As I said in my opening, this book has had a profound impact on me. Towards the end, I was ugly crying. I could not stop reading!

I have read other Fader books before and she is not only a highly gifted storyteller and author, but Fader knows how to reach down and touch your soul. She does that with this book!

As I was reading this story, my mind was flashing back to the Vietnam era I lived through. My father was there three different times. We lived in the far east, saw the news, and felt the impact of society at that time. My mom lived through WWII. I was impacted in my life.

Fader dives deep into that time in history with a story that not only showcases the intensity of true friendship but also what that friendship does over the lifetime to their families. It shows what people do when they believe in something and take a stand.

The Sunshine Girls tells a story like none other. It showcases the badass women in our lives – your grandma or mom. It shows strength, courage, conviction, and passion.

Told in alternative time periods, you will be sucked into this story just like I was. A story that I just know will be a movie someday, will definitely be one to read over and over, plus be the one book that should be gifted to your daughter.

Don’t miss The Sunshine Girls! It will open your eyes and change your life.

This was a story of true lifelong friendship with a heaping helping of lifelong secrets. Two sisters are shocked when a famous movie star shows up at their mom's funeral. Turns out, there is a lot of things about their mom (50 years worth) of "stuff" they never knew. The story then goes from the time back when explaining the connection between their mom (BettyKay) and Kitty, as well as how they navigate grief and discovering the truth. This was a wonderful story of relationships and how they transcend all kinds of situations and through the years. I loved the dual timelines, so there were really two stories in one with lots of revelations along the way. Thanks to NetGalley for the early look at this December 2022 release!

Nursing school in Iowa in the late 60's brings together BettyKay, Kitty and Jenny - all from very different backgrounds and all with different future plans in their mind. BettyKay and Kitty are roommates and quickly find a farm girl and a city girl have several differences. Despite those differences, their friendship blossoms and a strong bond is formed. Since this is during the Vietnam war, there are tragedies and life decisions that impact everyone, and the story takes us on this journey with the girls.
Fifty years later, BettyKay's two daughters are processing the loss of their mother and their own life difficulties. They are shocked when a move star shows up for their mother's funeral visitation, and the full story of their mother's life begins to be revealed.

Imagine Clara and Abbie Beecher’s surprise when a famous movie star shows up at their mother’s funeral in The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader coming out in December.

In 1967, farmer’s daughter Betty Kay Allen was paired with Southerner Katherine Simon in the dormitory at St. Luke’s School of Nursing in Greensboro, Iowa. Together with Jenny Hopkins from Michigan, the three women – dubbed the “sunshine girls" by their dorm mother -- remained life-long friends.

Betts’ daughters never had a clue that their mother was friends with Kitty Devereaux, but here Kitty was paying her respects to their mother. On the other hand, Jenny had been involved with the Beecher family throughout their lives. Once over the shock of learning that their mother and father Willis Beecher knew a movie star, they are invited by Kitty to visit her in California where she would fill in the blanks for Clara and Abbie.

Over the years, the sisters had become distant as Clara picked a career path and Abbie chose being a wife and mother. During the weekend trip to Kitty’s place, the women will be overcome with all of the secrets they learn about their family. What impact will it have on the sisters when Kitty’s startling story is revealed?

Molly Fader is also the author of The McAvoy Sister’s Book of Secrets and The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season. Using the pseudonym of Molly O’Keefe, she has written more than 50 contemporary romances. She makes her home in Toronto, Ontario, with her family.

My review will be posted on Goodreads starting October 11, 2022.

I would like to thank Harlequin Trade Publishing and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in return for an objective review.

In 1967 Iowa, farm girl BettyKay enters nursing school over the objections of her parents. There she meets Kitty, her new roommate, that she seems to have nothing in common with. BettyKay is very dedicated to her studies while Kitty seems to just want to break the rules. She likes to sew and is escaping her unhappy home for nursing school until she can head to Hollywood and be a costume designer to the stars. They meet Jenny who really wants to be a doctor but pursues nursing so that she can enter the Vietnam War as a nurse. She is hoping that by doing this she will be able to help keep her brother from being drafted. The girls become fast friends and form a bond that will last their entire lives.

In present day, Clara and Abbie Beecher reunite for their mother's funeral. BettyKay had always been a good mother but when she makes a deathbed confession, the girls are thrown into turmoil. Things get worse when a famous movie star, Kitty Devereaux, show up at the funeral claiming to be a good friend of their mother. Why have the girls never known or heard about Kitty when they knew Jenny, their mother's other friend from nursing school?

Over a long weekend the sisters, who are dealing with their own issues, try to bring back the closeness they had as children as they try to unravel the mysteries in their mother's life with unexpected consequences.

From 1960's Iowa to Hollywood in the 1970's to the Vietnam War and the present, The Sunshine Girls is an engaging novel about strong women, family secrets and the power of female friendships. The author's note at the end reveals that something that happens in the book was taken from her own mother's life. This engaging novel kept me turning the pages and I love the cover of the book!

The Sunshine Girls will be published on December6, 2022. Thanks to NetGalley and Harlequin .Trade Publishing for the advanced reading copy.

If you want to read a wonderful novel about women's friendships in the 1960-70's, this is the book for you. Beginning when three young women meet at a small nursing school in Iowa, we follow their lives thru this tumultuous time of changing values and the Vietnam War. Fast forward to the present, where two sisters return home to their mother's funeral and discover a part of their mother's life that neither knew nothing about. I was in nursing school in the early 1970's , and this book evoked many memories for me. I enjoyed this book and will definitely recommend it, particularly to my fellow nursing friends.

The Sunshine Girls is about family and friendship and the tangled webs they weave into our lives. This story is told from two different time lines past and present. Abbie and Clara are mourning the death of their mother the last thing they expect is for famous movie star Kitty to come in and tell she was friend with their mom. Kitty's arrival makes the girls realize there was a lot they didn't know about their mom. The three of them explore the complicated past and the wonderful friendship it forged. I'm not typically a huge historical fiction reader but this book was wonderful. I loved how well the past was weaved into the present. I adored BettyKay and Kitty's unlikely but wonderful friendship.
The Sunshine Girls was an engaging and heartfelt read. It was a great reminder that not all family is blood, some family is made.

One of my favorite reads of the year. The story at its heart is about the bonds of sisterhood and found family. It was sweet, loving, frustrating, heartbreaking, and endearing like the best female friendships. You were really rooting for all the characters. I loved the past and present juxtaposition, but it was the past and Betts voice that had me really riveted.

Full review coming soon.

This book had me racing to my grandmother’s button tin and contemplating 5 buttons to trade in my new tradition!

I loved this engrossing tale that took me back in time to the 1960s and included me in a decades-long friendship between two nursing-school friends. The cover vibes pulled me in and the writing style grabbed me and wouldn’t let go. The eclectic mix of Hollywood glamour, family secrets, and the Vietnam war was perfectly combined to produce an emotional and binge-worthy story.

I love the anticipation of the gasp when secrets are revealed as much as I look forward to the unravelling of the forever-altered lives in the aftermath. Faber delivered. I also appreciated the author’s examination of how little we sometimes know about the people we think we know best. The introduction of a famous actress at a funeral was the perfect shocker! Likewise, I’d rarely considered how the expectations of women during the 60s had such a big influence on their choices and careers. Highlighting the control the male characters wanted to establish lets me see how far society has come. This deserves to be optioned for the silver screen!

We all need ‘sunshine girls’ in our life! If we don’t have one, let’s be one.

This fabulous novel about difficult choices, difficult relationships and difficult situations will pull at your heartstrings.

I was gifted this copy by Harlequin Trade Publishing, Graydon House and NetGalley and was under no obligation to provide a review.

The Sunshine Girls is a tale of sisters set in alternating timelines. Abbie and Clara, the daughters of BettyKay, are dealing with the fallout from not only their dads death years previous, but also now their mothers death. What secrets did BettyKay have growing up and in her early adulthood that Abbie and Clara didn't previously know until now and how can that change your perspective on the family you thought you knew?

Whew. What a great read, with near predictable but yet unsuspecting plot twists.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an early read, My opinions are my own.

The Sunshine Girls
by Molly Fader
Pub Date: December 6
Graydon House
Thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the ARC of this book.
This is the first book I have read by this author and I really liked it.
Molly Fader's The Sunshine Girls is the story of a lifelong friendship with hidden secrets. It is set in alternating timelines between present and past events during the 60s. While the background is centered around historical fiction, contemporary issues are also addressed. Molly Fader's story is interesting and the writing is well-developed. This novel will be a hit with historical and women's fiction fans. For book groups, there are discussion questions included at the back of the novel. I look forward to recommending this book!
5 stars

The Sunshine Girls is at times a sweet story of lifelong friendship with likable characters and enough plot twists to keep the reader engaged. Initially set in Iowa at a small college nursing school The Sunshine Girls brings together three women who differences pale in comparison to their common interests. The women share a friendship that is strong and is able to withstand secrets over the course of their lifetime.
A few of the characters volunteer to join the armed forces and serve in Vietnam despite the nightly reports of the folly in which the United States was engaged.
The Sunshine Girls has is well paced and thought provoking.

The Historical Fiction market is so saturated with WWII novels; so I was particularly drawn to The Sunshine Girls, with the past timeline period set at the end of the Vietnam War. The glimpses into 1970s Hollywood was also a fun addition to the narrative.

BettyKay and Kitty seem like very unlikely friends; however, their friendship develops organically and believably. I loved them and their lifelong friendship. We are introduced to another nursing student, Jenny, who rounds out their trio. I wish more of Jenny’s story had happened on the pages; however, we still learn some about the challenges she faced during those years, as well. As I often am in dual timeline novels, I was more drawn to the past timeline.

In the present, we meet estranged sisters (and daughters to BettyKay), Clara and Abbie. We are introduced to the sisters as they are processing their mother’s death. Except, Clara and Abbie are shocked when a woman they have never met - at least in real life - arrives... Because, why is Hollywood icon Kitty Devereaux standing at their mother’s coffin, clearly grieving? Thus starts the reader’s, and sisters’, journey to untangle the past and discover a friendship that survives 50 years.

While The Sunshine Girls can and does fall into the Historical Fiction genre, it does lean a little more to Family Drama for me. Those who normally shy away from Historical Fiction may still find this an enjoyable read.

My sincere thanks to NetGalley, Graydon House, and Molly Fader for a digital ARC copy of The Sunshine Girls, in exchange for my honest opinion.

If you love the era of young women in the 60’s and the rest of their life, you will love this book. Molly Fader has written a book with the deep bond three girls develop in nursing school. Kitty, who really wants to be a movie star, and the other two nurses. The story weaves back and forth from the present and the past. At the girls mothers funeral why was the movie actress Kitty there.? I felt as if I was right there with them through the secrets, love, and the Hollywood scene. A must read!

Molly Fader is a new author to me and I absolutely loved her! The Sunshine Girls is a wonderful novel and very well written. The characters were well developed and certainly memorable. I enjoyed the heartwarming historical fiction through diaries and flashbacks, and I also have to say that the retro cover is beautiful! Highly recommended.

Very light historical romance, centered on the life-long friendship of Kitty and BettyKay, who meet as nursing students in late 1960s Iowa. BettyKay is a nurse to here core, while Kitty just wished for a life far from her family. She wishes to set off to Hollywood and become a costume designer, sewing dresses for the fellow students to earn money to make it so. For reasons later made clear, when Kitty, now a famous celebrity, shows up at BettyKay's funeral, BettyKay's daughters are astonished to learn of a friendship that had been hidden from them for their whole lives. Throughout the novel, the reasons for the secrets build and become more clear, while the fractured relationship ofthe sisters is repaired.

I loved this book and am thrilled to have found an author new to me who has an extensive backlist for me to peruse. Thankt to NetGalley, the author and Harlequin Trade for the preview copy. I know one book I'll be purchasing as Christmas presents for the readers in my life who've read everything.

The book starts with a dramatic event at a funeral where two sisters are reuniting and continues at a good clip to keep the reader engaged with enough suspense. clever timelines and memorable, imperfect characters. I read this in one day I was so hooked.

The story is a well-paced reveal via two time lines, the 1960s being the more substantial. We get the Vietman era atmosphere as a coming of age tale is told. There's a nice Hollywoood background as a setting for quite a while also. The friendship these three woman build while at school is realistic, powerful and life changing for all involved. Jenny's voice is not as prevalent as the other two and that is all I would have like more of. Otherwise, this book is everything I want in a book. Compelling, simple writing. Interesting characters with secrets. A bit of history and atmosphere and ultimatedly a testament to the power of family, friendships and the meaning of motherhood. We choose our sisters and our family.

Molly Fader's The Sunshine Girls is the story of a lifelong friendship with hidden secrets. It is set in alternating timelines between present and past events during the 60's. While the background is centered around historical fiction, contemporary issues are also addressed.

Synopsis:
As two sisters mourn their mother's passing, they are shocked when a famous actress shows up at the funeral. Although she tells the sisters that she was best friends with their mother, why did their mom never mention her name to them? Is the actress keeping a life-changing secret?

The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader is available on December 6th, just in time for Christmas. Molly Fader's story is interesting and the writing is well developed. This novel will be a hit with historical and women's fiction fans. For book groups, there are discussion questions included at the back of the novel.

Thank you, NetGalley and Harlequin Trade Publishing (Graydon House), for sharing this book with me. I appreciate your kindness!

The Sunshine Girls has a well-woven plot and well-built characters. Set in Iowa in the late 1960s and the 1990s, the novel tells the story of three nursing students who take separate paths to success, from Vietnam to Hollywood, and back to Iowa. Upon the death of BettyKay, her two daughters begin to unwind their mother's untold story, only to find a carefree young woman who had a lifelong friendship with Kitty, a glamorous Hollywood star. Add in the story of Jenny who becomes a high-ranking military nurse. The Sunshine Girls is for readers who enjoy novels of women who are not afraid to challenge the status quo, especially in the 1960s. The novel is ideal for new adult readers as well as book groups. Discussion questions are included.

On the day they said goodbye to their dear mother, Abbie and Clara learn that she was keeping many secrets from them... main one being that she was longtime friends with Hollywood starlet, Kitty Devereaux. The two met in nursing school and shared many memorable and life changing moments together. As Abbie and Clara unravel all of these pieces of their mother's life that they never knew they are hit with so many emotions and questions... did they really know their mother at all?

The pages of The Sunshine Girls take you on a journey that alternates between past and present and introduces you to two generations of admirable women struggling to find their way in life. It's an engaging story brimming with drama that will keep your eyes glued to the pages and riddled your mind with it's air of mystery. Once I started reading this one I couldn't bring myself to put it down, I had to know more about these women... and what I found did not disappoint! Highly recommend!!

I requested an advanced copy of this title from the publisher, and I am voluntarily leaving my honest and unbiased opinion.