All The Way Around The Sun by XiXi Tian

 

Publisher: Quill Tree Books

On Sale Date: September 30, 2025

Pages: 304

I reviewed a digital review copy from the publisher

Stella Chen grew up together with her brother Sam in China at her grandmother Nai Nai's rural home, before she joined her parents who moved to Illinois earlier. Now she has lived in Illinois for most of her live, and her parents and her will move soon to San Diego. Everything has changed in their life after her brother Sam died all of a sudden a year earlier. Stella and her parents still suffer from grief about the unexpected loss of him. Stella misses the time they lived in China, she misses Sam terribly. They never talk about it though, and her grandmother doesn't even know he passed away. Her parents are traveling to China for family matters, they come up with the idea for Stella her estranged childhood friend Alan Zhao for a college tour all over California, she hardly knows Alan anymore, so she is not that looking forward to it. But she goes with him on a college tour, and actually enjoys sunny California and forgets a little about her grief. But during the calls with her parents in China, she finds out her grandmother's health is not good, and will the tour in California with the popular Alan, who becomes more then a friend to her, be enough to get over the worst of her grief?

All The Way Around the Sun is a YA novel that deals with serious issues like the loss of a sibling. This is the first novel by XiXi Tian that I have read, and I absolutely enjoyed it. I really liked the storyline, and how Stella's story was told in the present and past time with Sam, and how her grief and that of her parents was shown in the story. What I also liked was the flashbacks of Stella of her time when she lived in China with Sam in the care of their grandmother. The present time where she travels with Alan along the colleges in California to figure out where he wants to study, was the lighter part of the story, and I loved the cute romance between them. They knew each other well in the past, and that old spark blooms up again during their travel where they stay at the house of relatives, who sometimes are in the midst of relationship issues of their own. I loved how their bond and romance grew during their time together, and I also really liked how the story was wrapped up in the end.

This is a book I really liked reading, and I recommend reading it!