A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones _ Book Review

Amazon | Goodreads

Sheriff Sunshine Vicram finds her cup o’ joe more than half full when the small village of Del Sol, New Mexico, becomes the center of national attention for a kidnapper on the loose.

Del Sol, New Mexico is known for three things: its fry-an-egg-on-the-cement summers, its strong cups of coffee—and a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff–an election her adorably meddlesome parents entered her in–and she expects her biggest crime wave to involve an elderly flasher named Doug. But a teenage girl is missing, a kidnapper is on the loose, and all of it’s reminding Sunny why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that trouble at her daughter’s new school and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and Sunshine has her hands full.

Enter sexy almost-old-flame Levi Ravinder and a hunky US Marshall, both elevens on a scale of one to blazing inferno, and the normally savvy sheriff is quickly in over her head. Now it’s up to Sunshine to juggle a few good hunky men, a not-so-nice kidnapping miscreant, and Doug the ever-pesky flasher. And they said coming home would be drama-free.

 

[I received a digital copy from netgalley for an honest review]

A Bad Day for Sunshine is the start of a brand-new series by Darynda Jones. A mystery with a little romance and a little “witchiness‘. I usually do my own little summary of the book but in this case I don’t know where to begin and the books’ synopsis does a great job, so I would refer to that.

“I swear, Mom. You’d lose your head if that nice Dr. Frankenstein hadn’t bolted it onto your body.“ Sun straightened. “Did you just call me a monster?“

Darynda creates great sarcastic characters. The two main point of views, Sheriff Sunshine and her daughter Auri, and they have a never ending stream of sarcasm both for each other and other people. There are also some memorable secondary characters. Sunshine has a lovable best friend name Quincy and her life long crush Levi, along with his firecracker sister and her sweetheart of a son Jimmy. However, there were a lot of other characters, a lot of different names, and between the grandmother’s friends and different member of the town I had trouble keeping track of them all. Also, there was absolutely no need for every male to hardcore flirt with Sunshine like it was singles night at a bar. It was unnecessary and redundant. On top of that the town itself is just odd, from people having premonitions to the fact the students at the school had a hive mind like personalty.

Story wise, there is so much going on from the start of the book. There are so many things that are kept a mystery from readers and slowly revealed to us, yet we are still left to with more than a few unanswered questions by the end. Some secrets, I guessed and other took me by surprise, by it honestly felt like everyone was keeping secrets upon secrets. There’s a backstory mystery that isn’t solved by the end but the main one the two leading ladies are trying to solve has a great timeline to it with twists I didn’t see coming.

As of right now I’m not in love with the Sunshine Vicram series, but I wasn’t in love with the Charley Davidson series either when I began it. Like the CD series I see this being one I continue to read and with each book I will fall more in love with the characters and by the end call it one of my all time favorites. At least that’s what I’m hoping will happen but who knows for sure.

“Only one word seemed to sum it up and tie a nice bow on top :Clusterfuck. Or was that two words?“