Sunshine

This book came highly recommended and it didn't disappoint.

The author's voice is fabulous and the plot...wow, I didn't know what to expect with each turn of the page.

I love how the heroine Sunshine is real and blunt and down to earth...alongside her amazing powers! Such a great contrast.

As for her relationship with Con the vampire...Mel, her boyfriend, is so great but it's the author's skill that makes the reader yearn for something to happen between Sunshine and Con.

Great read.

The writing is erratic and hard to follow and it seems as if there is a lot of information you're missing out on. However, the plot and characters themselves make this is worthwhile read.
There were many instances when I was throughly confused about what exactly was happening, between the main characters all-over-the-place thought patterns and actual narrative. I wish there had been more dialog between characters to act as a sort of anchor to events, but no such luck. The sex instances in the book also seemed forced, as if she used it to try to keep the reader pulled in to the relationship between Sunshine and Constantine - but it was written in a sort of different voice, was unnecessary, and slightly took from the events at hand.
Overall, I'm not exactly sure what to think of this book. I wouldn't read it again but I finished it without having to force myself and I did like the storyline... I can say for sure that it is overrated.

Original: 9/2007
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updated: 4/2010
It's weird how three years ago, my thoughts on this book were so different. But people change and tastes in books change along with us. I picked up this book for a steal at a used book store not remembering if I liked it or not, but wanted to try it again anyway. I'm just about finished with the second read-through and am really enjoying it. While Sunshine is still a little erratic, I don't find her thought processes too difficult to follow - like I mentioned in my first review - though there are a lot of random side-thoughts in parenthesis that you have to read and then re-read the sentence without them to sometimes remember what the original thought was. However, this is how people really think and speak so it is just a normal conversation instead of a more unnatural way of thought that most books use just to keep the reader on the same page, pardon the expression. I've added another 2 stars to my review this time around. I really enjoyed it.

WHAT
Enter the mind of Rae Sunshine, as she throughly describes every single thought that passes her mind while baking cinnamon rolls and other sweets on Charlie's Coffee Shop. Oh, and this takes place in a post apocalyptic world where nearly everybody is a supernatural creature, and vampires are trying to control the world.

ANALYSIS
I was tired when I read this book, and it was an easy reading, so I kept on reading it. The first person narrative helps you sympathize with the protagonist, but there is no plot worth mentioning here.

The setting had a lot of potential, but it received no focus, it was just there as a background for Rae to discuss her feelings. All of the book is her telling at great lengths what it means for her to be alive, to grow up without a father, how she feels about the boyfriend she doesn't really love, but its dependable. You don't even know the post apocalyptic supernatural aspect until much latter in the book. Oh, sorry, spoiler alert!

Every little scene is dissected in her mind, and while its nice to hear the character thoughts, there is too much rambling. “Oh my God, I'm here trapped with this vampire that wants to kill me! Me, who is scared even of spiders, who cannot stand the sight of blood! How I wish I could be on my bakery, making cinnamon rolls and chocolate cakes. Oh it is hard work but I like it so much. And Charlie... (four pages later the focus goes back to the vampire)”

A great amount of time was spent on minor details that didn't contribute to the plot, and were just too uninteresting to contribute to the immersion such as the many kinds of charms and how they behave like real creatures.

This could be a somewhat heroic adventure, if Rae was not, as describe by herself, a wimpy and scared girl that wanted nothing to do with her inherited powers.

I stopped reading during the final confrontation with the bad vampire that was trying to kill her. By this time I recovered my wits, and I just couldn't stand this lack of meaningful content anymore.

Read 13:22 / 15:24 87%

3.5. There were so many parts of this story that I loved, but there were also a lot of writing problems that made it difficult to read, like repetitive and overemphasized statements. Sunshine's character development was also written in a way that implied this wasn't a standalone book. I looked for the next book after finishing this one, finding an article on the author's blog that seemed angry toward readers asking about a second book. She says that she just doesn't write sequels. In that case, she probably should have been more aware that her book set up a continuing story, and left large story gaps that made it feel as if there HAD to be a second book to go along with it. Otherwise, this was a great twist on vampire lore. Pop culture views on the supernatural often include super abilities, like amazing eye sight, strength, or speed. McKinley went a step further and described the way that humans and the supernatural interact and perceive the world around them completely differently from each other. There was definitely a theme of culture clash, and how various characters struggle in this world as a result. Recommendation - read if you enjoy paranormal world-building and vampire stories in particular. Note on the romance element - it exists, but isn't a huge part of the story. Some parts of it felt forced, and I enjoyed the friendship between the two main characters better.

Started out as a 5 star read, ended up around something like 3.5 stars.

This is very different from Robin McKinley's other books. It was a bit drawn out but over all I enjoyed it. The interaction between Sunshine and Constantine was not forced and seemed to develop over a few months instead of instantly which seemed very real. Other than that the world seemed a bit one dimensional as well as many of the other characters.

DNF.

This has been on my TBR for a long time because I've heard raves about it, and I totally get why. I got sucked in immediately–usually I have a “home book” and a “lunch book” that I keep at work because I don't like to carry a book back and forth, but I carried Sunshine around until I finished it. This was a fun book to read after [b:The Story of Owen: Dragon Slayer of Trondheim 16068956 The Story of Owen Dragon Slayer of Trondheim (The Story of Owen, #1) E.K. Johnston https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1385213342s/16068956.jpg 21861446] since both have a similar matter-of-fact approach to a fantasy world. But I found myself wishing McKinley had a bard to explain things to me just a liiittle bit more. I do like the effect of being dropped into a world and having to figure out the rules as you go along, to some extent, but here I was like “vampires can... dimension hop... I guess? Sure?”Also I'm sort of surprised there's not a sequel to this since it seems like a LOT of things were hinted at and then dropped, like is Mel a wizard or what.Also this book had a weird effect where like... I was into it and really wanted to find out what happened but simultaneously it felt draggy? I guess just because of Sunshine's long meandering mental soliloquies. Also a heads-up–I know this was originally published as adult fantasy and then repackaged as YA in the wake of Twilight. I think it's probably best described as New Adult, for its ~adult relationship content~, but yeah it's a good readalike for Twilight.

Borrowed from Bekah (Kadollan)

I liked Sunshine (the character). I liked the normalcy about her life in the coffeehouse - frankly, I think that I would've liked the story quite a bit more if there had been more about her daily life and less about the “big bad”. I want to go back and reread this book along with “Beauty” and “Rose Daughter” and see how they work as a trilogy of sorts (not that I think McKinley intended it that way, but they are three separate versions of the Beauty and the Beast myth that she's written, so it would be an interesting topic and comparison.)

I have several unanswered questions: I wish we had been told more about who Mel actually is/was, I wish there had been a bit more resolution about what would happen from the end on to Sunshine, Constantine, and that we had been given a better idea about how she would ultimately decide to juggle the different aspects of her life and her abilities.

The only vampire romance book that has stuck with me, even to adulthood. Definitely better than Twilight

I've tried reading multiple titles from this author who came highly recommended by a friend but I think I have an issue with the authors voice/style. This book was frustrating to get through, I was tired of the way the main character's thought's were written.

The author tried to create a different world for this character and there were many things that were not explained - some things you can figure out from context but not others. That, coupled with the specialized jargon that was not explained, frustrated me even more.