A review by kaloughl
Rise to the Sun by Leah Johnson
3.0
Rise to the Sun delivered the same cute teenage rom com Johnson had made herself known for, only this time amidst a music festival instead of a cut throat prom season. You Should See Me in a Crown was one of my top books of 2020 and I recommend it a lot. This unfortunately means Rise to the Sun has a lot to live up to and it just didn't cut it for me. Olivia is attending her first Farmland Music Festival in an attempt to distract herself from a lingering issue at school. Toni is back at the festival that practically raised her, where her father used to take her every year until he died in an attempt to win the amateur singing competition. The two stumble upon each other, each with a best friend/sidekick in tow and decide to team up to try to win the singing competition and the scavenger hunt. Their instant connection morphs into something more and the festival heals them both in ways they did not imagine.
The story is hella cute and I really enjoyed both the characters and backstories of Olivia and Toni. I also enjoyed their respective best friends, Imani and Peter, and their almost love square turned something way different. I think what lost me was the two perspectives. They were written in similar style and cadence and other that the life details, nothing distinguished Olivia from Toni in language or tone. I looooved Liz Lightly in Johnson's debut novel and simultaneously fell in love with Mack as the novel progressed, not because I was reading Mack's perspective but because she was framed so perfectly from Liz' perspective. I personally felt the change to two perspectives weakened both characters enough that I couldn't form the same connections. Also, I am not a music festival scene kind of girl so was not intrigued at all by the setting (it in fact stressed me out... all those people and camping?!) which was another notch against it.
Though it has the same high energy, cute-a-f romantic storyline with some real examinations of deeper subjects, Rise to the Sun just didn't live up to it's older sibling You Should See Me in a Crown. I'd still recommend it to readers of YA romance, especially LGBTQIA+ romance because it's strong on most levels and will hit you in the feels.
The story is hella cute and I really enjoyed both the characters and backstories of Olivia and Toni. I also enjoyed their respective best friends, Imani and Peter, and their almost love square turned something way different. I think what lost me was the two perspectives. They were written in similar style and cadence and other that the life details, nothing distinguished Olivia from Toni in language or tone. I looooved Liz Lightly in Johnson's debut novel and simultaneously fell in love with Mack as the novel progressed, not because I was reading Mack's perspective but because she was framed so perfectly from Liz' perspective. I personally felt the change to two perspectives weakened both characters enough that I couldn't form the same connections. Also, I am not a music festival scene kind of girl so was not intrigued at all by the setting (it in fact stressed me out... all those people and camping?!) which was another notch against it.
Though it has the same high energy, cute-a-f romantic storyline with some real examinations of deeper subjects, Rise to the Sun just didn't live up to it's older sibling You Should See Me in a Crown. I'd still recommend it to readers of YA romance, especially LGBTQIA+ romance because it's strong on most levels and will hit you in the feels.