Review: What Light by Jay Asher

Title: What Light

Author: Jay Asher

My rating: 4 hearts

Genre: Young Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Pub. date: October 18th 2016

Publisher: Razorbill

Synopsis: From Jay Asher, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Thirteen Reasons Why, comes a romance that will break your heart, but soon have you believing again. . . .

Sierra's family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon—it's a bucolic setting for a girl to grow up in, except that every year, they pack up and move to California to set up their Christmas tree lot for the season. So Sierra lives two lives: her life in Oregon and her life at Christmas. And leaving one always means missing the other. 

Until this particular Christmas, when Sierra meets Caleb, and one life eclipses the other.

By reputation, Caleb is not your perfect guy: years ago, he made an enormous mistake and has been paying for it ever since. But Sierra sees beyond Caleb's past and becomes determined to help him find forgiveness and, maybe, redemption. As disapproval, misconceptions, and suspicions swirl around them, Caleb and Sierra discover the one thing that transcends all else: true love.

What Light is a love story that's moving and life-affirming and completely unforgettable. (synopsis from Goodreads)

I really enjoyed this book. I did. I liked the characters, the plot, and the romance. I don't know exactly what, but it felt as though something was missing, though. That little something that you just can't put your finger on. That little something to get the book from "great" to "mind-blowing".

   I like Sierra.

   She’s a good heroine. She’s smart, caring and just a generally nice girl. It did bother me a bit that she started hanging mostly with Caleb after they started seeing each other, that she kind of forgot about her other friends, but otherwise, I liked her.

   I’m not sure about Caleb, though.

   Okay, here’s the thing; Caleb is fine. He’s a good guy, he’s made some mistakes, but he’s nice. I like him. I just didn’t really care about him. He didn’t really make me feel anything. So, as nice as he may be, I just don’t care.

   The plot was a bit slow.

   Not a lot happened, it was mostly just baking cookies or selling (or giving away) trees or sitting and talking, so it was really hard to get into it. Maybe I just read it at the same time, because I think it could be a great read for the holidays, to get into the Christmas spirit, but I couldn’t get into it when the sun was shining and it was warm outside. So maybe I shouldn’t’ve read it in the spring.

   The writing’s okay.

   Apart from the fact that it didn’t really make me care about the characters much, it was good. I especially liked the descriptions, it really captured that special Christmas feeling, the excitement and happiness and joy of Christmas.

   I would definitely recommend this as a holiday read, because it captures the Christmas feelings perfectly, and if you’re looking for a good romantic read, I would recommend it, too. But if you want something a bit faster, then maybe this book isn’t for you.