Review: A Bad Day For Sunshine by Darynda Jones

A Bad Day for Sunshine
(Sunshine Vicram #1)
Darynda Jones
Release: April 7, 2020
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ARC provided by the publisher via Netgalley

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, 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.

Review:

Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson series is an old favorite. A Bad Day For Sunshine has a lot of similar qualities - a snarky, mystery solving heroine obsessed with coffee and southwestern food, charming secondary characters and a misunderstood anti-hero love interest. It also puts the main character through similarly horrific events.

One major difference is that this book gives Sunshine's teenaged daughter almost equal page time. Aurora has her own horrors and her own misunderstood anti-hero as she starts at her new high school. She also helps her mom solve her case since Aurora was friends with the missing girl. I liked Aurora's POV but it took me a little while to get used to.

I love the quirky small town shenanigans, like the old man chasing the rooster down Main Street, but I might have liked to have more of them. The story was kind of dark and heavy despite the snark. Admittedly, that might be due to the fact that I read it right after the first few books of the In Death series. That was a lot of cases that bring up the heroines' childhood trauma for one weekend!

I'm fascinated by Sunshine's world and excited to read more in the series. I'm pretty sure I have some stuff figured out that Sunshine doesn't know yet and can't wait to see if I'm right.

    

4  stars

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