Review of A Little Ray of Sunshine by Kristan Higgins

A Little Ray of Sunshine is mainly about Harlow, who got pregnant at seventeen and gave her baby up for adoption.  She kept the pregnancy and the adoption a secret from her family for almost eighteen years.  Then her biological son, Matthew, showed up out of the blue, and an emotional firestorm ensued.

There’s a lot going on in this book.  Teen pregnancy, adoption, secrets, mental breakdowns, family dysfunction, alcoholism, iffy sexual encounters, romance, and more.  No graphic sex, though.  Although, if you’ve ever read Kristan Higgins, you already know that.

Harlow is the main character.  However, some of the chapters are told from the point of view of Monica, who is Matthew’s adoptive mother, and Cynthia, Harlow’s pseudo-cousin.  I love Kristan Higgins, but I hate how she wrote Harlow’s immediate family.  None of them are fleshed out, so the dysfunction is never really examined or explained.  Plus, some of them are just crappy people.  For example, her brother is basically a slut and a pothead.  Her parents are so enamored with each other that they are neglectful of their children.  They don’t even notice a dog belly-up begging for pets.  Monsters, I tell you.  And one of her sisters is stuck-up and self-centered.  The other two sisters fade into the background, and Harlow’s grandfather is the sweetest man on Earth with no explanation as to why considering the crappiness of the other people in his family.  Then there’s Matthew.  He grew up with decent, loving, well-off adoptive parents.  Yet, he still acts like a jerk sometimes.  The only characters who experience real growth in the book are Cynthia and Harlow’s best friend Rosie.

I really think A Little Ray of Sunshine could’ve been a great women’s fiction book if the author had cut some stuff out.  Several of Harlow’s immediate family members weren’t needed on page to get the point across, which was that none of them were ever there for her.  I also think a romance for Harlow was too much for this book.  It was mostly an afterthought because of the emotional turmoil she experienced when her biological son came back into her life.  For me, the book would’ve been just fine without including the romance.