A Little Ray of Sunshine by Kristan Higgins @Kristan_Higgins @xesands #LauralMerlington @JeannieSheneman @recordedbooks

the setup…
Harlow Smith runs a bookstore in Wellfleet, Massachusetts with her grandfather. She lives a quiet life, hanging out mostly with family and her trivia night group. That is until the boy she secretly gave birth to while in college and put up for adoption walks in and says hello! How does she respond? Kissed the floor as she fainted. As happy as she is to see her almost 18-year old son Matthew, she’s got a lot of explaining to do with her family and lots of questions for his adoptive parents who had no idea he’d planned to arrange this meeting, thinking he’d chosen this location purely for their annual family vacation.

the heart of the story…
The story is told mostly from the points of view of Harlow and Monica Patel, Matthew’s adoptive mother. The contrasts between the two made this story even more heartbreaking as I could empathize with both of them and couldn’t conjure up any easy solutions. We also get the point of view of Cynthia Millstone, an odd woman in her 60s who is Harlow’s grandfather’s goddaughter and part owner of the bookstore. Her connection, at first elusive, later provided another interesting perspective. But it was Harlow and Monica who gripped my emotions as they struggled to do what was best for Matthew while grappling with what they privately wanted for themselves. Both women also had to face how that one event eighteen years ago shaped them, and not all positively. Even more enlightening was how Matthew felt about being put up for adoption, even though he was placed with wonderful, loving people.

the narration…
I like Xe Sands, loved her here. She was Harlow’s voice and captured her fully…angst, happiness, despair…you name it. She became that woman. Merlington and Sheneman were no slouches either, both giving life to each of their characters.

the bottom line…
I literally couldn’t stop listening to this story, more than 15 hours inhaled over a day and a half. The many facets and issues of adoption are explored here from the perspectives of the child, the adoptive mother and the birth mother. There’s no right or wrong just what is the reality. Many of those issues were illuminating, new to me and angles I’d never considered. Higgins managed to deliver them through three authentic characters, all extremely well developed in the process, surrounding them with secondary ones that factored significantly into the past and present (that includes you Grandpop!). This is a story that had me experience every emotion imaginable and I still wasn’t ready for it to end.

Book Info

• Release Date: June 6, 2023
• Narrators: Xe Sands, Laural Merlington & Jeannie Sheneman
• Audio Length: 15 hours, 31 minutes
• Publisher: Recorded Books

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