summer read no. 2: Hello Sunshine by Leila Howland

started: March 19, 2020

finished: March 24, 2020

just like any other Hyperion book I own/read, this book is hella heavy! and has very pretty graphics on the inside! hello there, sunshine, welcome back to my blog! this time I present to you a book about love, dreams, passion, adulthood, and life. and oh, acting!

“after being rejected by every college on her list, Becca Harrington needs a fresh start so she packs up her bag and moves to LA, and gives herself one year to pursue her Hollywood dreams and land an acting gig.

but unfortunately for Becca, not everything turns out as planned.”

© Leila Howland

going into this book without knowing too much about it really hyped me up because the first FIVE PAGES already got me balling my eyes out (for reasons that I won’t say :P). Irdk if it was just me (it probably was) but I instantly clicked with this book. the first few pages really struck me and I was already thinking of rating this book a solid 4 stars and I was also thinking of saying how this would inspire so many students out there who are about to finish their high school years! but, yep, you guessed it—it was far too early for me to say so because as the story progressed—I don’t wanna say it became boring—but it did, honestly.

it didn’t really have that much of a plotline to it and nothing much was happening (eek harsh). it even took me a longer amount of time to finish it because, welp, it [the book] was really slow-paced. it kept going back and forth with Becca looking for an agent to become an actress and not actually GETTING one.

I do appreciate Becca’s determination in becoming an actress—that aspect of the book was truly inspiring actually, but she really didn’t know what she was doing. it just seemed like she needed to learn more about what she was getting herself in to because when she set her feet in LA, she was utterly clueless. not just of the industry she’s trying to get in to but also with being an adult (in Hollywood, may I add) and facing the day-to-day challenges of living alone. I mean, idk much about those either but for Becca to be so young (18), decides to move out of Boston, away from her mom, to live in LA and make her acting dreams come true, sure, it was really brave of her but she was just clueless about what she needed to do and the things she needed to prepare before waking up and deciding to fly from Boston to LA.

Becca was also practically broke but she kept on spending her money on random stuff like oyster and an expensive shirt. and I know it’s her money but like, she was too B R O K E for crying out loud! but I’m not really mad, I promise. and, I guess it’s not that much of a big deal, but Becca never really gave a clear reason why she wanted to become an actress nor did she have a, somewhat, background connected to it besides the fact that she had one class of it in senior year and although that was fine, I was personally looking for depth within this dream of hers.

there were also some weird stuff that happened like *spoiler alert* that “get naked and show the people what you got” situation in the train for an audition she had, the “oh fucky!” situation (basically she has this old man/neighbour who likes her and her “rear end”), and that random one night stand (I promise it wasn’t too descriptive!) with a fellow actor of hers that she literally thought was going to be the love of her life. like, girl, whaaat? plus, the really nice people around Becca were too unrealistic. I’m not trying to sound too negative on humanity but come on, let’s be real, if you were to read about those people around her a.k.a. the side characters, I think you’d agree with me. also, there was this slight stalker situation that was supposed to be some “plot twist” I guess that was just a no for me. it could’ve been laid down differently cuz again, it was too unrealistic.

overall, I’d give Hello Sunshine a 2.5 out of 5 stars. two for its effort in sending out a message to the youth to be goal-driven and the .5 for the Enchanted by Disney vibe it gave me—not because it had some alternate fantasy world, dancing animals, and an evil witch, but because of Becca’s personality that, for some reason (that I do not know) reminded me of Giselle.

March 26, 2020