This is a beautiful YA read. A sweet, emotional and uplifting story about two 16-year-olds who are dealing with significant life challenges and who find strength in their family and friends to hope and heal, and just keep on going. With characters that will own your heart and a gorgeous story of first love, this little book completely captivated me and I loved it.

Tessa Dickinson’s world is upended when she is involved in a car accident, and head trauma causes her to temporarily lose her vision. Told that her blindness will mostly likely last 11-14 weeks, she wallows in darkness, unable to use her beloved poetry blog as an outlet, and terrified that her condition will become permanent.

When her grandparents place an ad in the local newspaper for somebody to help her with her blog, Weston Ludovico answers the call. As a double-amputee, he knows the challenges that come with having a disability, he understands how Tessa must be feeling, and he thinks that he can help her. His first meeting with Tessa doesn’t go well, but when she takes her anger out on him, he loves the fact that she doesn’t treat him like an invalid.

For a moment, I’m speechless.
It’s the first time in three years anyone has ever met me without that look of pity on their face. The first time anyone has ever looked at me and not seen me. The first time anyone has stood before me – with perfectly normal legs – and complained about their own problem.
The feeling is exhilarating.

It’s a match made in heaven, and though Tessa doesn’t make it easy, Weston is stubborn and keeps coming back with his eternal optimism, determined to get her out and living life again. And as he teachers her new ways to experience the world, it’s a beautiful journey for them as they become friends and Tessa comes to count on him in ways she never expected.

This stubborn, kind, impertinent, obnoxiously optimistic boy is doing something to me.
And it feels good.

Weston is an amazing character. His own story is told in flashback throughout the book, and I was amazed again and again at his strength, courage and incredible attitude. His love for his family and his passion for life kept him moving forward, and you can’t help but admire him and the way he handled his situation. And the way he is there for Tessa is absolutely beautiful!

But he has kept his condition a secret from Tessa, terrified that once her sight returns she will see him differently. When the time comes, they will both have to figure out their friendship and what they have come to mean to each other.

This is a beautifully emotional and heartfelt story that brings all the feels. I ached for these characters, and I celebrated their successes as they fought to overcome their obstacles. The friendship that they form is just gorgeous and the romance is a natural and honest extension of that, and I loved watching them find their way through it all.

This book left me with a big grin on my face, feeling awed and inspired by the journey of these two teenagers. It’s such a beautiful read.

4.5 stars

This book put a smile on my face. I love Tessa and Weston's character arcs, and they showed me how to view the world in a different perspective. I love Abbie's writing style and the poetry she adds in between the lines. Thank you for this amazing ARC, and I am looking forward to reading Abbie's future books!

Was unable to open this document unfortunately. I was really looking forward to reading this book :(

A nice enough story about a boy and a girl dealing with different disabilities. Slightly more of Weston's POV than I was expecting and his constant optimism was grating at times.

This book did a number to my heart. I loved the story of Tessa and Weston. I especially enjoyed the poetry created by Tessa and the theme of sunlight throughout the novel. It was a very cute and fast read.

True to the premise, 100 Days of Sunlight is a poignant story about healing and getting back up when life goes sideways. The characters felt realistic and we get to know them personally as the story felt really reflective. However, it also made the story filled with monologues and felt deeply intimate. For a debut though, I think this is great and I would surely read the author’s subsequent releases!

This was such a heart touching story. A truly beautiful story with characters that soeak to your heart. Be prepared to shed a tear or two. I loved it.

Sadly, I DNF'd this one. Just wasn't for me. It was boring and was just unable to grab my attention...

But that is just MY opinion. I can see why people may gravitate towards this, so definitely would recommend to still try it out and see if it is right for you.

Thanks to Abby Emmons for the ARC of 100 Days of Sunlight. I started reading and didn’t stop until I was done. What a wonderful story! Congratulations on a great book! I loved Weston, a young, handicapped teen, who has the courage to not let his handicap rule his life. He is brave, considerate, and kind to everyone. When his newspaper father receives an ad for a secretary for a blind female teen, Weston answers the ad, despite the fact that the ad was pulled before anyone could answer. He knows what it is like to be different and feels he can help Tessa work through her fears of being temporarily blind and live her best life, even though she wants nothing to do with him. Weston is the perfect guy for her in so many ways. I loved this book. I can already see a movie in the near future!

I loved this book so much! It was a storyline like no other! Typically Young Adult books all have a similar theme but this one was decidedly different. Sure there is a girl and a boy but beyond that the issues that the teens are dealing with are not the normal stuff that teenagers or young adults deal with. The emotions that came up with me while reading it were sadness, worry and feelings of sorrow for some of the choices that the characters made. If you like YA books, this will be a refreshing book for you! I will recommend it to all who will listen!

100 Days of Sunlight by Abbie Emmons is a wonderful, intense book about young adults dealing with their physical disabilities. Tessa lost her eyesight when a drunk driver crashed into the car she was riding in. Doctors are optimistic she will get her sight back in a few weeks. Weston lost both his legs, and understands what Tessa is feeling, and wants to help her. I enjoyed the unique situations in this book, and watching the characters grow. I found this book to be a quick read, and highly recommend it.

I reviewed a digital arc provided by NetGalley and the publisher. Thank you.

This was a really great young adult novel. Two teens with handicaps find a way to help one another. I felt the characters were realistic and was especially impressed with how the author depicted the kids as mature, intelligent people. I am sure this book will appeal to preteens as well as teens.

I absolutely adored this lovely, charming, breathtaking, amazing, spectacular, stunning, wonderful book! I'd run out of adjectives explaining how great this book was! I read it in one sitting. I couldn't, nor did I want to, put it down! It's sunshine, it's pain, it's heartache, it's laughter. It's everything! Abbie Emmons writing was just effortless. She created two beautiful characters that I fell in love with almost instantly. She writes the characters with such authenticity. I feel anyone dealing with any handicap, disability, obstacle, setback, etc, would have felt genuinely represented. The story unfurls so beautifully. You are taken on this journey with Tessa and Weston. You are experiencing the sensations right alongside Tessa. I know it may be taboo to say as a bookworm but I WANT TO SEE THIS ON THE SCREEN! I want it so badly to become a series or a movie. I want this story to step out of my imagination and come alive in front of my eyes. I adored. I loved. Nothing else is left to say!

Picked this book because of the unique settings and it didn't disappoint! I thoroughly enjoy the story and love the characters :)

Received an ARC from Netgalley in exchange for a honest review. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own

A cute YA read for when you need something cute. It’s a great debut and the author shows a lot of promise.

Pros:
- I liked the characters
- I enjoyed the transformation within their relationship
- I liked how parents/guardians were part of the story.
- I liked the plot
- Very emotional at parts
Cons:
- Kinda weird how they met.
- Wish the plot had more spice or did something different

I thought real hard about how I would rate this. I was really excited to read this book, I fell in love with the cover first, and when I read the plot I just knew I had to read it. However, there are just too many things that disturbed me about the book. Beyond the writing or the story itself are a number of problematic things I just can't brush off.

The best thing about this is the really cute romcom plot with the potential of emotional depth. It has successfully made me feel the feels like the first time I fell "in love" in my teens. I also liked Weston's friend Rudy's words of wisdom though they may sound a bit preachy at times.

As for the things I did not like: first off, the attempt at poetry did not really speak to me. I thought it didn't really help the reading experience and at some parts even intrusive or repetitive. I also did not expect the religious content. Themes centered on faith is not a problem for me as long as it is used solely for characterization or world building, but the way it was written here just made me feel uncomfortable.

But those are mostly personal preferences. Let's move on to the more problematic themes - 
* The lack of consent: 1) Tessa's grandparents deciding to hire an assistant without consulting her first 2) Weston getting Tessa's info and going to her house without her permission 3) Weston barging in Tessa's room without knocking--happens multiple times 4) nonconsensual first kiss

* Romanticized violence: Weston and Rudy loves to beat each other up as a hobby. This in itself is not a very healthy bonding activity for friends, and when Tessa learns about her reaction was just "And now that he’s revealed he knows how to punch people, I feel especially safe with him."

* Weston's treatment of Clara: He completely ignored her feelings, and even "gifted" her to his friend Rudy and I quote "Clara's not going to break up with me unless she has someone else to go out with." This one really made me mad. No girl deserves to be treated that way.

* Disability representation: Some of Weston’s decisions while he's supposed to be on rehab felt too unsafe for me. I think it was all very convenient how he recovered so quickly, but I just can’t believe that could happen by just “believing”— you also have to trust your doctors and therapists, especially since it was your reckless decisions that got you in that situation in the first place. Being this irresponsible and rewarding it as being a success is a dangerous message to throw out there.

Weston is also highly-priveleged, in the way that he can just so easily decide to buy a new set of prosthetic legs which are supposed to be "very expensive" but he "doesn't care". It’s not too realistic, or rather it comes from too narrow a perspective. Overall I felt the disability elements were used more for the plot, and was not really for the representation.

So yes, it is mostly cute and fluffy but I just can’t give it a 3⭐️ rating at this point when there are these little details that are so problematic. Weston and Tessa also felt like 2-dimensional characters most of the time. I really think it could have been a great read with more work put into it.

Thanks to NetGalley and the author for providing a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

You know those books that you don't really want to like, but you do? Not because they're bad, but because the genre or the premise or the general feel isn't something you typically go for? That's how I feel about this book, in a nutshell. I don't particularly enjoy YA contemporary extensively anymore. Yet somehow, I came across this book and convinced myself to read it. I wondered about it a bit at first, but ultimately by the time I finished, I was giggling like a mad schoolgirl with glee.

The first thing I noticed is that 100 Days of Sunlight doesn't seem to have a traditional publisher, which I'm pretty sure means it's self-published. In a way, I feel like I owe a bit more to the author to review it, because they don't have that support from an established publishing house. However, that doesn't mean that it's less good than any book that does. I would even argue that it has made the author try even harder to write a good novel, and it does feel that way. It was clear to me at the beginning that the author had a detailed, well-planned outline and was very much trying to follow it step by step. There's a bit of a lack of polish that a traditional publisher would bring, but it's hardly noticeable (and only if you're looking for it).

As much as I love the premise in the summary, I was a little unimpressed with the grandparents at the beginning, especially once I realised how appalled Tessa was at the idea of the newspaper ad. It did feel a bit invasive and controlling. That being said, I also didn't really enjoy how everyone seemed to have a different idea about what was best for Tessa, without actually asking her how she felt. This eventually extends to Weston too, and is honestly probably my least favourite part of the book overall. Especially at the beginning, the way he was written like he knew everything about Tessa already. I think this is the trouble with writing a book in two different perspectives - just because the reader is aware of everything happening to both people, doesn't mean they know that much about each other. It might be a pain to read about Tessa explaining everything in her life to Weston after we already heard about it from her perspective, but that's better than your main love interest acting as if he was lurking about all along. He also acts as if he had the right to be there. To know Tessa's story. To be a part of it. By ignoring her desires and doing the bidding of her grandparents, he is contributing to the concept that she is not capable of making her own decisions, or that she does not have the mental capacity to do so. Which was quite frustrating and not a good opening to one of your main characters.

Anyway, that was all something I found within the first few chapters. It actually scales down a bit after that and becomes less noticeable. I just found it a bit uncomfortable that no one seemed to be considerate of Tessa's feelings. But over the course of the book I found myself caring less and less about the minute details, and focusing more on the cute storyline and inevitable romance subplot. It's a cute contemporary YA romance. Not everything needs to be analysed out the ying-yang (that being said, I did do a double take when there was a slight reference to a meme, and even more shocked when I realised I was capable of recognising meme references in fiction).

Let's talk about Tessa though. I loved Tessa. I thought she was a great character with a great character arc over the course of the book. She starts out angry, and rightfully so. The sense of sight is the sense I would least like to lose, out of all the possibilities. She's vulnerable and can no longer do what she loves, which is writing poetry. Not only that, but as a blogger whose friends are mostly found through the internet, she can't communicate with them. She's not just vulnerable because she cannot see, but she is socially isolated as well. I love the fact that she is using Siri to ask questions about the time or the weather. But she was also written to serve a purpose at times, which felt a bit frustrating. During the first section of the book, Weston brings her flowers that are fragrant so she can begin to experience the world through her other senses (I will go into detail about how cute I think that is in a sec). At one point she makes a comment about what is the point of flowers if you cannot see them, which I feel is just a disservice to her character. I get it, you want to emphasize the fact that she needs to overcome this hurdle, but you don't have to make your characters dumb to do it.

But I promise things get better!! About halfway through the book, it gets ADORABLY cute. Largely because Tessa is starting to come out of her shell and rely upon Weston to share the world with her and become her eyes. There's one part where they go out for coffee, Tessa's first outing after her accident, and she realises that he didn't get himself a coffee so that he could not just hold her hand, but also her coffee so that she still had a free one to explore and feel things. How cute is that?

So each section is based on one of the five senses, and how Weston helps Tessa through her blindness by strengthening these other senses. Which is impossibly adorable. By the time they get to touch, I am head over heels and reminding myself that Weston is only 16 and I am an adult and should he really be making me feel such things? Which is bonkers, because remember how I felt about him at the beginning? Don't worry, he still does have a few moments that are insufferable (but that's mostly just a side effect of being a teenage boy). And then there's also the self-deprecation and how he essentially abandons Tessa once she gets her sight back because he doesn't think he is worthy of love because he has no legs. On that note though, there is one part I found chuckle-worthy, which is when Tessa realises he is hiding something. It's his legs, Tessa. It's because he has no legs. Anyway, of course they end up falling in love with each other despite Tessa's anger issues and Weston's lack of legs, and there's an incredibly heartwarming reuniting scene where Tessa finally sees him for the first time. And she bursts into tears and heartfelt declarations of love (what I do especially love about that scene is even though it's about Tessa realising Weston's disability, it's not actually mentioned in writing, like at all? Which was just kinda cool).

Despite all the things and grievances I clearly did not enjoy, I did finish this book, which says a lot, because that's not always a guarantee. And honestly, most of the things I pointed out are probably not important to the average reader. So, should you read this? Yes, probably, especially if you enjoy suppressing your inner teenage squealing when you realise how much you also wish you had a cute boy to teach you how to embrace life through the senses and why couldn’t my teenage years involve that kind of cuteness?

This one is sweet and makes you think. Well written characters who you want to root for. Excellent pacing pulls you in to this adorable book. It's sad but so hopeful.

Honestly, I am buying this book for myself, for my library and probably for all my friends’ birthdays for the next 3 months after it officially comes out. This book was AWESOME! I haven’t read a book this good in a long time.
Yes it does have some sweet innocent romance in it, mostly towards the end. But it has everything I could ever want in a sweet romance. It’s called, relationship building. Yeah. LOVE IT!!!
Tessa is temporarily blind due to a car accident that caused swelling up against the visual cortex area of the brain. For the next 100 days she has to figure out how to navigate life without the use of her eyes. She considers it to be something of a sentence that she just has to endure. She can’t write her poems, or maintain her blog, or keep up with the group of friends she made online. Her life is on hold for 100 days and she’s miserable. She’s scared. No, She’s terrified. What if this is the rest of her life? What if all the doctors are wrong?
Trying to help her move passed her temporarily blindness, her wonderful, caring grandparents decide to put an ad out to find someone who can transcript Tessa’s poems onto paper and blog. Someone who can also help her reply to the comments and help her keep up with her friends. So they call a newspaper and place the ad, only telling Tessa after they have already done it. Tessa goes mental on them, as any teenager would, I think, and they pull the ad before it can be printed. But that doesn’t mean is wasn’t already seen.
Enter Weston. Weston’s dad owns the paper and he over hears the conversation to have the ad pulled. So Weston presses for information, finding out it is for a newly blinded teenager. Sweet talking one of the staff members, Weston gets the information from the ad and decides to head over to her house. He convinces Tessa’s grandmother to let him speak to Tessa. Tessa explodes on him too and it’s the best thing Weston has ever heard, someone treating him like he’s just another person. Because Tessa doesn’t know what everyone else knows about Weston, she can’t see him.

Seriously. This is a beautiful teen romance that starts out as a appreciate-hate relationship. Turns into an appreciate-appreciate relationship, which turns into a full friendship which then turns into mutual crushing and finally full on love-love. It’s a rare bird. It’s beautiful.
It covers two topics not one really writes about, the emotional ramifications of going blind (even if it just temporary) and the ramifications of becoming a double amputee. We need more books like this one. We need books that help people relate to other people who are living realities the rest of us can’t possibly fully understand and hopefully will never experience for ourselves. We need books that we can feel these experiences through vicariously. Why? Because I believe it makes us far more sympathetic to people who are in these types of situations. It even reminds us that yes, just because they have these handicaps, it doesn’t mean they are their handicaps. It’s a great message! Everyone should hear it.

Age range: 13+
Triggers: car crash (vague), tempted…luring I’d call it, sudden blindness, amputation of limb (experience leading up to and upon awaking from surgery)
Other: some ‘course language’ (Weston and his best friend are teenage boys, come on). Words like pansyass, damn, etc.