A Fine, Entertaining, and Worthy Sequel

I found the first Sunshine Girl book at an ALA convention and was thrilled with it as an appealing and accessible YA paranormal adventure featuring a strong and resourceful heroine. But, this is now the middle book in the Sunshine Girl trilogy, and you know how that usually works - often number two is just a bland placeholder in a series. Well, not here. Sunshine continues to grow and develop; the plot is twisty and satisfying. New characters are featured and new complications are introduced. Questions are answered and new questions arise as the book steams ahead toward Book Three, ("The Sacrifice..."), and the series wrap. A very solid effort on its own.

I admire the Sunshine character and the way she's been developed. She has a reasonably authentic teen voice, but without any of the angsty or overly-dramatic preoccupations that often accompany fictional YA heroines. I guess "Breath of Fresh Air Girl" was too cumbersome for a name. I also appreciate Sunshine's connection to her adoptive Mom, her maturity and independence, her dry sense of humor, and especially the general air of honesty and insight that Sunshine brings to all of her relationships.

Sure, this is paranormal adventure, but its portrayal of a smart, strong, engaging and resourceful heroine with a realistic package of strengths and weaknesses, (in addition to that whole Luiseach thing), is positive, entertaining, and practically inspirational. This is a fine series.

(Please note that I received a free ecopy of this book without a review requirement, or any influence regarding review content should I choose to post a review. Apart from that I have no connection at all to either the author or the publisher of this book.)

Based on the Youtube series, which I still have to watch is Book #2 in the series about Sunshine Griffiths. Sunshine was abandoned as a baby on the footsteps of the local hospital, and now she is sixteen she is experiencing new and weird things. She has now learned that she is part of a rare race called luseach and that she is the last one of the line. Her biological father has returned to collect Sunshine so that she can start learning how to fight and expand her skills. While doing so on the complex he owns, Sunshine will learn about the awful events that happened sixteen years ago and caused a massive rift in the luseach community and why she is now the most hunted one and why a lot of people including her biological mother want her dead. While training, though, it seems that someone in Sunshine's life has been playing as a double agent and Sunshine's best friend and mentor Nolan is in trouble. Can Sunshine save her protector and guardian or will that put her in more danger than she could ever anticipate? Of course, with all this happening in her life Sunshine is still a sixteen-year-old girl and with that comes hormones, and boy crushes and Sunshine's is directed at her protector - but every time she touches him she burns? Can she be with the one she loves or is there a reason they can never be a couple? If you love paranormal romance and ghost stories with mythology chucked in the mix, then check out Book #2 The Awakening of Sunshine Girl by Paige McKenzie.