Sunshine (The Sunshine Series Book 1) by Nikki Rae
Sophie Jean is pretty good at acting normal. She can pretend she’s not allergic to the sun. She can hide what her ex-boyfriend did to her. She can cover up the scars she’s made for herself. Ignore anything. Forget anything.
Then Myles enters her life, and he has more than a few secrets of his own. Sophie discovers that when she's with him she is feeling too much. Remembering too much.
It’s one thing covering up her own dark past, but does she really need to worry about people finding out just how much Myles likes her? Or that despite how much she doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes, she kind of likes him back? Not to mention the fact that she now has to conceal that Myles drinks blood-that he says he’s about four hundred years old.
But Sophie can deal with this little glitch, no problem. Even if she’s putting the few people she loves at risk. Suddenly, those who were monsters before are just people, and the monsters? They’re real. Now being a normal human being is the least of her problems. Now she has to stay alive
Then Myles enters her life, and he has more than a few secrets of his own. Sophie discovers that when she's with him she is feeling too much. Remembering too much.
It’s one thing covering up her own dark past, but does she really need to worry about people finding out just how much Myles likes her? Or that despite how much she doesn’t want to repeat past mistakes, she kind of likes him back? Not to mention the fact that she now has to conceal that Myles drinks blood-that he says he’s about four hundred years old.
But Sophie can deal with this little glitch, no problem. Even if she’s putting the few people she loves at risk. Suddenly, those who were monsters before are just people, and the monsters? They’re real. Now being a normal human being is the least of her problems. Now she has to stay alive
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Multi-layered YA Paranormal, August 15, 2014
This review is from: Sunshine (The Sunshine Series Book 1) (Kindle Edition)
When I read the blurb for this book, I was conflicted. High school-age heroine + vampires sidled up pretty close to the Twilight travesty and I wasn’t sure if I was going to be reading a unique story or bad fan fic. But while it does share a few similarities with the vampiric juggernaut of YA fiction, this book veered off into uncharted territories.
There’s no doubt that Nikki Rae has read and watched her fair share of vampire stories. Sunshine mentions several cliché “facts” about vampires before dismissing them as garbage, at least in how they pertain to the vampire hero. About the only thing that remains is that he must drink blood to survive and he has no heartbeat. I see a tip of the hat to Charlaine Harris’ vampires only in that his fangs extend when excited. And of course, there’s the bit about the heroine being somehow “unreadable,” but the logic to that is vastly superior to the abovementioned work. Much of the other information Myles shares with the heroine Sophie is unique, and in its own way, logical. This was a definite point in this book’s favor.
The heroine, Sophie, is also different from the so often written “too stupid to live” heroines that pervade young and new adult literature. She has a brain and despite significant traumas in her past, she’s self-aware and able to think rationally most of the time. The traumas themselves were written and handled in a realistic, meaningful, and adroit way – they were believable and relatable, even to one who has had no such experience. In places I was reminded of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Patricia McCormick’s Cut. In addition, her medical condition was unique, something I wasn’t expecting.
Other strengths of this book include a subtly shifting and growing plot. I admit that at first I wasn’t terribly impressed with the story; I thought it was going to be a straight paranormal romance. But as this lengthy novel continued, the scope of it grew and it became more. It became instead sort of a paranormal/romance/adventure/coming of age novel. Secondary characters developed, secrets were revealed and then hidden, truths and lies came to light, and important things grew organically and naturally as a result of time and character action. It is clearly set up to be a series, but this book does have an ending (as opposed to a cliffhanger).
The reason this book received three stars and not four is because of a number of problems I have with the story. First of all, Myles’ whole reason for arriving at Lucky High School was a strain for me. Sophie’s mother was too one-dimensional; I needed her to have some opposing character traits, or for there to be a quantifiable reason for her to behave the way she does. Sophie’s illness seems to bother her only when it’s convenient to the plot which was troublesome; and to have one character with a gay friend, hippie twin friends, a vampire boyfriend, a gay brother (who gives her a free place to live), a psycho mother, an enemy named Barbie, two separate significant sexual traumas, AND a near genius-level ability to play the piano? It just seemed a bit … forced. Like the author was putting in all of her favorite archetypes at once instead of spacing them out throughout the series. Instead of enriching the text, I think all of those things together weakened it.
Favorite Quote: Some monsters disguise themselves so well you don’t realize that they’re monsters until it’s too late. You check all of the usual places: under the bed, in the closet, behind your shower curtain, around that suspicious, dark corner of your room. No, some monsters don’t look like monsters at all. But they are, have been, and will always be there.
There’s no doubt that Nikki Rae has read and watched her fair share of vampire stories. Sunshine mentions several cliché “facts” about vampires before dismissing them as garbage, at least in how they pertain to the vampire hero. About the only thing that remains is that he must drink blood to survive and he has no heartbeat. I see a tip of the hat to Charlaine Harris’ vampires only in that his fangs extend when excited. And of course, there’s the bit about the heroine being somehow “unreadable,” but the logic to that is vastly superior to the abovementioned work. Much of the other information Myles shares with the heroine Sophie is unique, and in its own way, logical. This was a definite point in this book’s favor.
The heroine, Sophie, is also different from the so often written “too stupid to live” heroines that pervade young and new adult literature. She has a brain and despite significant traumas in her past, she’s self-aware and able to think rationally most of the time. The traumas themselves were written and handled in a realistic, meaningful, and adroit way – they were believable and relatable, even to one who has had no such experience. In places I was reminded of Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak and Patricia McCormick’s Cut. In addition, her medical condition was unique, something I wasn’t expecting.
Other strengths of this book include a subtly shifting and growing plot. I admit that at first I wasn’t terribly impressed with the story; I thought it was going to be a straight paranormal romance. But as this lengthy novel continued, the scope of it grew and it became more. It became instead sort of a paranormal/romance/adventure/coming of age novel. Secondary characters developed, secrets were revealed and then hidden, truths and lies came to light, and important things grew organically and naturally as a result of time and character action. It is clearly set up to be a series, but this book does have an ending (as opposed to a cliffhanger).
The reason this book received three stars and not four is because of a number of problems I have with the story. First of all, Myles’ whole reason for arriving at Lucky High School was a strain for me. Sophie’s mother was too one-dimensional; I needed her to have some opposing character traits, or for there to be a quantifiable reason for her to behave the way she does. Sophie’s illness seems to bother her only when it’s convenient to the plot which was troublesome; and to have one character with a gay friend, hippie twin friends, a vampire boyfriend, a gay brother (who gives her a free place to live), a psycho mother, an enemy named Barbie, two separate significant sexual traumas, AND a near genius-level ability to play the piano? It just seemed a bit … forced. Like the author was putting in all of her favorite archetypes at once instead of spacing them out throughout the series. Instead of enriching the text, I think all of those things together weakened it.
Favorite Quote: Some monsters disguise themselves so well you don’t realize that they’re monsters until it’s too late. You check all of the usual places: under the bed, in the closet, behind your shower curtain, around that suspicious, dark corner of your room. No, some monsters don’t look like monsters at all. But they are, have been, and will always be there.
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