The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside is a heart-warming uplifting tale of hope and humanity. The titular character, Dawn, is a homeless woman in Dover who finally finds a place to call home. And she will do everything she can do hold onto it. It’s both eye-opening and soothing to read this book.

The characters are incredibly easy to root for. And the more you get to know them, the more you realise they’re loveable from every angle. Dawn is very much the heart of the story. All you ever want to do is give her a big hug and remind her she deserves love. Similarly, Grace is a sweet and naturally loving character. As a social worker, she has the kind of optimism that inspires people to hope for the best.

I really like that the author included painful and traumatic backstories in the book. It adds to its depth and forces the reader to examine their own prejudgements of those around them. This moving story has themes of loneliness, belonging, and regret. But despite its weight, the book has an upbeat tone. I guess that’s just the extraordinary hope of Dawn Brightside shining through.

Do you ever read a book and think WOW. For me this book definitely hit all the right spots for me, it had emotion, humour, love, friendship, excellent characters, well written and most of all it made me FEEL.

The Extraordinary Hope of Dawn Brightside is exactly what its title says, its EXTRAORDINARY and has HOPE. I was a bit dubious at first let me tell you and I put it off to the last minute to read as I wasn’t in the mood for it HOWEVER I read this book in one sitting, THAT’S RIGHT ONE SITTING. I could not put this book down to save my life. It had me enthralled it has my emotions going and yes I did reach for a tissue or two. It really did evoke that much emotion in me and you know why I think that is, I think its because I also work with the homeless and persons with mental health illnesses and I can see the frustration that Grace has with no funding and the support just not being there for people who need it.

Ok so I digress, the book is about Dawn Brightside. She’s down on her luck she has no job and she is homeless. She is in Dover which is in Kent, she turns up at the Council declaring herself homeless and it goes from there. She ends up on the waiting list of St. Jude’s a Hostel and that is where she meets Grace and Peter. Things start to look up when she is accepted at the Hostel but there is tragedy waiting as well.

I don’t want to go too much further into what the book is about as I feel that you need to read it and get all the feels that I did with it. This was a five star read for me, I never ever on reviews now tell you what I rate it but this one definitely deserved it. It was powerful and made me sit back and think as well as well up with emotion.

Lets talk Characters. There is a motley crew of characters in this book, all with different backgrounds and abilities and I tell you what I loved each and everyone of them. Even though the book is about Dawn Brightside each of the characters had their own limelight in the book. They each had enough about them that I was invested, and to me this is one of the reasons why I enjoyed the book so much. I have always said that the supporting characters need to be heard as much as the main ones. The way they all interacted with one another made it that much more special.

Grace was a fabulous character, nervous at times but coming from her being a Social Worker and having to make big decisions I get it. She wants to please everyone and help those that need it with the restrictions she has. I think this is another reason why I liker her character, I work in Social Services as well and its hard. You want to help so many people but there are restrictions everywhere. I love how her kindness and wanting to help others shone through.

The book talks quite a lot about hard topics. There would say is some trigger issues from some people including alcohol and drugs misuse, sexual assault, mental health and overdosing. These were done however with sensitivity and with knowledge especially around mental health and the knowledge behind the Mental Health Act and what it means being under the Mental Health services. I will say it didn’t go into detail but from experience I can see how it goes and applaud Jessica Ryn for including it.

I one hundred percent will recommend that others read this book. It was pure joy to read. As I said it did make me laugh, smile, cry and get emotional that I had to put it down. It makes you realise how much suffering people go through and not to judge them just because they may be homeless, suffering from mental health issues, drug addiction or alcohol misuse. Everyone has a story and not all are able to deal with it in the way that some may think they should.

A raw, viceral look through the lens at homelessness. Dawn Brightside, a misnomer if ever there was one, is on her beam end. Life has thrown so many lemons that she could set up a commercial enterprise selling all things lemony. Then there's Grace... A wonderful gut-wrenching read that smashes your heart into little bits before rebuilding it, piece by piece. We need life reafirming books like this now more than ever.

What an absolutely beautiful book!!! I was gifted the audiobook of Dawn Brightside, and found it really easy to listen to. The characters in the book are all brilliantly developed, you grow to love each of them as the story progresses. It’s also a really important commentary on homelessness and how charities are treated as unimportant when they’re a life line for so many vulnerable people in our society. I laughed and cried at various points in the story and will be reading it again. The narrator was great, her voice really suited Dawn, Kara and Peter in particular, for Grace I thought she sounded a little too ‘grownup’.
Thank you so much for this arc!

This is a very emotional read. The life events experienced by these characters will really pull at your heartstrings.

⚠️ Potential spoilers! ⚠️

You follow Dawn and Grace’s as they first meet (and all I’m going to say is Sean’s side story broke me!), interacting with the other service users at St Jude’s (a hostel and support service for the homeless). Each of the characters have been through so much, and it’s their connections with each other as they battle all the horrors that life throws at them. And it is bloody hard. Collectively, they’ve all been affected by drugs, alcohol, abuse, mental ill health - so reader caution. But despite all that (and as hinted in the title) there is hope. They bring out hope in each other. They support each other. And it’s so uplifting! The ending, and its connection with the title is just perfection. Bravo Jessica Ryn. Bravo!!

I wasn’t very taken with the narrator, but that didn’t deter my enjoyment of this story.

A feel good debut that ‘packs a punch’.
Ms Ryn touches on mental health and homelessness in this heartwarming novel.

Dawn has been running from her past for the last 22 years, quite literally running from her past that is. She only ever stayed in one place for a short time moving on as soon as she thought she might have been found. Living on the streets made moving on easy, no roots. But when she gets a room at St Judes homeless shelter in Dover everything changes.

I loved Dawn Brightside (one word), she takes on life with enthusiasm and love, she is indomitably positive and, yes, always looks on the bright side.

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

The story is beautiful, sad and happy at the same time. It reminds me that no matter how bad things are, there are people worse off in the world. And they still keep going.

Dawn Brightside is extraordinary on her own and the way she keeps thinking positive is just miraculous. Her character is mysterious, and I kept guessing and wondering what had happened to her and to her daughter. I also really like how you slowly get to know the events that lead to the present moment.

Like I said, there’s so much sadness and happiness in this book. The characters have all faced more hardships than I hopefully ever will and I was so, so happy when they all got their more or less happy endings. But I was especially happy for Dawn, because she truly deserves all happiness she can get.

All in all, a brilliant and deep story of homelessness and how to maintain hope through the hardest bits of life.

I also quite liked the narrator of the book. Their voice was pleasant to listen to and I think that’s all that matters really. I would give them 4 out of 5 stars.

Thank you for a free copy in exchange for a fair and honest review.

This is the story of Dawn Brightside as she deals with the hand life has given her, and tries to keep her postivity up despite all the bad things in her life. It also follows the character of Grace as she meets Dawn, and supports Dawn and her fellows.

It deals with a lot of current issues, and sensitive issues are all dealt with care. It's a very poignant story for our society today, reminding us to never judge a person by their appearance as no one knows what's going on underneath.

The Narrator was well spoken and seemed to breathe life into the words, echoing the authors style perfectly with wit and sincerity.

Fantastic! I listened to the audiobook version of this novel and was very impressed.
I enjoyed the fact that it followed the story of not just Dawn but also Grace and that of the hostel/home. The characters were likeable, even though many of them are troubled it is very easy to connect with them all.
I enjoyed the tone of the narrator- the audiobook was very easy to follow. I did however at first assume both main characters were older than what they are due to the way they were spoken- a problem which soon rectified itself with a little more of the story.
There is a real warmth to this book, it is deep and has points that deal with many hard hitting subjects - homelessness, drug abuse, mental health yet this book is in no way cold. It is filled with joy and of course an awful lot of hope.

Oh my goodness! Was it your intent dear author to make me cry because that's exactly what happened! I cried when Dawn told her story, I cried when she gave her baby up for a better life, I sobbed when she got the letter. You had me going.
Overall this was a beautiful story of moving forward regardless of the pain and challenges. It was beautiful and heart-warming. Thank you so much for allowing me to listen to this. I loved the narrators soothing voice and need more books narrated by her in my life.

(spoilers about Dawn and her story will not be in the goodreads/book group / amazon reviews)