New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones is back with the first novel in the brand-new snarky, sassy, wickedly fun Sunshine Vicram series—A Bad Day for Sunshine!“Laugh-out-loud funny, intensely suspenseful, page-turning fun.”—New York Times bestselling author Allison Brennan”A Bad Day For Sunshine is a great day for the rest of us.”—New York Times bestselling author Lee Child Sheriff … rest of us.”—New York Times bestselling author Lee Child
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, strong cups of coffee—and, now, a nationwide manhunt? Del Sol native Sunshine Vicram has returned to town as the elected sheriff—thanks to her adorably meddlesome parents who nominated her—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 this is reminding Sunshine why she left Del Sol in the first place. Add to that the trouble at her daughter’s new school, plus and a kidnapped prized rooster named Puff Daddy, and, well, the forecast looks anything but sunny.
But even clouds have their silver linings. This one’s got Levi, Sunshine’s sexy, almost-old-flame, and a fiery-hot US Marshal. With temperatures rising everywhere she turns, Del Sol’s normally cool-minded sheriff is finding herself knee-deep in drama and danger. Can Sunshine face the call of duty—and find the kidnapper who’s terrorizing her beloved hometown—without falling head over high heels in love…or worse?
more
Sunshine Vicram Book One.
Sunshine Vicram is moving back home because her sneaky parents have somehow gotten her elected as the sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico. When Sun left Del Sol, she put a lot of memories behind her, including that of her abduction as a teenager. Her first day back starts out with an ominous warning from her officers in the form of a basket of muffins. Sun’s daughter, Aurora “Auri” Vicram, is having her first day at a new school. To top it all off, Auri is accused of being a snitch and immediately on the wrong side of the whole student body.
If you are looking for a hilarious story with cops, kidnappings, teenage love and hidden pasts, this is definitely the book for you!
Oh Dang! I’m all for this series on audio! Don’t get me wrong, I loved Lorelei King’s narration for Charley Davidson series BUT, she’s narrating this series as well, and I can’t help but thinking its Charley and Reyes talking instead of Sunshine and Levi. I’m hoping I won’t continue to keep on thinking that.
Im also glad we get to see Sunshine’s daughter, Auri’s POV as well. It gives the story an extra oomph to it and also dealing with her high school life. And Levi oh man I can’t wait to see how he turns out. Same typical humor that we saw in Charley Davidson series, BUT I loved it, laughed at it and needed it!
Jones created a fun, new small-town with a group of madcap characters, and a favorite heroine. I was hooked from the beginning and enjoyed meeting every one. The biggest question is how long do we have to wait to hang out with this zany cast of characters again?
This is genuinely funny! I was pulled into the story from the start. The great characters and action-packed plot kept me turning pages to see what would happen next. The point of view switches kept things fresh and broadened the scale of storytelling. Within the twists and turns of the action we get terrific backstory on the main characters. There is great world building here and a delightful cast of characters, some quirky and some serious. Even the high school mean girl and her minions are more than caricatures.
My only complaint is the unfinished business left at the ending. This is obviously the first volume of a series.
I voluntarily read an advanced review copy provided by the publisher via Netgalley and I offer my honest opinion in response.
This is another one of those reviews that I have to preface with: this is a fangirl-y, over the top mess of a review. This was actually my first Darynda Jones book! (This has been remedied over the past month) As soon as I read the blurb for A Bad Day for Sunshine though, I knew I had to read it.
Jones’ trademark humor and wit blend beautifully with the mysteries and hijinks around the funny little community of Del Sol. Readers are even treated to a teasing hint of paranormal, this is Darynda after all. As this is the start of a series, there is quite a bit of foundation work that has to be done but I didn’t feel like the pace suffered. Sunshine’s past, the lovable quirky residents of Del Sol, the strange basket of foreboding muffins, and of course the snappy dialogue all kept me seriously engrossed in this story.
Sunshine Vicram and her daughter Auri are everything I could have wanted and more. Much like Lorelai and Rory from The Gilmore Girls, their relationship is warm and loving with the typical stresses that come from parenting a teen. Saddled with this new responsibility as sheriff, Sunshine has to juggle the Puff Daddy feud, find a missing teen, and it is rainin’ hot men. I am all about Levi by the way. Auri, amateur PI extraordinaire, decides she wants to help by investigating at her new high school nevermind that bit of bullying.
The Mayor that kinda seems like a Disney Villain (it works though) and I’m interested to see how that story arc plays out in the future. Jones has truly done a fantastic job crafting vibrant secondary characters that I can’t get enough of.
I don’t think I can overstate how much I loved this book! As soon as I finished the last page I had to fight the urge to start it over again. I’ve put the audiobook on hold through my library and I am going to purchase a hard copy for my library as well. Also, I have successfully badgered Mr. B into reading it in the near future. Beware of muffins of doom but DO go out and read this book and then come back and fangirl with me.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
What a great start to the Sunshine Vicram series with a great cast of characters and a story that captivated me immediately, kept me glued to the book and I didn’t want it to end – just wasn’t ready to say goodbye to Sun and the residents of Del Sol, New Mexico. I felt an instant connection to Sunshine who comes home to serve as sheriff and loved her dynamic with the other characters especially her daughter Auri, her best friend Chief Deputy Quincy Cooper and hottie Levi Ravinder who has been her crush forever. Ms. Jones blew me away with this witty, heartwarming and sometime heart rending novel and I look forward to see what happens next in Del Sol. I received an advance reader copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving my review.
OMG…WOW…this book is just wow. It’s a complex small-town mystery read, there’s kidnapping, murder, theft, flasher and all happen in the first day job of our Sheriff Sunshine and she almost got hit by a car and there’s mystery in her past that she needs to solve and then there’s her daughter’s first day at high school that full of drama. This book keeps hitting me with mystery and shocking revelation in every page, a twist and more secret in every chapter, that keeps me turning page after page and then there’s mother-daughter banter that just so adorable and the friendship too, oh so many thing that warms my heart in this book.
It brings all the feelings, it has a great story, and I think it has more good things coming. Definitely a MUST-READ for a mystery read lovers.
*I received a free copy in exchange for an honest review*
A Bad Day for Sunshine is a new series by the ever popular Darynda Jones. This is the first book that I have read by her and I have to say that I really enjoyed the book. The main characters are well written and the storyline is a plot line that is filled with a mystery and a realistic plot involving events that are reported in the news everyday. I will be reading the next book in this series as I cannot wait to see what happens.
Sunshine Vicram is back in Del Sol, NM as the new sheriff. She is smart and a dedicated law enforcement officer. She is a single mother and relies on her parents to help with her daughter, Aurora. The very first day on the job and all hell breaks loose. You have a chicken/rooster on the run, a missing girl report, and an escape convict. What else could possibly go wrong. Then you have the Ravinder family. Levi is in charge of selling moonshine legally but his uncles want back in the Dixie Mafia. What could go wrong with that. On top of all that, Pandora’s Box is being cracked open a little at a time. What will Sunny find when her memory comes back. A good start to the series!
Sunshine Dawn Vicram is conflicted. She has returned to Del Sol, New Mexico. The town she grew up in. The place where her daughter, Aurora, spends summer vacations with gramma and grampa. The weird, touristy little village Sun had left, almost fifteen years before, to shake the memories of her abduction, rape, and imprisonment. She had made a life for herself and Auri in Santa Fe, first as an SFPD patrol officer, and later as a detective. However, the fact that she was only thirty minutes away did not sit well with mom and dad, who had never left Del Sol. They wanted Sun and Auri back home. So they did a little politicking and entered her name in the election for Sheriff. To virtually no one’s surprise, since the holder of that office, Baldwin Redding was a complete jerk, she won. Sunshine doesn’t really want the job, but she does want to find her abductor and send him to prison. It will be a challenge, but Sun will stick around for a while.
“A Bad Day for Sunshine” is a story with many working parts. One theme is the weirdness, humor, and oddities that bring Janet Evanovich to mind. Then there is the tale of teenage angst and sweet young adult romance that Aurora provides. Certainly, Sunshine’s very adult dreams and ongoing man distractions add spice. But, it is the disappearance of Sybil, a friend of Aurora’s, that is the main event. Her premonitions of abduction and murder on her fifteenth birthday have haunted her and her family for years. With that day just around the corner can Sunshine wade through all the false leads in time to save Sybil’s life?
I recommend “A Bad Day for Sunshine” to all adults who crave something new and distracting.
Many thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to review an advance copy of “A Bad Day for Sunshine.”
Rated 4.5 Stars
A Bad Day For Sunshine is humorous and quirky read. I love the cast of characters and and can’t wait to read more of this series. The relationship between Sunshine and her daughter Auri is very reminiscent of the mother/daughter relationship in Gilmore Girls. I loved it and can’t wait to get my questions answered. I definitely recommend it.
Copy provided by publisher through Net Galley
I like snark and sarcasm, I really do – or I thought I did until I had so much of it thrown at me that it started to get on my nerves. So, I suppose I should say that I appreciate some well-timed snark and sarcasm. What I found here is not that.
When I first started reading, I was struck by the similarities between Sun and Auri and another mother-daughter duo from a beloved early 2000s television series. The difference is Lorelai and Rory were actually witty. The outcome here is that all that snark just translated into a wordy story of about 400 pages where very little happens. People walk around and talk a lot, but if there was much in the way of actual investigation, I missed it. Of course, I’ll admit that I started skimming around the halfway mark due to the lack of anything to keep me engaged, so I could’ve missed it. The biggest issue with so much sarcastic dialogue that’s meant to be funny is that it makes it really hard to take anything seriously – like the fact that Sun is supposed to be working on a missing person case – a missing teenage girl no less, and there is certainly nothing funny about that.
A missing person, secrets in Sun’s past, and even a kidnapped rooster should be plenty to propel a good story forward, but then we have the whole mess surrounding Sun’s election to sheriff. I’m not sure why all that was necessary, but it’s completely over the top and unnecessary. But then, that was just one more thing in a sea of things that rubbed me the wrong way.
From what I’ve been hearing about this book, I’m pretty sure that I’m in the minority here, but it is what it is. For me, the book was scattered, and the most interesting thing about it was the rooster. There are unanswered questions that I’m assuming will be built upon in future books since this is the start of a series, but I didn’t find anything in this one to convince me to read further books in this series.
Darynda Jones has created another must read series! I was so sad when Charley Davidson series ended. I knew I would miss that cast of characters. But guess what? Sunshine is here and just as sassy and lovable as Charley. Along with another great set of characters that I need more of. Amazingly fresh & fun. I can’t wait for more!!
Sunshine Vicram has just been elected sheriff of Del Sol, the only problem is she didn’t know she was in the running. Sunshine has been in law enforcement for most of her adult life. Some would say it’s all because she has been trying to solve the crime that has plagued her since she was seventeen.
Her first day on the job and she has a missing teenage girl, an escaped convict, and a murder. Sunshine always knew she was good at her job, but this might be too much for even someone of her caliber.
The story is told from a dual point of view, Sunshine and her daughter Aurora or Auri as she is affectionately called by family and friends. I enjoyed seeing it from both sides considering how much the mystery of Sunshine’s “accident” affected both of them. However, there were times when I wasn’t sure whose head I was in, their “voices” were too similar.
There was certainly enough mystery to keep me engrossed. Even when one crime/mystery was solved, there was still something else to ponder. Not everything is explained or figured out in this book. I guess we’ll have to wait for the next one to get more answers. Don’t worry though, its not a terrible cliffhanger.
You can be sure to expect the humor you’ve come to love from this author. Even though it was sometimes too much. I wanted the seriousness of the situation to show through instead of the constant witty remarks and comebacks. But it didn’t ruin anything for me.
I highly recommend you start this adventure with Sunshine and her sometimes crazy deputies. You won’t be disappointed.
Darynda Jones has written another winning series. Full of humor, quirky characters, a good mystery, I was hooked from page one. What a ride. The story opens with Sunshine Vicram getting ready for her first day as sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico. Boy, did that come as a surprise to her. Her daughter, Auri, is getting ready for her first day at a new school. Things are about to get crazy….as they do in any book written by Darynda Jones. I usually don’t enjoy books with multiple points of view but, in this book, it works very well and it didn’t bother me in the least.
I won’t say more because I don’t want to drop any spoilers.
The mystery is solid with some romance, lots of laughter and a few tears. I was so caught up in it that I think I may have missed a meal along the way and definitely stayed up way past my bedtime. All the signs of a good book.
My thanks to the publisher St. Martin’s and to NetGalley for giving me an advance copy in exchange for my honest review.
A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE By Darynda Jones
I love this one! I know that Darynda Jones has another hit on her hands with this. Sheriff Sunshine Vicram is reminiscent of Charley Davidson and her attitude with the witty banter. Sunshine has returned to Del Sol New Mexico to take over the sheriff’s position in her home town. She has her daughter and parents with her. Lots of craziness ensues and mysteries. This is definitely a 5 star read.
Like a big bright ray of sunshine, Darynda Jones’ s A Bad Day for Sunshine slid onto my kindle bringing nothing but smiles and happiness. Full of the humor and a strong, funny female lead that Ms. Jones’s books are known for, this book is hands down an entertaining mystery full of surprises, hot guys, and a hot mess of a heroine. Elected sheriff in a race she didn’t enter, Sunshine Vicram returns home and is thrown into a case for a missing teenager. Add in a missing convict, an old murder victim, and and an old flame and Sunshine’s life gets way interesting way fast. Auri is a delightful mess following in her mother’s footsteps. The story left me grinning like the Cheshire Cat and just when I thought I figured it all out something new crawled out of the woodwork. This story is just fun and totally addicting. My voluntary, unbiased review is based upon a review copy from Netgalley.
I received a free electronic copy of this New Mexico based mystery from Netgalley, Darynda Jones, and St. Martin’s Press. I have read this novel of my own volition and this review reflects my honest opinion of this work. I am pleased to recommend Darynda Jones to friends and family. She writes an interesting police procedural with lots of New Mexico tidbits as chapter headers that are true enough to keep you in stitches and the patter between Sun and her daughter Auri is classic, as are their thoughts, at times. The best part – Darynda Jones has several novels already out there! I will be looking for them, as well.
Sunshine Blaze Vicram and her 14-year-old daughter Aurora – Auri to friends and family – have been for several years living in Santa Fe, where Sun was a policeman and Auri attended private school. Summers Auri spent with her maternal grandparents in Del Sol, south of Santa Fe, so both are familiar with the very small town and its ways.
Which is a good thing, because Sun’s parents ran a secret, unauthorized campaign to elect Sunshine for Sheriff of Del Sol County against the current, crooked sheriff, and Sunshine won. Now she will have to come home. Or will she? Everyone in Del Sol knows everyone else’s business. Sun has secrets that she plans to keep. But there is a killer on the loose, and she really can’t refuse a challenge…
pub date April 7, 2020
Wow, the first of this new series, has all the fun and snark we have come to expect from Ms.Jones. I surely miss the Charley series and Sunshine has started out with a bang. We meet the newest characters in Del Sol, Sunshine Vicram, Auri, her daughter and a select cast of strange and wonderful characters. You may ask “how do you get elected Sheriff, when you never entered the race?” Read this book for the answer to this and many other quirky questions. Add this to your TBR list and enjoy!
I really enjoyed this story. It has humor, suspense, drama, bullies and mean girls. I really like the interaction between Sun and Auri. I can’t wait to see what happens with Levi. When Sunshine wins the election for Sheriff, without ever having entered it, she isn’t sure she is happy to be back in her hometown. Her first day started out so promising, but turned into a really bad day for both her and Auri. There is a lot packed into just a couple of days. Will they all survive and will they find the missing girl? Auri has a sharp mind and will try to help her mom any way she can. If her mom will let her.