Bright Midnight by Karina Halle is now live!
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Blurb
From the New York Times bestselling author of Where Sea Meets Sky and Racing the Sun comes a wildly romantic novel about a young American abroad in Norway who runs into the man who broke her heart eight years ago.
After years of bartending her way across Europe, Shay Lavji has seen almost everything the continent has to offer, but there’s one country she hasn’t crossed off her bucket list yet: Norway. It’s not that she doesn’t want to visit the land of the midnight sun–far from it; she’s obsessed with the culture and is dying to see the majestic fjords for herself.
What she’s not dying to do is run into her Norwegian ex-boyfriend, Anders Johansen, who broke her heart in America eight years ago before returning to his ancestral home. The last time she saw Anders, he was a cocky, rebellious, and tortured teenager who couldn’t stop himself from pushing all of her buttons–both good and bad. But Shay isn’t going to let Anders stand in the way of her wanderlust, and besides, it’s a big country, right?
She doesn’t count on Anders seeking her out the moment he learns she’s on his home turf. When Shay sees him again, she’s shocked at his transformation into a bearded, tattooed farmer and fisherman who values family over everything else. Is it possible that time has tamed this former bad boy? Shay wants to believe that everything can be new and bright again under the summer sun, but she knows, when it comes to Anders, the darkness is never too far behind.
Review
4 stars!
This is such a gorgeous read! Another of Karina Halle’s travel-related standalones, this book transported me to magical Norway for a second-chance-romance that is passionate, full of chemistry, and gorgeously swoony. I loved it!
Shay has been working and travelling around Europe, searching for something. Her family was neglectful for most of her life and she is untethered and trying to figure out who she is, what she wants and where she belongs. Her travels bring her to Norway, the country that has always been at the top of her bucket list for its wild beauty, and also for the fact that her first love was Norwegian and told her stories of his homeland and she wants to experience it for herself.
Shay and Anders met in high school when he travelled to America for senior year. He was a tattooed, mysterious bad boy and they fell in fast, all-consuming love and were everything to each other in lives where they felt very much alone. But he broke her heart and returned to Norway, leaving her shattered.
Anders wasn’t just that first love for me, he was so much more. He was the one person who made me feel like I had a home
Anders is now a fisherman who also works on his family’s farm in a small village in Norway. It’s not the life that he wanted for himself, but he is driven to uphold his family’s legacy and care for his younger sisters, and this is the way he’s doing it, working almost 24/7 to keep thing going. But when his Instagram stalking reveals that Shay is in the country – and close by – he drops everything to seek her out.
Oh. My. God, the tension between these two is unreal! Things are understandably shaky for them, they didn’t part on good terms and a lot of years have passed, but the chemistry is still very much there and I was loving seeing them together once again! And when Anders invites Shay to stay for a while, of course she accepts.
I want to experience the country the real way, off the beaten path, in the villages, with the locals.
With my ex-boyfriend.
Who now happens to be a Nordic god.
Their reconnection is a slow build, and it’s realistic given everything they’ve been through and the fact that they’re getting to know each other again as adults. There are flashbacks to their time in high school so we get to see little bits of them young and in love, and we slowly get to see how it all fell apart for them, and it’s so sad. I could understand how it all went so wrong, and it made everything in the present seem that much more intense as those feelings that never really went away come roaring back to life.
Sometimes I want nothing more than to grab her, kiss her, ask her if she remembers what it was like to love me, to want me.
Oh my god. This man is going to break me all over again.
But I can’t run.
Days on the farm turn into a roadtrip to explore the stunning countryside, and Shay and Anders soon find themselves caught up in a passionate reunion that consumes them once again. It’s hot and steamy, and Anders is a dirty talker so… *fans self*. But more than that, they are falling in love all over again, and it was so beautiful to watch.
I imagine us in the future, here, living this life together, trying to make the best of it, make it work. Would it be so unfair to ask her to stay with me? To have her be with me…
Have her…love me?
Can I give her the life she wants, the one in which she finds herself, where she finds a home and stability and the family she’s always been yearning for?
Will she let me try?
But the issues that plagued them in the past haven’t entirely gone away. There are doubts and insecurities that need to be dealt with, and there are some truly heartwrenching moments as they figure it all out. I was feeling it all, and my heart ached for them, but the angst works for them and their story, and is blessedly shortlived while they work through it all
Shay is a wonderful heroine. Smart but vulnerable, and so relatable, she’s got that edginess that I love about Halle’s heroines, and she’s so gorgeously open and honest. She’s the kind of girl you want to be friends with, and I loved watching her blossom throughout the story as she rediscovers her passion for life and begins to find her place. And Anders is so gorgeous, so freaking sexy, and seriously, I just want to hug him. He’s been emotionally damaged by his past experiences, and I hurt for him as his heart and head wrestled to figure everything out. And watching him find the strength and bravery to break from his rut and figure out where he wants to be is a really gorgeous journey.
And OMG, Norway! It’s always intrigued me, now it’s firmly on the bucket list. Halle writes with such emotion about her ancestral country, describing the towns, the villages, the fjords, and the wild environment in a way that makes you feel like you’re there experiencing Shay’s journey with her. I was googling pictures of all of the places as she travelled, and loved that I got to travel with her from the comfort of my own home (especially at a time when the idea of travelling seems so far away).
I could live here. To be surrounded by this beautify all the time, to slow down to a simple pace of life. It’s the kind of place that makes your heart dream.
I really enjoyed this book. It’s a really sweet story with a great romance, and it easily swept me away and left me smiling.
Loved it – 4 stars.
An Advanced Review Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
Meet Karina
Karina Halle is a former travel writer, music journalist and screenwriter, and The New York Times, Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of over 55 bestselling novels, ranging from horror and suspense to contemporary romance. She lives on an island off the coast of British Columbia with her husband, and her adopted pitbull Bruce, where she drinks a lot of wine, hikes a lot of trails and devours a lot of books.
Halle is represented by the Root Literary Agency and is both self-published and published by Simon & Schuster, Hachette and Montlake. Her work has been translated and published in 20 languages.
Hit her up on Instagram at @authorHalle, on Twitter at @MetalBlonde and on Facebook. You can also visit www.authorkarinahalle.com and sign up for the newsletter for news, excerpts, previews, private book signing sales and more.
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