This story was impossible to put down. I loved it from the premise to the execution of the story. The characters are strong and very well constructed. The cover is beautiful. I highly recommend it!

Gracie is determined to help her grandfather, who is suffering from a mysterious "worm" in his brain, by planning an escape to chase the sun to keep the worm at bay. However, her well-intentioned plan inadvertently brings her estranged parents together as they search for her. The heartwarming story delves into complex family dynamics, showcasing Gracie's unwavering love for her grandfather and her parents' unresolved pain from the past. Through Gracie's innocent perspective, the book beautifully portrays the struggles of dementia, making it a poignant and touching read that promises great things from the author in the future.

This is such a cute book. I loved that there were chapters written in the girl’s voice and perspective because it really helped give the story shape. Overall, just kind of sad but I was glad to see the parents finally work it out.

🌀Synopsis
All Gracie knows is that her grandpa is sick and he needs to get out of the home he’s in. She conspires up a plan to help him escape and it works! It’s not long and the two are off on an adventure. Grandpa seems to be fine, he just forgets things like getting Gracie water and how hot it is outside. Gracie isn’t telling him either, she’s just along for the ride.
Meanwhile, her parents are on the hunt to find her. That’s saying a lot because her parents don’t usually talk to each other if they don’t have to. They’ve never gotten along, each of them holding a grudge. Finally Gracie going missing allows them both to put the past behind and work towards the common goal of finding her, but will they make it in time?

This book captured my heart completely!

What an emotional ride, this book was heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. A beatifully written story about family, love, grief and mental health. A fantastic debut!

𝐒𝐮𝐧 𝐒𝐞𝐞𝐤𝐞𝐫𝐬
𝐁𝐲 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐡𝐞𝐥 𝐌𝐜𝐑𝐚𝐝𝐲
𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐞𝐫: 𝐀𝐥𝐜𝐨𝐯𝐞 𝐏𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬
𝐏𝐮𝐛 𝐃𝐚𝐭𝐞: 𝟏.𝟗.𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟒


I love family dramas, and Rachel McRady touched my heart with her debut novel.

Six-year-old Gracie is smart, sweet, and very curious. Unfortunately, her mom is stressed out, her dad is not around much, and her beloved grandfather, John, has sundown syndrome due to dementia.

Gracie’s mom, LeeAnn, and dad, Dan, are separated. Now, LeeAnn is a single parent to Gracie and Gracie’s grandfather’s caretaker. But it’s all too much, so they must put John in a home.

Gracie, having such a tender heart and tired of the adults in her life not listening to her, decides to break her grandfather out of the home so they can chase the sun together.

Although we get the POVs of LeeAnn, Dan, and Gracie - Gracie’s impacted me the most. LeeAnn and Dan are going through a lot; their marriage is a mess. LeeAnn is worried about her father, and now, as parents, they must find their missing child. But when you see how all this has affected Gracie through her eyes, it tugs at your heart.

𝐴 𝑡𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑟, 𝑝𝑜𝑖𝑔𝑛𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑟𝑦 𝑎𝑏𝑜𝑢𝑡 𝑓𝑎𝑚𝑖𝑙𝑦 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑎𝑣𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑦 𝑔𝑜𝑜𝑑𝑏𝑦𝑒.

Thank you @suzyapprovedbooktours and @rachelmcrady for a spot on tour and a gifted book.

Thank you @dreamscape_media for the gifted audiobook.

I really loved the premise of this book, and maybe it was the audiobook that threw me off, but I could not connect with any of the BBC characters. All of the adults were whiny and self obsessed. While it shed light on what it is like to care for someone with dementia, it seemed like grief and potentially postpartum (though never mentioned) were something the main character should have just gotten over. I liked Big John’s stories and Gracie’s point of view, even when a bit mature for a six year old!

I loved Gracie and her grandfather, but this book was a DNF for me. It was mostly because of LeeAnn. She was just so bitter, I really couldn't bear it.

"It's nice to be remembered. That's the problem with these old folk homes...no one has any memory anymore. Makes you feel like you don't exist."

"Grandpa has a disease called dementia." How do you explain to a sweet six year old girl that her grandfather who is her best friend can't always recognize her? Well single Mom LeeAnn tells the precocious Gracie that Grandpa has a worm in his brain and sometimes when the sun goes down it makes him forget things. But when the sun comes out it helps heal his brain and the worm goes to sleep. It seems like a harmless way to explain Sundown Syndrome, when dementia gets worse at night, to a child.

However, the always thinking Gracie decides her and Grandpa are going to be Sun Seekers and escape his assisted living facility so he can get to the sun and be okay.

Sun Seekers by phenomenal debut author Rachel McRady is a heart wrenching tear jerker family drama that had me in tears. Besides the nerve wracking tension of finding Gracie and her Grandfather before any harm comes to them there are the unresolved issues of resentment, abandonment and guilt between her estranged parents LeeAnn and Dan. This writer does an amazing job of at first making Dan the bad cheating ex husband but as truths come to light she gives both these hurt souls some much needed grace.

Told from Leeann, Dan and Gracie's POVs, the voice actors Jennifer Jill Araya, Liam Dicosimo and Hayley Taylor bring all the passion to their performances which left me a sobbing mess. If you are a fan of the TV show This Is Us, the messiness of family relationships, if you've ever said goodbye to someone who is only here physically, if you never got to say goodbye, be prepared to seek the sunshine, to feel the warmth of human compassion and love.

I received a free copy of this audiobook from #dreamscapemedia via #NetGalley for a fair and honest review. All opinions are my own.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/ 5 Stars
Happy pub date to Rachel McRady and Sun Seekers! Thank you to @racelmcrady, Dreamscape Media( @dreamscape_media ) and NetGalley ( @netgalley ) for allowing me listen to the audiobook 📖 for an honest review!

📅 Yesterday, (December 9, 2024) was the pub date for ☀️Sun Seekers☀️. 📅

🎧 The narrators🎙️for the audiobook are Jennifer Jill Araya, Liam Dicosimo, and Haley Taylor. 🎧

The blurb for this books starts out by saying, “Six-year-old Gracie Lynn is perpetually curious and ❤️ big-hearted.” <—— And, boy is she ever! Gracie is full energy and creativity, and sees the world 🌎 without judgement. She believes that everyone is inherently good and no one leads their lives with malicious intent.

Gracie’s grandfather, who she loves for his sense of storytelling, adventure, and wonder, is starting to battle the tell-tale signs of autism. Gracie notes a change in her grandfather because he seems more confused. Gracie’s mother tells Gracie that he has a worm 🪱 invading his brain 🧠 which is causing him to remember less and act with more violent temper. At first, Gracie is scared of the worm but decides to be brave and love her grandfather unconditionally without fear.

Simultaneously, Gracie also has a plan up her sleeve. She intends to break her grandfather free of his nursing home so that they can create new adventures together in their own. The adventures end with a dangerous scare for everyone but alas, Gracie wouldn’t trade them for anything.

A heart warming tale of unconditional love, having faith in others, trusting the process, and forgiveness pulls the reader in to keep them as curious as Gracie!

I was grateful to see a book that addresses the good, bad, and ugly of Dementia and Sundown Syndrome in a very relatable way. This was my first exposure to learning about Sundown’s Syndrome.

Although this book addresses heavy and very deep themes, I highly recommend reading it! Gracie Lynn will restore all of your faith in humanity! 💕

I saw that this was for fans of Parenthood so I figured it would be right up my alley. Sadly, it missed the mark. The story is told from the points of view of six-year-old Gracie, her mother LeeAnn, and her father Dan. While I appreciated what Gracie’s character was trying to accomplish, it just didn’t seem believable to me. I was never fully invested in the characters and found myself annoyed most of the time. I think the story had great potential, but the execution left me wanting more.

Thank you Dreamscape Media and Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review. This book was such a sweet story. I loved that it gave everyone's point of view of the situation. It reminded me of childhood innocence and adulthood stress could be the same.

Couldn't get into this one despite the cute cover. I love trying a new to me author and this book was giving off all the best summer vibes but the story fell flat and the characters did not grab my interest at all. Very possibly a wrong book at the wrong time thing or a just me thing. Either way it was a DNF for me right now. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an early audio copy in exchange for my honest review!

Sun Seekers is the first novel by American author, Rachel McRady. The audio version is narrated by Jennifer Jill Araya, Liam DiCosimo and Haley Taylor. Grandfather has had the worm in his brain for two years: Gracie Lynn Abernathy knows it’s why he had to leave the house where Mama grew up, where they have lived since Daddy made a big mistake three years ago, and go to live in the home. The worm only wakes up when the sun goes down, so Gracie, almost seven, has a plan for fooling the worm. She and Grandfather will go on an adventure, in his 1985 Chevy Impala: they will follow the sun.

Dan Clarmont knows most people in Reading, South Carolina see him as the villain of the story of his broken family, something he truly regrets, and he knows the fact that a sleep-deprived and grieving LeeAnne refused his help with baby Gracie, excluded him from her care, is no excuse for seeking solace with Ashley, but he really wants a bigger part in Gracie’s life. Turning up at her swim meet without warning LeeAnne probably wasn’t the best idea; more unfortunate that the (now-married) predatory woman he dated only once in high school latches onto him right then.

LeeAnn Abernathy seems to be a damaged soul, full of resentment that prevents her from enjoying life: she resents the alternate days visits to the man who was such a poor parent; she resents her not-quite-ex-husband’s life with his girlfriend and new baby son; she resents her boss’s demanding and condescending attitude; she resents the clique of critical PTA moms who seem to take malicious pleasure in her every misstep; and she resents her older sister Sarah’s perfect life with her lawyer husband.

Augmenting her resentment is the grief over the loss of her beloved mama the day Gracie was born, Gracie now being her only true joy. And on this hot June day, Gracie and her demented grandfather are missing, and she will have to ask for help.

There’s nothing like a crisis to crystallise emotions and launch epiphanies, and each of the adults dealing with this terrifying ordeal has their own. Both the adult narrators spend a lot of time analysing their emotions and feelings; their behaviours, like social media hate-stalking and avoiding confrontations, don’t make them very likeable or easy to connect with.

Often, in spite of her tender age, Gracie shows more maturity and insight than her parents: “Grown-ups never think kids can hear them” and “Necessary lies are for when you don’t want to upset people. I never want to upset people, so I’ll probably have to tell many necessary lies”

Gracie’s take on her grandfather: “I don’t know why everyone says I’m so sweet for visiting Grandfather. He is the most interesting person I know” is very different from that of his daughters: “a washed-up fraud with great dreams and zero follow-through. Big John was always in search of an audience. I didn’t want to be another faceless member of his congregation, my worth only measured in my reactions. Sometimes I wanted him to listen to me, to care about my stories, my life. But that never happened.”

Where LeeAnne comes across as whiny, Gracie Lynn is a delight: she has an espionage notebook to note down clues, because “To a spy everything is a clue. And since I’m not old enough to know things yet, I’ll try to figure them out by putting the clues together”

Gracie is expressive: “Grandfather says I can’t let fear run my life, but sometimes it feels like fear is hugging me. When I feel fear I feel other things too, things that come out of fear’s belly. When I feel fear, I feel panic and I feel pain because when I am afraid I bite my bottom lip… I want to scream, but I’m too scared. Fear has my voice in her belly.” Some aspects of the story (eg the driving lesson) definitely require suspension of disbelief. An adequate debut that will resonate with some.
This unbiased review is from an uncorrected proof copy provided by NetGalley and Dreamscape Media

I wish I had known this would be told, in one part, by a six-year-old; I would not have requested it; it’s not a point of view I can connect with. The other two narrators, however, were not much better. LeeAnn is the most unlikeable, selfish, martyr wannabe, that just grated on my nerves. I get she feels wronged but her inability to forgive is ruining her. Even when she is distraught about the fact that her daughter is missing, it’s all about her. The only things I enjoyed in this story were the fantastical stories that Big John shared and his relationship with Gracie. This story was just not for me.

📖: Sun Seekers
✍️: Rachel McRady
🎙: Jennifer Jill Araya; Liam Dicosimo; Haley Taylor
⭐️: 3 of 5
🎧: 4 of 5

Troupes & Themes:
- Multiple POVs
- Family Drama

Trigger/Content Warnings:
- Mentions of Suicide
- Language

My Thoughts:

I LOVED the multiple POVs. It really brought so much life to the story. However, I had mixed feelings about Gracie. Her character was 6 years old, and although you could understand she was supposed to be mature for her age, she was very contradicting. She would say and do things that were of her age and then turn around and be extremely mature to the point it was absolutely unrealistic. I would have enjoyed her character more if she had been a few years older. Besides my annoyance with Gracie, I did find this to be a heartwarming story of love and healing.

Thank you, NetGalley and Dreamscape Media, for the opportunity to listen and review this advanced copy.

LeAnn is trying to keep her head above water. She is a single mother who’s husband is living with and has a child with another woman, for all intents and purposes is non-existent in her and her daughters life, her sister has mostly checked out and is living her own life sharing some money and snarky judgmental comments when she has a moment, her beloved and cherished mother died, her father has dementia and her gorgeous daughter Gracie Lynn is just about the sweetest girl in the world with a heart so big it is shocking it can fit into her tiny body and loves her grandpa with all of it. She knows he is not well, but doesn’t really understand so she wants to help him take the adventure he desperately wants to take. When they disappear it becomes an all hands on deck situation. It’s an emotional storyline that intimately leads to honest open conversation and some family resolutions, understanding and even some forgiveness. It was an emotional story about love, loss, emotional abuse, separation, parental alienation and so much more. I am shocked that this was her first book and am very much looking forward to what may be next from her. I listened to the audiobook and the narration was superb.


I received a copy of this book from Netgalley.com in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I enjoyed hearing the story from the perspectives of LeeAnn, Dan and Gracie. All of the narrators were great but the one who portrayed Gracie was my favorite. I could clearly picture her and her personality captured my heart - - such a curious and tender hearted little girl. The relationship she had with her grandfather was very touching. Interesting how he could show her his soft side when he was never able to do so with his daughters. This was such a beautiful story of second chances and I appreciated the author’s thoughtful approach to aging and dementia.