Member Reviews

I loved this book! It shows how easy it is to get caught up in deceit and what the consequences can be. The dynamic betwen all the characters was what you find in any real life situation. I can't wait to read more from Laura.

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Ehhhhh..... I finished it, so it wasn't absolutely horrible. Did not hold my attention very well, a bit hard to follow. Thank you for the opportunity to read it though

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The plot of Hello Sunshine is interesting, and it kept me reading. I didn't really connect with Sunshine or the other characters though. I have to admit, though, that I didn't guess the hacker!

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This is a fun, breezy read. I was attracted to this book after having read Eight Hundred Grapes. This one didn't disappoint either. Sunshine Mackenzie has everything going for her - good husband, a poplar Youtube cooking show that has lead to a book deal and a soon to come Food Network show. But a hack has exposed her as a fraud and that her whole persona is a complete lie.

Sunshine hits rock bottom, landing her in her hometown of Montauk with a sister she doesn't speak to and an adorable niece she doesn't know. She starts from the bottom, ready to rebuild her life out of the public eye and hoping to find a life that she can be satisfied with. I didn't love Sunny's resolution to her problems at the end, but it didn't take away from my enjoyment of the book.

Great beach read or fun chick lit book full of fun characters. However, it has a little depth as it gives you pause thinking about how much of our lives are out in public view - Facebook, Instagram, etc. and how much we care about how we are perceived. Laura Dave is becoming a favorite of mine!

Thanks to Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for a review.

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I enjoy reading this author and I adore her covers! Enjoyable book, I love that I really didnt know where she is going with the story. Even the ending keeps you wondering...which can be annoying, I kept wondering what happened after I read the last chapter. Love the author's
writing style, which seems unique to her. Will read her again and again.

Another review will be posted on Amazon.

<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276364-hello-sunshine" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img border="0" alt="Hello, Sunshine" src="https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1491122873m/27276364.jpg" /></a><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/27276364-hello-sunshine">Hello, Sunshine</a> by <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2672.Laura_Dave">Laura Dave</a><br/>
My rating: <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1983733914">4 of 5 stars</a><br /><br />
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC in return for this honest review. Total summer beach read by the author of Eight Hundred Grapes. What I love about this author is that you never know where she is going. Sunshine has it all, great job as an internet chef, upcoming show on Food Network, best selling cookbooks, great husband...and a hacker that wants to take her down. Mystery, drama, love story, reinventing yourself. This book has a little bit of everything, but the author does a nice job of bringing it all together. I did want another chapter or two!
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<a href="https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/6854277-lori">View all my reviews</a>

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I loved this novel by Laura Dave! I was excited to read it as I had also loved 800 Grapes and this one did not disappoint! As famed chef, Sunshine finds her world unraveling at her feet, her personal life and lies unveiled on Twitter by a mysterious hacker, she has nowhere to turn but to revisit the home she left years ago. Wrestling with the fake persona she unwittingly created for herself, she must face the demons of her past and figure out how to salvage her future. Dave writes with unflinching honesty about flawed characters who can laugh at themselves, find humor in any situation, and pick up the pieces and begin again. Truly a poignant and feel-good novel!

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On Sunshine's 35th birthday she loses everything! She is the host of a youtube cooking show but she can not cook! She uses someone else's recipes and her entire show is a lie! On her 35th birthday someone exposes her for the liar she is. She loses her job, her husband, and her apartment! Sunshine returns home to the Hampton's and her sister's home. Can Sunshine rebuild her life after living such a lie? It is a really good book about family, forgiveness, and redemption. Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

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4.5/5 stars

This is my first book by this author. I would describe the genre as Women's fiction or Chick Lit.

The narrator is 35 year old Sunshine. The book starts with her telling the reader that she is not a good person. And that she is a liar.

Sunny is an internet star with a YouTube cooking show called A Little Sunshine. She also has bestselling cookbooks and a deal with The Food Network. She is married to Danny who is an architect.

But Sunshine has a secret and on the night of her 35th birthday her life completely unravels.

I really enjoyed this book. I found the premise to be really interesting. I like that Sunny had a cooking show. And I really enjoyed almost everything about this fascinating story.

I really liked where Sunny went and what she did after her life got messed up. There is a bit of a mystery and I thought that added a lot to the story.

The only thing I wish is that there had been a bit more romance in the story. But the book is not a contemporary romance. The focus is about Sunshine's journey and the lies people tell on their social media.

Overall the story was strong. I could not put the book down. However, I can't decide if there is enough of an ending for me. I think that I would have preferred another chapter or an epilogue to tie everything together. But still it is a very good book. I really liked it.

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was excited to read HELLO, SUNSHINE after reading author Laura Dave’s book, 800 GRAPES, and I was not disappointed.

The protagonist of HELLO, SUNSHINE, Sunny Mackenzie, tells the reader right away that she’s not a good person, but I liked her from the start because of the intimate way she told her story about how she lost her husband, home, and job in the same day—her thirty-fifth birthday.

Her job is the CEO of the number cooking show on YouTube—with a staff of 250 people, multiple cookbooks, and a soon-to-be show on the Food Network. Then, the social media that helped her become who she is abruptly conspires to destroy her burgeoning empire.

What follows is a story about Sunshine discovering herself by coming to terms with a family past she ran away from. Though the story is about Sunshine in particular, it’s also about how all of us can get swept up in the versions of ourselves we present by only showing certain aspects of our lives on social media. For most of us, it’s just a few hundred/thousand “friends,” but for even minor celebrities, the reach can be much greater.

I really enjoyed this book. Dave really knows her stuff when it comes to food and wine—and people—marriage, family, and our relationship to ourselves. Highly recommend.

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this book.

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Let me start by saying I have found myself a fan of Laura Dave! I love her writing style and her stories feel very original and relatable. The first book I read was Eight Hundred Grapes and I haven't been disappointed yet by anything she does. I was so excited to see she had a new book releasing and was ecstatic when I was given a free copy of Hello Sunshine by NetGalley for this review.
Sunshine Mackenzie finds herself at the top of the world so to speak and wondering how her life became so perfect. Then suddenly the tables turn and she loses everything. EVERYTHING. The story was entertaining and engaging. It was easy to read and I found it hard to put it down. I finished it in a day but the story has stayed with me. Towards the end, it raised many questions as I read. "Is the life we want (or think we want) worth the price it sometimes cost us?" "Are some lies bigger than others?" "Are some lies justified?" "Can you go back to who you were?"
I couldn't relate to Sunny as the internet sensation food chef but I easily related to her as the girl that thought she was doing the right thing, realized too late she was wrong and had to decide how to move forward. I think this is a fantastic read and should be on everyone's summer reading list!

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Sunshine and Food! What more do you need. I enjoyed this cute little book full of Sunshine =)

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I liked the book but it just reminded me of the chef who really did fall from gracw, Paula Dean. It hurt me to see what she went through and I felt it isnt fair for someone to bring up what someone did 5 days ago much less n f20 years or more later. Kim of l I me speak up now or forever HD your pwace. I like that this idea was delved into, well written and as soon as I can I will review on Amazon and goodreads. Thank you for allowing me to be an ARC reader!!!

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I really loved Eight Hundred Grapes when I read it last year, so when I heard she had a new book out, I was THRILLED!! So I naturally had high expectations for this one and let me tell you now, it did not disappoint!

So much of this story was relatable to anyone on social media, from the celebrity to the small account, it’s easy to become wrapped up in the “fakeness” of what’s posted. Easy to become someone you aren’t.

Sunshine’s snarkiness comes across so wonderfully with her little side comments to the reader. Most of the time it’s like she’s really talking to you.

Not once in the book did anything feel like it was dragging along, or inserted as filler. Everything was so well done that the story just takes off.

I highly recommend Hello, Sunshine for fans of general fiction/chic lit/beachy summer reads that aren’t about a beach house.

🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟/5

Thank you to Simon and Schuster for sending me an early copy for review

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Sunny is living a fast paced life, based on lies. When her made-up world begins to unravel, she has to return to her hometown to try to piece together a new life. This would be a great beach read for Summer 2017.

I received an advanced reader copy via NetGalley.

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I received an ARC of this novel from Netgalley in exchange for my review. Sunshine Mackenzie has it all, at least that is what her millions of Twitter and Instagram followers have been led to believe. Well, her millions of fans thought that she had it all until one night someone makes some damaging posts that reveal that Sunshine isn't the person her perfect photos and posts paint her to be. In a matter of hours, her entire world is torn apart and she is left exposed as a fraud and a phony. That's where the story takes off. I don't want to give too much away, as there are some twists and surprises, I just thought the story was so great because too often, we do believe that behind every Instagram post is a perfect life, and it pressures us to try and be more and do more because we want to impress friends and strangers. This is a fun, but thought provoking story and it will lead to many rich book club conversations.

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Sunshine Mackenzie has it all. Or at least, what's what it's made to look like from the outside. Beautiful, happily married with her career as a chef and YouTube sensation on the rise. The problem...the ONLY problem is that it's all a lie. Everything in Sunshine's life; from her carefully constructed backstory, to her perfect happy marriage, to the fact that she can cook at all - even her last name is all there to market a brand. To create the perfect image of herself to appeal to others. But when her Twitter gets hacked and her secrets are revealed - Sunshine is left looking like a fraud and her life comes tumbling down she has no choice but to escape to her childhood home to lick her wounds, and confront the reasons how everything went so terribly wrong in the first place.

I love Laura Dave. She's one of my favorite women's lit authors for so many reasons - the largest of all is the fact that she never gives me a story that stays too much on the predictable path. I've read all of her books and in each one she's made her characters so real and so normal that you can't help but love and hate them at the same time. Even the romantic aspects of her books leave you pulled in multiple directions - it's never just 'boy meets girl' with Dave and I appreciate that immensely.

The thing that struck me the most about Hello, Sunshine was the narrative on social media and the personas we create, how easy it is to get wrapped up in the world of the carefully constructed 'best life' and lose track of who we really are. Dave has tackled this topic with humor but has brought to light an all too real problem at the same time.

I'll be honest - Hello, Sunshine is definitely not my favorite of Dave's books. The plot seemed to have a little too much going on; with each path there but not completely fleshed out. At the end, I feel like so much was left unexplored and unresolved. I was left with too many questions at the end and too much of Sunshine's life and relationships I wanted to continue to explore. That being said though, I am such a huge fan of Dave's writing style that I could ever drive me away.

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I have mixed feeling for this book. Actually I want to give it 5 stars because the story is quite believable, I really enjoy it until the book reveals the person who hacked Sunshine's account. It really doesn't make sense to me. But overall the story is very engaging and the style of the writing is enjoyable. Fun for summer reading!

Thank you Netgalley for this book

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After falling in love with Dave's novel *Eight Hundred Grapes', I was anxious to read her latest. 'Hello, Sunshine" did not disappoint and is quite possibly the quintessential summer read. It even takes place at the beach- the Hamptons. The writing is smart and the story is fast paced. It was a quick read that I devoured in record time. I'm not going to lie- there were quite a few moments when I wanted to shake some of the characters. But those were also the moments that made me keep reading. If you are looking for a fresh, current and witty beach read- this is for you!

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A fun read that offers a twist on the abundant modern day reality shows that saturate our TVs. Like this better than her previous book. Awesome beach/summer read.

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We were so excited to pick up Laura Dave's latest novel Hello, Sunshine. The cover art is perfection and the promise of food mixed with reality TV drama had us intrigued.

Sunshine has a life everyone dreams of. A gorgeous husband, a fabulous apartment in New York, and a dream job that seems to be about to take off to a whole other level. Until it all comes crashing down.

A poignant look at what sometimes happens in the world of "Insta-fame" and the choices people make to get there. Sunshine was at times a difficult character to love at first, but one that you often cheered for as she grew through the book.

Laura Dave weaves a wonderful, funny, and thought provoking novel. This tale of how one "rises from the wreckage" will be one that you want to put in your must read list!

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