A Love Like the Sun by Riss M. Neilson (Paperback)

Fiction - Romance - Contemporary

RELEASE DATE: 6/11/2024 (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE)

"Extraordinary... a raw, vulnerable, breath-stealing love you can feel as you read."
—Emily Henry

"Dazzling, tender, and romantic." —Carley Fortune

Lifelong best friends spend a fateful summer discovering what might happen if they were to be something more in this radiant, heart-clenching adult debut.

Laniah Thompson is a homebody who craves privacy. Issac Jordan is internet famous and spends his days followed by paparazzi. She runs a small business with her mom in her hometown. He runs an international brand.

And they’ve been best friends since childhood.

When Issac comes home to Providence for the first time in months and discovers Laniah’s dream is slipping out of reach as she and her mom struggle to pay the bills at Wildly Green, their natural hair store, she refuses to take a dime from him. And so, he does what any self-respecting best friend would do: tells the world they’re dating.

Suddenly business is booming, and Laniah agrees to his ridiculous plan to pretend to be lovers for the course of the summer. Just long enough to catch the eye of an investor and get her dream back on track, like she helped him do so many years ago, he reminds her.

Too soon, though, Laniah knows she’s playing with fire, because for as long as they’ve been friends there’s an undeniable pull they’ve never given in to. And as the lines between art and life—real and pretend—blur, it becomes harder and harder to see where friendship ends and something else begins....

Told over the course of three sizzling summer months, A Love Like the Sun is about shared history, those who make us our bravest selves, and love in its many forms.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Riss M. Neilson is a magna cum laude graduate of Rhode Island College, where she won the English department's Jean Garrigue Award, which was judged by novelist Nick White. Her debut young adult novel, Deep in Providence, was a 2022 finalist for the New England Book Awards, and her forthcoming novel I'm Not Supposed to be in the Dark is set to publish in 2023. She is from Providence and lives for the city's art and culture scene. When she's not writing, she's watching anime or playing video games with her two children. A Love Like the Sun is her adult debut.

"Sometimes you read a book and you just know that no other writer in the world could possibly have written it--that this story was destined to be told in just this way, at just this moment. Riss M. Neilson's A Love Like the Sun is one of those books. It's funny, heartfelt, and fresh, with dreamy prose and vibrant characters. Nielson has crafted something extraordinary in Laniah and Issac's story: a raw, vulnerable, breath-stealing love you can feel as you read. Perfect for fans of Abby Jimenez, Kennedy Ryan, and Carley Fortune (aka me)."
-- Emily Henry, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Happy Place

"A Love Like the Sun is a beautifully crafted and achingly tender story that offers a fresh take on the well loved friends to lovers trope. Laniah and Isaac's chemistry is undeniable, and I so enjoyed witnessing them find their way to each other. A must read!"
-- Kristina Forest, author of The Partner Plot

"Riss M. Neilson masterfully crafts the fears and fireworks of best friends-to-lovers romance while showcasing culture, curls, and sizzling chemistry. And yes, Isaac brings that star power, but Ni is otherworldly--for these two, it was only ever a matter of time."
-- Taj McCoy, author of Zora Books Her Happy Ever After and Savvy Sheldon Feels Good as Hell

"Sexy, heartwarming and soulfully human, Riss M. Neilson's stunning adult debut is an homage to home, family, love, and the fears that hold us back from our destiny."
-- Shirlene Obuobi, author of On Rotation