Review: Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave

Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Sunshine McKenzie is a the top of her game. Her YouTube show, "A Little Sunshine" has milions of subscribers, The Food Network wants her to host a new show, and she's about to put out a series of cookbooks. But when her Twitter account is hacked an her entire world comes crashing down, she must evaluate what is truly important in her personal and professional life.

I read Eight Hundred Grapes a couple of years ago and I really enjoyed Laura Dave's writing. I've heard mixed reviews on this book, for me it was alright.

Sunshine Stephens grew up in Montauk, NY Even though the town was full of people with wealthy backgrounds, Sunshine was not a part of those people. She didn't come from a wealthy family, but she escaped the first chance she got. When she met Ryan, he promised her fame and fortune. All she had to do was tell a little lie about who she was and her abilities as a chef. But after a few years like this it's hard to separate fact from fiction. So some jerk has decided to knock Sunshine off of her pedestal and bring her back to reality. All of this was to remind her who she was and where she came from and the life she was currently living was not hers at all.

Overall, this book was pretty good. I liked Sunshine as a character. It sucks that her life had to come down to this life and career destroying conclusion. Will she be able to bounce back and continue to live her life?


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My Best of 2015

One thing I really love about this time of the year, are the "Best Of" lists.  The radio is counting down the best songs of the year.  MTV and VH1 are playing the best videos of the year(Wait?!? Do they still play videos on these channels?).  The news is showing the top stories of the year in varying categories.  Facebook is giving you your "Year in Review".  Instagram and Twitter show you your most liked, retweeted and shared content.  My favorite by far though is the lists made by my fellow book lovers, publishers and writers on the Best Books of 2015.  There hasn't been a book that I have given a 5 star rating on as of yet this year, so this list is comprised of my highest rated books.

I have reviewed several lists that have come across my email, Oprah's Bookclub, Goodreads, BookRiot.com, and The New York Times; and I have compared their list with my Goodreads Read 2015 list and here are my best of 2015.

First, I'm going to start with Harper Lee's Go Set a Watchman.  This was one of the most anticipated works of literary fiction for the year.  We hadn't heard anything from Ms. Lee since To Kill A Mockingbird some 55 years earlier.  For me this book was just alright.  I gave it three stars.  It didn't live up to all of the hype that it has been receiving up until its release.

Next, The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins another highly acclaimed book for this year that didn't disappoint, but wasn't as great as I was anticipating. Think about how many pictures you saw this year with girls on a train reading The Girl on the Train.

Another book that made the top of my list this year is The Murder House by James Patterson.  James Patterson is one of my favorite authors.  Every year he releases several new books and this one by far is one of my favorites by him in a very long time.  It is a standalone and an outstanding read.

This year I was introduced to several new authors, thanks in part to this blog and groups I am a part of on Goodreads.  Here are some that I highly recommend:

H.N.Wake--I was given her book, A Spy Came Home in exchange for my honest review.  This is the first book in her Mac Ambrose series.  Deceits of Borneo is #2 in the series and that is waiting patiently for me on my Kindle now for a read and review.

Vince Milam--His book Evil Runs was a very interesting religious themed thriller.

Libby Fischer Hellmann-- She has written several books, but she is a new author to me.  I was given her novella, The Incidental Spy as a part of her Review Crew and I am looking forward to reading all that she has written.

This year, I also was much more involved with NetGalley and First To Read(a program through Penguin).  Here are some of the books, I received from these services that are on my best list:

Don't Fail Me Now by Una LaMarche
In Search of Sam by Kristin Butcher
The Mask by Taylor Stevens -- This is #5 in her Vanessa Michael Munroe series, but this is the first one I read.
Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
The Underwriting by Michelle Miller
The Sound of Glass by Karen White
Eeny Meeny by M.J. Arlidge
The Truth and Other Lies by Sascha Arango

So here is my list.  Some of these books are included on the lists mentioned above.  But this is what I liked.  Please share with me your favorite books of 2015 and/or what you are looking forward to reading in 2016(I will have a blog post of that at the beginning of the new year).

Review--Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave

Eight Hundred Grapes by Laura Dave
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Georgia Ford had just arrived at her childhood home, dressed in her wedding dress, but it's not her wedding day.  As she was having her final fitting, she saw her fiance in a way she had never expected to see him.  So she runs home to her parents and brothers only to find that there are even more problems there.  Always being the fixer in the family, will she be able to solve all the issues she runs into by running away from her own?  Or will this be a time when fixing isn't going to work?

Synchronization is the theme of this novel.  All things happen for a reason.  Because this happened(or didn't)thatwas able to take place(or not). Georgia Ford is living as an attorney in Los Angeles when her world is turned upside down.  She runs home to her family's winery in Sebastopol during the final harvest of the year.  Final harvest is always a big deal for the Ford family and this year, even more so.

I LOVED this book!  It showed so many different family dynamics and so many emotions.  It made me laugh and cry.  This novel felt so real to me, I could see myself in this setting.  I picture myself reading this novel on the porch of the winemaker's cottage looking out over the winery, enjoying a glass of Block-14.  The imagery is that vivid.  I could definitely see this book becoming a major motion picture.

Kudos to Laura Dave for writing an incredible novel that many will love.

**I received a free copy of this ebook from the publisher, through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.**

Also by Laura Dave:
The First Husband
The Divorce Party
London Is the Best City in America


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