Genre: Contemporary/Romance
Series: Standalone
Publisher: Walkers Childrens
Release Date: Feb 18, 2014
When Jonah is forced to move from Hamilton to Cross Pointe for the second half of his senior year, "miserable" doesn't even begin to cover it. He feels like the doggy-bag from his mother's first marriage and everything else about her new life—with a new husband, new home and a new baby—is an upgrade. The people at Cross Pointe High School are pretentious and privileged—and worst of all is Brighton Waterford, the embodiment of all things superficial and popular. Jonah’s girlfriend, Carly, is his last tie to what feels real... until she breaks up with him.
For Brighton, every day is a gauntlet of demands and expectations. Since her father died, she’s relied on one coping method: smile big and pretend to be fine. It may have kept her family together, but she has no clue how to handle how she's really feeling. Today is the anniversary of his death and cracks are beginning to show. The last thing she needs is the new kid telling her how much he dislikes her for no reason she can understand. She's determined to change his mind, and when they're stuck together for the night, she finally gets her chance.
Jonah hates her at 3p.m., but how will he feel at 3 a.m.?
One night can change how you see the world. One night can change how you see yourself.
*Caution: Review is slightly blather because.*
After naming SEND ME A SIGN by Tiffany Schmidt one of my favorites of 2012, I was absolutely aching for her next contemporary and when I heard of Bright Before Sunrise, I almost died. After all, writing two people falling in love in a night was hard, never mind the fact that Jonah practically hated Brighton.
Almost 20 pages in, I already started to sympathize with the characters, especially Brighton. I've never seen a character who was so desperate to look fine or a character who was so...perfect. Or as perfect a heroine could get without being too annoying. She honest-to-God felt bad whenever she even slightly ignored someone or didn't please them or make them happy. She wasn't just pretending to be perfect--it was just in her nature, to make everyone feel as happy as she wasn't. But her flaw was that she kept doing what she thought her father wanted to do and Jonah was right--she repressed herself to be the perfect daughter, though I'm still not sure if she realized she was doing that until Jonah mentioned it.
Jonah wasn't exactly my favorite character at first, especially because he seemed so prejudiced towards everyone in Cross Pointe, but I could see how easy it was to mistake their kindness for snobbier tendencies, but still. Of course, as the story goes on, you start to understand him and his prejudices and you start to love him. He doesn't necessarily go through character development, but his eyes are certainly opened when he realizes the people at Cross Pointe aren't all mean or snobbish or as terrible as he thought. And we readers get to see what he's really like as he comes to Brighton's rescue several times, and in more ways than one.
The side characters were also pretty brilliant, and I loved Carly. While, when we first meet her, she seemed like a bitch. Clingy, possessive, and insecure. The typical mean girl. But through her few scenes, we see that she's more than just that stereotype. She seemed like that sweet misunderstood girl in the story, and I feel like I'd love to see things from her point of view.
Amelia seemed like an awesome friend, and protective of Brighton, but beyond that I can't really say. In the 24 hours of this book, she doesn't really show up much past the introduction, but she did seem like a supportive friend that I would love to have!
While the romance was a tad rushed (after all, they fall in love withing the span of about 5 hours) I did love that they didn't just immediately kiss, and that their love story started out pretty rocky with Jonah using her, then realizing how wrong he was about her. And, perhaps my favorite thing about it, they didn't claim they loved each other or anything and their relationship felt pretty open. We didn't have much resolution, and for once I loved that kind of ending. It just worked with the story!
Jonah wasn't exactly my favorite character at first, especially because he seemed so prejudiced towards everyone in Cross Pointe, but I could see how easy it was to mistake their kindness for snobbier tendencies, but still. Of course, as the story goes on, you start to understand him and his prejudices and you start to love him. He doesn't necessarily go through character development, but his eyes are certainly opened when he realizes the people at Cross Pointe aren't all mean or snobbish or as terrible as he thought. And we readers get to see what he's really like as he comes to Brighton's rescue several times, and in more ways than one.
The side characters were also pretty brilliant, and I loved Carly. While, when we first meet her, she seemed like a bitch. Clingy, possessive, and insecure. The typical mean girl. But through her few scenes, we see that she's more than just that stereotype. She seemed like that sweet misunderstood girl in the story, and I feel like I'd love to see things from her point of view.
Amelia seemed like an awesome friend, and protective of Brighton, but beyond that I can't really say. In the 24 hours of this book, she doesn't really show up much past the introduction, but she did seem like a supportive friend that I would love to have!
While the romance was a tad rushed (after all, they fall in love withing the span of about 5 hours) I did love that they didn't just immediately kiss, and that their love story started out pretty rocky with Jonah using her, then realizing how wrong he was about her. And, perhaps my favorite thing about it, they didn't claim they loved each other or anything and their relationship felt pretty open. We didn't have much resolution, and for once I loved that kind of ending. It just worked with the story!
So yeah, I absolutely adored Bright Before Sunrise and it feels like the perfect summer read (or reread!) It's a book I'd definitely recommend to anyone looking for a cute fluff or a love story where you fall in love with the characters as they fall for each other.
I'm glad you liked this one! I feel like I was in the minority because Jonah never warmed up to me, but fantastic review, Nikki! <33
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