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.

***not final/actual review (rating so to post)***

I'm only a couple chapters into A BAD DAY FOR SUNSHINE, but something from the beginning is driving me batty.  So here I am, posting a pseudo-review b/c IDK any other way to note the following:

I very much hope that book will undergo a final edit/proofread pass post-ARC.  It's unnerving to pause at very first sentence due to grammar error.  Well, for me, at least :)  Immediately puts me on guard during read.

Sorry for sidebar!  Will update w/ actual review after read.

Many thanks to Netgalley and Darynda Jones for this ARC copy of A Bad Day for Sunshine. I finished two days ago and 
***I am completely obsessed with this book.***

A Bad Day for Sunshine is Darynda Jones' brand new series. A bit of fun about this book is it was dual povs...Sunshine, the brand new sheriff who was elected without even running and her daughter Auri. Auri was navigating all the troubles that go with being the new kid in school but multiplied by 100 because the student think she is a narc since her mom is the new sheriff.  I adored the quirky supporting characters, the hilarious side crimes, the mystery, the freaking make my heart melt sex on a stick Levi, I LOVE HIM. I can't get enough! I had to put my kindle down for a min at 34%. Two words...
HOUSE KEY. 
This book was quite an emotional read for me, I cried multiple times. Darynda has a way to make you feel like you are right there, in the scene living it with these characters. I was a weeping mess. My heart was swelling right along with Sunshines, and also breaking. It was beautiful. I highly recommend this book, I have no idea how I am going to wait for book 2!!

Yes! We have a loving, bad-ass mom with a snarky sense of humor. We have her whip-smart daughter. We have a wonderful cast of supporting, supportive characters: friends and family. We have hunky hot men. We have mystery and a long ago unsolved crime. A good start to a fabulous new series. Enjoy!

(Review contains spoilers which are hidden when posted elsewhere.)

I have mixed feelings about this first book in Darynda Jones’s new series. On the positive side, the characters are likable and Jones brings her trademark snark and sass both to Sunshine and to her daughter Auri. Sun’s relationships with Auri, her best friend Quinton, and her parents all are enjoyable and there are some fun, quirky characters who will be fun to follow. I especially like Auri, a bit better than I do Sun, if I’m being honest.

But I also have some frustrations with the story. Despite the urgency of finding the missing girl, Sun and her fellow law enforcement people seem to get easily distracted and the plot often meanders. Some of the plot devices to create tension make little sense. <spoiler>Why would the kidnapped girl, after having had visions much of her life about her kidnapping and death, hide some of the most crucial clues like the drawing of the name graffiti, in a hidden envelope? Why not send everything to the new sheriff and tell her to ask Auri about it?</spoiler> One of the biggest, most personal mysteries about Sun seems so obvious as a reader, but she herself remains clueless despite the blatant clues. <spoiler>Audi’s looks alone should have given a clue as to her father’s identity. Once Sun found the shack in which she was held and Levi’s uncle’s body found nearby, she should have put some clues together. It’s blatantly obvious that the uncle had kidnapped her, that Levi rescued her and killed the uncle, and that he and Sun had been consensually intimate shortly before the kidnapping and he is Auri’s father. Even if Levi doesn’t know about Sun’s retrograde amnesia from the kidnapping (he obviously knows Auri is his), the blindness and stupidity on both sides is frustrating. Worst, the “mystery” is not solved in this book and Sun idiotically is wondering if Levi was one of the kidnappers.</spoiler>

While wanting at times to slap some sense into some of the characters isn’t exactly an endorsement, I enjoyed the characters enough that I likely will check out the second book in the series. I only hope Jones doesn’t drag out the mystery reveals too much longer.

Oh Sunshine you have many questions with little answers given. That leaves us with many questions and little answers, but LOADS of theories. I like loads of theories. 

We meet Sunshine on her first day as Sheriff of the town she grew up in. Things are not all sunshine and roses for her on that first day. Mainly b/c of muffins. 

This was great book world building. You have her 14 yr old daughter. Her best friend. Her parents. Her mom's book club. An old crush. A nemesis both Sunshine's and Auri's. High school drama. Gay friends. TWINS sorta (side note I love Quincey). Old crime unsolved, new crime to solve. A missing rooster. 

The humor is much the same as Charley and Cookie from the Grave series. The quick whit and back and forth are awesome.

An addictive first installment in an exhilarating new series. Sunshine is an extremely capable, if somewhat bewildered, new sheriff in town. Her daughter, Auri, is the love of her life, and has her own stuff going on. Both story lines are equally enthralling and the mom-daughter dynamic is hilarious and heartwarming. Throw in a bunch of tiddly older ladies, meddlesome parents, Levi Ravinder, a town flasher, Levi Ravinder, oodles of gorgeous men and women of all ages, mean girls, Levi Ravinder, a murder or two, kidnappings, a psycho chicken and have I mentioned.... Levi Ravinder? This promises to be a blockbuster of a series.

I loved it!  This author is one of my favorites.  She combines humor with light topics and heavy ones and maintains tight loyalties with friends and family all while multiple mysteries overlap in the story line.  The steam is building and I can't wait to see what happens next in the series.

A Bad Day for Sunshine was about a sheriff who won an election without entering a race.  Returning home to a town you grew up in to face a harrowing past.  It is easy to engage with the character Sunshine and how she deals with today and the past.   Nothing is as it seems, and remembering the past has everything with today's mystery.

A great mystery and love story.  The election of a sheriff that didn't enter the election is a little unbelievable but the rest of the story is great with lots of surprises and very lovable characters including a mystery deputy.  I love the relationships between the Mother, daughter, and grandparents as well as a high school boyfriend.

I like Jones’ writing and was eager to read this new series from the beginning. It has all the snappy dialogue that I love from this author. For me the characters were just a bit too precious and special. I kind of overloaded on it. Even the names were a little snowflake-y. The plot moved right along but I found it was just overall a little too twee for me.

This was my first book I’ve read by Darynda Jones. A little dark, a little fun, this was an adventure to read! Sunshine is the new sheriff in Del Sol. She has to uncover the mystery of what happened to not only herself when she was young but to another missing girl. All in all it kept me guessing. Love the writing style!

I received this book from Netgalley.  I did not think Darynda could come up with another  series as good as The Charlie Davidson series, but she has! I love Sunshine and Auri. I love Sunshine's and Quincey friendship. This book has mystery and intrigued. I have laughed and cried. When I thought I figured a certain plot, I was pleasantly surprised that I had it wrong. Especially the mystery with Lt. Bo.

Wow guys!! I have never read a book by Darynda Jones before, in fact I've never even heard of her. Netgalley sent me an email saying this was available to read now for only 2 days so I grabbed it!! I'm so happy I did! I LOVED this book! I loved these characters and was pulled into this story right from the start! These characters are fun, I loved the mystery, and I even laughed in parts. The suspense was great. I'm definitely going to be reading more books by this author no doubt!!

I loved Darynda Jones' Charley Davidson series so I was so excited to get to read the start of her new series! Sunshine and her daughter Auri haven't had a very easy life but they get to start over in Del Sol with all the ghosts and baggage of Sunshine's life. There were twists I wasn't expecting and questions still up in the air at the end that made me antsy for whenever I can get my hands on book 2. Im looking forward to more about one hot crush, Levi and what he really knows about what happened to Sunshine. I definitely recommend to anyone who is a Darynda fan, there is the same humor and feel as her Charley books even without the paranormal twists.

First, Thank you to NetGalley, St Martin's Press for providing A Bad Day for Sunshine in exchange for my honest review.  
I LOVE THIS BOOK, and i loved all of Darynda's books. It was everything i expected and more cant wait until the next book.

Sunshine Vicram has returned home and it’s her first day on the job as the sheriff. As far as first days go it’s a pretty epically bad one. It’s a smallish community so she’s expecting the usual stuff but her first day starts out with a BANG!


I have loved this author since her Charley Davidson series. She made me laugh and cry through the entire series. So when I found out she had a new book out going a totally different direction I was excited to check it out. 

This new series doesn’t disappoint and I was laughing out loud through the whole thing. The plot was great and kept me guessing all the way until the big reveal. I’ve fallen in love with these new characters of hers and am super excited to see them in follow up books. This book was action packed but still had a lot of feelings.

I will be recommending this book to all my friends who love the crime thriller and mystery books. I think my friends who love Karin Slaughter will flip for this new series!

I cannot wait for the next book!  Del Sol is this quirky and eccentric small town in New Mexico.  Sunshine thought she left Del Sol behind for good, until she ends up as the new town Sheriff thanks to her parents.  Returning home isn't easy as she has many secrets and never forgot her first crush, Levi.  Sunshine is smart, savvy, sassy, and follows her gut.  She's a great mom to her spunky chip-off-the-block daughter, Auri.  

Everyone in town is entertaining and some are not so happy for Sunshine and her daughter to return.  Theirs is a homecoming filled with secrets, teen drama, romance, and new cases.  Sunshine at least gets to work with her best friend as one of their new cases brings up her past and has her seeing the grown-up version of Levi.  Sparks fly as she works with Levi and other sexy  (and available) men in law enforcement.  Darynda Jones created a new series just as engaging and addictive as the Charley Davidson series and left me wanting more.

Was not what I expected.  Despite a promising premise, I couldn't finish it -- the narrative was too much  like Young Adult fiction, with a simplistic sentence structure and an overly emotional  protagonist.

Sunshine is the new sheriff of the community where she grew up in New Mexico, and challenges occur beginning on her very first day of work. Her daughter, Auri, does her best to fit in socially in her new school, but she is accused of something she didn't do before her semester even begins. 

The story weaves in and out between Sunshine's work, and Auri's contributions to her mom's investigations. The events are not quite believable, and when the book ends, the reader is left wondering just exactly what transpired.

This book had the potential to be a fun page-turner, but because it was just way too wordy, it ended up for me being a dreaded job to get through. If the text could be cut back by maybe 30%, A Bad Day for Sunshine might earn a few more stars.