Sheridan and Harlequin Trade Audio for this ALC in exchange for my honest review.

3.25 ⭐️
As someone who loved Archer's Voice, and who also loves disaster movies I was really excited to get this ALC from NetGalley. The premise of enemies to lovers, second chance and bodyguard trope was an instant YES! However, at about 50% I had a really hard time staying invested. The enemies weren't enemy-ing, the disaster wasn't disaster-ing, and the bodyguard gig ended pretty quickly. The potential just sizzled for me.

The characters and their journey was sweet, and if you enjoy a drama-free second chance romance this may be for you! I just needed a bit more angst and tension.

Thank you NetGalley and Harlequin Audio for the chance to listen in to this story for my honest review :)

Well this book was certainly an unexpected experience from Mia Sheridan. It starts off “normal” and what I had anticipated from a romance by this author, but things quickly take a turn. There are characters you love, characters you despise, and some along the way that make you wonder and feel empathy as this books transpires into a dystopian nightmare. Although it seemed far-fetched at times, it was thought provoking and made me wonder what could or would happen if something occurred in today’s society that threw out the power grid etc. I found the storyline to be fairly fast paced and also engaging. There were times that it got deep but I feel that Mia also tried to keep it somewhat light even during times where the encounters were dark. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and will absolutely recommend it to some of my fellow readers. I am not sure that I have read a book quite like this before and appreciated the opportunity granted by Mia Sheridan, NetGalley, and Harlequin Audio. The opinions in this review are mine alone, I was not paid for positive feedback, only given an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Mia Sheridan writes amazing books and this one is no exception. I especially enjoyed being able to listen to this book because the narration added a little something extra to the experience. If you are a Mia Sheridan fan, you are guaranteed to love this one, too. I definitely recommend this audiobook.
Give it a try!

⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was definitely not the story I expected when I began to listen- I was pleasantly surprised with the different storyline than what is usually written about in romances. The rosy quarter of this book was truly interesting- 5 stars that got me excited to see where this was going. Unfortunately the middle section seemed to drag on a little and took a while to hit a climax. I would give the middle part 3 stars. Now to the final act of the book- it was excellent, exactly what the story needed- the love story really began to shine, the conflict was interesting and there was a twist I didn’t see coming.. after taking this all into account I landed on a solid 4 ⭐️ The narrators were excellent, both male and female were interesting and did a great job.


Thank you to Harlequin Audio and NetGalley for this ALC in exchange for my honest feedback