I picked up this book because the premise–it’s about a guy influencer who becomes famous and the hometown girl he’s always loved–sounded unique. I see lots of books with girl influencers but this is the first one I’ve seen with a guy. I looked forward to reading about his photo shoots and parties–and that part didn’t disappoint! But A Love Like The Sun is a very slow burn and it felt like it took forever for their romance to become real.

Leniah (Ni) and Isaac grew up together in Providence, Rhode Island and have been best friends all their lives. Isaac grew up in foster care after his parents died in a car accident when he was twelve and spent a lot of time with Ni and her family. He was there for Ni and her mom when her father died of heart failure. Isaac loved multimedia art and started making videos that became very popular (especially ones where he’s shirtless) where he’s making sculptures, listening to music, and talking about how he believes everyone has a soulmate. He was ’sunshine energy to the world’ and big named brands hired him to model their clothes and products. He’s been in Los Angeles for two years and has paparazzi following him everywhere. Ni misses him every day but they stay in touch and text each other often.

Isaac comes home to Rhode Island to visit Ni and discovers that her and her mom’s natural hair products store is struggling. He wants to give them money to help them but they won’t take it so instead he uses his platform to share about their store and suddenly their business is booming. He suggests that he and Ni pretend to be in a relationship for the summer–using his star power might help attract an investor for their business. Ni struggles with being in the public eye but she goes along with it.

Ni is oblivious to the fact that Isaac is in love with her. Isaac dated a model for a while and when Ni sees the woman modeling in one of his photo shoots with him, of course she jumps to the conclusion that he is still in love with her which I could have done without. It’s clear Ni is just really insecure about herself and this plot device goes on for too long. I wanted to see them as an actual couple sooner in the story.

One of the characters in the story has a chronic illness with a delayed diagnosis and this part is heart wrenching. The author talks more about this in her notes. I liked learning more about this and seeing this kind of representation in romance.

Ni’s insecurities about her looks and worrying about why Isaac would want her when he is so famous and good looking that he could have anyone became repetitive. That said, it’s breathtaking when Isaac gets creative to show Ni how much she means to him and I ended up being happy I stuck with the story. I recommend this to readers looking for a slow burn, childhood friends to lovers story with depth and soulmates.