Reading a bad day for sunshine before starting the sequel. Can't wait!

Thank you net galley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

My thanks to Macmillan Audio for a review copy of the unabridged audiobook edition via NetGalley of ‘A Good Day for Chardonnay’ by Darynda Jones in exchange for an honest review. The audiobook was narrated by Lorelei King with a running time of 12 hours, 8 minutes.

This is the second book in Darynda Jones’ new series featuring Sunshine Vicram, the sheriff of a small town in New Mexico. I hadn’t read the first in the series, though plenty of the backstory was provided.

I was very pleased to reacquaint myself with Darynda Jones’ writing. I had enjoyed quite a few of her Charley Davidson series of urban fantasies. While there are no paranormal elements in this series, it proved to be fast-paced and great fun. Like Charley, Sunshine is a sassy protagonist and I quickly became invested in her story.

As for plot I won’t say much in order to avoid spoilers. It’s multi-stranded and also includes Sunshine’s desire to understand aspects of her own history.

Novels like this do have a fair amount of romance with its female characters becoming a bit fluttery about the physical attributes of the men who catch their interest, whether it’s their abs or the length of their eyelashes. Also, Jones is very skilled at writing the occasional steamy scenes.

With respect to its audiobook edition, I find novels such as this translate well into this format, especially with such a skilled narrator as Lorelei King. She has won numerous awards for her audiobook work and I have enjoyed her reading on many books, including various series including Jones’ Charley Davidson one. King is definitely one of my favourite narrators.

I enjoyed this very much and I certainly plan to read the first book, ‘A Bad Day For Sunshine’, very soon and will be on the lookout for news of a third book. There’s also a few of the Charley Davidson books that I now want to catch up with.

Overall, an effervescent reading experience with this quirky American police procedural with elements of romance and comedy.

4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Darynda Jones is the rare author that can move me to tears, make me laugh, and make me cry again within mere moments. Although I missed the first book in this series (and will definitely be looking for it), I didn’t feel like I was thrown into anything. It was absolutely everything I could have hoped for with one exception- it ended.

Thank you to NetGalley, Darynda Jones, and Macmillan Audio for the chance to listen to this amazing story and share my honest thoughts and opinions with others.

The story: I hope there are dozens of books in this series! Please Darynda, I love Sunshine, Levi, Auri, Quincy and all of your quirky characters! I love how Sunshine isn’t perfect, she makes mistakes. She has been through some scary things in her life, but she doesn’t let them control her. She carries on with strength and dignity and so much love for her daughter and family and friends. She is snarky and sarcastic and hilarious. I want to be her. I am loving the story set in Del Sol and I am so excited to see how events unfold!
The narration: I will listen to ANYTHING that the fabulous Lorelei King reads! If she read an encyclopedia, I would listen! She is just so good. She brings all the characters to life. It isn’t just the main characters, but all of the supporting characters too. They all sound unique and they all have their own personalities that come through her reading! She is a master of her craft!!

I loved Sunshine in her first book, A Bad Day for Sunshine, and I loved her again in this one. This series makes me laugh often, and I adore Sunshine and her daughters relationship. It’s actually my favorite part. Besides the signs around town, and a bad ass female main character.

This was such a quick listen (audiobook! 🙌🏼) and I was easily entertained. I didn’t find myself venturing off from the story, which can happen often for me with audios if the book doesn’t grab my attention.

Thank you so much to @macmillan.audio and @netgalley for my audiobook arc in exchange for my honest review! Looking forward to the next Sunshine Vicram book!

Sunshine Vicram, our sheriff (And MC), is smart, snarky, swears, drinks, and daydreams about the sexy bad boy, Levi.

Auri Vicram, Sunshine’s 14-year-old daughter, is a mirror image of her mother, but Auri is dreaming about the high school bad boy, Cruz.

Together, their open and loving relationship is full of quick-witted banter.

The side characters are just as fun as Sunshine and Auri. From Sunshine’s best friend (and assistant sheriff) Quincy to Sunshine’s quirky parents to a rooster named Puff Daddy. Everyone in this town is a little unconventional, creating unique and interesting side stories.

The book has multiple plot lines, none of which were confusing. The twists and turns of the mystery kept me guessing, while the sarcasm-laced banter kept me laughing. And the romance or secret longing was H.O.T. Darynda Jones writes steam that rivals any romance writer (please beware if you are a closed-door romance reader).

I do believe you could read book 2 without reading Book 1, but why? You would miss out on a smart, funny, and steamy mystery. I love all these characters and highly recommend the series. Usually, I am not a series reader, but sign me up now for book 3!!!

Thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for a free audio copy of A Good Day For Chardonnay in exchange for an honest review.

Darynda Jones does everything right in the new book in the Sunshine Vicram series, A Good Day For Chardonnay. Sunshine Vicram was kidnapped 15 years ago and rescued five days later with a memory full of holes and a baby on the way. Now she is the sheriff in Del Sol, New Mexico, where things are usually quiet, including her love life. A stabbing at the Roadhouse Bar and Grill leaves one man clinging to life and Sunshine’s lifelong crush, Levi Ravender, struck by the car that fled after he intervened to save his friend. Now Sunshine has a whole bunch of interesting going on in her life.

Sunshine has to find the criminals from the bar, figure out why everyone keeps confessing to the 15-year-old murder of the man who abducted her, and figure out why a young boy whose unsolved disappearance she worked on as a member of the Sante Fe police department suddenly shows up on a convenience store surveillance video. All this while dealing with her precocious teenage daughter, Auri, who is convinced the nice old lady who confesses to every crime might actually be a serial killer.

Jones keeps all these balls in the air in a hilarious and entertaining story that never slows down. Sunshine and Auri are lovable characters on their own, but the cast is rounded out with a quirky mix of deputies, well-meaning parents, a handful of villains and some quirky townsfolk. Add in some steamy sex scenes and you have a wildly entertaining mashup!

Lorelei King narrates the audiobook and is the perfect match for the humor and pace of the book. She captures the characters in every mood, adding levity, seriousness, and passion as it is called for. She brings out the sly humor at every turn and really makes the book a delight to listen to.

If you are not already a fan of this series, you will become one. This series is must-read. What a fun book!

I was provided a copy of this book by the publisher.

I think there is enough background information provided that you could read this book as a stand-alone, but I do think you'd get a lot more out of it if you read A Bad Day for Sunshine first. And anyway, the first book is pure gold so why would you want to skip it?!

The Sunshine Vicram Series by Darynda Jones follows the newly-elected Sheriff of Del Sol, New Mexico, as she investigates everything from rooster-nappings to murder. For such a small town Del Sol certainly has more than its fair share of oddities, mysteries, and crime. The characters in both books are absolutely delightful and I guarantee you’ll fall in love with them and wish you could visit in real life.

These books don’t fit neatly into any one genre because there is adventure, police procedural, mystery, a little romance, and I’d even say they are part YA because they are split between Sunshine’s perspective and her teenage daughter’s. There is romantic tension all through the books, but in terms of actual action, it is limited to just a scene or two (there is a particularly steamy scene in Book 2 though).

While the books deal with some pretty heavy subject matter (kidnapping, abuse, murder and more) they are also witty, heartwarming, and completely hilarious at times. I am 100% here for some good banter, and these books have that in spades. Plus, there are little vignettes between each chapter, showing some of the signs ‘seen around town’ out front of various businesses. Those had me laughing out loud every, single, time.

In short, I loved them both SO much and if you haven’t read them yet you definitely should!

I loved this book!!!. Loved the Reader even more! Cannot wait to hear another by Reader. This author is awesome in all she writes!!

Oh, this was a lot of fun! I enjoyed the first book in the Sunshine Vicram series so I knew that I wanted to read this one just as soon as I could. All of the characters that I grew to like in the first book were back in this installment. This book could easily work as a stand-alone but I would recommend reading the series in order if at all possible so that you get the full background for each of the characters. Once I started listening to this book, I was hooked and hated to take my headphones off until I reached the end.

Sunshine just wants to enjoy some time off but that plan is out just as soon as she learns that there has been a stabbing and a hit and run at one of the local establishments. The fact that Levi is in the middle of the chaos just makes things more interesting. Sunshine’s daughter is determined to catch a serial killer, someone with knowledge of her past promises her the answers she desperately wants, and she even decides to try something new in her romantic life. There was never a boring moment with a rather complicated mystery, plenty of action, and more than a few laughs.

I really liked the characters in this book. There were some pretty big revelations in this story and while I can’t say that I was too surprised by some of them, I enjoyed seeing the characters get the answers that they needed. Some of the characters faced some pretty difficult situations and I felt for them as they navigated a world with no easy answers. I really thought that each of the key characters showed a lot of growth in this installment of the series.

Lorelei King is the perfect narrator for this story. I thought that she did a phenomenal job with all of the character voices. She performed all of the scenes with a lot of emotion and I thought that she did fantastic with the more humorous moments in the book. I believe that her narration added to my overall enjoyment of this story.

I would recommend this book to others. I had a lot of fun with mystery filled with fantastic characters and a few laughs. I cannot wait to read more of Sunshine Vicram’s adventures in the future!

I received a digital review copy of this audiobook from Macmillan Audio via NetGalley.

I absolutely loved this one! It really had a little bit of everything and was a perfect read/listen.

First I would like to thank Macmillan Audio and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this amazing book!

I really didn't think it would be possible for me to love a character more than Charlie Davidson, but NO! Sunshine Vicram has become my newest character crush!!
Sunshine is sheriff of the small town she grew up in, the fact that she didn't actually run for the elected position is still a mystery. This story carries on from the previous one, so it would be best to read the first in the series, first.

The narrator Lorelei King is a favorite narrator of mine, so that made this story even better for me.

If you like stories with strong, sarcastically funny female leads, then this is the series for you!

The follow up to A Bad Day for Sunshine does not disappoint! In A Good Day for Chardonnay, we find Sheriff Sunshine Vikram back in the thick of things. Sunshine's longtime crush gets involved in a fight at his bar, Auri is investigating a serial killer, and Sunshine is remembering more about her abduction. Will Sunshine be able to keep up with it all?!

Holy WOW! Darynda Jones is not playing around with the Sunshine Vikram series! I thought the first book was chock full of drama, but Jones brings even more in this one! Sunshine's backstory is just so captivating and I just could not put this one down! Anytime I thought I had figured something out in this one, Jones hit me with another twist! Definitely recommend grabbing this series if you're looking for a page-turning read!

Sunshine Vicram continues to adjust to life as Sherriff of the small community of Del Sol, NM. She's the mother of a great but headstrong teenage daughter, lives next to her supportive but sometimes meddling parents, and is in love with a man who may or may not be in her best interest. In addition to the cases that present on the job, she is also working to solve the mystery of her own abduction when she was a teen.

This book was a good as the first in this series, A Bad Day for Sunshine. It's lighthearted, fun, and fast-paced. It reminds me of the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, but less outlandish. Sunshine's world is filled with wonderful, well-developed characters, and the plot moves at a satisfying pace. The audiobook, narrated by Lorelei King, is very well done. King adds depth to the characters and does a fantastic job capturing unique voices for them all. There are a couple of pretty steamy scenes, which seemed a bit out of left field for me-they just seemed a bit more in depth than what I would expect for this type of novel. I highly recommend this book (and series) for anyone looking for a nice, hilarious cozy mystery, and I'm really excited to see what comes next for Sunshine!

This was a wonderful continuation of the Sunshine Vicram series. Ms. Jones manages to write these books with a perfect blend of mystery, drama and witty sarcasm. One minute you are reading a serious portion of the book where the main character, Sunshine is dealing with a heinous crime scene and in the next paragraph, she is either thinking or saying something dripping with sarcasm. I'm sure this writing style might not be for everyone, but I am definitely a fan of it.

A Good Day for Chardonnay is the second in this series.. It gives us more of the favorite characters we got to know in book one and adds some additional characters and new storylines. The reader is given some much needed answers to questions and mysteries that were left unanswered at the end of book one. In addition, more questions and possible issues pop up in this book. Towards the end of the book, right as answers were being given and a big question is leveled, we are left on a bit of a cliffhanger. Enough of a cliffy that I can hardly wait for book three to see how it resolves itself.

I must say that I really enjoy Sunshine, Levi, Quincy, Auri and Cruz. The relationships that they all have pulled me in and made me feel so invested that I had to keep reading (or listening). I look forward to seeing how Ms. Jones will work a few of the newer characters into the upcoming storylines. There is a good deal of potential for several more books and I have my fingers crossed that this series will have a long, successful run.

In addition, I not only read the e-gallery ARC of this book, I also listened to the audio version. The narration was excellent. It was easy to follow and kept me engaged throughout the entire book. It was easy to tell the characters apart and it lent itself well to the sarcasm blended into the story.

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to review it and the opinions contained within are my own.

This is book two in the series. I have not yet read book one (though that will be remedied quickly) and had no problems following the story. I do think it best to read the first book before delving into this one.
Sunshine is the local sheriff. She is working on a case that somehow ties into her own abduction years ago. Her 17 year old daughter also has the investigation bug and is trying to solve another mystery.
While searching for answers, Sunshine finds herself in all kinds of situations. With her best friend beside her, she tries to figure out what is going on in her small town. All the while she is chasing after her lifelong love interest who is also somehow involved in what is going on.
Opinion
I'm just going to put it out there. I have NEVER been disappointed after reading a Darynda Jones novel. Her work has set the bar for comedic crime mysteries. This book is fun and fast paced. The three different investigations are so complete that at the end, if you did not guess who did it, you will be shaking your head at yourself. i cannot wait to read more about this fun, sexy, awesome sheriff. Oh, and the way the book ended? I need to know his response....
I did have the pleasure of listening to the audiobook. The tones and voices used fit the characters as I would have read them in my head. The narrator did an enviable job with this one. Well done.
Many thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this audiobook.

I don't know if I should call this a rom-com with a mystery built-in or a mystery around a rom-com. Either way, this was a fun mystery to solve with a little bit of laughter, a little bit of fun, and a little bit of sizzle, all built into one package. I went into this book blind, having not read the first in the series; however, the author did an excellent job of continuing the storyline to follow the history of the characters. I now look forward to going back and reading the first in the series and will put the follow-up on my to-be-read list as soon as I see it's available.

I have yet to read a Darynda Jones book that is not 5 stars! I will say that this book will be much more enjoyable and make more sense if you read book #1 first. But it's still a great read even without it!

Sunshine is back in action in this follow-up to A Bad Day For Sunshine. This book answered so many questions we had leftover from the first and gave us, even more, to worry about for the (hopefully) next book in the series. I absolutely love Sunshine's relationship with her daughter, Auri. In this follow-up, we see Auri take the lead once again to solve the mystery of a decades-old serial killer right in her own town. Sunshine dives deeper into her own mysterious past, and of course, we get a very nice dose of Levi.

Lorelei King's was absolutely perfect.

5/5 Stars!

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing me with an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is the second book in a series based in Del Sol, New Mexico with Sunshine Vicram as the town's sheriff and her daughter, Aurora (Auri), a strong supporting character. I would recommend reading Book 1 first, because there is a lot of background there, but it isn't 100% necessary.

This story manages to combine ongoing suspense, action and humor with sprinkles of romance and even an occasional tug on the heartstrings. The writing flows effortlessly from scene to scene making the reader equally invested in the current mystery and the lives of the characters. The author makes inclusion a point which is appreciated!

I especially love Sunshine's daughter Auri, who is so much like her mother. Auri has her own moral code in which she justifies breaking rules for the greater good of her own "investigation". She has her own side kicks in the form of a couple good friends who happily participate in her shenanigans as any best friends should.

I listened to the audio in the car for a road trip out of state with my boyfriend and my 11 y.o. son (who was going to his grandma's). They both laughed out loud and seemed to enjoy the story. Note, there was one steamy part I would have had to fast forward if my son was in the car on the way back. The narrator was fabulous and absolutely perfect for this story. I hope she performs the next book as well!

Length: 12 hours and 8 minutes
Author: Darynda Jones
Narrator: Lorelei King
Release Date: July 27, 2021

Thank you Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to listen and review! All opinions are my own. Review to be published on: Netgalley, Goodreads, IG/Bookstagram, Amazon and Barnes and Noble.