A Bad Day for Sunshine

I am dismayed (to put it mildly) at this author's apparently consistent unhealthy portrayal of sex. I had the same problem with the first in her Charley Davidson series. In both cases, what could have set the stage for a fun and empowering series with a strong, sassy female protagonist—including relationship-building with supporting characters and a great deal of humor—instead, presents as a poor excuse for entertainment. No amount of the good parts of these books makes up for the sexual violence.

Sex is a normal, healthy, and wonderful act between consenting adults. A person who is raped does not have feelings of sexual or romantic attraction toward their attacker/abuser. Rape is not a sexual act—it is a violent and criminal show more act—a horrible violation that should never be sensationalized or normalized as desirable or sexy, and should never be considered entertainment.

I don't find this vile portrayal acceptable from authors of any gender, and I am aghast that any writer who uses this theme (and there are plenty) is wildly popular. show less

This story was an entertaining start to a new series that deftly mixed humor and terror. Sunshine Vicram is back in her hometown of Del Sol, New Mexico after somehow being elected sheriff. She didn't run or campaign for the office. She strongly suspects that her loving parents had something to do with it. Not everyone is happy with the new sheriff including the Mayor.

Sun has moved back with her fourteen year old daughter Auri who is the light of her life and a great character. Half of this book concerns Auri's adjustment to living full-time back in Del Sol after only spending summers with her grandparents. The mean girl clique at school has definitely taken her in strong dislike. She's being blamed for the cops breaking up the kids' show more "secret" New Year's Eve bash at the lake. The same bash their parents attended when they were teens. Auri and her mother have a great relationship but Auri is keeping secrets from her and has been since she was seven.

Sun's first day is a mixture of the absurd - a flasher named Doug and a stolen rooster named Puff Daddy - and the serious - the abduction of a young girl named Sybil who has been dreaming about her kidnapping since she was a small child.

Sun had an ulterior motive of her own for returning to Del Sol. She has been trying to find the man who abducted her when she was seventeen. She was drugged, imprisoned, and left with a traumatic brain injury which included retrograde amnesia and pregnancy. She has been trying to remember what happened and getting brief flashbacks since. Part of the mystery has to do with the boy she has loved since she was teen who came from a very dysfunctional family but who has made good nowin adulthood.

I enjoyed the relationship between Sun and her daughter. I enjoyed the humor. I enjoyed the mystery. I loved the many interesting characters in this one. I look forward to reading more books in this series. show less

This story was an entertaining start to a new series that deftly mixed humor and terror. Sunshine Vicram is back in her hometown of Del Sol, New Mexico after somehow being elected sheriff. She didn't run or campaign for the office. She strongly suspects that her loving parents had something to do with it. Not everyone is happy with the new sheriff including the Mayor.

Sun has moved back with her fourteen year old daughter Auri who is the light of her life and a great character. Half of this book concerns Auri's adjustment to living full-time back in Del Sol after only spending summers with her grandparents. The mean girl clique at school has definitely taken her in strong dislike. She's being blamed for the cops breaking up the kids' show more "secret" New Year's Eve bash at the lake. The same bash their parents attended when they were teens. Auri and her mother have a great relationship but Auri is keeping secrets from her and has been since she was seven.

Sun's first day is a mixture of the absurd - a flasher named Doug and a stolen rooster named Puff Daddy - and the serious - the abduction of a young girl named Sybil who has been dreaming about her kidnapping since she was a small child.

Sun had an ulterior motive of her own for returning to Del Sol. She has been trying to find the man who abducted her when she was seventeen. She was drugged, imprisoned, and left with a traumatic brain injury which included retrograde amnesia and pregnancy. She has been trying to remember what happened and getting brief flashbacks since. Part of the mystery has to do with the boy she has loved since she was teen who came from a very dysfunctional family but who has made good nowin adulthood.

I enjoyed the relationship between Sun and her daughter. I enjoyed the humor. I enjoyed the mystery. I loved the many interesting characters in this one. I look forward to reading more books in this series. show less

This was a great read for my fourth week in Lockdown when I needed a book to escape into that would make me smile, keep me engaged, give me a puzzle to solve and people to cheer for.

I pre-ordered "A Bad Day For Sunshine", even though I wasn't a fan of Darynda Jone's Charlie Davidson series because it left the supernatural stuff behind and didn't seem to be aimed mainly at the YA market.

I also liked the premise: Sunshine Vikram returns to her home town of Del Sol, that she left when she was seventeen, to take up the job of Sherrif, an office she was elected to in absentia via a mysterious means used by her parents. She brings with her her fourteen-year-old daughter, a dark personal history and a secret determination to hunt down the man show more whose actions changed her life.

This is a book that, to be enjoyed, has to be accepted on its own terms. You need to be ok with a plot with an improbable dependence on co-incidence and interlocking, very dramatic and long-held-secret past events in a decidedly odd small town in New Mexico and to be entertained by fast, witty banter, bizarre quotes at the beginning of each chapter (my favourite was 'Predictive text: our own worst enema'), quirky crimes and a lot of not-entirely-serious drooling over the (many, many,) well-put-together men Sunshine encounters. Most importantly, you need to like Sunshine and her daughter Ari.

Fortunately, this last is not difficult. I liked Sunshine and lot and Ari almost as much. Think 'The Gilmore Girls' and add a deeply traumatising past and a tendency for both mother and daughter to put themselves in danger when they think it's the right thing to do.

Women are at the heart of this story. Women who want a world that is populated by 'men who deserve them' rather than by assholes and predators who need to be guarded against.

The characters are strong, if not particularly original. The plot, which centres around the abduction of a teen girl, has quite a few surprising twists. The pace is fast, the violence is moderate, the sex is mostly PG and the humour... well, it worked for me. If I lived in a small town in New Mexico, I'd want Sunshine Vikram to by my Sherrif.
I had a great time with this book. It was a splendid distraction from the present unpleasantness and I'm now hooked on the series.

I strongly recommend the audiobook version of "A Bad Day For Sunshine" as Lorelei King's performance is pretty much perfect and swept me along. show less

I was a big fan of this author’s Charley Davidson series which was straight-up urban fantasy. Now she’s begun a new one featuring *gasp* humans. Yep, not a demon, ghoul or God in sight. Turns out she can also write entertaining mysteries featuring normal people. Wait….I may be using that term loosely.

Del Sol, New Mexico has always attracted the artistic, odd & eccentric. It’s the type of close knit community where everyone’s on a first name basis, even with the resident flasher (that would be Doug). It can be hard to keep a secret. But there’s one in particular that Sunshine (Sunny) Vicram would love to uncover.

Sunny grew up here but left after a horrible event that changed her life. Now she’s back with 14 year old show more daughter Auri in tow. She just got elected as the new sheriff which is great. But also a little confusing as she never applied for the job. Huh…probably best to just go with it.

Her first day reunites her with childhood BF Quincy, now her deputy & he brings her up to speed on current cases. Just the usual….they need to convince Doug to take a day off & someone has kidnapped Puff Daddy, a much loved rooster.

Meanwhile, Auri is trying to survive the hazing ritual that comes with being the new girl at school. A pack of mean girls have her in their sights. Then things go from bad to worse when the one friend she made during the summer disappears.

So much for easing into the job. Sunny & her team have a serious case to crack. And before it’s over, she’ll discover some startling information about the event that made her leave town.

I’ll come clean & admit the first couple of chapters had me worried. One of the things I’ve always enjoyed about Jones’ writing is her snarky sense of humour but initially I found it laid on a bit thick. If every second line is a zinger, it can be hard to find the story. Fortunately, this soon settled down so I could appreciate the witty dialogue & truly funny situations that are interspersed with more dramatic scenes.

From then on it became an entertaining & fast paced read. We learn Sunny’s history & the lingering effects of what she endured. The search for the teenager triggers memories of a time when she was another missing girl. But on the upside, her return also gives her a chance to reconnect with her parents, neighbours, Quincy & one Levi Ravinder. Oh, didn’t I mentioned him? He’s a handsome, enigmatic guy who once knew Sunny well (is it hot in here? feels hot in here *fans face*). All I’ll say is I’m definitely looking forward to seeing how that develops.

The crimes, high school drama & appearance of dangerous muffins ensures you’ll keep turning the pages but it’s the characters that hold it all together. Quincy in particular is a hoot & I loved the relationship between Sunny & Auri. You have to appreciate a mother who counsels her daughter to think “WWLSD” when faced with a tough situation. These people may have their quirks but there is genuine warmth between them & a sense they’ll always have each other’s back. There are a couple of running gags that pop up at the strangest times that always made me laugh.

I really enjoyed this & happily, the ending makes it clear there is much more to come. While waiting for book #2, please join me in sending our thoughts & prayers to Puff Daddy. show less

I thought, I'll just read one chapter. But I couldn't stop. Could not put this book down. One minute I was laughing out loud, then suddenly I was crying, then I was laughing again. What the heck did this book do to me?

The characters come alive. They're complex, flawed, fun, sometimes reckless, and always perfectly real. I might be a little in love with Sunshine Vicram. I want to be her best friend. Or maybe I just want to be her because, you know, there's Levi with that whole bad boy thing going on. Plus, she's just badass. No shrinking violet heroine here.

I loved every single thing about this book. Just give me more.

My one complaint: book 2 doesn't come out until April 2021, and that's just unnecessary torment.

I have been wanting to read a Darynda Jones novel for some time now, so when I saw the chance to grab this advanced review copy from NetGalley, I jumped all over it.

Sunshine Vicram is back in town after some shenanigans pulled by her parents, getting her elected as the sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico, and supplying her with an adorable home for her and her daughter, Aurora.

Right off I liked Sunshine and Auri’s relationship, their verbal banter leads to some very humorous dialogue, and I could there are some underlying problems.

Sunshine has a past that demands answers and she is going to find them
Auri has seemed a bit off since the New Year’s party she went to when they arrived.

Del Sol is a small town with all kinds of crazy going show more on. We have some unique, quirky, entertaining characters and lots of secrets surround them. There is a sense of mystery underlying every event that transpires and no one gives answers easily.

I enjoyed the beginning of the book, but began to wonder what all the hoopla was about Darynda Jones’ work. The fun writing and character’s personalities had me liking them and the undercurrent in town made me think there was danger coming, but where is that feeling that I can’t stop reading until I have all the answers? At 30%, I became more involved, but the verdict is still out.

At 62%, Darynda Jones got my attention with a twist and I even teared up thinking about Auri…and the rest of the pack. After this it moved quickly. I know how this will end, but the last third of the book is what made it all worthwhile, keeping me glued to the pages.

Well…I love it and, even though this story is told, I am sure there is more to come for these fabulous characters and I hope to be there with them.

I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of A Bad Day For Sunshine by Darynda Jones.

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