An incredibly beautiful story of grief and loss but also a story of hope and light and most definitely love. Exceptional love in all the ways it can filter in and set your heart ablaze one more time.

I received an advance copy from Netgalley for free and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

Sloane Sullivan’s life is depleted of all color. She has been living in a fog of grief since her wife Julia died. A fog that turns everything around her in hues of black and white. A year after Julia’s death, Sloane packs her bags and leaves for a year of teaching in Australia. Hoping a year away will bring back some color in her life. On her first morning in Sydney she meets a woman who propositions her. Sloane indulges but the grief pummels her right into the depth of shame. When she finally arrives at her rented cottage on the Gold Coast, she meets her landlady’s daughter Ava. It’s the woman from her one-morning-stand in Sydney. Alluring as Ava is, Sloane’s battered heart can’t do anything else than struggle with her grief for Julia. As the weeks go by, Sloane is enfolded into the daily lives of Ava and her little family. She has to work her way through the pain of loss and heartbreak but the new small and adult humans in her life make her feel like maybe there is hope.

Ava James is a small time actress. When not working she and her 4 year old daughter Grace are living with her mom Ellen at their ranch in the Gold Coast. The cabin on the property hasn’t been rented out for a long time. Now her mom invited an American teacher to come and stay for a year, as a favor to an old colleague. The American arrives and Ava can’t believe it’s the same woman she spent a morning with between the sheets in Sydney. The woman that fled before Ava woke up. Ava is dealing with her own baggage. Having made mistakes in her twenties that not only ruined her career but also her relationship with a woman who had her whole heart. Shame is holding a death grip on her life, forcing her to make choices so she can keep living a small life instead of enjoying it fully. Sloane is turning out to be a blessing for her family. The charming woman becomes fast friends with Grace and Ava can’t keep ignoring her growing feelings for Sloane.

This story. This story wrangled my heart, stomped on it, cradled it with love and nurtured it back to a steady beat again. It made me cry and laugh and look for hope and color and light. Grief is an unimaginable dark place. For Sloane it means that she literally lost the color in her sight. It is heartbreaking to see her struggle with her love for Julia and the guilt she feels for trying to get back to living life.

The James’ women that live on the ranch are so important in Sloane’s journey. Little Grace instantly falls for Sloane and brings little bright spots back into her life with her exuberance and hilarious costumes. Charlie the dog even becomes a source of warm friendship. Mom Ellen is a steady force in the background giving solid advice to both her daughter and Sloane. And then there is Ava. Beautiful, caring Ava. Somehow by opening her heart to Sloane, even unwillingly at first, Sloane stands no chance against falling for her. The grief that accompanied her to Australia somehow gets even bigger but also different. Ava turns out to be the catalyst to the color returning to Sloane’s life.

The writing in this book is gorgeous. Arncliffe’s use of metaphors to explain feelings, emotions and even color are so well thought out and bring so much feeling into this story. I love the use of a good metaphor to explain myself in daily life but this has been an ultimate lesson in using beautiful comparisons to help illustrate the intricacies of life and living.

I might have to sit with this story for a while before reading something else. Liz Arncliffe really left me reeling, in a very good way. I am so grateful to have been given the opportunity to read Sloane’s journey. As you’ve probably guessed, this is no light entertainment book. It is a story to cherish and hold close to your heart.

This was an emotional read in the aftermath of Covid and how the loss Sloane sustained robbed her world of colour and life.
A story of love lost and love found, we are taken on a journey of how love was came to life and the guilt that came with it.
Ava too has her own issues from a past love affecting her life and how she needs to overcome those.
Then there is the cute Grace and her grandmother Ellen who both have significant and amusing parts to play in this romance.
The story is well written, beautifully descriptive and keeps you reading to find out if the ending is a colourful one filled with love.
Thanks to Ylva and NetGalley for providing the ARC. This is my honest review.

5 ⭐️
Grief and guilt are two powerful feelings that are difficult to overcome. Love and forgiveness are probably the only forces that can help to make life worth living again. And that's exactly what Liz Arncliffe's “Southern Light” is about. A heartbreaking but hopeful story about Sloane, an American teacher, who lost her wife to illness almost a year ago. And about the Australian Ava, who still feels guilty about her behavior and her decisions in her early twenties, which cost her the opportunity to get leading roles in the film business, and hold her back to find the person for a happily ever after.

Their chance encounter the first day Sloane was in Australia, was surprisingly light and sexy. But when they meet again, it is everything other than light, and the real story begins to unfold from there.

It’s told mostly from Sloanes POV but about 30% are from Ava’s sight. The author did an amazing job of bringing all these feelings into the book. And there are many feelings, good and sad ones. The dialogues and the intern monologues from both MCs are very well done and helped me not only to understand the two but also to feel them. The readers witness firsthand how Sloane is processing her grief, and especially how confusing it gets when she realizes she has feelings for Ava. How her world turned from all grey and diffused, suddenly to bright and colored again. But is it a betrayal of her late wife? Or is it exactly what she would want for Sloane, that she could be happy again?

Ava has her baggage to carry too. Remorse and guilt prevent her from enjoying life to the full. How can she let go of these negative feelings? The two women help each other to confront their feelings, accept them, and progress, thus getting the chance to live a hopeful, colorful life full of joy and love again. The story is very emotional, it brought tears to my eyes, but also smiles on my face. And not to forget, even the main topic is not easy, there are so many light moments and humor. The story is well-balanced.

The secondary characters, the two- and four-legged ones, are well fleshed out and add depth to the story, I liked them all. But especially Ava's daughter Grace, the little tiny tasseltop, rushed into my heart like a tornado.

Highly recommended. I think it is Liz Arncliffe’s debut novel, congratulations.
ARC received from Ylva Publishing through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in Australia so fresh! The scene is really well set, detail to make it authentic without being overwhelming. The characters all seem three dimensional. Both mains have back stories that are gradually revealed.
There is a lot of humour in this book, maybe wry smiles rather than lol’s but there was also tears, or at least wet eyes, if not outright ugly crying. The move from the past holding one main back from life, to living again is evocatively written. This is a beautiful book. Grief is described in a real way and the moving to live with it is beautifully described.
After the mains get together there is loads of book left. Seeing them settle in to leaving their past, which for both really means their present, behind has been joyful. No slip of pacing as they are battling internal forces.
Oh gosh! So emotional! Rounded up to 5 cos sniffles!
Two, of many lines I loved -
“I don’t think you’re fragile, and certainly not broken,” Ava said. “I think you’re extraordinarily strong and brilliant and resilient. I am deeply sorry that you’ve had to be those things in the past year.”
Sharing the loss somehow meant sharing Julia, and she wanted what was left of Julia to be hers and hers alone.

If you are looking for a light and fluffy romance, this is not your book, but if you want real people struggling with difficult problems, this might be for you.

Sloan Sullivan travels to Australia to teach for a year, because she is overwhelmed by memories of her recently-passed wife. Ava James has sworn off close connections after an obsessive love derailed her Hollywood career chance. The two are thrown together when Sloan rents a cottage on Ava's mother's farm.

The book is somewhat more focused on Sloan as she wrestles with making room for a new love while holding on to her memories of her wife. There is a stretch in the middle where the story gets a little aimless. That normally bugs me, but both women actually are kind of stuck and not making progress, so the story is semi-stuck along with them.

This is the fourth book I've read from Ylva and all of them have been very well-written. Someone is doing something right to nurture authors in the editorial department there.

Ylva was kind enough to provide me with an advanced reading copy via Netgalley for an honest review.

Stories of grief hold a special place in my heart after having lost a loved one. The pain feels familiar and I am pulled back to the early days when life was gray. The author, Arncliffe, was able to take you into Sloane’s grief and Ava’s shame and make you feel what they were feeling.

I enjoyed reading this beautiful sapphic love story, even though seeing COVID in books now is shocking. Has that much time passed since March 2020?

First thing first, I love this cover. Something about the colours and the arrangement that really hits the spot for me. The cover and the title drew me to the book, the blurb cemented my will to read it. In the end, it disappoint slightly.
This is mostly on me, at least I think so.

Grief is a horrible thing and comes in many shapes and sizes, the way it’s described and experienced in this book is all encompassing and as a bit a guilt as well. I feel like I can’t really talk about the story itself because I will spoil the “experience”. We have one character who basically left her life behind to try and outrun her grief, and we have another who has a mountain of guilt to deal with. This guilt mountain is named guilt, I’d rather call it shame. Maybe a combination of guilt and shame. They do like to go hand in hand.
Anyway, they have a lot to deal with, they fight each other, they deny themselves what they want and need and we have a romance.

Why it disappointed me slightly is because of the repetitiveness of the story. I fully understand grief and guilt don’t just disappear, but the actions, the way it’s written about, they almost seem copy-paste. All in all it isn’t bad, it’s a bit of an emotional ride and I think people who experienced a loss like one of the mains will find it very moving. I am here for the setting, the cute characters and the short, but heartwarming appearances of the “sidekicks”.

A beautiful and methodically crafted story, this is one of those novels you have to be ready to take into your heart. It struck me that, while I’ve read stories about characters dealing with grief before, I wasn’t quite ready to deal with a story so close to the reality of our current post-Covid pandemic reality. But the words were so well chosen as they carefully laid out the details needed to address so many issues. I could feel the struggles, the humor, and especially the grief and insecurities for both characters. These kinds of stories can be very difficult to handle, but there is a delicate balance (some well-placed humor always helps out) between looking back and suffering pain anew while also looking forward and living life. It certainly made me consider the value in all our experiences, both past and present.

This story has been a nice surprise for me. I didn't know the author, and I think this is her first novel, but honestly, it hit me with all kinds of feelings.

The two main characters are Sloane, a woman who leaves her city, job, and everything in the US after a traumatic event to completely change her life in Australia. She's really the main character, as the author sensitively and movingly explains the grieving process through her pain and conflicting emotions.

The two main characters are Sloane, a woman who leaves her city, job, and everything in the US after a traumatic event to completely change her life in Australia. She's really the main character, as the author sensitively and movingly explains the grieving process through her pain and conflicting emotions.

The first meeting between them is surprising for the reader—at least it was for me. Their later reunion was more expected, which was good for the story because it set up a perfect foundation for the development of their relationship. From the start, things have been complicated because of how their first meeting went down, but also because of their pasts. Ava has her own regrets about things she's done that weigh on her in this potential new relationship. But mainly, Sloane's situation is what really sets the pace and the possibilities between the two of them.

The story has been awesome for me. I really liked how they handle different issues and tackle sensitive situations. I love how the environment around the main characters supports and wraps around them. I enjoyed it a lot!

would like to thank netgalley and the publisher for letting me read this book

covid
found family
love

sloane life was grey and without colour..... after her wife died from covid she thought about ending it and joining her but she knew she needed to do something drastic to find colour again....

so australia beckoned

but what she found there..... was to change her life forever....

what a beautifully written book about grief. love and family....at times it was hard to read about the journey that sloane had to take and for poor ava and her daughter, their own journeys

but its also a book about hope and found family

Thank you NetGalley and YLVA publishing for allowing me to read the ARC of Southern Lights! Absolutely beautiful. I cannot praise this book enough. The way Liz Arncliffe writes is thoughtful, artful and full of purpose. I feel like I can feel her intention in every paragraph. The symbolism, continuity, humor, grief and character development the book showcases is beyond amazing. I literally highlighted so many quotes and other things. I will be getting the ebook when it comes out just to be able to add the highlights to my Goodreads account.

It’s a heavy read at times but it’s balanced out well with humor. I will say that if anyone lost someone to COVID, especially in the time of no visitors, you may want to read another book. I never experienced that and reading certain descriptions of Sloane’s wonderings of how her wife felt dying/being alone, etc was a lot.

I’ll always think of this book when I think about sea turtles and stones 😉


Totally unrelated to anything but I loved that Ava had her daughter at 41. I also love how it was pretty nonchalant and nothing more was really said about someone in their mid forties having preschool/kindergarten age kid. It was refreshing.

Sloane, grieving the loss of her wife, escapes to Australia and on her first morning, she meets Ava. A one morning stand with a stranger she will never see again, right? Not quite. What follows is an angsty slow burn, with Ava helping Sloane to re-capture the calours of life. A journey of healing through love, I trully enjoyed this book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC and I am leaving a voluntary review.

So sweet!

Sloane escapes to Australia after struggling to find colour in her life following the death of her wife. Upon arriving she meets actress Ava James, whose mother is the owner of the farm she is staying at. At first Ava isn’t keen on having Sloane around, especially after what happened between them when they first met, but when she starts to get to know her, and her daughter Grace takes a shine to their American visitor, the friendship forming quickly has the potential to be more.

I really enjoyed this story about love, life, and healing. Both Sloane and Ava are going through a difficult time, and for different reasons, but they find ways to connect that are small and meaningful to find a harmony that neither of them expected. It really is Grace at first to pushes them to spend more time together without a reluctance on Ava’s part because her excitement to have Sloane around is just precious. And even though Sloane is a teacher and used to children, given how she’d been feeling and everything that had brought her to the decision to go to Australia, I was actually surprised by how quickly she took to having Grace be part of her life.

There were lots of tender and sweet moments, building a slow burn romance between Sloane and Ava, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t drama. I loved how they were sandwiched between it at the beginning, and towards the end when Sloane was having to make decisions about her life as her year in Australia reached its climax. I really did hope she’d make the choices that would make them all happy, but again it couldn’t come without some heartache and dilemma after everything she had to consider.

A really good, enjoyable romance that had great representation for older women. Packed with lots of cute moments and references to melt my heart and make me happy.

Sloane Sullivan and Ava James have a one night stand when Sloane stopped over in Sydney Australia on a trip. Neither expects to see each other again.

Imagine Ava's shock when she discovers Sloane is renting a cottage from her Mom.... which she is NOT happy about.

Very good, a slow burn that starts with them sleeping together, but then finding themselves at opposite corners for various reasons. Ava is dealing with a bad romance in her past, Sloane is grieving her dead wife. Ava's daughter, Grace, is adorable and helps bring the two together too.

There IS a hated third act breakup, but it actually makes sense for the characters and I didn't entirely loathe it. Ha.

4 out of 5 stars.

Colorful and angsty romance
To say that the first crossing of paths between main characters Sloane and Ava is wild would be an understatement. From there it's drama and angst with each of them grappling with loss, grief, shame and other heavy emotions. There's humor in the story as well so it's maybe 'medium' on the angst scale. Sloane and Ava both handle their issues badly at times, resisting the steps to healing, and go at their own pace, often feeling torn in two along the way. I felt that keenly while reading and strongly suggest that a box of tissues is close at hand to dab away tears; the sweet moments will also summon them so happy tears will be in the mix. There are complicated emotions at play resulting in intense conversations between characters but certain secondary characters (one of whom has hands down the best and most enviable wardrobe of the entire cast) bring levity to tip the scale away from angst if only temporarily. COVID is a relevant factor in the story (in the past tense, while also being an inspiration for the book according to the acknowledgments which are best read after you've finished the story) but does not dominate the book. The writing has some full circle moments that are well done and the Dolly Parton references are a wonderful bonus.
Aussie slang and several sights and events in Australia are highlighted thru the book and may inspire a reader to travel and see them in real life. It's an angst laden romance though with a payoff that the reader and book characters earn but not until the latter are ready for it.
I hope this author has more stories in her to share and would love to read more of them, particularly if they include some that are lighter on the angst scale.

Achingly beautiful love story
After finishing this achingly beautiful book I had to sit for a while with all those feelings swirling inside of me, tears still in my eyes, grateful to have found and read this book which has waves, currents and undercurrents all of love, anguish, grief and love and joy again.
A debut novel, a debut! Arncliffe fills this book with love, love lost, love newly found, love on different levels and so much color and light. Look at the cover and your heart bursts and will be filled reading this book
Sloane runs away from her life in the US, from grief and bleakness from being totally lost after Covid took away the love of her life. Her destination: as far away as possible to Australia‘s brilliant lights of the Gold Coast. She‘s met by Charlie the dog and Ellen, the matriarch, Grace the precocious, vivid child and Ava. Ava!
The writing is sheer beauty. I marked so many passages which were profound, lovely, sad and uplifting: The colors woven into the story, Sloane after the gray fog of depression finding color again. Arncliffe leads us readers masterfully, relentlessly, breathlessly in a delicate dance between all those emotions - the strongest being the beat of life, love, laughter.
This book as you may have gathered from this review hit close to my heart: Having nearly lost the light of my life last year, having to battle the grey fog of LongCovid this book made my heart sing and stirred up grief and happiness and hope - hope is the thing with feathers …

I am grateful to Ylva to provide an ARC via netgalley. The review is left voluntarily.

A well written debut novel told the story of two main characters had a chance encounter and decided to giving in on impulse for a short fling, only to meet again and forced to live in closed proximity for the next year. Their reluctant friendship slowly grew into something more but each have to learn how to deal with their own emotional baggage and insecurities before they can fully commit to each other.

The author captured perfectly the grief and despair of Sloane's life after losing the love of her life, I felt deeply for her pain and care so much for her to find her own peace. The story was loaded heavily but beautifully with metaphors of color and light, I remembered feeling transfixed during the scene where Sloane described to Grace how the color of her eyes would be with various beautiful sceneries. Speaking of Grace, she is such a cheeky and lovable side characters, as well as Charlie the dog. I enjoyed the book very much and would love to read more from this author.

Special thanks to Netgalley and publisher for the arc.

Southern Lights follows Sloane—a widow desperate to escape the life she shared with her wife and to find a way back to the world that didn't end when hers did—from Tennessee to Australia, where she meets and enjoys a one-morning stand with Ava, an actress and single mother with her own ghosts. Two days later, Sloane arrives at the in-law cottage that's to be her home for the next year only to find that Ava and her daughter Grace live in the main house on the property. Sloane and Ava agree to pretend their encounter in Sydney never happened, but as Sloane slowly begins to surface from her sea of grief and becomes closer to Ava, something much deeper develops.

This one took me a little while to get into—I found it pretty exposition-heavy at the start—but once the narrative found its groove, I enjoyed it. Ava and Sloane's chemistry didn't hook me at first, either, but as they got closer and their relationship (first friendship) deepened, making space for their respective pasts and Sloane's grief, it became quite beautiful; the closer they became, the more compelling I found their dynamic.

.The story did a great job of honoring and grappling with Sloane's love for her late wife and her fear that moving through her grief was just another way of losing her: "Her pain and her grief were beginning to feel like an old but favorite pair of pajamas. They were worn and threadbare, and they provided less and less warmth and protection, but they were familiar and comforting. She knew she'd have to take them off sometime, but not yet. Not quite yet—she didn't feel ready."

There was a lovely array of supporting characters, including Ava's daughter Grace and mother Ellen. Grace was a delight, and the found family dynamic, one of my favorites, was really lovely and layered. Australia was a supporting character in and of itself—the setting was very rich—but with great tribute to the American South as well, in all of its complicated glory (speaking as a transplant from the American South).

Overall, this is a fairly light read that nonetheless explores themes of grief, loss, shame, and home with, while at times uneven, overall depth and dexterity.

This book made me feel so much. The metaphors were beautiful as well as the descriptions. I felt the emotions these women experienced! I cried. It was really a beautiful read, a beautiful story of life and loss and love. I really enjoyed this so much and devoured it quickly.

This is a very sweet romance about two women overcoming their past to find their place together.

Sloane lost her wife and after being unable to deal with her grief she decides to move to Australia, hoping that changing some things in her life will make it easier to move on. In Australia she has a one night stand with a mysterious stranger, only to find out the stranger is the daughter of the woman she's renting a cottage from. Making the one night stand a temporary neighbour, impossible to avoid.

I thought the book was pretty heavy handed with the metaphors, which is not necessarily my thing but in the end it didn't bother me enough to ruin the whole reading experience. The main characters are enjoyable and Sloane trying to deal with losing her wife felt very authentic. My favourite characters were definitely Grace, a precocious 5 year old, and Charlie, a very adorable pup.

It's a good book for some light reading with deeper themes of loss.