A Bad Day for Sunshine: A Novel

I thought Charley Davidson was a funny and interesting female character to follow. Yet, I must confess that I didn’t finish the series and I'm not sure why except that sometimes life interferes with my reading. I do plan to go back to it at some point.However, when I learned a new book by Darynda Jones was coming out, I was super excited about it. I've always liked her writing style. As luck would have it, I was given a complimentary copy by the publisher and I couldn't be happier.I can’t say enough about how entertaining this book was. It has so many good one-liners. The right amount of fun, drama, and mystery to keep me entertained on a Saturday afternoon.The plot:Sunshine Vicram has not been home in fifteen years. She’s back with her fourteen-year-old daughter Auri. Currently, she’s living in a remodeled guesthouse behind her parent's (Cyrus and Elaine Freyr) home. She’s not clear how she got the job, but she’s the new sheriff the Del Sol county in New Mexico.Her best friend Quincy is a deputy and her lost love Levi Ravinder lives here too. Levi has made his family business legit. His corn whiskey distillery is wold-famous.Multiple things are happening simultaneously:*A young girl, a classmate of Auri's, Sybil St. Aubin has been abducted. Levi’s nephew, Jimmy has disappeared at the same time.*A man, Ramses Rojas has escaped prison.*A neighbor's dispute between Mrs. Sorenson and Mr. Madrid about a rooster named P. Diddy.*Sunshine is trying to remember the details of her own abduction. When she was 17, she was taken and held captive. She had a traumatic brain injury with a month in a coma and with a sequela of retrograde amnesia. Although, lately she has been having some glimpses of her time as a prisoner.Soon thereafter, her town will have U.S. Marshal Vincent Deleon and Special Agent Carter Fields helping with the investigations. Both are nice to look at. Although, Sunshine's heart belongs to Levi.As if this was not enough for Sunshine, she also has to deal with Donna, the Major. She wants to know who the Dangerous Daughters are. The Dangerous Daughters are thought to be a myth but maybe they're real.If you like Darynda Jones' prior work, you're going to love this one. I was dying to get to the second book in this series right away. I have a desperate need to learn more about Levi and the secrets he keeps.Cliffhanger: No5/5 Fangs

This book was awesome and what a wild ride that smacked every emotion in my body. There are twists and turns on every page. Times my eyes leaked. No ugly crying but close. The characters she had created are intriguing and perfect. There's snarky humor which I love. This is difficult to write without spoilers. Its a panic attack inducing read but so worth all the times I had to do slow my breathing and heart rate. The writing is so brilliant, like other reads by this author, there were times it was pure art. At one point two consecutive events happening to two different characters at the same time, almost identical, like a tragic ballet. As a former dancer I don't know how else to describe it. But that was not the only brilliantly written part. Don't pass this one up. You'll regret it. My only complaint is it leaves you hanging at the end. Not anger inducing cliffhanger kind of ending. But enough that there better be a next book in this series. I'm checking now. Great read. I can't stress that enough.

A Bad Day for Sunshine is a fun starter book to a new series following around the newly elected sheriff of a small eccentric town, how she got elected is also a bit of a mystery. I’ve loved Darynda Jones Charlie Davidson series (on day I’ll finish it) and was excited to jump into a new world with some new characters.Sunshine and her daughter Auri move back to the town Sunshine grew up in. They have the cutest relationship really and I adored their interactions. You can tell they have a really great relationship and while there seem to be a few secrets, some that came out, others that I’m sure will be revealed later, they have a quick easy banter that made the book.Sunshine was kidnapped as a teen, she has some amnesia around that event in her life and found out she was pregnant not long after. She is determined to face her demons and figure out who stole her and why. But first there is another teenage girl Auri befriended that has gone missing, along with an autistic teen in the mountains and an escaped convict somewhere in the area. Sunshine is going to need the help of the man she pined for all through Junior High and High School to help if she is going to find them.***“You’re plying me with your feminine wiles?” “Not at all. I left my feminine wiles in my other pants. And I very rarely ply in public.”***Levi is definitely tall, dark, broody and sexy as hell. He runs a little hot and cold with Sunshine, I have a guess as to why but alas we are going to need some more books to flesh that out. He comes from a long line of moonshiners and while he wants to bring the business into the mainstream and be completely legal there are some in his family who like being on the other side of the law and have different plans for the family business.I enjoyed this story overall mostly because I really want to get to the mystery of Levi and Auri. The town is a fun place with all kinds of quirky things happening like doomsday muffins and a rooster kidnapping. Still there are some tropes I could do without. Does every man who comes in contact with Sunshine need to be attracted to her? She had 3-4 different guys flirting with her shamelessly in the book.This is a fun read. There is a lot of word play, snark and quippiness happening that make it feel light even when the subject matter is sometimes dark. The quotes at the beginning of each chapter are cute and funny like in the Charlie Davidson books too. It was a great start to a new series and I’m ready to spend some more time with Sun, Auri and Levi as they figure out what they are to each other.

A terrific book. Interesting, complex characters. Funny, touching and smart dialogue. All with a great plot that kept me on the edge of my seat. Well, not really on the edge but metaphorically on the edge.

J’ai beaucoup aimé ce que j’ai lu de l’auteure et j’étais impatiente de me plonger dans cette histoire !Sunshine a connu un évènement traumatisant quand elle était plus jeune : elle a été enlevée et séquestrée pendant une semaine. Elle ne se rappelle pas ce qui s’est passé, simplement que quelqu’un l’a déposée à l’hôpital et qu’elle était enceinte. 15 ans ont passé et notre héroïne est devenue sheriff dans sa ville natale. Elle revient après des années d’absence et alors qu’elle pensait se retrouver dans un travail routinier, une amie de sa famille disparait. Elle doit donc affronter son passé, son amour d’enfance est plus beau que jamais et en plus, un forcené s’est évadé ! Une chose est sûre, Sunshine aura du pain sur la planche.Dans ce roman nous suivons en alternance le point de vue de Sunshine et de sa fille Auri. J’ai beaucoup aimé les découvrir toutes les deux ! Sunshine a beaucoup d’humour et c’était génial de voir ses réparties. Si Auri est différente, on s’attache très facilement aux deux femmes. Et puis, il y a Levi, cet homme énigmatique et sombre qu’on espère découvrir.J’ai vraiment passé un bon moment avec l’histoire, même si Sunshine m’a bien énervée ! Oh, oui, parce qu’elle est frustrante ! Tout au long du roman, tout est évident, mais elle, elle ne voit pas la vérité alors qu’il est pourtant comme le nez au milieu du visage. J’ai eu envie de la secouer à plusieurs reprises pour qu’elle réalise ce qu’il se passait. Mais quoi qu’il en soit, c’était un bon premier tome et d’accord, ça m’a énervée, mais je suis très curieuse de lire la suite !

Sunshine Vicram is the new sheriff of Del Rey New Mexico, a post she was elected to without even applying. Sun blames her parents, they wanted her home, her and her daughter Auri. Sunshine left town with Auri when she was just eighteen running from a last she couldn't remember. When she was seventeen she had been abducted from the side of the road only to be dropped off at the hospital a month later with a traumatic brain injury resulting in a coma and upon her awakening amnesia. Sun was unable to recall anything about what had happened to her not had any memories of the two months before. One of her reasons for returning and taking the sheriffs job is so she can investigate her case. Her first day on the job is a baptism of fire. A stolen rooster, and escaped convict and worst of all a kidnapped teenage girl. A girl who.fire as her kidnapping and subsequent murder, but nobody believed her. Sun will.need all the help.She can get to find the girl before it becomes a a murder investigation and that's without all the personal.stuff going on, her memories are slowly returning, just flashes but very debilitating when they happen. Then thereIs Auri the new girl.In school things don't go smoothly for her as certain students have decided because her mother's the sheriffs she must be a snitch. Suddenly their fresh start doesn't look so fresh. The characters are great, there's an underlying vein of humour running through the book which makes.it a joy to read and I look forward to reading more about Sunshine and Auri.

An amazing, funny, suspenseful, multilayered book. I loved it. I cannot wait for the next one. The storytelling is tremendous.

Loved. Smart, snappy dialogue, layered characters, with some thriller/tension thrown in for good measure - now stir, and you have this little beauty.It was quirky and charming. Hard not to enjoy the adventures of Sunshine & Auri.As long as this doesn't devolve into everyone in town being psychic or some such nonsense (which is where the Charlie Davidson series went and completely lost me) I will definitely being tuning in for more adventures of this marvellous mother/daughter combo.