I loved everything about this read from beginning to end! The characters were amazing and the story flowed from beginning to end and I read it less than 3 day and possibly at work as well (shhh) lol. Thank goodness for slow days!
I loved the mix of topics from food to life to learning from your mistakes and moving forward without letting them define you. Love love love this story!
Would love to do a giveaway on my blog in the future!

Hello Sunshine was a fun read, perfect for my beach trip - in part, because it is a quick read at around 250 pages, and because I had to suspend reality at times with some holes in the plot and some eyebrow raising moments - but I won't share them, because otherwise I'd spoil it.

With keen perspective on how what we see in social media is often smoke, mirrors, and a carefully cultivated view of our lives, what happens when that view is shattered made for reading that

The tension and anxiety of not knowing who basically destroyed the illusion of her life, her marriage, and with it, everything else, or why, was palpable; in the face of it all, Sunny was resilient - more resilient than I expected her put-on personality of Sunshine-the-You-Tube personality to be. I confess, I had a hard time feeling sorry for her dragging return to Montauk (there are far worse places to be) but she slowly finds her true self there.

This is the real meat of the story, honestly - when she returns to her childhood home and faces her prickly sister, faces the ghosts of her father and childhood, and finds herself once again. I do love a redemption story, although the ending????

*sighs*

I confess, the ending caught me off guard, and I'm still not sure how I feel about it, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book. However, at times light-hearted, and others surprisingly introspective, I enjoyed this book.

Well written and easy to read. Enjoyed this book, though I did kind of guess what was coming. Highly recommended.

I was pleasantly surprised by this novel. I thought it would be fluffier than it was and while it was totally entertaining and fell into my personal requirements for a "beach read" I also found it to be sensitive and moving and well done.

I was drawn immediately into Sunshine's life. I especially liked reading how her life changed. Secrets are a dangerous thing and I liked how Laura Dave told the story with some humor but was still able to describe the consequences of Sunshine's secret in an authentic way. The cover is beautiful and eye catching. Loved the whole package.

About In A Sentence Or Two: When a culinary star who has it all gets hacked and all her secrets are revealed she must try to rebuild her life after losing it all — her husband, her show, her fans — and move back to her childhood home and face her estranged sister.

Thoughts: I have such conflicting thoughts on this one and it’s mostly due to the ending. I couldn’t put the book down but felt kind of let down by the ending (I guessed it) but I thought the person’s reasoning for exposing her was kind of weak. BUT I really enjoyed the exploration of how we curate our online personas…especially someone like Sunshine who is in the limelight and is expected to be a certain person. I also really enjoyed the characters and the setting — Sunshine’s redemption is a good one. It was the perfect beach read and I thought the best thing about it really was how relevant it is as someone who spends a good deal on social media. It’s a quick, addictive read and while it wasn’t anything earth-shattering…I enjoyed it and thought a lot about online personas and how we curate our lives after I finished.

Another winner by Laura Dave! I loved the concept of this one, reality star gone wrong. I also loved that it took place on Long Island. It was a quick, compelling, funny, timely, read that I would happily recommend.

Oh my. I loved this story. Sunshine, a TV celebrity chef, is not who she pretends to be. And someone is out to tell the world. But who can it be?

Can she get her life back? And does she want to? What actually matters?

I got one surprise after another in this exploration of authenticity, honesty, and knowing one's self. In an era of fake news, the desire to manipulate one's image in social media, and wanna-bes, what you see is not necessarily true.

The book deals with family issues, friendships, coworkers, and close relationships of love. The characters were believable - I will be thinking about this book for a while. You'll enjoy it, too. Highly recommended.

Sunshine seems to have the perfect career and marriage. She is the star of a cooking channel on YouTube and is about to launch a Food Network show and her own cookbook. Everything seems to be going according to plan until an unknown hacker reveals that Sunshine is not who she says she is. She is far from the down home cook who has a farmer for a father. Instead, she is from Montauk and the most elaborate recipe she has created was a really good grilled cheese sandwich. She is going to have to start over, which involves reuniting with her sister and niece.

This was a quick read but it really didn't appeal to me the way that some other novels have. It was a little bit syrupy and just didn't hit the spot for me. The author touches on themes of dishonesty on social media but those who are not interested in social media in the first place will not see this as an important piece of literary fiction. Without that theme, we are left with the inauthentic relationship between Sunshine and her sister, Rain, and Rain's genius daughter. There were some parts that I enjoyed in this book but it was not my favorite book of this year. I would recommend it to those who enjoy women's literature but it misses the mark for an important piece of literary fiction.

I really liked Hello, Sunshine and the honesty of the main character. From the get go Sunshine admits her mistake and watching her trying to cover her tracks makes for good suspense in this quick, well-written novel.

Hello, Sunshine starts out with a bang. A hacked photo on Sunshine Mackenzie's Twitter feed that threatens to expose her as a fraud. And just when she thinks she has the situation under control, her life implodes in a spectacular fashion....like a domino effect. Suddenly, Sunshine has nothing and is forced to return home, which is the last place she wants to go.

I really enjoyed this novel from start to finish. I read it in about a day and a half (maybe less). It was just too addictive and I needed to know what would happen for Sunshine. There were a lot of surprises and it never felt predictable. I only guessed one thing right, but the rest was out of my control. Since the story was about authenticity, it was fitting that everything felt so genuine. I could definitely understand how Sunshine felt when her world came crashing down around her. Laura Dave has some interesting insight on the way people present their stories through social media and how so much is fabricated. She also spins a cautionary tale about how once something is on the Internet, it never truly goes away.

The descriptions of characters and settings were so vivid that it was easy to watch this as a movie in my head. I'd love to revisit these characters again. Perhaps Laura can write a novel about Rain next time.

If you are looking for a quick weekend read (since you will probably devour it in one sitting), look no further than Hello, Sunshine!

I heard Eight Hundred Grapes is being optioned as a television series. I hope the same happens for this novel, and here are some casting suggestions to get everyone started!

Sunshine: Maggie Lawson
Danny: Brandon Routh
Rain: Busy Philipps
Ethan: Kyle Bornheimer
Amber: Meghan Ory
Ryan: Joshua Jackson
Louis: Adam Arkin

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my unbiased opinion.

When Sunshine Mackenzie wakes up on her 35th birthday, she can't help but think that she has it all. By the end of the day, though, she has lost it – her husband, her job, her fans, and soon, her home. With nowhere else to go, she goes back to Montauk, where she grew up and try to reunite with her estranged sister.

This book is a quick and light read. The characters are realistic but not especially likeable. The ending mainly just left me wondering what happened with Sunshine's niece and whether she got to go to the school in New York.

There isn't much to say about this one. It had a very modern feel and had a good "moral of the story" in the end but Sunshine is pretty much a terrible woman who didn't interest me at all. This is mediocre chick-lit that I can not recommend.

Clever twist on reality shows and the characters who occupy that make-believe world.

I loved Eight Hundred Grapes, but just couldn't get excited about this one. I like her writing style though and will definitely try her next book!

Hello Sunshine
Sunshine is a You Tube internet sensation, Food Network host, cookbook author who grew up on a farm where she got all her cooking ideas from. But, wait, this is all not true, it’s all made up, Sunshine is from Montauk, Long Island, never developed an original recipe in her life and she really can’t cook. On her 35th Birthday, someone in her circle outs her and her life turns upside down. Her husband, Danny wants a divorce, her former colleagues and friends want nothing to do with her. She has nowhere to go, after Danny sells their home. So, she goes to her original home in Montauk and finds that the home was sold and her estranged sister lives in the guesthouse with her six year old daughter, Sammy. How Sunshine puts her life back together again is the subject of the book. Sunshine gradually realizes what matters most and one shouldn’t live by lies. The love hate relationship between Sunshine and her Sister, Rain ( who names their daughters Sunshine and Rain !!!) is exposed and explained by both of the girls’ relationships to their now deceased father. The ending is somewhat contrived and predictable, the characters are fairly shallow, the writing is not great, overall a good beach read, no more than three stars for me.
Thanks NetGalley, the publisher and the Sufi’s the advanced copy.

I kind of hated everyone in this book, really hated the ending, and found it implausible that anyone would care about a chef with a You Tube show as if she were an actual celebrity (I know, I'm old). Despite all that I still couldn't put it down.

Sunshine, yes Sunshine (sister of Rain) I know I know, is having a dream spell. Guru on a you tube cooking channel, looked upto by millions as the authority on how to improve your life, let alone your cooking skills, is now headed for a fall.

Unveiled as a fraud and overnight losing her top spot, her support base, her friends, her home and most ignominiously her husband she has no option but to go where she said she will never go back. Home to a sister who dislikes her and wants her nowhere near her daughter Sammy. Home is not the same, it has been sold in the meantime and her sister remains bitter and antagonistic towards Sunshine.

Sunshine is literally an epitome of her name. She believes very sincerely, that with just a few flips she can turn her life around and get back to what she was - or at least close. It is a steep learning curve when she realises the public are fickle, her friends are out to take over the space left by her and move on and upwards. This goes for her husband too.

This was a good read for family situations which go tragically wrong due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, the policy of you telling one lie to cover another and independent women who are now stretched to their ultimate.

Goodreads and Amazon reviews up on 26/9/2017. Review on my blog also up on 26/9/2017. Also linked to my FB page.

As thirty-fifth birthdays go, Sunshine Mackenzie's could have gone better. By the end of the night, rather than celebrating by blowing out a candle and eating cake, she has lost her job, her husband, and her home.

It turns out that Sunshine, a popular YouTube chef who exudes a former Southern girl charm and chutzpah, is a big fat fraud, her "brand" based on nothing more than lies. In this sometimes hilarious, sometimes heartfelt followup to Eight Hundred Grapes (which I LOVED), Laura Dave shows you the key to reinvention: honesty.

According to the anonymous messages Sunshine receives, her inability to be honest forced the message sender into outing her. But why? Who really cares whether or not Sunshine is from Georgia instead of Montauk? Dave drops some hints, so perhaps you won't be terribly shocked when you find out whodunit. And really, that isn't even the point. The message Dave wants you to take away is that you may be able to fool others, but you cannot fool yourself.

Not for long, anyway.

Sunshine's self-delusion could you off from her, but instead it pulls you closer. You may see parts of yourself in her. She has her reasons for wanting to become someone new, although she completely misses the fundamental truth that while you can change what you are, you can't change who you are.

I gobbled up this book as if it were a box of See's Chocolates. Yes, I wondered who outed Sunshine, but I was far more caught up in how she was going to recover from what happened. I cringed at her mistakes, laughed at her attempts at honesty, and cried with her when she was hurt. I loved the people in Sunshine's life, and I loved watching her salvage relationships even as she couldn't help herself from burning them down.

I am left, though, with one lingering question: can you really make a living off of making toast?