2.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 20/01/2010

I'm a little confused how this book got such reviews.
I wasn't even half way through the book before I gave up on it.

1.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 19/10/2009

This book is frustratingly tedious. It just about gets to be interesting and then nothing happens. I think its trying too hard to be a tease but ends up boring as anything. The most enjoyable part was reading about the bakery and the concoctions Sunshine would bake up. It should be a 'foodie' book not a vampire one.

1.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 29/05/2010

This book was truly awful. Convoluted and haphazard, the plot lures you in for the first few chapters and then completely fails to deliver on that promise. The characters are irritating, the plot is thin and the premise of a magical alter-universe is confusing and flawed. If you're after vampire romance and what-not, you're better off buying Twilight.

4.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 15/04/2009

This is an excellent book with an undertone of grittiness by which the reader can be made uncomfortable by. The truth in emotion yet sarcasm that runs in through the veins of this vampire novel seems to make the story so gosh darn accessible and enjoyable. It's hard to believe that this is Robin McKinley's first adult novel because it's so very adult. From the language, to it's point of view Sunshine is very grown up- but in a way that makes it really comforting. Rather than explain every little thing- like in some other popular vampire novels- McKinley gives the reader some credit and lets her funny prose and brilliant story speak for itself.

Sunshine is a fantastic read- although it does drag on a little too much for me. Though it is said that it's a stand alone novel after reading it the reader is hungry- thirsty?- for more. It's a really great read but it's not for those who easily give up on a novel.
WELL DONE ROBIN

4.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 18/03/2009

This is charming and original. I'd definitely recommend it. It was one of the few novels that I've read that seamlessly allowed suspension of belief and created an believable alternative reality

5.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 04/06/2007

McKinley is a great writer, and some of her stuff is fantastic, but this is easily her masterpiece.

Sunshine is an humble baker, a genius with chocolate and flour. She lives in a world ravaged by war - a war fought against the inhuman `others'. The others are demons, werewolves, and especially vampires. These others stalk through the novel, teasingly out of sight, haunting the pages with their almost-presence. It's pure gold.

Anyway, Sunshine gets into a spot of bother with the local insanely evil vampire gang, and this colours the rest of her actions in the novel. Without trying to spoil it to much, Constantine the Vampire is written with sympathetic skill, but you never ever forget the fact that he's an enemy who's happily drink the human race dry as a bone if he could do so safely.

Read this book. It's absolutely FANTASIC. You'll never so much as think about Antia Blake ever again.

5.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 28/05/2007

A standalone dark fantasy by Robin McKinley, it follows the story of Sunshine, a rather ordinary young woman who is quite happy enough with her hectic, ordinary life working at a family-run restaurant as the chief baker. However, seeking quiet and solitude one night, she drives to a nearby lake despite knowing that there are several ‘bad spots’ around there, which attract supernatural creatures. And sure enough, she finds herself kidnapped by vampires and offered up as a kind of sacrifice to another vampire; however the situation may not be at all what it seems to be and neither is Sunshine herself.

This is a fantastic contemporary fantasy novel, full of sass and humour, as well as wonderful world-building and plausible re-constructions of the mythos surrounding vampires and other supernatural creatures. The characters, whether human or otherwise, are all charismatic, realistic and interact believably, which is something that is quite lacking in many vampire stories; the language used is wonderfully evocative while still having a beautifully irreverent, contemporary style, which helps to flesh out Sunshine very well, who also acts as narrator. The plot is also very well structured and well-executed, with a nice mix of action, mystery and a touch of romance. A very enjoyable, very fun dark fantasy, and probably one of the finest examples of this sub-genre out there.

4.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 13/08/2006

I'm a big fan of R.McKinley's "Deerskin", a beautifully written, intelligent fantasy/romance, so when I'd learned McKinley had written a vampire romance I just had to buy it!! This is a fabulous book with a fully realised, feisty character named Sunshine. Set in a world where Vampires, Demons and Werewolves live side by side with humans, Sunshine must use her wits and a little magic to stay alive. When one night she is kidnapped by vampires and shackled to the ballroom wall of an abandoned mansion, Sunshine is shocked to discover that she is dinner for a Master Vampire. Yet, when this vampire chooses to talk to Sunshine rather than eat her, Sunshine learns that there are good and bad vampires and that this vampire (good) needs her help.

McKinley does a fabulous job weaving magic with realism and a good amount of research on vampiric lore; however, she chose stream of conciousness as her narrative device. This technique is tricky - for although Sunshine is an intelligent and feisty character (who would much prefer to be working in her step-father's bakery making her famous cinamon rolls than to be fighting vampires), her internal monlogue can be at times protracted and, well, just plain boring! Nevertheless, the story is fairly fast paced, intriguingly clever (Sunshine is the antithesis of night and, incidentally, vampires - who are, of course, allergic to daylight). There is a hint of romance and some not too subtle eroticism (Male vampires can sustain an erection far longer than their human counterparts, for example)...but the encounters are all too brief and unfulfilling, making you want to race out and buy a trashy vampire romance...

The novel ends with a promise of more to come...there are plenty of unanswered questions and plenty of unexplored, magical territory, but McKinley has promised nothing as far as a sequal goes. Indeed, McKinley is a believer in author as medium: if the story comes to her, she'll write it...so far, the sequal hasn't communicated with her.

5.0 out of 5 based on 9 reviews. – Customer review on 14/07/2006

Read this NOW!! it is an absolutely excellent book. Sunshine is kidnapped by vampires and is the temptation for another but when she rediscovers her magic, which she has buried because it didn't fit into her normal life where she is a baker at her stepfather's cafe, She is able to save not only herself but a sort of good vampire because you can't really get good vampires. Back at home she hopes life will go back to normal but no luck there. there is a hint of romance and I like that this is set in an alternate universe where there have been vampires and demons living amongst us since the beginning. I'm dying for the sequel and this book has been religiously passed around all my friends.