Look on the Bright Side

Wow! What a fantastic book! I loved this story. It was absolutely heartbreaking at times. Trying to read through tears is tough. Then, at other times, you'll smile and even laugh a little. The characters are so real that you can feel their pain and happiness. Lark has been through so much in her young life, and she has more to get through to become the person she was meant to be. I feel that all the characters grow and learn throughout this wonderfully written book. I could not put it down. It is a book you want to see the outcome, but I really hated to see the book end.

This is a very moving story about a young woman learning to move forward with life after the death of her first love. After losing her childhood sweetheart to cancer, Lark becomes a doctor. Look On the Bright Side kicks off when Lark is ejected from her residency in oncology for being too emotional. (The patients' families need to comfort her.) A transfer to emergency medicine prompts Lark to begin living in the moment. As she considers her career path, she volunteers as a hospice companion and learns to accept how medical interventions can fail and how she can help someone make the best of the last part of life.

The book alternates flashbacks with current action and shows how Lark and Justin fall in love and fight his leukemia.

There is also a parallel "fake dating" plot. A grumpy surgeon, known as Dr. Satan, asks Lark to pretend to be his girlfriend to reassure his dying grandmother that he will not end up lonely. As Lark meets his family, she becomes intrigued with his brother. (There's no triangle or cheating. Any romance is strictly closed door.)

Lark is a winning heroine. She's caring and giving, even with impossible patients and her very brusque fake boyfriend. It's great to see her force him to behave politely and to develop emotional awareness.

Kristan Higgins is a master of emotions. Her characters are 3 dimensional, her storylines richly laced with laughter and tears. This book reintroduces a delightful family. This is the story of Larkby Christina Smith. Her fierce love, her compassion, her sense of humor. As other members of her family are woven into her story, you see exactly where those traits were borne from. This book is at times gut wrenching. It is also witty, funny and real. The only issue I have with this book is the fact that once you pick it up you’ll become reluctant to put it down. Kristan Higgins has a knack of writing stories that you wish went on forever. Treat yourself to a journey of emotion, the stunning beauty of Cape Cod and a family you wish you were of a member of!

I have read all of KH's books and loved them all. Even when I think I know where the story is going to go, she always surprises me - and always in a good way. I love the way her characters develop, I love the way their pets and family members are just as important as the romance at the center of the story. There are funny scenes and scenes that make you cry. Unlike some stories where the children are precocious and not at all realistic, the children in her books are sometimes lovable and sometimes obnoxious - realistic without being insufferable. And as for Connor - he made me want to run out to an animal shelter and add another dog to our menagerie. This is another book for my keeper shelf!

4.5 ⭐️ One thing you can guarantee, if Kristin Higgins writes it, you will be taken on an emotional ride reading it! It’s one of the things I love about her as an author, and Look on the Bright Side was no exception.

Lark Smith is in an oncology rotation when she is sent to rotate through the ER instead because she gets too emotional with her patients. All Lark wants is to become an oncologist, so when Dr. Lorenzo "Satan" Santini offers her an exchange she decides to accept it. Dr. Satan needs a date for the next three months to convince his dying grandmother that he is not alone. If Lark says yes, he will call his connections to get her closer to another oncology position. The last thing Lark was expecting was to fall for his adorable family and for his fire-fighter brother, Dante.

At the same time, Lark’s mother, Ellie, is going through a rough patch in life and in her marriage to Lark’s father. She moves into the large house of Lark’s landlord, Joy, to get some perspective and space from her husband. Joy, who has suffered her own devastating loss, is grateful to have some company in her lonely life. As the three women navigate through the various stages in their lives, there are tears, laughter and learning for them all.

This story is told from three POVs (Lark, Ellie and Joy), each character is facing their own hardships or loss, and are all on a journey to find joy and peace.

This is not your typical, light-hearted, fake-dating trope romance. This story has such emotional depth. Look on the Bright Side is beautiful and gut wrenching and hilarious all in one. If you love a story that envelopes you and characters that leave a lasting impression, then I can’t recommend it enough!

I’m a fan of Kristan Higgins and will read anything she writes. That being said, I wish I would have checked this one out from the library because it wasn’t a keeper. Spoilers…

It starts out setting up for a Pride&Prejudice moment and I was excited for that. The plot started to grow away from what I expected, which would have been okay if the feelings involved seemed natural…..except that they didn’t. My biggest problem with the story was that the two love interests were two dimensional. I never got any sense of the internal life of Lorenzo or Dante and when the moment of being in love finally happened, I was a little puzzled. It seemed forced because Lark and Dante hadn’t spent much time together alone (except for when she was crying over her former love) so there wasn’t much development of sexual tension. The bouncing back and forth of the narrative between Lark, Ellie, Joy, and past Lark was clunky, as well, interrupting the flow of Lark and Dante’s love story forming. I still enjoyed the characters and the setting in Cape Cod and the HEA ending but will hope for more in Ms. Higgins’s next book.

P.s. Did anyone else get the vibe that Lorenzo is gay? He’s 100% not interested in the gorgeous, smart, and kind Lark and he had excellent taste in clothing. Just sayin’ shrug