100 Days of Sunlight // I. AM. IN. LOVE!

You know those books you read where you finish and you're just like, "Hey! I could do that!"
Not that those books are bad or anything, they just weren't spectacular. But yet they ended up being a fairly well-known name in the book blogging world. And while your story isn't quite where that book is, you can easily see your story being as good as that book when you finish. (If not better.)

And then there are books that just blow you away. That leaves you sitting there asking, "HOW. HOW DID SUCH GENIUS COME INTO THE WORLD?

I read one of those books a few days ago.

That book was 100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons

There is absolutely nothing that I DIDN'T like about this book. But the one thing that REALLY stood out to me was...
 

THE CHARACTERS: 

Their voices! The way their thinking changed in their POVs! One character, Tessa...her thoughts are filled with poetry, poetic lines, faith, and God related things. And Wes? His are filled with superheroes, TOUGHNESS, and such.

This line, in particular, blew me away:

Pain shot through my body like a mortar round. Suddenly, I was wide awake—and cussing like a Marine into the carpet under my mouth.  

Because it's SO WES. The chapters state which character is narrating but honestly, I didn't need it. Because I always knew without a shadow of a doubt which one was narrating.


Also, I adored the fact that Wes boxed and fought his best friend for fun.
But what I really adored? That Tessa didn't somehow have knowledge about boxing. (I feel like that's a thing in YA. If the couple has any interests, they must somehow overlap.)
But also? When Tessa talked about him boxing or thought about it, she didn't use the terminology. She says things like, "punching people." She'd probably call a heavy bag "a punching bag." AND I LOVE IT.

It's so hard when your writing to keep your personal knowledge from spilling into your characters.
And it's not like Wes doesn't use that terminology either. He uses the proper names for punches and I understood the fight scenes and AH. BE STILL MY HEART.

OTHER CHARACTER THINGS I LOVED: 

The siblings were AMAZING. ANd *gasp* Emmons didn't do the thing where she gives a character 2-3 little brothers and then gives. them. all. the. same. personality.

The friends. 

It's always something that bugs me in stories...The best friend shows up at the beginning. And maybe at the end. But for the rest of the story? They just disappear. And I know its hard. You can't just have random characters in scenes when they don't do anything.
(I personally add people in and then never ever talk about them again. #hypocrite)

But this? ONE: The best friends were amazing. TWO: They were in the story!

AND IT WAS SO AMAZING.

AND REALISTIC.

LOOK AT THESE TEXTS:

(Rudy = Best friend of Wes)

RUDY: dude what the heck

RUDY: WHERE ARE YOU

RUDY: DID YOU LITERALLY TEXT ME

RUDY: and theN THROW YOUR PHONE

RUDY: ACROSS THE PACIFIC OCEAN

(Tessa's friends:)

MARIA: When did this happen?

ME: right after he kissed me

GRACIE: UH

GRACIE: WHAT

SEE? COMPLETELY ACCURATE TO HOW FRIENDS RESPOND.




IN SHORT:
100 Days of Sunlight is an amazing book and I am in awe. 

-MK