” I mean what I said, honey. Romanticize your life. Don’t live every day like it’s your last. Live every day like it’s your first. Last are tragic. Frist are exciting and full of celebration. Look at every sunrise like it’s the first time you’ve ever seen colors like that before. Listen to your favorite song like you’ve never heard such a precious melody. If you make every day celebration, you’ll never get bored in your own story.”- Chuck Manning
If you do not want to read this breakdown in fear of spoilers, please feel free to go here for a video breakdown of the review. Please click here to buy this book because you want to catch the sun your yourself.
- Overall: ⭐⭐⭐⭐
- Characters: 👍👍👍👍
- Spicy: 🌶️ 🌶️ 🌶️🌶️
- Writing: 🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️
- Narration: 🗣️🗣️🗣️
WTF Just Happened: Book Breakdown
“Love always hurts, honey. That’s the price we pay to experience it”. -Matty (Brynn’s dad)
Let me just start by saying that this book about wrecked me. In the best, can’t-stop-thinking-about-it kinda way. This book is all about loss, love, slow-burn romance, growth, trauma, and living in the sun that people make you feel when they are around you. Every chapter is a roller coaster of emotions from beginning to end. In the very first chapter, it made me think of the scene where the daughter is chasing after the dad’s car in the beginning of Hope Floats.
Ella Sunbury is forced to return to her childhood hometown of Juniper Falls, Tennessee, after living in Nashville for years after her brother, Jonah, gets into something someone would categorize as more than “trouble.” Now she is known as a monster…or the sister of a monster. Max Manning was her childhood friend before she moved to Nashville, and he has never forgotten her. He wishes that he would have had her during his own baggage of his alcoholic father, mother that just gave up and left, and raising his little brother. When Ella moves back, it is pure torture, and every day is full of bullying, shunning, and sadness. Max takes the first step that leads them down a road that no one would see coming, but everyoneswoons at walking with them.
Would I force my friends to read this book?
I think that the vibe of this book would really reach into a lot of my friends hearts, rearrange the valves a little bit, look back at their destruction, be very pleased with themselves, and then leave. So yes, this book would be invited to the backyard book club cookout. Who doesn’t like to see their friends emotional over fictional characters? I know I do.
One thing about this book is that it touches on each emotional button for just about any person I know in the most relatable way. The way that Ella gets in her feelings with her Mariana Trench worth of guilt…same girl—same. That is the thing about children who experience trauma when they are younger—we tend to blame ourselves or get all fucked up in some weird way. She just took it all into her soul and let it fester until it broke her.
Max also has his own trauma that a lot of people go through with single parents, having to raise a sibling, and alcoholism within the family. What is wild to me in the book is how he is able to keep his shit together at school all while his home life is as dilapidated as his actual home is.
This book also has amazing support characters that also have their own stuff going on that really explains why people do the things that they do without interfering with the two main characters plot lines but are there enough to weave and sway with their journeys?
Tropes, Tea, and Twists
- The stigma of being related to a criminal—please. As if the rest of us don’t have a sketchy uncle, a cousin who’s ‘between court dates,’ or a sibling who definitely stole a street sign in 2006 because it had their last name on it. Calm down, Karen—your mailbox got knocked over, not your moral compass.
- Murder in a descriptive manner—The book goes into pretty explicit details about murder scenes throughout various moments in this book. If you have a squeamish tummy, this book may not be for you. However, if you’re a true crime lover like myself, put on some popcorn; it’s about to get good. I was like-keep going and tell me how that blood was thickening-yes please.
- Grief, guilt, and public shaming—Ella’s living in her own little trauma bubble that keeps growing while it fiercely swings in and out of emotional chaos like she has been given advice from the universe’s most unqualified therapist. One minute she’s fine-ish, the next she’s freefalling into a plot twist so wild, even she didn’t see it coming. Spoiler alert: None of us did.
- Attempted sexual assault—This could be very triggering for some readers, and that is okay. Not all of us want to relive events similar to what has happened to us or someone we know. That’s okay.
- Attempted assault/assault—I say it both ways because the cover has a trigger warning for attempted assault, but I mean, there is just flat-out assault in this book between family members.
- Small-town vibes— This book describes the small-town vibes so well you will smell the homemade cookies from down the street. The way you can ride your bike everywhere, everyone knows everyone, everyone knows everything about you, and everyone acts like their shit don’t stink, but we all know someone’s mama is sleeping with the married principal 👀💅, so don’t act all high and mighty.
- Country scenes—OMG—the falling leaves changing dramatically around the lake like Mother Nature’s mood ring. The grass is juuust long enough to tickle your face while you lie there pretending you’re totally not into the person next to you and TOTALLY not afraid of what is crawling on you. And those old crusty dusty rusty bridges? Yeah, they were supposed to get fixed during Obama’s bridge repair plan, but clearly this town didn’t make the cut… and honestly? We love that for the aesthetic. It’s giving “we don’t even lock our doors here” energy. Like one of those places where the only crime is someone bringing store-bought pie to the church bake-off, gasp. But if you know, you know what really goes down here.
- Trauma—Mental and Physical—Really, ninety percent of all the characters have some kind of trauma that they are dealing with. Some get a double dose of the bullshit that makes your heart want to punch out of your chest because you just want to save them from what you know is going to live rent-free in their brains for the rest of their lives.
- Chosen Family—Throughout the story, Ella is able to really get to see that even though her brother puts her in some fucked-up situations, she has a village around her that is willing and wanting to protect her. Her only issue is that her walls are so high she can’t see what is right in front of her face—a family. Max chooses his family over and over again, and it is like watching someone constantly get hurt, and there is nothing you can do about it because he feels so much guilt and responsibility that he won’t allow himself to choose anyone else but his family.
- Underage Drinking—Playing into the made-for-tv movie trope of the jocks drinking and being assholes is maybe a trope for a reason. Apparently everyone here is either stealing from their parents or has really good fake IDs. Bonfire, let’s drink. Christmas party, let’s get drunk. New Year’s Eve party? Of course there are shitty cars parked on the front lawn of someone’s house because their parents are conveniently not home…so LET’S DRINK!
- Guns and gun violence—This topic is brought up a few times throughout the book, all in relation to the trauma that Ella experiences. If you know someone who has killed or been killed by gun violence, these scenes may trigger you. Go here if you need to talk to someone about your experience-this is a serious issue and we all need to support one another.
- Chronic illnesses—I add this because I think that it is a part of story lines that are not given enough weight or credit. When you live with someone who has a chronic illness, from depression to cancer, it weighs heavily on not only the person with the illness but also those around them because it takes a part of the soul that no one can guess which part it is going to take. Their humor? Smile? Memory?
- Parental abandonment—single-parent homes in 2025? Totally normal. It’s less of a statistic now and more like a standard setting. But when your parent doesn’t just disappear from the relationship but dips out on you specifically? Yeah… that hits different. It’s not just “mommy issues,” it’s “emotional abandonment in HD.”
- Love and what it means to be in love—when you love someone…like really love them—it hits differently. It changes your soul more than a fresh cut and color changes how you feel about yourself. But willing to put them before yourself, your goals, and your own heartache? That is how you know you got a ride or die right there.
- Forever vibe romance– Even though Ella and Max meet when they are just children, their stories intertwine and bring them to places that is more 1950’s your grandparents love story and not so much 2025 love story but we all hope that the person we meet in high-school will be our one and only. Statistically-not so much but hey, that is why we have love stories right? To keep the dream alive.
Author Vibes: Was the writing GIVINGGGG?
Jennifer Hartmann does what she always does: she slays you with words and then stomps on your feelings for good measure just to make sure you won’t speed-read through her shit and put some respect on her name.
Sure, this book is technically labeled “romance” and “contemporary,” but let’s be real—it’s serving emotional damage with a side of existential crisis. She doesn’t just describe pain—she makes you feel every cracked sorry that is said, every tear-soaked moment, every time the sun gently kisses their faces like the universe is rooting for them. The story unfolds through dual timelines and dual POVs, bouncing between Ella and Max’s perspectives, all while you are just sitting there crying on the sidelines and cheering them on and screaming, “Just kiss him!” And don’t even get me started on the Tennessee setting. I could practically smell the summer sweat in deep need of some deodorant and feel the slap of Southern humidity. I had to pause mid-chapter to blot my upper lip like I was sitting on a porch swing in July.
Also? Teenage love is described with so much bittersweet intensity, it felt like I was living inside a Taylor Swift song. And when the darker twists hit? Straight-up Forensic Files energy. Romance, trauma, murder, healing—it’s a genre buffet, and I devoured every bite.
Voices in My Head, Book Edition
If you do not know by now, I do not like to see the faces of the narrators that I listen to. I think it alters the way that I listen to the books. Let me make up if the voice matches the characters in the book, okay, internet? This book is narrated by Raven Wildewood and Dane Anderson. According to Amazon’s listing of books that mention books she has narrated, I think Catch the Sun is the first book that I have gotten the chance to listen to. I listened to and read the book on Kindle Unlimited. I would definitely enjoy listening to her again. As for Dane Anderson, as charming as he was as Max, his girl voices were a little off at times but did not make me want to throw my earbuds across the room. His Audible listing is actually wrong because they don’t even have this book listed as one he has read despite its literally being on the cover of the Audible book…so I’m not sure what is going on there. I would get on that, Dane.
Books Fictional Coordinates
This book has a few different locations that are the main feature in the book.
Juniper Falls, Tennessee…no, this is not a real town. However, the area that it is settled in, Tellico Plains, Tennessee, IS a real place. Anyhow, this small fictional town is the epitome of the small-town trope where everyone knows everything and where people peak in high school. This is ground zero for Ella’s trauma, as beautiful as it is. Where it all begins. But the world around her does eventually feed her soul. Think picket white fences, apple pies on window sills, and you can pretty much get everywhere on a bicycle.
Tellico Plains, Tennessee—This is a beautiful mountain town with waterfalls that will fill your soul with beauty. It sits in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains, so the vibes are kinda epic. It has a main street that rivals most Hallmark movies and baked goods that look like they would melt in your mouth. Small-town life that is now lost to most states.
Nashville, Tennessee— Put on your cowboy boots because you’re about to walk into “Music City.” Nashville is the heart of Tennessee; let’s just be honest here. If you come to Tennessee, there is a high chance you will be visiting this bustling city where dreams are made. Ella’s mother, Candice Sunbury, owned a highly regarded equestrian farm that was one of Nashville’s favorite “things to do” while you were there. I have actually been to Nashville, and it is perfect if you love honky-tonk life meeting millennial revisions with epic things to do there. I can see why Ella hated leaving this area.
Percy Priest Lake, Tennessee—yes, another real place! Just south of Nashville is the setting where Max and Ella reconnect again at a bonfire. Percy Priest Lake is full of activities like fishing, water sports, boating, camping, and overall summer fun in the South.
Knoxville, Tennessee— This is the first place that Ella lets her guard down during a concert that Max invites her to. Knoxville is a lot like Nashville but is the third largest city in East Tennessee. Still similar vibes of great food, good music, and insane traffic, and due to the large amount of venues, a great place for musicians to stop through on tour. Max, Ella, Brynn, and McKay go to see Max’s favorite band. Seriously, this is one of my favorite parts of the book…if you know, you know! Tell me that if this happened at a concert, two things wouldn’t happen: 1. You would feel all kinds of Nelly’s Hot in Here video.
Or 2-girls running out of the club because god forbid their make up gets messed up or their overpriced handbags get ruined.
Michigan-Ella travels the road and ends up some where..here. At a little horse ranch that practically screams emotional isolation but right where she needs to be. The vibes are “Hallmark movie setting,” but the plot is full-on “I need therapy and hay bales.” It’s quiet, remote, and so far from the drama other than what is in her head and heart—except, you know, with horses and actual responsibilities.
Expectations, Stereotypes, & Other Fun Lies
Oh YES — let’s unpack the trauma brought to you by Jennifer Hartmann — because this book does not come to play with surface-level tropes. It takes them, flips them, and says, “Let me show you what real pain, healing, and humanity looks like.”
- If you’re related to a criminal, you must be just like them. Or worse-your a monster if you still love them even though they are a monster. If you love a monster-you are therefore a monster as well. Ella is out here doing literally everything to outrun her brother’s crime—emotionally, geographically, and spiritually—and the town still acts like she personally handed him the weapon. This book fully smashes that whole “your blood defines you” stereotype and replaces it with “trauma isn’t contagious, but judgment sure is.”
- Small towns are safe and wholesome! Sure, the porch swings are cute, but behind those shutters? The amount of just shit people that live in small towns are about equal to cities with actual shit to do. The fences here are just high enough to block out basic human compassion and sometimes even common sense.
- Boys don’t cry. Boys are strong. Boys don’t feel that deeply. Max Manning is a walking rebuttal to toxic masculinity. Almost to the point where you don’t quite believe a boy can love this hard. This man is vulnerable, emotionally layered, love his family to the point where he doesn’t know how to put himself first — and yet somehow he still has the emotional intelligence of a therapist in flannel.
- Teen love is dramatic and shallow. Maybe sometimes it is and that is okay. But not according to Jennifer Hartmann. Teenage love is everything. The love in this book are so full of tension and quiet longing that you’ll feel like you’re reliving your own heartbreak from freshman year (minus the acne and angst playlists… maybe).
- If you leave, you’re healed. Yes, we have all heard that if you love someone let them go and if they come back to you then it is forever. Not so much in this book. Ella literally moved states, changed jobs, lived on a ranch with emotionally available horses — and STILL hadn’t outrun her pain. Yet- Jennifer Hartmann M. Night Shyamalan twist your ass in the in end of this book with the amount of longing of a thousand stars in the night sky.
Final Thoughts….
- Catch the Sun isn’t just about romance — it’s a takedown of every social and emotional stereotype we slap on people dealing with trauma. It asks real questions:
- Who gets to heal?
- Who decides what you’re allowed to feel?
- And what happens when the world expects you to be a villain… but all you’ve ever been is human?
If you do not want to read this breakdown in fear of spoilers, please feel free to go here for a video breakdown of the review. Please click here to buy this book because you want to catch the sun your yourself.
Leave a Reply