Read This F@!%ing Book (20)

Welcome to a feature I'm going to post on Mondays called:

Read This F@!%ing Book!

This is a feature for me to push my favorite reads that just aren't getting enough attention! 

I'm also opening it up to anyone who would like to guest post. Do you have a book that you just LURVED but feel like its not getting the play it deserves? Email me to let me know and I'd be THRILLED to have you post about it here! Especially if its something I haven't reviewed yet - that's even better (but not necessary)! If you're interested email me:

Goldilox3weres@hotmail.com

This week's post comes from our very own: 
Rose Red!

Read This F@!%ing Book Post 20: Sunshine by Robin McKinley

(Click book cover to go to Goodreads page)

Blurb
"Her feet are already bleeding - if you like feet..."

There are places in the world where darkness rules, where it's unwise to walk. Sunshine knew that. But there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years, and she needed a place to be alone for a while.

Unfortunately, she wasn't alone. She never heard them coming. Of course you don't, when they're vampires.

They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion - within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.

She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner, and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day...

Why I love it!
Sunshine is a dark vampire tale but with a healthy dose of fairy dust sprinkled all over it with a side of sunshine. It is kind of a Beauty and the Beast story, but it is not a romance. It's Robin McKinley's take on vampires and she pulls it off using a completely different style of writing than what we normally see in urban fantasy. The whole book is written like a stream-of-consciousness and focuses on the main character, Sunshine's, internal struggles with some action and dialogue on the side. It does take a bit to get into the story, but I promise it is totally worth it. The action, the resolution of the conflict, and the relationships between the characters, while important, play more of a supporting role to Sunshine's thoughts and fears.

The thing I love the most is that Sunshine is a baker and kind of a screw up. She barely finished high school and is usually arguing with her mom. I like that she struggles with her capture by the vampires. Her isolating herself from friends and family is a realistic response to the trauma. Sunshine feels real to me. She has an obsession with baking (Mmmm! Cinnamon rolls). She's sometimes snarky, sometimes frustrating, sometimes puzzling, but she's always interesting, complex, and believable as a character.

The Vampires are gross.
Don't get me wrong. I love vampire books and I enjoyed Twilight but romanticized vampires get old after awhile. People tend to forget that vampires are living corpses that eat people and not nice vegetarians who sparkle in the sun. Think about it. Being a vampire cannot be good for one's mental health. You have to stay inside all day and are forced to personally kill all of your food. Robin McKinley gets that! In Sunshine, the vampires are gross. They look like what they are, which is dead. They are also rightly feared by the populace. They are not very nice. Constantine is kind of the exception. He's still gross but you come to love him.

It's a Standalone!
Nowadays it seems that everything is a trilogy, so it's nice to read a standalone where things wraps up at the end. This is the book for people who want more than a vampire romance. There were some genuinely scary moments and few gory moments. And lots of talk of cinnamon rolls. I'll always be pulling for a sequel to Sunshine since there are a few questions left unanswered, but it's great to be able to read a book and be done.

If you're a fan of strong women coming into their own in a fantasy setting, I'd highly recommend picking this book up if you haven't yet! And you might want to get a cinnamon roll to eat while reading.

Have you read this book?

Did we persuade you to add it to your TBR mountain?

Let us know in the comments below!