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3.62 AVERAGE
3.62 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Author: Leah Johnson
Genre: Contemporary
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: 6th July 2021
Pages: 322
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Three days. Two girls. One life-changing music festival.
Olivia is an expert at falling in love . . . and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her.
Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward.
When the two arrive at Farmland, the last thing they expect is to realize that they’ll need to join forces in order to get what they’re searching for out of the weekend. As they work together, the festival becomes so much more complicated than they bargained for, and Olivia and Toni will find that they need each other, and music, more than they ever could have imagined.
Packed with irresistible romance and irrepressible heart, bestselling author Leah Johnson delivers a stunning and cinematic story about grief, love, and the remarkable power of music to heal and connect us all.
Review
Trigger Warnings: References to parental loss, panic attacks, gun violence and non-consensual image sharing (listed at beginning of the book)
This review may contain spoilers.
I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while and I picked it up in February and I really enjoyed it. I just wanted to note that trigger warnings are listed at the beginning of this novel, which I really appreciated, and I hope to see more novels doing this in the future. This novel takes place over the course of a weekend at a musical festival, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set at a music festival before, so I really enjoyed this setting. My favourite aspect of this book was definitely the atmosphere, Leah Johnson’s writing captures the atmosphere of the music festival so well. Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was the plot, I found it to be really engrossing and I found it hard to put down. I also really loved the relationship that developed between Olivia and Toni, they're so cute.
Overall, this was an atmospheric YA Contemporary novel that had an engaging plot that made it hard to put down. I can’t wait to read whatever Leah Johnson writes next.
Genre: Contemporary
Age Range: Young Adult
Format: Paperback
Published: 6th July 2021
Pages: 322
Rating: 3.5 Stars
Goodreads Synopsis
Three days. Two girls. One life-changing music festival.
Olivia is an expert at falling in love . . . and at being dumped. But after the fallout from her last breakup has left her an outcast at school and at home, she’s determined to turn over a new leaf. A crush-free weekend at Farmland Music and Arts Festival with her best friend is just what she needs to get her mind off the senior year that awaits her.
Toni is one week away from starting college, and it’s the last place she wants to be. Unsure about who she wants to become and still reeling in the wake of the loss of her musician-turned-roadie father, she’s heading back to the music festival that changed his life in hopes that following in his footsteps will help her find her own way forward.
When the two arrive at Farmland, the last thing they expect is to realize that they’ll need to join forces in order to get what they’re searching for out of the weekend. As they work together, the festival becomes so much more complicated than they bargained for, and Olivia and Toni will find that they need each other, and music, more than they ever could have imagined.
Packed with irresistible romance and irrepressible heart, bestselling author Leah Johnson delivers a stunning and cinematic story about grief, love, and the remarkable power of music to heal and connect us all.
Review
Trigger Warnings: References to parental loss, panic attacks, gun violence and non-consensual image sharing (listed at beginning of the book)
This review may contain spoilers.
I’ve been wanting to read this one for a while and I picked it up in February and I really enjoyed it. I just wanted to note that trigger warnings are listed at the beginning of this novel, which I really appreciated, and I hope to see more novels doing this in the future. This novel takes place over the course of a weekend at a musical festival, I don’t think I’ve ever read a book set at a music festival before, so I really enjoyed this setting. My favourite aspect of this book was definitely the atmosphere, Leah Johnson’s writing captures the atmosphere of the music festival so well. Another aspect of this novel that I enjoyed was the plot, I found it to be really engrossing and I found it hard to put down. I also really loved the relationship that developed between Olivia and Toni, they're so cute.
Overall, this was an atmospheric YA Contemporary novel that had an engaging plot that made it hard to put down. I can’t wait to read whatever Leah Johnson writes next.
TW: Parental loss, panic attacks, gun violence and non consensual image sharing
This book was like a rush of dopamine and serotonin.
Seriously. The cuteness of Rise to the Sun was that overwhelming and even now, after finishing I can't stop smiling in that cheesy kind of way.
The book focuses on two girls, Olivia and Toni who bump into each other at a music festival. Olivia is trying to take her mind off her ex boyfriend and Toni is trying to rediscover herself after the death of her father. Circumstances bring the girls together where they soon become friends and maybe even something more than that but the question arises on whether they can chase the demons of their past away and open themselves up wholeheartedly to love.
Like You Should See Me In A Crown, I really enjoyed this book. I must admit though, at the start I was a little bit bored and constantly questioning where the book was heading. By the end though, I looked back and realised the wild ride I just went on. Whilst being a fun romance set in a music festival, this book really focused on identity and the different ways people open themselves up to love.
Olivia was someone who put their heart into everything and loved with everything she had, leaving only pieces behind if someone–and in her opinion, inevitably– broke up with her. Toni on the other hand learned to be an "ice queen." She learned that putting up her walls around people would safeguard her heart so it wouldn't be broken anymore. After a while, Toni discovered that her approach wasn't making her feel good and she was damaging her own happiness by denying herself of it. Olivia on the other hand learned that it's okay to love someone whole heartedly but damaging to think she needs to change her entire personality in order to make them stay.
I loved how these identity issues were tackled in the book. I know a lot of readers would relate to Toni and Olivia.
Story wise, there was a plot albeit a little loose. Olivia, in exchange for agreeing to help Toni win the Golden Apple music competition, aimed to win a car from participating in the #FoundAtFarmland hashtag. The girls and their friends Imani and Peter all go on a trip around the festival site to find the 5 golden apples for the car. What I found was that in every single adventure the group of 4 had trying to find an apple, an emphasis was made on the connections between them more than the action itself. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, heaps of romances and contemporaries do this but I believe I'm at a stage in my reader life where I want to read more books in the genre with tighter plot lines than what's currently on the market.
All in all though, this book was great especially if you're in the mood for cute fluffiness. Although I don't think I was in the right mood to enjoy this in the way it was desired, I would recommend this one wholeheartedly to any romance/contemporary fan who wants happy endings and amazing F+F reads.
ACTUAL RATING: 4.3 STARS
This book was like a rush of dopamine and serotonin.
Seriously. The cuteness of Rise to the Sun was that overwhelming and even now, after finishing I can't stop smiling in that cheesy kind of way.
The book focuses on two girls, Olivia and Toni who bump into each other at a music festival. Olivia is trying to take her mind off her ex boyfriend and Toni is trying to rediscover herself after the death of her father. Circumstances bring the girls together where they soon become friends and maybe even something more than that but the question arises on whether they can chase the demons of their past away and open themselves up wholeheartedly to love.
Like You Should See Me In A Crown, I really enjoyed this book. I must admit though, at the start I was a little bit bored and constantly questioning where the book was heading. By the end though, I looked back and realised the wild ride I just went on. Whilst being a fun romance set in a music festival, this book really focused on identity and the different ways people open themselves up to love.
Olivia was someone who put their heart into everything and loved with everything she had, leaving only pieces behind if someone–and in her opinion, inevitably– broke up with her. Toni on the other hand learned to be an "ice queen." She learned that putting up her walls around people would safeguard her heart so it wouldn't be broken anymore. After a while, Toni discovered that her approach wasn't making her feel good and she was damaging her own happiness by denying herself of it. Olivia on the other hand learned that it's okay to love someone whole heartedly but damaging to think she needs to change her entire personality in order to make them stay.
I loved how these identity issues were tackled in the book. I know a lot of readers would relate to Toni and Olivia.
Story wise, there was a plot albeit a little loose. Olivia, in exchange for agreeing to help Toni win the Golden Apple music competition, aimed to win a car from participating in the #FoundAtFarmland hashtag. The girls and their friends Imani and Peter all go on a trip around the festival site to find the 5 golden apples for the car. What I found was that in every single adventure the group of 4 had trying to find an apple, an emphasis was made on the connections between them more than the action itself. It isn't necessarily a bad thing, heaps of romances and contemporaries do this but I believe I'm at a stage in my reader life where I want to read more books in the genre with tighter plot lines than what's currently on the market.
All in all though, this book was great especially if you're in the mood for cute fluffiness. Although I don't think I was in the right mood to enjoy this in the way it was desired, I would recommend this one wholeheartedly to any romance/contemporary fan who wants happy endings and amazing F+F reads.
ACTUAL RATING: 4.3 STARS
funny
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Queer characters! Great audio performances. I thought this was going to be a fluffy romance, but Olivia's struggling with whether to testify against the star basketball player who leaked her nudes, and Toni has panic attacks in the wakes of her father's death. I found Olivia's struggle with asthma very realistic as well. Excellent supporting cast as well.
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence
Moderate: Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual harassment
Minor: Bullying
Reminded me a lot of Nicola Yoon's The Sun Is Also a Star, in that the slow burn was so slow it was boring. I remember liking You Should See Me In a Crown much better.
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
This story feels very important, not only because of the topics discussed and their relevance to the world today but because of how it shows you can still find happiness in the world, but I'm going to be honest - the book fell flat for the first half or so. It was extremely slow and I only ended up finishing because 1) I hate dnfing and 2) it picked up after the 50% mark. I had this issue with Leah Johnson's previous book as well and I'm unsure if I'll choose to continue reading this author. The endings are great, but it takes a while to get there.