A Touch of Southern Grace : What Light

Tuesday, December 5, 2017

What Light

Every year around this time I try to read as many Christmas themed books as humanly possible, or more accurately, as many books as time allows. First holiday book review of the 2017 Christmas Season {drum roll…} is What Light, by Jay Asher. Full disclosure: I purchased this book off of Amazon a few months ago when it popped up in my prompts as I was checking out and I’m not ashamed to say that 75% of the reason I bought this book was because of the cover. I didn’t realize that the same author who wrote 13 Reasons Why also wrote What Light, and I was honestly a little nervous reading it, I kept my fingers crossed for a fell good story, and What Light is truly a wonderful read!

Sierra’s family runs a Christmas tree farm in Oregon; a story book setting for anyone to grow up in, the only possible downside is that once a year Sierra and her family have to pack up and move to California to up their Christmas tree lot for the season. In short, Sierra lives two lives – her life in Organ and her life in at Christmas and leaving one life always means missing the other.

This Christmas season is more significant than any other Christmas season for a number of reasons; the first being it might be the last time Sierra and her family set up their Christmas tree lot in California, and secondly, Sierra meets Caleb.

Caleb has a reputation that paints him in a less than flattering light. He made a very sizable mistake when he was in middle school and has been prying about it and trying to find peace with it ever since. Being raised to believe that people are capable of change, Sierra makes the attempt to see past Caleb’s past and see instead the person he has become, and is able to help Caleb find forgiveness for himself.

Caleb and Sierra are attracted to each other right from the start. They realize that a long-distant relationship is an uphill battle, but also realize that true love can make just about anything possible.

What Light, by Jay Asher, is such a sweet holiday romance that will have you believing in true love, the power of Christmas magic, and that some things are just worth what ever it takes to make things work. A Holiday feel good story that I absolutely recommend.