After spending much of her life away from the town she grew up in, Sunshine Vicram returns to Del Sol, New Mexico with her fifteen-year-old daughter Auri to serve as Sheriff. The town, where a basket of homemade muffins can spell doom, is chock full of quirky characters and crime, including a renegade rooster, an escaped felon, a MIA deputy, a clan with connections to the Dixie Mafia, and a kidnapped teen. Sunshine must work against the clock to save the young girl while navigating her other cases including one related to an incident from her past.

Jones brings her signature brand of humor to this new series, which will appeal to fans of her Charley Davidson series as well as devotees to cozy mysteries and Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum books. The novel is told in Sunshine and Auri’s alternating points of view, making this a good series for a parent and teen to read together.

There’s lots to enjoy with a cast of lovable characters and a small town brimming with personality and a wicked cool coffee shop. But, the large cast is a bit unmanageable with a few characters getting lost in the shuffle. Some of the quirkiness feels a bit “on the nose” with Sybil, the kidnapped girl foreseeing her abduction. The plot is a bit convoluted with the teen’s kidnapping frequently taking the backseat to other concerns. However, even with these hiccups, the book is super entertaining.

Those who enjoy romantic elements will enjoy Sunshine’s plethora of studly suitors, including her childhood crush, moonshine entrepreneur Levi. Auri also scores a love interest. The humor, fun characters, and charming, mystery-laden setting make this a fun read that is a great start to a winning new series.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Thanks to NetGalley and St. Martin’s Press for providing an Advance Reader Copy.

A new series from Darynda Jones, sign me up! I loved it, it has the right amount of humor, sass and mystery to it along with some secrets in Sunshine’s past. Love Auri and Cruz! The whole cast of characters are strongly written. It was a bit meandering in places, especially when a young girls life was at stake but overall it’s a strong start to a new series.

Great book, I really enjoyed reading it. Can't wait for the second one! Thanks for the advance copy.

This is a great start to a new series. I'm intrigued with all the little mysteries that are playing in the background and can't wait for the next book.

Sunshine has returned home to become the new sheriff. She was surprised to find she'd won the election because she had never entered the race. It seems her parents entered her...

St Martin's Press and Net Galley let me read this book for review (thank you). It will be published April 7th.

It's her first day on the job and she walks into a huge mess. A woman claims a man has stolen her rooster, Puff Daddy. A young girl is missing from school and believes she'll die on her fifteenth birthday, which isn't far away. Her parents are frantic. A young disabled boy is missing and the weather is very bad.

If that wasn't bad enough she sees her old boyfriend in town and he looks better than ever. Then the US Marshalls come to help look for the girl and one of them is a hunk, too. She's got too much to do to worry about romance.

Her daughter is having trouble at school and the bullies find out her mother's secret and play it on the school's television. The sheriff's secret is out but almost everyone knew the truth anyway.

This is a hell of a beginning for the new sheriff but she has a way with dealing it all. She's a refreshing character and I look forward to reading more about her adventures.

How soon do we get book 2? That's all I can say after this first foray into Del Sol, New Mexico and the world of Sunshine Vicram. Her first day as sheriff (winning an election she didn't even know she was part of), Sunshine is thrown (literally) into the case of a teenager gone missing who had actually had premonitions for years it would happen. Meanwhile, Sunshine faces the demons from her own past moving back to Del Sol...including the mysterious Levi that she's harbored feelings for for years.

Great cast of characters, cute and quirky town, and a great mystery that keeps you from putting the book down. The mystery of Sunshine will continue I assume over the course of the series, but I can't wait to get to the revelations behind her past.

Fans of Evanovich's Stephanie Plum and Fox & O'Hare series (the early books - not the more recent ones) will rejoice in finding Sunshine Vicram.

I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Once Sunny finds this missing girl, she plans to dig deep into a cold case. The one that involved her own abduction when she was 17. She went missing for several days until she was brought to the hospital with a traumatic brain injury and spent a month in a coma. Sunshine has mostly lost that time in her life from several weeks before and after her abduction but she keeps getting flashes and she is determined to find the person who abducted her and finally get answers.

Since Sunshine has just returned to her hometown, she left after her abduction, we get a great introduction in this first book to the main characters of the story as well as the secondary characters who make up the Sheriff's office including Quincy, Sunny's long-time BFF and deputy sheriff; we also meet several people in the town, Sunny's family and her long time love interest, Levi Ravender, a boy she has loved from afar her whole life who has grown up dark and dangerous and who comes from a screwed up, abusive family (sound like anyone we remember?). Even young Auri will have a love interest in classmate, Cruz de los Santos.

If you are a fan of Charley Davidson, there are a number of characters here that are going to ring bells and seem very familiar to you, but the best part is that Darynda Jones has taken all the best parts of the Charley Davidson series and created something new and for those of you who aren't of fan of urban fantasy, this is your chance to enjoy Darynda's wonderful characters, storytelling and humor.

My biggest problem right now it that I was so invested in this story by the end (I've got theories that I want to know if I am right) and this book won't be officially released until April. That means it will be months and months and months before we get the next book. That sucks so much. A book nerd's heartbreak. When I was finally introduced to the Charley Davidson series, there were at least seven books out there and I just binged book after book until I caught up. I was so immerse in her world. Now I can only hope there will be another book before the end of the year and I bet I still won't have all my answers yet. I need answers! While it will be painful to have to wait for the stories to unfold, these characters are going to make the waiting so enjoyable.

I can't wait for more Sunny and Auri!

First book by this author for mei was totally engaged from first pages,a story that kept me turning the pages.Really enjoyed the writing the characters will be looking for more by this author.#netgalley#st.martinsbooks

4⭐️
So...this is a very unique and interesting story that still has me thinking about Sunshine and her daughter, Auri. The humor was a bit over the top at times. You will find yourself laughing, wondering, pondering and worrying.
Definitely a fun book to read and one you just have to keep reading because there is just so much going on! I have to say, I am looking forward to book 2 coming out soon!
I do wish there could have been a way to know (as in chapters) when the switch between characters was happening. A few times I had to stop and reevaluate which character I was reading about. It was confusing🤷🏼‍♀️
Many thanks to NetGalley, the publisher and author for the opportunity to read and review this book for my honest opinion.

I received this from Netgalley for review which did not in any way influence my review. I struggled with what to rate this because there were parts of this I enjoyed very much. Sunshine and her daughter Auri are interesting characters. On the other hand there were huge chunks of this that made me want to yeet my ereader across the room.

The premise itself is a bit dodgy. Sunshine has returned to her birthplace of Del Sol New Mexico after her parents and several of the women in power behind the scenes put her up for sheriff against a man they felt was incompetent and corrupt and Sunshine won the election, one she didn't even know she was in (much to the displeasure of the mayor which thankfully was not a big part of the book because having the sheriff fight against the mayor all the time will get old fast for me). Now Sunshine has distinguished herself as a cop on other police forces but like I said, this is really dodgy. If I were her I'd be far more pissed off that my parents pulled this nonsense on me (partly as a bid to have more time with their granddaughter). Especially in the light of what happened to Sunshine in this city when she was a teen.

I will say I liked her BFF and fellow cop Quincy almost more than I liked anyone in this story. He seems like a genuinely nice guy and isn't (at least yet) a boyfriend wanna be. All too quickly Sun has that bad day, like literally on day one when a young girl from her daughter's class, Sybil, has been kidnapped, bringing up all the reasons Sun left this town. What was weird/interesting is Sybil has been dreaming about being kidnapped and killed on her birthday since she was little (which is about the closest you'll get to paranormal in this, for those coming here from Jones's other series). And ironically Sybil was one of the girls Auri met on her summer vacations in town and saw as a friend.

Auri has her own problems. She's prone to depression with suicidal ideation and her class thinks she ratted out a summer booze party to the cops because her mom is one and she's an immediate pariah except for a really chatty girl (whose name I've already forgotten, thank you ebooks for not imprinting on the memory right) and Cruz de la Santos, the cool, mysterious I don't give a damn what you think kid in class. Auri wants to play Nancy Drew to help find her friend and she does.

It doesn't take long before we see the parallels between Sybil's kidnapping and Sun's own unsolved kidnapping when she was a teen. We also run into the Ravinders a former (and would still be if the older members had their way) crime family. Levi Ravinder (who is probably not actually a Ravinder but a half Native America son of his mother's lover) is the one Sun always found hot in school but the family naturally hates her because they're criminals though Levi is turning their whiskey distillery into a legit business.

So what bugged me in this book? Let's deal with the non-spoilery things first. The mystery dragged. This book could have been trimmed and you'd have missed nothing. I could live with that. What got under my skin was the purple prose about how GORGEOUS Levi and/or Cruz was. Literally every time we had Sun or Auri interacting with these two men you'd get endless description of how hot they were and how much their ovaries were exploding. Once I could handle it. Twice even but the endless and ever present 'how hot are they? I can't stand it' descriptors got super old very fast.

And it's so bad that Sun even acts very unprofessionally because of it. That I couldn't handle. Also Levi is such an alphahole. He's nasty to her. He says sexually inappropriate skeevy things and Sun's all about it. Ugh. Can't we expect better for our heroines at this point? He does have one redeeming quality in regards to Sun's personal life but he came across so gross I wanted a shower and not in the good, hot way I'm sure I was supposed to feel. Cruz is much the same in the descriptions of how hot and cool he is (and I could accept that more of a teenaged girl) but at least he's a nice kid. He's not sexualizing her at every turn. Jones's RITA winning roots are showing in this.

As for a mildly spoilery thing or two, someone needed to point out that neither police forces or high schools work this way. If you're writing mysteries, those readers expect a bit of realism when it comes to police work. Sunshine is unprofessional so many times, especially where Levi is concerned. And I'm around Jones's age. The stuff she had these kids pulling might have flown back when we were in school but these days there would have been suspensions all around. Hell I have seen kids suspended for merely mentioning they want to hit someone let alone what the kids pulled on Auri on multiple occasions.

And I'll keep the spoilers to myself but I will say the ending just didn't work for me at all. You never had enough clues to make it to that and it was just very unsatisfying.

A Bad Day for Sunshine by Darynda Jones is a mystery novel that introduces us to a small town and a bunch of quirky characters that live there.

I enjoyed the alternating narration of the chapters with mom Sunshine and daughter Auri but the style was just a bit too unconventional for me. I enjoy an easier read but I think that when it comes to crime/thrillers and mysteries, I prefer a deeper dive.

A Bad Day for Sunshine was very character-driven which in this genre is definitely unique but unfortunately, it just didn't' hold my interest or have that believability factor. I think I might be an outlier with this one, but I just couldn't fully connect with this one.

Thank you to NetGalley & St. Martin's Press for the advanced copy, all opinions are my own.

As a huge fan of Darynda’s Charley Davidson series, I was ecstatic to get a chance to read the first book in her new series even if it wasn’t urban fantasy which meant there was probably not going to be a Reyes! The one thing that I could be guaranteed was the snark that is a signature of everything Darynda writes, and all the crazy characters only she can bring to life. This first outing in Del Sol makes it clear that this series is going to be chock full of almost everything we love about her writing!

Sunshine Vicram returns to her hometown as the newly elected sheriff, no matter that it wasn’t an election that she had entered herself in, but hey it’s a job, right? Returning with her is her 14 year old daughter Auri and as a continuation of her parents’ influence in their lives, they move into an apartment/guesthouse built for her and her daughter on their property. Sun can’t blame them for their meddling as they had been trying to get her to return home ever since she left Del Sol after a traumatic incident as a teenager and then Auri’s birth.

Sun is not surprised that the people of Del Sol have not changed in the years she has been gone; her best friend Quincy is one of her deputies, Doug the Flasher is still active and the Dangerous Daughters still run the town. Another blast from the past is Levi Ravinder, her childhood crush who has she still has feelings for but their relationship is…complicated. Adding to this is the antagonism between Sun and Levi’s family, especially his sister Hailey whose son Jimmy is a good friend of Auri’s. Then Auri and Jimmy’s friend Sybil turns up missing and there are similarities to an incident in Sun’s own past which will drag her family and the town into the investigation.

On top of that investigation there is an AWOL deputy (maybe) and trouble at the high school involving Auri and her friend Cruz, a murder linked to Levi’s family and you can understand why Sun is having a bad day or two! While some of the mysteries are solved in this book there is still one major outstanding question at the end and like many of the Charley books you are left wondering WTF is happening and how long you will have to wait to find out what’s next. Since this book doesn’t even come out until April, we will be waiting a LONG time to find out!

Now comes the question of how this new series compares to Charley and should you read it? Obviously the big difference is this world (so far) doesn’t involve the grim reaper, Satan’s son, angels or demons. There is a little hint of something out of the ordinary possibly between Sun and Auri so it will be interesting to see if that goes anywhere in future books. But there is a lot of Darynda’s trademark humor and quirky characters that fans will enjoy, and of course the complex relationship between Sun and Levi is a definite draw!

Thank you to Netgalley and St. Martin’s Press for the opportunity to read this early!

This was a fantastic read. It was one of those stories that has it all. Family, a little romance, great dialogue and mystery. I was fortunate to get an advanced copy of this from NetGalley. This is the first in a new series and I am already anticipating the next one.

It is one of those books you don’t want to put down and hate when life interrupts you from reading. I couldn’t put it down and now that I have finished it I am going to miss these characters until the next time. I highly recommend this book.

It's Sunshine Vicram's first day on the job as Sheriff of Del Sol County, New Mexico. She got elected despite being unaware she was even running, thanks to her parents, who were determined to both bring her back to Del Sol and get rid of the corrupt, inept incumbent. Within minutes of her arrival, homemade muffins are delivered, horrifying her staff, who have long since learned that the size of the muffin basket portends the scope of the crazy or catastrophic cases coming their way. Today's basket is huge, and sure enough, a short time later a Mercedes crashes through the front of the sheriff station, driven by a desperate mother whose teenage daughter has just been kidnapped--an event the daughter has been predicting since she was a little girl. Sunshine and her deputies have only three days to find Sybil before her captor kills her.

I stayed up WAY past bedtime because I couldn't stop reading until I finished this book. The writing style is very witty (quite similar to Jones' Charley Davidson series) and just as fast-paced as the plot. In fact, the relationship between Sunshine Vicram and her daughter Auri reminded me a lot of Lorelei & Rory Gilmore of Gilmore Girls. Well, except that Lorelei knows from the beginning who Rory's father is, and Sunshine doesn't figure out Auri's until WAY WAY WAY after the reader catches on.

For readers' advisors: story doorway is primary, language is secondary. The closest genre this book/series fits into at the moment is humorous mystery/suspense. There is a strong romantic subplot, (well, two, actually, and a bit of a third) but it will probably take another book or two (or 5, at the rate Sun's going) to develop into anything like a real relationship. There is one dream sequence that counts as a sex scene and some sexual references. Since the plot of the book focuses on a current and a past abduction, there is also reference to rape, in case that is a trigger for anyone. Also some off-screen violence, a bit of profanity sprinkled throughout, and on-screen teen bullying of Auri by a Mean Girl & her lackeys.

The diverse, quirky characters include many with brown skin in various shades and from a variety of ethnic backgrounds, chiefly Latino, African, and Apache. The father of one character is deaf, and another character is on the autism spectrum, so ASL is mentioned semi-frequently. Unlike with Jones' Charley Davidson series, there is only a hint of anything possibly beyond normal human experience. It's not urban fantasy. A minor character from the Charley series has a small cameo, however, and that was fun!

I read a free ebook ARC courtesy of NetGalley and St. Martins Press in exchange for my honest review. The only bad thing about that is that now I have to WAIT for the next book in the series to be written. Waiting is HARD.

I have never heard of this author before i found this book on netgalley. The characters pulled me into the story line quickly, and i loved this book!

So let me get this out of the way. I am a huge fan of the Charley Davidson series and I love Darynda's writing but there has always been a special spot specifically for Charley the character, not just the books. Going in to a brand new series from one of my favorite author's is exhilarating and yet terrifying because I want to love these books and characters and I also don't want to compare Sunshine to Charley. I have to say, Darynda continues to amaze me with new wonderful characters and a new series that I can not wait to continue reading. Sunshine shines (pun totally intended). While the book is contemporary, it has enough mystery and intrigue to give it a bit of a paranormal feel.

“Do you have everything?”
Sun frowned. “I think so.”
“Keys?”
Sun patted her pants pocket. “Check.”
“Badge?”
She tapped the shiny trinket over her heart. “Check.”
“Gun?”
She scraped a palm over her duty weapon. “Check.”
“Sanity?”
Sun’s lids rounded. She whirled around, searching the area for her soundness of mind. She only had the one thread left. She couldn’t afford to lose it. “Damn. Where did I have it last?”
“Did you look under the sofa?”

Del Sol, New Mexico has a new, albeit reluctant, Sherif named Sunshine Vicram. Returning home was never in Sunshine's plan but with her daughter in tow and an election that she apparently won, she's now there to stay. Now if she could only find her missing Lieutenant, and figure out how exactly she got elected when she didn't know she was running. But with her best friend as Deputy, they can keep the town safe, right?Told in alternating points of view, we bounce back and forth from Sunshine trying to be Sheriff in her old home town and trying to find a missing young girl, to her daughter Auri trying to deal with high school bullies and a missing new friend. When the two realize they are one and the same girl, both end up trying to solve the case. As clues begin to emerge, they quickly realize that Sybil had premonitions of her abduction, and even though she had told her parents, they never believed her and Sunshine and the gang are scrambling to find her before the rest of Sybil's premonition comes true.

“Want to explain your face?”
“No explanation would do it justice. Let’s just say the world needed a hero.”

But this town seems to be full of mysteries. Stolen roosters, eyeliner tips, escaped convicts, swoony guys who write poetry, the list goes on. But the biggest mystery of all is Sunshine. Trying to find Sybil has lead to Sunshine having flashbacks of a time when the same thing happened to her. Coming back to Del Sol has Sunshine remembering more about a past she thought she would never get answers about. When a body is found near a mysterious shed in the woods, more questions than answers are raised as to what happened to our dear Sunshine.One of my favorite parts was that little nod to our favorite Grim Reaper. I did a little happy dance there and laughed way harder than I should have.

“You can’t talk to it, can you?”
“I’m sorry?”
“The dead body? You can’t talk to it, right?”
“The . . . the dead body.”
“Yeah. I knew a chick who said she could talk to dead people. She was crazy. I worked at a bar her dad owned, but things got really weird. That’s when I decided to move here. You know, peace and quiet. Less conversing with dead people."

As this is the first book in the series, there are several things that are left unanswered and lots of breadcrumbs are thrown to leave the reader hungry for more. What really happened to Sunshine that night long ago? Who is the delectable Levi Ravinder, the boy she was in love with for so long and can we get more shirtless scenes with him? Will Auri and Cruz be the new It couple in school? Inquiring minds need to know. I, personally, am craving more of this series like a coffee addict in need of her next cup. I got so absorbed with the cast of characters, the fun and snarky banter, and the multitude of mysteries in the town, I did not want the book to end. There is more to this little town than what meets the eye and I can't wait for more.

"Autocorrect has become our own worst enema."

Very interesting story line. Had a little of a hard time following. Felt like it should of been a youth read. I did finish the story though and did like the polt

I read all of the Darynda Jones Charley series and was very excited to read this new series by her. It did not disappoint! I love the characters and the humor in the book and it had me wanting to read more. There is a bit of a cliffhanger at the end so I’m hoping that means there will be more books in the series. I absolutely loved it and it seemed there were even some references to the Charley books throughout this too.

If I hadn't have read Jones' Charley Davidson series in it's entirety before I read A Bad Day for Sunshine, maybe I would have loved it more. If I didn't feel like it got a bit convoluted in the story and I wasn't trying to keep up with what mystery they were currently trying to unravel I might have loved it more. Those things being said, I did thoroughly enjoy this story about Sunshine returning to her hometown with her daughter in tow and having a really eventful first day on the job as sheriff in Del Sol, New Mexico. Between two kids being missing, a car barreling through the foyer of the police station, her daughter's first day at a school, every law enforcement agency in the country being in town, fighting off feelings for her high school crush, and being reminded of her own abduction when she was in high school both Sunshine and the reader have their hands full. And that doesn't even include Sunshine's parents, bullies at school, Sunshine's best friend growing up who's now one of her deputies...This is a fun one, but there's a lot going on!

If you like Stephanie Plum, you'll love this new series about a female sheriff in New Mexico. Raucously funny!