About the Book
-
Authors:
- Jeff Zentner
- Brittany Cavallaro
- Genres:
- Boy-Girl Romance
- Contemporary
- Verse
- YA Romance
- Voices:
- Cis Boy
- Cis Girl
- Straight
- White (Non-Specified)
Cover Story: Self-Explanatory
BFF Charms: True Love, Yay
Talky Talk: Poetic
Bonus Factor: Summer Camp
Relationship Status: Set It Free
Cover Story: Self-Explanatory
This is, indeed, a Sunrise Night. Which is a terrific idea, but more on that below. For now, know that this cover pretty perfectly encapsulates the story within.
The Deal:
Florence and Jude are students at a summer camp for artistic youth. Jude’s there for photography; Florence for dance. They don’t cross paths at all until the very last night of camp, a night known as Sunrise Night during which campers are allowed to wander the town until the sun rises (with a few check-ins to make sure they’re safe, of course). They immediately form a connection, and the chemistry between them is palpable, but Jude has a girlfriend, so they decide to go their separate ways, no contact, until the next Sunrise Night. When Florence has a boyfriend. Will the third Sunrise Night—their last chance to make it work—be the charm?
BFF Charms: True Love, Yay
Although we get to hear his innermost thoughts, Jude has all the qualities of a mysterious loner dude—on the outside. On the inside, he’s a total cinnamon roll, filled with anxious thoughts and passionate wishes. He’s very artistic, has a great sense of humor, and a head full of dark curls. Teenage Mandy would have been head-over-heels for him, though she probably wouldn’t do anything about it because she’d think he was way too cool for her.
Florence also has a bit of mystery to her, but that’s more because of her standoffish nature than any actual mystery. She’d be a tough egg to crack, especially if I was her competition—she’s competitive to a fault—but one I’d put all sorts of effort into cracking. She’s got a chip on her shoulder, due in part to a variety of eye issues that put an expiration date on her dance career, but is also witty and clever and yearning for someone to put in the effort. I’d absolutely do that for her.
Swoonworthy Scale: 8
Like I mentioned above, Jude and Florence have immediate chemistry. But the first time they meet, Jude has a girlfriend at home, and he’s not the kind of guy who’d cheat. So they keep their swoony thoughts to themselves, but being privy to those thoughts, it’s easy to see that they’re both falling pretty hard from the start.
Talky Talk: Poetic
Sunrise Nights is a mostly verse book, with a few exceptions for dialogue. It took me a while to get into the flow of the story, not being a huge verse reader and the fact that some chapters felt forced into the verse format, but by the end of the novel it was easy to go with the flow. Zenter and Cavallaro worked seamlessly together; the poetry of the different POVs felt similar, but not overly so, making it clear that Jude and Florence were two very different people. I particularly loved Jude’s thoughts near the end of the novel; he’s an artist, and it shone through perfectly.
I read somewhere once
that humans might have a sixth
sense, a sense of the spatial
relationship of the body.
This is why you can touch
the tip of your nose
perfectly in the dark.Maybe there’s a seventh
sense, where you can
find someone else’s hand
perfectly in a dark elevator,
a hand you very much want
to hold, and you hold it.
Ed. note: I took this quote from an advanced review copy of the book. The final text might be different.
Bonus Factor: Summer Camp
I only ever attended day camps in the summers of my youth, so I never experienced the freedom of a sleepaway camp. The camp Jude and Florence attend sounds like an absolute blast, with a lot of hard work culminating in a night of freedom and hijinks, which sounds like a perfect time to me.
Relationship Status: Set It Free
Although our time together was brief, Book, you’re not just some summer fling. Regardless of where our paths take us, I’ll always remember you fondly. And if we happen upon each other again in the future, who’s to say that we can’t just pick up where we left off?
Literary Matchmaking
Zentner’s debut novel, The Serpent King, is filled with poetic prose and tells a heartbreaking—but also heartwarming—story.
Cavallaro’s Charlotte Holmes series showcases her gift for poetic prose.
Elizabeth Acevedo’s The Poet X is another stunning verse novel.
FTC Full Disclosure: I received a copy of this book from Quill Tree Books, but got neither a private dance party with Tom Hiddleston nor money in exchange for this review. Sunrise Nights is available now.
