This is the story of a 25-year-old cinnamon roll baker named Sunshine, a seemingly normal girl who gets abducted by vampires, survives, and discovers she's not exactly normal after all. Her world is similar to the real world--only it includes demons, werewolfs, sorcerers, vampires, and a government department whose responsbility it is to protect regular humans from these Others. It's clear that the fight between people and non-people is ugly and not going well. What's not clear is Sunshine's role in this struggle.

Sunshine narrates with a sometimes enjoyable, sometimes super annoying blend of attitude, sarcasm, weird slang, and very loooooong digressions into various topics, e.g. the history and social mores of her world, her hopes and fears, her endless analysis of the possible meanings of the events in the book.

And that's really my problem with this book. Too much analysis of the events and not enough event-happening. I thought it was going to be a fun, fast read. It was fast because I eventually started skipping over Sunshine's rambling soliloquies, but it wasn't very fun. I'll give the author credit for very detailed, believable world-creation, but I just didn't have a good time reading it. I was glad when it was over.

Also, I don't really see how this is a Twilight read-alike except for the obvious vampire tie-in. Twilight is all plot and romance. This has just a smidge of romance and it takes a long time to get where it's going. ( )

My friend Justin tried to get me into Robin McKinley probably about 15, 20 years ago. I didn't mean to dismiss his recommendation, I remember something checked out of the library needing to go back before I'd gotten to it, and then I was off, reading other things for twenty years. Now I've circled back, better late than never. You were right, Justin, I do love her! ( )

I always find it a little interesting which books grab the public eye and explode and which do not. This book was fantastic. Far better than any of the Sookie books. Yet Harris' series has exploded into the bestseller list. If you like vampires than do not skip reading this book. ( )

Plot:
Years after the Voodoo Wars that left the world riddled with Bad Spots, vampires, werewolves and demons, Rae, also called Sunshine, works at her family’s bakery and divides her time mostly between the kitchen there and the apartment she rents from Miss Yolande. Sometimes she even spends time with her boyfriend Mel. When she decides to get some alone-time at her family’s cottage next to the lake, Rae is taken prisoner by vampires and locked into a house with one – who also seems to be a prisoner. That vampire, Constantine, desperately tries to stay away from Rae but hunger might get the better of him. Rae and Constantine have to figure out whether they can work together and what that could mean for both of them.

Sunshine is one of those books that has been sitting on my shelf for many years, probably decades, waiting to be read. And I’m afraid that the best time to read it, for me, has passed by now. I struggled a bit with it, especially regarding the information management.

Read more on my blog: https://kalafudra.com/2023/06/23/sunshine-robin-mckinley/ ( )

This lives on in my head rent free. It's been decades since I read it, and I can still feel each and every word. ( )