Release Blitz + Review: The Hard Truth About Sunshine by Sawyer Bennett

Rating:

“I choose to live.
I choose to love.
I choose to forge my path.
Life is my choice.”

I was a mess. I had a hard-time sleeping. My mind, a jumble of words with no coherent thoughts. I was broken. And this book, The Hard Truth About Sunshine, broke me.

It was actually hard to think of an opening line for this review because I was left with just my emotions scattered and my brain trying so hard to put words into what I feel. But when my pen touched paper (yes, I did this the traditional way), words just flowed so fast my hand had a hard time catching up.

“You're like a blaze of bright sunshine that the fucking darkest sunglasses can't repel.”

I love the cover! Kudos because it has the feels of what the book is about. It's like a whole depiction of the book and the secrets hidden in the darkness. I signed up for this one because I had that feeling this would be something good and something different. And in my search of something different, this book shined its light on me.

This book, for me, felt like a band of misfits, joined together by circumstances, going on a road trip searching for an unknown and stumbling upon the hard truth about sunshine.

Christopher Barlow is a medically discharged marine, who was abandoned by everyone he loved - his family, his career, and his girlfriend - after the Humvee he was driving during his tour stepped into an IED and blew up the right side of the vehicle. He was all loads of fucked up with demons he constantly fight and a life he wants to waste away.

The other people in their weird group were Jillian (Sexy Eyes, she was diagnosed with neuromuscular disorder and have a cheery disposition with life despite the fact she's going to be blind in the near future and she's a walking heart attack waiting to happen), Connor (whom Christopher calls Dead Kid, because well, cancer and his days are numbered and the reason for the road trip), and Barb (the Goth Chick, bitter, angry at the world and likes to smoke pot and likes sex because that also needs to be mentioned).

“For the first time, she just makes me want.
Her.
Sex.
Laughter.
Happiness.
Brighter days.”

I think one of the very thing I like about this book aside from that this is different, is that their idea of checking and doing things on their bucketlist. Yes, life has given them a big fuck you and is definitely unfair, but because of the whole "I have cancer, I'm dying" line by Connor, the grim reality of what it is given to them is taken on a different stride.

I probably didn't expect humor, but there were definitely light and optimism and a whole lot of dark thrown into it. But I felt, despite Christopher and Barb being bitter and assholes, Jillian and Connor evened out their darkness and brought in a dangerous thing called 'hope'.

This book told in first person POV, is a definite page-turner and a sure ugly-cry book. I am still suffering from book-hangover and this day has just passed with this book still hovering in my mind. Sawyer Bennett did something different, and I admire the courage she did to embark something out of her comfort zone. *slow clap*

“Let's pray for the sun to shine it's warmth upon us always,
So we may never forget the hard truth of it.”