Review: True Colors by Anyta Sunday

Title: True Colors (True Love)

Author: Anyta Sunday

Publisher: Self-Published

Length: 226 Pages

Category: Contemporary

At a Glance: I couldn’t be happier that I decided to jump on this one! You guys should, without question, give it a go.

Reviewed By: Jules

Blurb: Oskar used to be Marco’s best friend. His everything. His sunshine yellow.

But that was before. Before Marco stopped being a hot jock. Before he learned to live with scars and pain. And before Oskar tore their friendship apart.

Now the boy next door has returned home, determined to rekindle his friendship with Marco, and Marco’s more afraid than ever. Afraid of getting hurt. Afraid of being humiliated.

Afraid of falling in love.

Can Oskar find a way through Marco’s fear, back into his heart?

Review: Well…I just found a new auto-buy author, and I’m pretty giddy about it. In fact, I read two of her books this weekend, and have already started a third. So, that should give some indication of how much her writing clicked with me. I’m talking about Anyta Sunday, and I know I’m tardy to the party, but I was in book bliss on Saturday after discovering how much I enjoyed her style. Such a happy reading girl was I. :)

True Colors was so, so lovely, you guys. I truly adored both Marco and Oskar, and honestly, everything about this story. Though tagged as enemies-to-lovers, it’s actually friends-to-enemies-to-lovers, as Marco and Oskar were the best of friends for most of their lives—until one horrible mistake in judgement and moment of cowardice ripped them apart. It has been years since Marco and Oskar were friends, and fifteen months since Oskar moved away, but now he has come back home to Berlin, and Marco must find a way to face the past. And, Oskar must fix his life’s biggest regret. I loved the emotion in this line, describing what it was like for Marco to see Oskar again:

“I gaze at his slightly upturned lips that hold the memories of a hundred songs we sang between us, tens of plays, a handful of secrets, and six soul-destroying words.”

Growing up, Marco and Oskar were next-door neighbors, and their families were extremely close. In Oskar’s absence, Marco has remained as an amazing older brother figure to Oskar’s sixteen-year-old sister, Zoe. The relationship between Marco and Zoe is fantastic. I loved how Marco made seeing her basketball games a priority, and that they had traditions of their own. Zoe was also clearly a fixture in the Brandt household, evidenced by the easy nature of her interactions with Marco’s father and grandfather. And, when Oskar comes home, we also see how much he cares for Marco’s family, particularly the love he shows Opa. Sunday did a beautiful job of building these connections and making the reader care about all the characters.

I also really enjoyed the flow of the book. The author uses some flashbacks to flesh out the story, beginning with the first two wonderfully written chapters, Black and Sunglow Yellow. The brief glimpses of the past are instrumental to building the history, of course, and tie in perfectly to the rest of the story. Sunday also uses one of my favorite devices, that of text message exchanges between the characters, to rebuild the relationship between Oskar and Marco. We are seeing this tool used more and more in contemporary romances, and it’s such a great way to see inside both characters and move the story along.

This is definitely a very slow burn, but it’s done so well. The love between Marco and Oskar is never truly in question—at least it wasn’t to me—but there is a lot of rebuilding that needs to be done. The hurt that Oskar inflicted on Marco was immense and long-lasting. Marco has been unable to have any type of romantic relationship because of the insecurity and fear of rejection that are so deeply ingrained in him from the past. I hated how that hurt clung so hard to Marco. He so deserves to be happy. They both do. Seeing them get their chance was worth every bit of time waiting for the payoff. And, this line…guhhhh…

“My skin is stained with past pain. The boy who made me feel every inch of its ugliness is the man who’s kissing me like I might still be beautiful.”

Gorgeous stuff, right?? But, I need to stop rambling on…So, quickly, a couple of other things I loved…I loved the play that is an ongoing part of the plotline. This is the traditional Christmas play that Marco’s mama always wrote, which his papa has been carrying on in her absence. This year’s play is special because it’s meant to try to bring Oskar and Marco back together. It was an integral part of the story, and I loved how it was woven in. And, of course, I have to mention the colors. Marco assigns colors to people in the same way that his mama used to use them to describe what kind of day it was. Blue for sadness, yellow for happiness, magenta for love, etc. The colors were a beautiful part of the book and were brilliantly used as the chapter titles.

True Colors is the second book in Sunday’s True Love series but works one hundred percent as a standalone. I’m going to go back and read Ben and Sebastian’s story at some point, for sure, but it is absolutely not necessary to read it first. I couldn’t be happier that I decided to jump on this one! You guys should, without question, give it a go.

You can buy True Colors here:
[zilla_button url=”http://amzn.to/2nlsJA8″ style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon KU – US [/zilla_button][zilla_button url=”http://authl.it/B06VT9N9HN?d” style=”blue” size=”medium” type=”round” target=”_blank”] Amazon KU – Int’l [/zilla_button]