sped through this thing in one day and almost cried at the end leah johnson i am yours

 DNF @ page 91.

This year is looking DIRE.

You could argue that I had this one coming. Unfortunately, this was a purchase of blind faith - I really enjoyed Leah Johnson's You Should See Me in A Crown, so I figured I would take whatever she gave me next. But truth is, I wouldn't have even picked this book up if I hadn't known the author - it includes a bunch of tropes and circumstances I rarely enjoy, and an overall vibe ('moral messaging' and 'purpose' are probably better words to use here) that tends to make me roll my eyes and start getting cynically critical.

Aside from the glaring signs of doom I chose to ignore, I was quite disappointed by what I read in the opening chapters of Rise to the Sun.
For starters, Johnson doesn't seem to know her characters before she begins, so their traits and quirks don't feel a natural part of their voices and behaviours from the beginning. Instead, Olivia and Toni both start making comments and showing insecurities out of the blue, like Johnson was making up new facets of their characters as she went along. The effect this ends up having is a pet peeve of mine which can be summarised as: convenience. It just seems like every aspect of the characters has been shoved into the narrative for convenience's sake so as to justify or nudge along the plot.
And yeah, speaking of plot, I don't really care. Sorry. Especially so because I am being expected to run head first into these random missions without truly understanding why the characters themselves care either. So like why am I here. Yeah yeah, all would be revealed I'm sure but like I said, am I bovvered.

Whichever book is next, honestly good luck.

yea so i did not like this. olivia is all over the place and overall i didn’t like her. also i think i’m just not a fan of fast romance buildups bc them being in love over a weekend wasn’t clicking for me 

"𝑻𝒉𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒅𝒂𝒚𝒔. 𝑻𝒘𝒐 𝒈𝒊𝒓𝒍𝒔. 𝑶𝒏𝒆 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆-𝒄𝒉𝒂𝒏𝒈𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒎𝒖𝒔𝒊𝒄 𝒇𝒆𝒔𝒕𝒊𝒗𝒂𝒍."

This book takes place over three days at an American music festival - Olivia and Toni being our main characters. This was my first time reading a Leah Johnson book, all I can say is that I'm so excited to read more of her work! This is a dual point of view book. In it, we get to see how their relationship forms over only three-days and how quickly love can grow.

Every character was flawed, but who isn't? I adored the development between all the characters. Peter is my favourite, I aspire to be like him and I hope he finds his love one day. 

Now I can't relate to enjoying a music festival - I've been to one before; two hours in and I was having a panic attack. HOWEVER I can definitely see why someone like Toni would feel most like herself when she's surrounded by music. She lost her father in such a horrible way, I'm happy that she had been able to reconnect with music and also allow herself to open up to Olivia.

Olivia, our bisexual disaster (I mean that lovingly), has been through so much pain and heartbreak, she's experienced betrayal by someone who was supposed to love her. I loved how Toni accepted her personality whereas others had always made her feel insecure for being outgoing.

There was a lot of drama and mess, but they are teenagers - they are allowed to be messy and learn consequences through their actions, and feelings.

Overall, I loved this and I am so excited to read more of Leah Johnson's work. I would definitely recommend reading this book.

this was such a cute and sweet book! i love leah johnson and her writing. there were some really strong themes for a YA book and i appreciated that. my only qualm is that i wish some of the plot points were touched on in the end. i felt like there were some loose ends to wrap up.