This book is Robin McKinley's emotional masterpiece. What other reviewers seem to fail to acknowledge is that in reading this book, if you have ever been able to identify the times in your life you pulled the covers over you head after the alarm went off and those feelings associated with being human and being stubborn, then you can identify with Sunshine. We all prefer to read books that read how things should go. Every character is in a neat little easy pocket and every sub plot is explored and explained thoroughly.

But this isn't a detective novel, it's one woman's thoughts as she deals with a mid 20s crisis and the end of her world as she knows it. She has fears, that aren't rational, that never come true. She has urges, and hopes that in perfect situations, would work out and never bring about a moment of awkwardness, but because this book reads like someone living in a real time, things do get awkward and upsetting and don't make sense.

This book is so human that when I first read it and let myself be absorbed by Sunshine's plight, I put the book down 3/4s of the way through and realised I had FELT sick I had FELT like I was experiencing what Sunshine was experiencing, without knowing exactly that's what had been happening.

I don't think Robin McKinley wrote this intending a classic sequel, to be honest, I don't think she writes any novel with that in mind. If she did, we'd have series from her, not a dozen stand alones. I think she wrote it so that she could put to paper an alternative world where things are more mystical and yet just as simple and human as the world we are in now. I think she wrote it intending to bring a different kind of heroine to life, who didn't know what she wanted all the time, and didn't have some straight arrow path to follow.

If you loved Hero and the Crown and you want more saucy stubborn heroine with more talent in her pinky than the others around her, then you will love Sunshine doubly more. Period.

I heard a review of Sunshine on NPR, saying it was a good airplane book. I had a flight and nothing to read, so I picked it up.

The book starts out well. McKinley draws the reader into what seems like a normal world that's just a little off, and it gradually gets stranger and stranger. When the first REALLY BAD THING happens, you are hooked.

Unfortunately, that's when the book loses steam. McKinley has this annoying habit of breaking up conversations between the characters with explanatory background paragraphs. This can be a useful device when used sparingly, but for McKinley it is the rule. Whenever two characters get together you can expect a short conversation to be spread out over a half dozen pages. Snore. Continuity and pace are destroyed. Yes, I appreciate that this is a detailed alternate world, and McKinley has fleshed it all out in her mind. But sometimes an author should let the back story remain back story and just give the reader enough information to glean the rest by the flow of the front story.

And speaking of characters, the BIG BAD VILLAIN is entirely flat. He's out there lurking through the whole book, and we know he's BAD. REALLY BAD. PURE EVIL. And really uninteresting. We know he hates the good vampire. We never find out why, and the heroine seems uninterested as well. The good vampire is also flat. Once McKinley has drilled into our heads for the 100th time that good vampires are impossibly unusual, his character doesn't change. Nor do we learn why he's decided to be good. For McKinley, it's enough to establish who is wearing the white and black hats, then let them duke it out (with lots of stinky, gooey blood).

The book raises many questions that it never answers. That's fine, I don't mind a little mystery, even after the end. But by then the pace has become so tedious that I'm no longer even curious. What happened to Dad? Grandma? Why does the super bad SOF agent just spring up out of nowhere in the last 100 pages, with no explanation of her motivation? But McKinley doesn't concern herself with this. As long as the reader knows which side the characters are on, we can slog on.

Characters come and go for no apparent reason. Some are featured early, and then are just ignored. Others pop up later, and then are forgotten. Since this is told as a first person narrative, it makes the heroine appear self absorbed, and thus less likable. The conclusion is that the author doesn't care about the secondary characters, so they remain cardboard cutouts.

Part of the reason the story fails is that nobody we care about ever gets hurt. I should rephrase that, because McKinley never develops a character enough for us to actually care about. But the bodies that pile up at an ever faster pace are anonymous. So there's no sense that any named character is ever in any real danger. No danger means no suspense. No suspense means rather dull vampire novel.

The shame here is that McKinley has created a rich setting for a great story. But a great story needs great characters, and there are none here. Two approaches would have vastly improved this novel. Either trim off 100 pages of unneeded detail and give the novel some much needed pace, or add 100 pages of character development and give the novel some much needed depth. As it stands, it is frustratingly in the middle.

the book is not really about the event of Sunshine being taken by the vampire but more of the aftermath. it is dragged out a lot. we read about her emotions and life style more than anything else. shes sounds totally traumatized and is unable to connect with anyone she used to love. the scenes that involve her family or boyfriend or even friends are very short and written as if the author doesn't want us thinking about them
the language was nasty too. i actually got this book from my high school library. Imagine that.. and they are questioning The Chocolate War? they should take a look at this book.
if it had been a bit shorter and the unimportant stuff left out i would have liked it. Sunshine's depression and emotional thoughts get a bit boring.

As a choco-holic I had no problem relating to this book; it was awesome! I think those who rated this book poorly simply can't appreciate the writing style. Its understandable because even as heavy a reader as I am Mrs. Mckinley had me re-reading a few pages. But, at least for me, that is part of the appeal: actually having to concentrate on what is on the page. Once you get past the nuances of the style though the plot is terrific: its a classic man vs nature and man vs himself (or herself) under some very odd circumstances. Overall I found Sunshine very enjoyable and throughly developed.

I was really looking forward to this book. I don't read vampire books that often, but with all of the praise and recommendations for this book, I decided to check it out.

I thought that the story line, the basic plot, was actually kind of interesting. I'm into books that are fanciful, yet still believable. I didn't believe this book. It didn't draw me in. It didn't help that the main character went by Sunshine. I mean SUNSHINE? Come on.

And all of her insufferable MONOLOGUING. In the middle of going through a terrifying abduction by vampires, she goes on and on about her brothers and the stupid bakery. All about her past ALL the time. I'm just kind of like, OKAY, that's great.. What's happening NOW? I found myself skipping entire paragraphs and pages just to get to what was happening in the present.

Also, I don't know if it's just me, but her writing style was hard for me to follow. I suppose it's a way of expressing the character's train of erratic thought, but it made me weary and just downright frustrated with the whole novel. It's also a little difficult to read a book with whole page paragraphs.

In my opinion, don't waste your time on this one.

Let me be frank; I am already a solid fan of Robin McKinley. Her Damarian novels, "The Blue Sword" and "The Hero and the Crown" are already perennial re-readers of mine, and along with "Spindle's End" as well as "Beauty", have already captivated me with their strong heroines, their satisfying yet not quite predictable endings, and - most of all - McKinley's graceful, slightly poetic and totally readable prose.

Well, Sunshine may have beat them all. It may be pure serendipity, but it hit several strong chords for me. I spent at least 5 years out of my life as a baker and cook, and the coffeehouse at the center of the novel, as well as the heroine Rae's role as the baker, was familiar and realistic. And I have always been interested in various renditions of non-traditional vampires. Another dead-center hit.

The narrative is beautifully balanced between the introspective and descriptive portions and the action scenes. It is a story which plays out a beautifully believable emotional drama, against the backdrop of a convincing alternate reality. And it is beautifully written.

This is - as are all of McKinley's stories - the story of a heroine who keeps her head and shows great courage in a strange and challenging situation. It is not a simple story, and it is loaded with complicated and interesting - and convincing - characters.

Rae, or Sunshine, the heroine, discovers little by little that not only is she herself not quite who she thought, but that she is also surrounded by other people who are not who she thought either... She finds, or remembers, skills she did not know she (or anyone) had. Her austere but beloved landlady becomes more of a friend than expected, her buddies and customers turn out to be interested in more than her Cinnamon Rolls As Big As Your Head, and her father becomes more than just an unhappy memory.

All in all, this is a wonderfully captivating and satisfying read. I can already tell that I will return to it more than once.

i loved this book, it had a interesting take on the usual vampire novels. i enjoyed it alot and i would recommend it to anyonewho enjoys vampire novels.

I'm not a "fantasy" fan, but this was suggested in the "Book Lovers Calendar" (which I HIGHLY recommend). I found it very engaging, and the food imagery really "sucked me in"!!! Good character development, lots of spookiness, and worth the money for the image of "were-chickens" alone!!

Second time and still charming. Well thought out plot rich character description and such a breath of fresh air a vampire slayer with normal hormones. I am hoping this is the start of a series.

I highly recommend this book. Sunshine is overall well crafted, well written, and is original.

Positives:

The settings are well fleshed out and highly descriptive. You step right into this world, as if watching a movie.

Large cast with many hints of interesting characterization that the author may draw from if she wishes to continue as a series or sidestep to a companion piece.

Very realistic in the tone of working life, the people that go in out of one's daily life, family life, the people one might know to speak to in passing...very much like living in a small town for a young person that struggles to pay the bills, but us very much wrapped up in their own life.

The female lead is likeable enough, and that is the subtle greatness of the author-the female lead is just
'everyday girl'-she's not a super hero, or supersmart, or super brave-she's a regular young woman caught up with a special gift thrown into a paranormal adventure.

Nice paranormal original alternate universe.

The male lead, sorta, if you want to call him that...is interesting in the mysterious vampire with a tortured past way, ala Angel-just not as pretty.

The vampire lore combines the general with creepy originality, as does the author's otherworld lore of witches, demons, and other parnormal.

Negatives:

The female lead's family relationship and friendships are well detailed, but you never truly feel she gives a damn about any of them. The boyfriend is a convenience. Many of the characters are not fleshed out.

The mythology is referred to in passing as common lore. There is a great deal referred to in slang original to the book. If you are not quick to understand and pick up on stylized writing-if you do not have excellent reading skills, you will have a hard time.

Sunshine is kind of like Baby in Dirty Dancing. She's not mature enough for it to occur to her to mind being called Sunshine-but she's fighting her way, passive agressively, out of the corner-sort of.

The female lead's character development is that she is not well learned-barely educated. However, the author puts big words in her head, and in her mouth. I found this pretentious. The only way to give this any credence is that the character likes to read and one could suppose she has learned the big words from reading.

The male lead is not fleshed out. Very interesting character, but never fleshed out. There are many loose ends with the character and dangling plot bunnies-the book reads as a first in a series, and I do not know if that is the case.

The female lead becomes attracted to the big ugly vampire-I found this weird.

Most offputting-the female lead becomes aroused by the big ugly vamp and refers to her genitalia by the 'c' word. In a book that was written with some modicum of class, it was a moment of discord, jarring, teeth gritting discord.

The bad guys are kinda lame.

This book leaves you wanting more, which is kind of neat, but do we know if there is any reason to anticipate a sequel?

Read it, enjoy it, and hope for closure, lol.

Sometimes you don't want to read all the details. Sometimes you want to imagine them. Imagine a scary ballroom dimly lit by flickering candles. Imagine a shackle around your foot, and an evil presence behind you. Imagine regaining consciousness and clinching your shoulders and knowing it is going to pounce on you and rip out your throat and kill you... any... minute... now.

Robyn McKinley's vampires are not sexy or friendly or looking for lifemates. They are not romantic or funny or handsome. They are what vampires should be. Cold-blooded, hungry, ruthless killers. Irredeemable sociopaths. Monsters.

Is redemption even possible for one who lost his soul centuries ago? Can shreds of lost humanity be regained through mercy? Through sourcery? Through love?

Not likely. That's why this book is so delicious. Sunshine, with her quiet courage, her grace under pressure, her compassion and simple humanity, meets Constantine, the unwilling but very real embodiment of evil. They share a bond based on mutual survival. That's it. They will save each other's lives as needed, but there can be no real feelings between them. How can there be? The only possible relationship between humans and vampires is one based on murderous aggression. And yet...

I loved this book. I'm tired of wimpy vampires. This one chilled me, and then warmed me, and then sent me off into dreamy romantic fantasies. It may not be everybody's cup of tea, but I thought it was one of the best things I read all year.

I was expecting the book to be quite different but I was startled by how much it actually appealed to me. The pervading theme of the novel is that there is a significant difference between darkness and evil. Constantine, the vampire that Sunshine finds herself bound to, is quite a complex character. He is a vampire that must feed on blood, yes, but he is not cruel. Con strikes me as a kind of Byronic hero; he is a dark, brooding figure who perhaps feels guilt over what he has become. He has somehow managed to hang onto a shred of his humanity and, in my book, this makes him very magnetic. Constantine is the main reason I love Sunshine. He had vampirism thrust upon him, consuming him in darkness, yet he made a conscious and difficult choice not to use his new "gifts" to torture others.
Sunshine herself is also unconventional in her role as a vampire savior and accomplice. She also makes a difficult choice (to save Con's existence) because she tells herself she doesn't like bullies. Surely she realized that there would be consequences in doing this and so I found myself irritated with her at times when she kept whining to herself about how she wanted out of the whole vampire business. I felt that McKinley should have focused less on Sunshine's various recipes and instead expanded further on the bond between Constantine and Sunshine. The interactions between these two were what made the book worth reading and I grew tired of Sunshine's constant digressions. Next to nothing is revealed about Constantine's past or where the Blaise family has disappeared to. I got the vague feeling that Con was already tied to Sunshine through some association with her family and that fate is what brought them together, but it would have been beneficial to the story (and my psyche) if McKinley had included details on this front! The ending was therefore incredibly frustrating for me and I was even more frustrated when I checked out McKinley's site only to be told that there will most likely not be a sequel. How unfair is that? There are so many unanswered questions remaining that to be honest I feel a bit depressed about it. Regardless of these seeming flagrant and maddening shortcomings, I would recommend Sunshine wholeheartedly because it deals with the interesting fine lines that are often drawn between true evil and mere darkness.

It was with some trepidation that I opened the covers of this latest book by Robin McKinley. As the author of one of my favorite and formative books (Beauty), McKinley has not always provided the sort of reading experience I have been looking for. Deerskin was a particularly dark sojourn into the nasty depths of Brothers Grimm, and although the storytelling was masterful & memorable, it has not ranked as a favorite novel.

So a vampire tale by McKinley would be different, I knew.

The surprise came, when it's a fantastic kind of new!

With this book reviewers must endeavour please, not to give too much of the plot away. Half the suspense of reading the book is letting the story unfold and allowing the narrator to tell it in her own way & pace.

Sunshine works as a cook at a small cafe in a seedy and forgotten suburb after a magical holocaust has come across the world, reshaping the landscape of America as we know it.


She has an uneasy relationship with her mother, and finds herself having a closer acquaintance with a vampire than she had ever planned.

The gradual unveiling must not be clouded, thus I shall write no more, leaving it to you, the reader, to discover.

A story rich with ambiance, thick with texture taste and smell, menace hangs heavy in the air only to be washed away by the sharp sunlight and dizzying aroma of delicious cooking - all vividly imagined.

I salivitated through this book!

Without the hyperbole, McKinley proves again mastership of her craft, drawing readers on the adventure & into the world more solidly than ought to be possible.

Having read a library copy, I will now purchase the book as it's one I would love to keep - I had better make that two, because I know I won't be able to resist lending this fantastic book to friends!

Hoping there will be a sequel.

kotori 2005

Sunshine is kidnapped by vampires. However, her life is spared, and both she and the vampire (who was supposed to drain her) become allies to keep the other one safe. They work and help one another, to defeat a common enemy who wants them both dead. *****
This book was horrible. Not only do you have some graphic language, but you also have some sexual paragraphs that did nothing for the story. I found Sunshine to be a character which I didn't like, or understand. She calls herself a "sounds like witch" , but she doesn't do anything of the sort. She's more timid, for a person who's been though wars. That was something I found completely unbelievable. The whole story was too long and hard to follow. Some of the dialogue seemed forced, and pointless. *****

Just far to much about the bakery and to little about the vamp. I was hoping that this book was the first in a series because Mckinley introduced some great characters but she never developed them. I wanted to learn more about this unique world the author created, but instead I learned about cinnamon rolls. I don't know maybe the cinnamon rolls were suppose to symbolize something that escaped me. The scenes between connie(vampire) and sunshine make the book worth reading.

It took me months to finish this book! I kept picking it up and putting it down for other books that interested me. The beginning reminded me a lot of Nancy Baker's Kiss of the Vampire where a young woman is abducted and jailed with a vampire. This time it's a young woman who makes her living cooking cinnamon rolls (yum, I think I could live with that job) in a family run coffee shop. She has a close group of friends and a likable boyfriend and seems very content with the way her life is going until she's abducted by vampires and chained up with only a hungry, dying vampire for a companion. The writing is different from McKinley's usually lyrical style (Deerskin, Beauty). The tone is more modern both in slang and subject matter and I enjoyed it very much in the beginning despite stumbling over some of the narrative.

As the story progresses, and our heroine "Sunshine" has plenty of time to reflect on her past, we learn she possesses some inherited magical power that increases when she's in full sunlight. In this world vampires and "Other" creatures are commonplace. Though the beginning grabbed me I'm sorry to say I can't say the same about the rest of the book. Midway through it became a real struggle to finish and I ended up doing some major skimming to get to the end and ended up feeling "eh" about the whole thing. I didn't find it witty or all that interesting in the end.

Robin McKinley's "Sunshine" is a supernatural thriller featuring a very unique central character. Rae Seddon is the daughter of a once very powerful sorcerer, Onyx Blaise. From her father, Rae inherited the power of transmutation, which comes in very handy once she has been kidnapped by a gang of vampires. The vampires that kidnap Rae bring her to a vampire named Constantine as "dinner". Constantine is their prisoner as well. Rae and Constantine form an unlikely bond to break free from their captors and overcome the darkness that haunts them both.

I really enjoyed "Sunshine" but I was still very let-down by it. I had been wanting to read this novel for quite some time and then when I finally did, I was disappointed. There was entirely too much monologue and virtually not action. McKinley tended to be a bit too wordy at times. I have heard that as the chief complaint of others who have read this novel.

I've read everything McKinley has written, good, not so good, and then this one. A break away genre for her, more along the lines of Laurell K Hamilton without all the gratuitous sex.

Yes, Sunshine focuses on food.. ALOT, occasionally to the point where you wonder if the story is ever going to progress. Overall, though, I found that I was wanting to know more about the character.. why her mother took her away from the bosom of a family who would have understood her better and allowed her to become the person you sense that she could have been.
You get tantalizing little glimpses of the whys and why nots, but never quite enough to fully understand the subplots.
Con and Mel are both men of mystery as well, and I find myself wondering who they really are..everyone seems to knows that Sunshine is going to do "great" things except Sunshine herself. These two males, perhaps adepts in their own rights, are drawn to her for reasons beyond this.
I for one feel like there are several books waiting to be written with this set of characters, and I am looking forward to seeing their stories evolve.
Overall, one of the more unique vampire offerings.

Robin McKinley is well known for her combination of fantasy novels and fairy tales written for teenagers. I have read several of her books in the past, with mixed opinions, although I do enjoy her writing style. "Sunshine" is her first adult-orientated novel, although older teens (14/15+) will probably enjoy it. This one is written with a similar wry sense of humour to Kelley Armstrong, and has received some interesting comparisons to "Chocolat" and Anne Rice. It certain has a quirk to it - and plenty of twists, and the world is such an interesting one - and a few threads that could be expanded further. I would hope to see more in this setting from her in the future!

Sunshine is a young lady growing up in New Arcadia. It is a world like our own, only slightly unlike our own - being afflicted with the blight of the "Others" - vampires, weres, demons and well, a few other supernatural beings that are mentioned in passing. She lives a peaceful life, working in the bakery at her step-father's cafe (and having a fine knack for cinnamon rolls) and dating one of her fellow staff-members.

Until the night she decides - on the spur of the moment - to take a trip out to the lake.

Now, the lake is noted for being a "bad place" although more for the nastiness that occured there about ten years ago in the Voodoo Wars. She never hears them coming...

But then you don't, with vampires...

Sunshine finds herself chained in the ballroom of an abandoned mansion, in the company of a powerful vampire. It appears she is to be his dinner - but something more sinister is taking place and the world as Sunshine knows it is about to coming crashing down around her ears.

An utterly addictive read!

i was inspired to buy sunshine because of my previous mckinley reads. sunshine was a bit choppy and at times i felt that i was reading a second book in the series, having missed out on the first. she hopped around allot during conversations, interrupting them with sunshine's flashbacks, which i didn't care for and other times brought in topics that were not really well explained - voodoo wars, etc. i found the first three parts of the book to be fairly slow; nonetheless, the interaction of sunshine and con keeps you going. in the fourth part, just as it started to get really interesting, the book ends. it leaves you almost wishing mckinley had glossed over the never-ending days of sunshine being at the coffee shop and just got to the good stuff. maybe if she writes a second book she will get into the sunshine/con relationship further. that would have made it a better read.

I loved this book. I had not especially liked some of McKinley's previous work. I found this character a strong and vital woman and McKinley's take on the typical vampirelore unusual and realistic. And BTW, The baking ties her to her humanhood, people...A wonderful, truthful book.