The Brightest Light of Sunshine Review

By Lisa Coney

The Brightest Light Book 1

Star rating: ★★★★☆

Blurb

A woman ready to move on. A man who can't afford distractions. An inspiring journey of healing love.

Determined to walk away from a traumatic past, 22-year-old Grace Allen feels ready to take the next step in her healing journey—dipping a toe into the dating pool. Although she should probably start by making a friend or two, right?

Samuel ‘Cal’ Callaghan isn’t who she had envisioned as her first male friend in… well, forever. With an intimidating build, tattoos everywhere, eight years her senior, and a little sister under his care, the last thing she expected was to warm up to him so easily. As their friendship evolves, Grace can’t help but wonder if Cal is exactly who she’s been looking for all this time.

Cal can’t afford to lose sight of his priorities—making sure his tattoo parlor thrives and taking care of his little sister. Especially the latter. He wants to make sure 4-year-old Maddie has a healthy and happy childhood despite their mother going off the rails and her father’s blatant neglect. There’s certainly no room for love in his life right now. But when a sweet blonde with a veiled past breaks down his walls, he finds it difficult to stick to his guns.

CONTENT NOTES: This book contains themes of sexual assault (there are no explicit scenes depicting sexual assault), profanity, alcoholism, and explicit sexual content. Recommended for 18+.

Genre: Contemporary romance

Read if you Like:

🏵️ Ballerina heroine

🏵️ Tattooed hero

🏵️ Single guardian

🏵️ Age gap

🏵️ Recovering from trauma

My Thoughts:

The Brightest Light of Sunshine is an emotional story about recovering from past hurts and how family dynamics affect relationships.

Grace and Cal are at different points in life. Grace is a college student and Cal owns a business and helps care for his younger sister. I loved watching Cal and Grace bond. I liked that while Cal was protective of her he also recognized her need for independence. He also appreciated her strength and resilience instead of judging the emotional scars from her past.

Grace is a beautifully written character. I loved that romance books were an accessible way for her to learn about her sexuality after her trauma. I also loved that she kept ballet as a part of her life even though she decided she didn't want it as a career. I loved seeing how caring she was with Cal's sister.

While I enjoyed this story I felt like it could have been a little shorter and still been an enjoyable read. I also had a bit of mixed feelings about the age gap. There are couples with larger age gaps than this one who have relationships that are extremely successful but I worried a little in this case that Grace wouldn't get to fully explore her own identity because she is basically stepping into the role of Cal's partner.

Another decision that was interesting is that we never see the traumatic incident that Grace experienced on page. I think some readers will appreciate that but I had some questions about what exactly happened and how the aftermath was handled. It wasn't fully relevant to the story but I think it could have made the descriptions of triggers more detailed.

Overall I recommend this story for anyone who likes romances involving healing from trauma and doesn't mind an age gap. I will be interested to read the sequel and get Maddie's story next month!

🌶️🌶️🌶️ - Multiple open door steamy scenes as well as significant sexual tension.

Thanks to Lisa Coney and Pages and Vines for providing me with a gifted copy of this book. All opinions are my own.