The New Zealand background and histort was super interesting. Characters were well developed and the story held your attention throught.

This is the first book by Nalini Singh that I have had the pleasure of reading, but her other paranormal romance series have always looked interesting. The premise for this interested me deeply - I read a lot of international crime/mystery/thrillers and like to be able to compare them. The New Zealand atmosphere and country side was really well flushed-out with a very beautiful but sometimes bleak description. The real fun in this novel is through the characters, or more specifically the writing of the characters.

This is the first book I have read by Nalini Singh. I wasn't sure what to expect but I was intrigued by the description. What I found was something compelling. Once I started, I could not stop turning the pages. I really enjoyed her writing style. The plot was good, her characters were well written and there was a good balance of suspense and romance. All of the things you need to make a novel great. High marks, I would recommend this book to lovers of suspense and romantic suspense. I will be watching for the next book by this author.

Golden Cove, New Zealand. A beautiful young women disappears, just like three young women had a few years before. A young woman returns home after the death of her husband to find herself. Mystery, secrets, love. I really enjoyed this novel.

This book gave me a perspective on the native culture of New Zealand. It's not something I had ever thought about. A lot of references to the native language and traditions while telling a chilling tale of murder. You think you know people especially in a small town , but we all have secrets.

ARC from NET GALLEY

A LEO makes a mistake that has his career on fire and he ends up with punishment duty in back-water New Zealand.

A local hero makes it, and realizes "it" is not all that and tries to come home again

A beautiful young local girl named Miriama, has gone missing after jogging

A great story is drawn from these three basic friction points. The descriptions made me want to travel!

I really enjoyed A Madness of Sunshine. It was a well-paced, interesting story with complex characters. Will and Anahera aren't the "romance" couple of so many novels. They're both damaged. They're neither one looking for a relationship. They're just trying their best to function. They're not the kind who I could immediately take a liking to. I didn't want to be Ana or fall in love with Will. But they're perfect for each other and the slow speed they come together perfectly fits their circumstances. The other characters were equally complex and it took much of the book to figure out most of them and determine their motivations and actions.

The suspense part of the story is very well laid out. I honestly didn't know until the end which of the possible suspects was guilty of the murders.

A Madness of Sunshine was a stark tale perfectly suited to the harsh environment it's set in. It's a well-written, suspenseful story.

I spent my entire weekend wrapped up in A Madness of Sunshine. From page one until the very twisty and stunning ending I was absolutely captivated by a widow returning home. Everything about this was fresh and new to me. From the setting in a picturesque yet dangerous environment of Golden Cove, to the people cast as old friends and new.

Nalini Singh has really delivered a thoughtful and highly compelling read. I seriously hope there will be more. I find myself craving a deeper look into this world and everyone Singh created within it.

5 Brilliant Stars.
~Tanja

A heartbreaking and suspenseful story that kept me enthralled from the first page to the last.. I could see, hear and feel the landscape and the people within it. Beautifully written.

Nalini Singh has written a book that draws you in from the first chapter. Anahera heads back to her home town in New Zealand after realizing her married life has been a lie. Is her town full of the same lies? Do those she has known forever have secrets that might change how everyone lives? Missing girls over the past 15 years have come back to fill everyone's waking moments in order to solve a more recent missing girl mystery.

Wow, this book was really fantastic! I've really enjoyed Nalini Singh's books, but this is her first contemporary mystery. I'd argue that a lot of her paranormal books often have mysteries, but this is the first straight up mystery. Though I haven't read her contemporary romances...



One of the biggest parts of this book is the atmosphere. This book is set in a small town, Golden Cove, on the edge of the world, it seems, in New Zealand, where it's rough and survival isn't a almost certain guarantee. The atmosphere is a reason behind almost every decision, like the search for the missing girl.

Both of our main characters have secrets, of awful things in their pasts. It's why they're here in this small town. Anahera grew up in the town and couldn't wait to get away as a child, and she did. And now she's back. Will is a newcomer, and I really enjoyed watching them navigate this town together!

The mystery, wow, it took some pretty interesting twists! I was not expecting that, and yeah, it was fantastic to read! I wouldn't mind more contemporary mysteries from Nalini Singh, if it didn't affect getting more books from her Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunters series!

Loved this book so much, it was a really fantastic read!

Anahera was raised in the small, rural community of Golden Cove in New Zealand. The kind of small town that kids want to escape from as soon as they can, Golden Cove is also the kind of place where good, but traumatized, cops are sent to pasture when the higher ups aren't sure what to do with them. When Anahera's husband dies unexpectedly and his pregnant mistress shows up at her door, her world is shattered and she decides to return to Golden Cove. There she meets Will, the first cop Golden Cove has ever had assigned to just them. A young woman's mysterious disappearance brings up the past for Anahera, Will, and the entire town. What happened to Miriama? Does it have anything to do with three young women who disappeared while hiking the forests around Golden Cove 15 years ago?

This is the first book by Nalini Singh that I've read and I was impressed with the depth of the characters and her skill at vividly describing places I've never been. I enjoyed this book from the first chapter and lost sleep to finish it.

Disclaimer: I received a free electronic copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. #Netgalley

This book was received as an ARC from Berkley Publishing Group in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.

Mysteries and Thrillers tend to do very well at our library especially when the plot includes a missing member hence an important character crucial to the story and you can't help but to help figure it out for yourself and halfway through something unexpected happens and the whole story as you know it takes a whole new direction and you don't know what to think? A Madness of Sunshine is everything and more. Such a twisted, enticing plot that will leave you on the edge of your seat. So brilliantly constructed that the reader will not be able to help themselves but be transported inside the story and the end will knock your socks off.

We will consider adding this title to our Mystery collection at the library. That is why we give this book 5 stars.

The remote coast of New Zealand and the small town of Gold Cover were the perfect setting for exploring how well people really know each other and what secrets they are hiding when a popular, well liked, and beautiful young girl goes missing. Will Gallagher, the police chief, is an outsider who is happy with his demotion and banishment to this small town because he believes he failed in his last case. Anahera Rawiri is a Maori native who left town as soon as she became an adult, only to return 8 years later to try and find solace after her life in London is shattered. Who knew there could be so many people in such a small town with so many secrets? Beautiful writing, interesting characters, and edge of your seat suspense in a setting that is wild, dangerous and unpredictable! What could be better?

I am a New Zealand and everything Maori enthusiast, so the contemporary Maori culture in small town mixed race New Zealand interested me.. The author keeps us guessing to the end in this whodunit. The romance between the cop and the heroine, however, was trite and unnecessary.

As someone who has never read Nalini Singh’s other book I have nothing to compare to. However, I really enjoyed this book set in a remote area of New Zealand. Her characters were well fleshed out and I felt that even Golden cove itself was a character. Definitely one I’ll be recommending to friends!

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review this book.

I really enjoyed Singh's first attempt at a stand alone thriller. While I wasn't blown away by the twists in the plot, I did enjoy how well fleshed out the characters were. Thanks to that, I was able to connect more with each character and their struggles, which made me more invested in the story.

The strongest points of this book would have to be how descriptive Singh was about the small town nestled in the remote areas of New Zealand. Singh makes New Zealand's landscape sound absolutely gorgeous and wild, and it has placed the country high on my 'to go to' list.

Also, A Madness of Sunshine does have a touch of romance to it, but not too much that it's overpowering the fact that this is a thriller/mystery novel. All in all, this was a great first thriller from Singh, who I love as a writer, and I look forward to any future thrillers she puts out in the future.

This work is very different from her other titles with a much more somber feel. I would recommend but not necessarily to people who enjoyed her other books.

3.75 stars

I don’t often read thrillers, more romantic suspense than thrillers, but when I found out Nalini Singh was writing one, I just had to read it.

There were quite a few things I loved about this book.

1) The story was set in New Zealand, and the author’s familiarity with this country was obvious and also the part that grabbed me the most. The language, the traditions, the small communities and the difficulties that come with them. Beautifully described in detail, it came to live on paper, and had me wishing I could travel to New Zealand right this minute.

2) Both main characters were mysterious, layered, and intriguing in their own way. Touching but also captivating, those layers were peeled, one after another. The entire process felt utterly natural and added to the mystery. And yes there is a couple – slow burn alert!!

3) The last quarter of the book was a nail biter – wowzer!! And I loved how it all came together.

What I struggled with was the pace of the story. It was slow going. It felt like the first 3/4 of the book was very much character driven, less action, more talking. There were so many suspects. So many opportunities. So many directions the story could go.

Overall I needed something more to be glued to the pages.

I’m a bit embarrassed to admit it, but it actually took me almost an entire week to finish this book.

On the other hand, I really liked how it all came together. And I’ll definitely be reading more of her thrillers if the author decides to write more. Thrillers is one genre I want to read more of, and having a favorite author writing this genre, just makes it easier on me.

Full review to be published online in mid December.

A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE is Nalini Singh's first foray into the genre of Romantic Suspense. While the excellent writing made it still distinctively a Singh book, I have to say that I was a bit underwhelmed. It was relatively easy to guess the criminals and the romance was almost non-existent. Twenty-nine-year-old Anahera Rawiri left the tiny coastal New Zealand village of Golden Cove a decade ago, to get away from a tragic family history. She never expected to return. But when her husband dies and she subsequently discovers that he had been cheating on her, she packs up her bags and leaves London.

Golden Cove has barely changed. It’s still very close-knit, very nosy, and all her old childhood friends are still hanging around. That’s not necessarily a good thing. While most of them have changed, not all of them have changed for the better. There are numerous lesser characters in the novel. there is Josie, Anahera’s best friend, who’s found fulfilment in running a café and being married to the love of her life Tom Taufa. Vincent Baker is the golden boy, complete with the ideal politician’s wife, but can anyone be that perfect? Especially a man whose younger brother is a confirmed psychopath? Nikau, once one of Anahera’s closest friends, is no longer the boy she knew. He’s damaged by the discovery that his beloved wife Keira was cheating on him with his friend Daniel May. It’s made him bitter and twisted inside, prone to obsession.

There are also a couple of new faces on the scene. Detective Will Gallagher was once a rising star in the force, but a terrible case of police brutality has landed him on duty in Golden Cove, in the middle of nowhere. Places like that are never welcoming to outsiders. There’s also nineteen-year-old Miriama Tutaia, the most beautiful girl in town. When she vanishes, the town will have to come together to find her – especially since this isn’t the first time a pretty young woman has disappeared in Golden Cove: fifteen years ago, three hikers vanished out in the bush. Past and present crimes interweave as Will and Anahera race to find Miriama, facing their own demons in the meantime.

As it stands, THE MADNESS OF SUNSHINE delivers the multi-dimensional characters that fans of Singh have come to expect,; unfortunately, it fails to deliver any real "wow" moments or unexpected surprises. Recommended for fans of Nalini Singh's writing.