The Brightest Light of Sunshine

The Brightest Light, Book 1

By: Lisina Coney

Narrated by: Avery Reid, Stephen Borne

A woman ready to move on. A man who can't afford distractions. An inspiring journey of healing love.

Determined to walk away from a traumatic past, 22-year-old Grace Allen feels ready to take the next step in her healing journey—dipping a toe into the dating pool. Although she should probably start by making a friend or two, right?

Samuel 'Cal' Callaghan isn't who she had envisioned as her first male friend in… well, forever. With an intimidating build, tattoos everywhere, eight years her senior, and a little sister under his care, the last thing she expected was to warm up to him so easily. As their friendship evolves, Grace can't help but wonder if Cal is exactly who she's been looking for all this time.

Cal can't afford to lose sight of his priorities—making sure his tattoo parlor thrives and taking care of his little sister. Especially the latter. He wants to make sure 4-year-old Maddie has a healthy and happy childhood, despite their mother going off the rails and her father's blatant neglect. There's certainly no room for love in his life right now. But when a sweet blonde with a veiled past breaks down his walls, he finds it difficult to stick to his guns.

Intended for mature listeners.

©2023 Lisina Coney (P)2023 Podium Audio

Spectacular read!

I loved this book the first time I read it and the reread is even better. NOW I DO have the original indie paperback so they did change some words in the new paperback which is ok I like having an original copy. The story is great and the relationship between cal and grace is my favorite! Can’t wait for Maddie’s story next

Beautiful story!

Grace and Cal are such an amazing couple. Their story was so beautiful filled with heartache, love, and hope

Charming

Super cute and sweet. Moved a bit slow in the middle, but the characters are likable, their chemistry is cute, and I loved their connection and the adorable HEA.

Both narrators were great- I had not heard of either before, but they brought a lot of heart to the story and kept the pace moving and had good emotional nuances with both characters.

Amazing performance

These narrators did an amazing performance!! Very well done, absolutely loved the story! Can’t wait to listen to the next one !

*SPOILERS* Super sweet hot SLOW BURN, but…

📣📣📣 Ending the book with pregnancy was predictable and meh, like there’s no other happy ending whatsoever?

The narrators were fantastic and Stephen really knocked it out of the park making Cal’s voice.

Cal was swoonworthy 🫠

What a perfect book. The narrators are amazing and it brought the story to life. This had me felling all kinds of things. The way Cal was with his woman. I melted, and swooned and melted some more. The plot was interesting and the spice was spicy after the slow burn stopped. I truly enjoyed this one and can't wait to pick up and listen to the next one.

Everything this was exquisite

I can’t just choose one thing I liked about this book..everything in here was amazing!! Probably hands down is one of the best books I’ve ever read Lisina Coney creates masterpieces 🥲💘

Sweet sunshine

Loved this modern romance with lots of detailed description of characters and their experiences they are going through

Probably skip

I'm not sure that this is worth your time. I listen to the whole thing - skipping some chapters towards the end to get it over with. The writing is not that great but I did enjoy most of the narration except for the little kids voice which was quite annoying. It was a very light read that does not tax the brain.

not for me

I'll start by apologizing to everyone who liked this book (and also the friend who recommended it to me) because it was so bad!
How bad was it? It's been a month since I heard it, and I still get upset when I think about it. 😂

So what did we have there...?
A girl in college with a traumatic past that causes her to have anxiety attacks and a fear of men... and a possessive and protective man who is unwilling to get into relationships because of his priorities - his tattoo shop and his little sister, whom he cares about more than anything because of their addicted mother. They get to know each other, become friends... but will they be able to overcome the difficulties? 🧡

I'll start by saying that ,the FMC was unbearable. She was too fragile... and not in an empathetic way, but annoying. And in general, it was not clear why she's not in therapy. Everyone knows what she went through, everyone is there for her and empathetic to her anxiety attacks and fears, but no one convinces her to take care of herself? Like it's something that will go away on its own?? (Spoiler - it's not, and no man - including this charming tattooed over protective hero, is not the cure) 🙄
I also did not understand the connection between the characters. Grace was insecure, childish and has low self-esteem... so what did Cal actually find in her??? Well, actually, he's 30 years old and goes to student parties for fun... you could say he's also a bit childish himself 😂😂😂

But the thing I didn't like the most, is that Grace says she was r@ped. This word appeared *a few times* during the audio... her trauma was so deep, I thought she had been violently gang-r@ped... but then suddenly in chapter 23 she said she was a virg!n, asked Cal if it hurt and if men were disgusted by the bleeding. Ummm... WHAT THE F#@K?!?!
So let me clarify (after going back to check what I missed) - Grace was NOT r@ped, she was s*xu@lly assaulted. It's really NOT the same!!! Make no mistake, s*xual assault is serious enough, but there is a huge difference between touching without consent and r@pe! Why didn't anyone say anything to the author during the editing stage?? And why not edit this book again!?!?! 🤦‍♀️
Why... why... WHYYYYYYY?!

All in all, as you understood, I didn't like the book and decided to DNF it in chapter 29 after a st&pid drama that hurt my teeth, but if you like friends to lovers books with age gap and you don't have a problem with childish characters, plot holes and also a lack of editing or basic research... You might enjoy it more than I do. 🤷‍♀️