When I dive into a Amy Mason Doan novel I know I am about to forget about the real world and focus solely on her fantastic writing. Lady Sunshine had me doing exactly that and because it was so unputdownable, I finished it in one day! This novel centers around Jackie and her cousin Willa, and the fateful summer the spent inseparable! Time hopping between 1979 and 1999 Amy Mason Doan takes us on a full circle journey filled with unexpected twists and turns! This 5 star novel combines the suspense and women’s fiction genres perfectly to create a storyline that will stay with you! Lady Sunshine is a 2021 favorite and would make terrific beach read!

This is fabulous. Entertaining, gripping story that drew me in instantly like a thriller, but with gorgeous writing and 70s world-building. I wish I'd slowed down to savor it BUT I had to know WHAT HAPPENED TO JACKIE AND WILLA 20 YEARS AGO.

I was bracing for a sad ending because this novel goes into some darker, bittersweet areas, but the final revelations were heartwarming and unexpected.

Lady Sunshine struck all the right notes for me, and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a feel-good but deeper and beautifully written summer read.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for early access to the title in exchange for my honest opinions.

I’ve got LADY SUNSHINE on a cloudy day….
A stunning book cover? I’m intrigued! A book about the ultimate, endless summer during the 70’s? Sold! The uncovering of dark family secrets at a magical compound on the California Coast? Gimme, Gimme! While I am a 90’s baby, Amy Mason Doan’s lyrical writing about the free spirits, fierce passion for music, and golden state of mind made me long to build a time travel machine and teleport back to the 70’s! When conventional Jackie Pierce is sent to spend the summer at the enchanting, oceanside commune of her famous musician uncle, her world is never the same again. An unforgettable summer of growing up and developing a meaningful friendship with her cousin Willa, ends in harsh reality, tragedy, and Willa’s disappearance. Two decades later when Jackie is named the executor of her uncle’s famous estate, she is forced to relive the truth of what really occurred during that memorable summer. This book is summertime magic.
Huge thank you to Netgalley for this eARC!

This is mesmerizingly impressive! This author can draw colorful paintings and create lyrical compositions by only using her talented story telling skills. Time traveling between 79’s to 99’s to tell us whirlwind, emotional, epic friendship of two cousins hook you up to your seats and let you enjoy your virtual trip!

You find yourself at the fairy tal-ish universe of Sandcastle: impeccably elaborated, vividly depicted portraits, engaging, realistic dialogues, connectable, genuine characters and of course realistically reflected Californian coast setting captivate your attention and make you devour each chapter, cancelling your entire program, focusing on your reading!

It’s also the unique and thought provoking criticism of the redemption of fame: how it could be destroying when it is positioned by wrong people and how the relationships would be torn apart violently by its terrible side effects!
It’s an evolving coming of age, provocative, powerful, exciting story! Both Jackie and Willa are likable characters!

The mysterious opening about surprising inheritance part was intriguing and the book kept my attention intact till the end! Well built story line, great characters and remarkable conclusion of longtime friendship story earned my 5 nostalgic, musical, lyrical, poignant stars!

Special thanks to Netgalley and HARLEQUIN TRADE PUBLISHING for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinions.

What a fantastic read! The transitions between 1979 and 1999 are well-written and help add a richness to the story. I love Jackie and Willa's friendship and you can practically taste their freedom. I can see this being a good read for a book club in the summer.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Beautiful coming of age novel set during a turbulent backdrop. I loved this story and was engaged instantly. Highly recommend this novel.

I enjoyed this book so much. Doan is a great storyteller, truly painting pictures with words, and I could see every scene perfectly, For that reason alone, I could honestly say I was sorry to come to the end of this one (esp being stuck inside in our Covid-shuttered downtown, with trips on hold and the ocean feeling very far away).

Aside from the gorgeous coastal 1970's setting, this is an insanely gripping story... of friendship between cousins lost and longed-for, "that one perfect summer" that ended all too soon, secrets, coming-of-age, and the beauty and perils of musical dreams. It swept me away from the opening scene, when the main character arrives at the gates of her surprise inheritance: the huge beach-side estate she has unexpectedly inherited from her uncle.

I highly recommend Lady Sunshine, a novel full of heart and beauty, told by a truly gifted writer, and will look for more titles from this author.

What a heart-warming and mesmerizing novel. My book club read and enjoyed Amy Mason Doan's "Summer Hours" last July so I was excited to see she has a new one coming out. I have to say I think I liked this one even more. There are similarities, such as chapters that shift between present and past, a likable cast of characters, a coastal California setting, and the smooth and appealing writing style with moments of great beauty, but the pivotal event in this book, the act that brings Jackie and her cousin Willa together but also rips them apart, is beautifully strange and thought-provoking. I found myself dreaming about it, in fact.

In a way, this book explores the heady power of "The Girls," (which we all detested), but it's more realistic, hopeful, and gentle. I liked Jackie, Willa, and their assorted relatives and friends, even those who appeared only for a page or two.

Music is Mason-Doan's theme here, and it's a rich one. The author explores not only what it means to be famous and talented, and how that hit of success can poison those around the wrong person, but, perhaps even more interesting, what it means when that fame is lost, whether talent always needs to be shared, and the purity of simple artistic creation.

A thought-provoking, escapist, and ultimately life-affirming read.

5 big yellow 70s-style stars. *****

(book club read, date tbd)

I'm a big fan of Amy Mason Doan's work. She writes beautiful novels with memorable characters, set in unique locations. I particularly loved the setting for this book & if you want to be transported back to 70's sunny, California, you will too! Throughout the story we meet musicians, song-writers, tree-lovers, hippies & free spirits, all unique & complex individuals. The author does a wonderful job as always, creating realistic, endearing characters and a story so compelling I couldn't put the book down. Along with Jackie I particularly enjoyed Bree, one of the minor characters, who is a successful & talented singer. There's so much beauty in these pages, I suggest you keep your eye out for Lady Sunshine in June when it comes available. It's going to be a perfect summer read! Https://Instagram.com/booksteaandglutenfree

Amy Mason Doan delivers another satisfying read with Lady Sunshine. She is a deft storyteller, blending vivid descriptions, believable dialogue, and always, a nostalgia that makes me smile and takes me home. She created a fascinating world with The Sandcastle and its players in one time period and juxtaposed it with discoveries that occur when the main character inherits The Sandcastle as an adult. It makes for an effective unraveling of the mysteries and complexities surrounding the two cousins at the heart of this tale.

Dreamy, deeply moving, beautifully written, and totally gripping all the way to the final twist

Jackie has spent decades trying to block out painful memories of her extended family -- the hippieish, musical, beloved Kingstons - and the 1 pivotal summer they shared when she briefly lived with them in high school. Especially heart wrenching are her memories of her cousin Willa, who was once her closest friend, but disappeared under mysterious circumstances at the end of Jackie's high-school stay.

But when Jackie inherits the family's deserted, massive estate on the California seaside, she can't resist returning "just to pack up."

Of course it's not that simple....bit by irresistible bit, Jackie is drawn into the world of a music producer and his crew of friends, who are there on the property to record a tribute album to Jackie's dead uncle Graham (a legendary folk singer in his time). Jackie extends her stay, hypnotized by the magical place once again, and maybe, just maybe, hoping to unearth a precious something she lost there as a girl (literally and figuratively).

I don't want to give away too much but I will say that I saw a few twists coming while others took me completely by surprise.

This is a heartwarming and completely unique story about reconnecting with your youthful passions and mistakes as an adult. True to the music and fashions of the late 1970's and with a lot to say about recapturing joy, and atoning for our pasts. A perfect tonic for 2020 (21)

I loved it.

This is a really special book and I wanted to take some time to collect my thoughts before reviewing.

Lady Sunshine is about Jacqueline - Jackie - a woman haunted by one beautiful teenage summer that she spent with her talented & mysterious cousin Willa, her larger-than-life former musician uncle Graham Kingston, and the vast extended Kingston family of friends, admirers, fellow musicians & creative souls, and a scattering of others who come and go to the Kingston compound on the far Northern Cali coast.

Jacqueline is called Lady Sunshine by her magnetic uncle Graham -- somewhat ironically, because when she arrives she is not at all happy. But the lifestyle at "The Sandcastle" opens her up and introduces her to the possibilities of a freer and more authentic life once she's out of her wealthy, uptight family's shadow. I don't want to give away too much, but Jackie tries to hold on too tightly - maybe - to what she's found in this idyllic place, especially as she falls into an intense friendship with Willa. Everything crashes down, but not for the reasons I was expecting.

When in her mid-30s Jackie is pulled back, reluctantly, to this place she has tried so hard to run from, the similarities other teenage summer build on each other. Slowly, at first - a young and persuasive producer convinces her to let him record a tribute album to (now dead) Graham at The Sandcastle's (now legendary) studio. Friends arrive, spread out, and pull Jackie into their fold, reminding her of what she was once like. And whether she wants to or not, she has to confront what happened that summer with Willa, and if she was wrong about it after all these years.

It's a unique and compelling read that I enjoyed from beginning to end and will recommend. Out in June 2021.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the early access to this title..

I absolutely devoured Lady Sunshine. As a child of the 70s, I was particularly drawn to the musical references and felt that Mason Doan perfectly captured the nuances of the era. The writing was beautiful and took me on a much needed escape to the Northern California coast. I loved the twists and turns of the story and could not put this book down. This read checked all of the boxes for me - fun setting - literary, but not pretentious - well developed characters - and a creative plot twist. I will be recommending this book to all of my friends!

This book. This book!! Mason-Doan has quickly become one of my favorite authors, and I was really happy to get early access to an e-copy of her latest, Lady Sunshine. As someone who has read both of her earlier books multiple times I was a little nervous that this one wouldn't live up to my expectations, but it did, and then some. I think it might now be my favorite of the 3.

It's a stunner of a book, and I don't just mean the gorgeous 1970's-inspired cover. Mason-Doan has a way of teasing out details of a plot at just the right time so you don't want to put the story down. Within a page, I HAD to know what happened to Jackie as a rich and suffocated teenager back in '79, when she was sent to live with her free spirited cousin and her extended hippie family in Northern California, and what would happen to her and her surprise musical houseguests when she was summoned back as an adult in 1999.

The story of Jackie, Willa, Graham and the rest seems sunny on the surface, but there is mystery and heartache alluded to just below from the beginning, and it builds to a totally unexpected but satisfying conclusion with several twists along the way. The period details are nailed here, too. From 70s clothing to language to music, it feels authentic and transportive.

If you are drawn to beautiful writing, expert plotting, escapism, and characters who feel completely real and will genuinely tug at your heart, this book is for you. My book club will certainly be reading it next summer.

5 very enthusiastic stars

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advance electronic copy of this novel.