The Hard Truth About Sunshine by Sawyer Bennett

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Title: The Hard Truth About Sunshine
Author: Sawyer Bennett
Published by: Indie
Release Date: March 28, 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 348
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Potential Triggers: View Spoiler »Sexual Abuse, Suicide « Hide Spoiler
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 #LetsReadIndie Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 New Adult Challenge
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

New York Times bestselling author Sawyer Bennett has written her most gripping and poignant tale yet. Provocatively heart-breaking, audaciously irreverent and romantically fulfilling, The Hard Truth About Sunshine exposes just how very thin the line is between a full life and an empty existence.

Despite having narrowly escaped death's clutches, Christopher Barlow is grateful for nothing. His capacity to love has been crushed. He hates everyone and everything, completely unable to see past the gray stain of misery that coats his perception of the world. It's only after he involuntarily joins a band of depressed misfits who are struggling to overcome their own problems, does Christopher start to re-evaluate his lot in life.

What could they possibly learn from one another? How could they possibly help each other to heal? And the question that Christopher asks himself over and over again... can he learn to love again?

He's about to find out as he embarks upon a cross country trip with a beautiful woman who is going blind, a boy with terminal cancer, and an abuse victim who can't decide whether she wants to live or die.

Four people with nothing in common but their destination. They will encounter adventure, thrills, loss and love. And within their travels they will learn the greatest lesson of all.

The hard truth about sunshine...

Warning: This book deals with some tough issues including suicide and sexual abuse.

My Review:

4.5 stars — Before I get started, be warned about potential triggers!  Luckily this author was smart and actually noted it in her blurb — nicely done!!  🙂

This was a difficult read, but also a very different read.  It had romance in it, but it wasn’t the main focus of the story in my opinion.  It was really about Christopher’s journey from an angry man who was 100% an asshole, to someone with hope again.  It made it hard to read at times, b/c Christopher was mean and angry right down to his inner thoughts.  I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to connect with him because of that.  But the author did a good job of showing what he went through, and showing how he came to that point.  I thought it was really interesting and refreshing, b/c not everyone is 100% likable, and they don’t always make the right choices.  I could totally understand why he couldn’t see the light…it still made me sad that he went full on hate-the-world, but there was a part of me that got it.  And while I’m not sure I fell in love with him necessarily, I did come to sympathize with him and his struggle, and root for him to come back to himself.

I had waffled about this book from the first moment I heard about it simply because of the difficult subject matter, but after reading some snippets on Book+Main Bites, I was just too curious and had to take a chance.  I know some of the negative reviews question Christopher’s quick transformation, but I didn’t for some reason.  I mean it was kind of quick, but he was also in a unique situation, where he was with these other oddball/misfits for 24 hours a day.  So I can see how that would influence him more.  He was confronted head-on with the struggles of the rest of the group, and he got a first-hand glimpse of how they were each coping with it, and…I don’t know.  In the end, I was OK with his transformation.

And through Christopher’s eyes we got to see each member of the group go on a journey.  I fell in love with Connor and Jillian, and my heart ached for Barb.  It was interesting to see how differently they all handled their individual struggles.  I feel like so many times in books we just see the same thing, but this felt more real somehow.  And I felt like it showed how difficult it is to deal with depression.  It didn’t pull punches.

But honestly, what really got me in this book was the connections that Christopher made.  I really FELT the friendships he formed, particularly with Jillian and Connor…I felt like I formed those friendships myself.  And they all made me laugh and cry.  For a book told from a single POV, it was actually a great cast book.

There were the occasional little things that bothered me…one in particular was Christopher and his pain pills.  In one flashback in particular it appeared he was abusing oxycontin, and I just always assumed that addiction would be hard to avoid.  Yet that wasn’t part of his story.  Perhaps if it was a different pain medication I wouldn’t have noticed it.  Obviously not really a big deal, it was honestly just a passing reference.  It just up sticking out to me, and was a factor in why I chose to round down instead of up.

All in all, while I was wary of reading this book, it really made an impact on me, and it had a nice balance of light and hope to counter the feels.