Review: A Bad Day For Sunshine by Darynda Jones

A Bad Day for Sunshine (Sunshine Vicram, Book #1)

by Darynda Jones

Release Date: April 7th 2020

2020 St. Martin's Press

Kindle Edition; 400 Pages

ISBN: 978-1250149442

ASIN: B07SCRJ2DF

Genre: Fiction / Mystery

Source: Review copy from publisher

4 / 5 Stars

Summary

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.

My Thoughts

A Bad Day for Sunshine was a lot of fun, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.  I will admit I had a hard time getting Charley out of my head and focusing on this new heroine, but I was finally able to do that around the halfway mark as Sunshine was able to find a voice of her own, a quirky, interesting voice to boot.  I enjoyed the characters very much, but I did think the overall mystery was a bit weak. 

First of all, I loved the characters in this book.  The author has a way of developing her characters that make each of them quite interesting and unique, and this was one of the things that definitely kept drawing me back to her other books.  That same development continues in this book, and Sunshine absolutely grew as her own personality, and so did her daughter, Auri.  I found myself chuckling quite a bit as I was reading from Sunshine's inner monologue as it was highly entertaining.  The dialogue between the characters was a lot of fun as well.  It took me awhile to orient myself through the characters as the author doesn't give away a lot of information and you have to kind of figure things out as you go along, but I prefer this type of writing anyways as I find it extremely boring when the author gives away too much information and you don't get a chance to figure things out on your own. 

I have always enjoyed this author's writing style, but I did find the actual mystery to be a bit flimsy, to say the least.  What I did really enjoy was the secondary mystery underlying this book, and this is what is going to keep me coming back book after book as there is a big story here that I can't wait to discover more about.  Although Sunshine deals with the mortal world rather than the paranormal one, like Charley, she has a big secret, and it creeps in everywhere in the book.  While it hasn't affected her personality as she is outgoing and flirty, it is something that has still consumed her life for the past fifteen years and I think we are in for quite a ride in upcoming books.  Sunshine has not been home during that time period, but has made a name for herself in law enforcement, and somehow she has been named sheriff of her home town.  Her first few days were not quite what she was expecting, but the action moved quickly and you met a lot of quirky characters throughout Sun's investigation.  There is definitely a dark side enmeshed throughout the story, even if it didn't really impact this book, but it was enough of a tease to make me wish the next book was being released tomorrow. 

Verdict

A Bad Day for Sunshine had all the elements you could want from Darynda Jones; it was funny, quirky, and highly entertaining, but with an underlying dark side that you know will rear its ugly head in the follow-up novels, and I can't wait to see how everything plays out.  I enjoy this author's writing style, and highly recommend this book.  If you are looking for more paranormal writing with this book, you will be disappointed though, as the author has taken a different path with her new series.  However, I don't think you will be disappointed if you give it a chance.  I am really looking forward to A Good Day for Chardonnay when it is released in April 2021.