Rating: 
Summary: ick...
Review: I picked up this book because I loved Robin McKinley's other books. However, this one was a disappointment. I got into it a little after the veeeeery tedious beginning where the narrator, Rae, talks about her coffee house for what felt like forever. After that it got a bit more exciting, but never really caught my attention. I kept waiting for the action to turn, but it never did. There was a final "battle" but it felt rather anticlimactic. However, I did like the setting, with all the description of the Voodoo Wars and the Others like Weres and Vampires, which is why I gave it 2 stars instead of just 1. All in all, rather disappointing though. I could barely finish it, and that hardly ever happens. My advice: read one of McKinley's other books like "The Blue Sword".
Rating: 
Summary: A wealth of background brings this world alive
Review: Robin McKinley has been one of my favorite authors since I read her first version of Beauty in 1978. I wasn't enchanted with "Water -- Tales of Elementals," but "Sunshine" shows she is back with a vengeance. Her story line is lush, full of the kind of details about commonplace things in the world that make you feel it is real. Her characters are believable -- you can imagine a cinnamon roll maker asking the questions that Rae does. I recommend this book for its depth and the odd little quirks that I keep finding as I reread it. Definitely worth reading.
Rating:
Summary: Amazing!
Review: I have read almost all of Robin McKinley's books, and she is a master of her art. This book is very different from her others, but in no way of less quality. In fact, it is much more detailed and sophisticated than her others. It is extremely well written. It seems to start off a little slow, but it picks up right away, and gets you hooked. I have not read a book in a long time that I couldn't put down, and I could not put this down. It is an excellent piece of story-telling, and reccomend it to anyone who likes McKinley, vampires, and/or sticky buns (read and you'll know).
Rating: 
Summary: Best since DEERSKIN!
Review: For the first time in several books, Robin McKinley completely captivated and enthralled me. Sunshine is a fascinating heroine, and the world McKinley created is quite possibly the best urban fantasy I've read since Emma Bull's WAR FOR THE OAKS. Sunshine goes for a drive and finds herself in the clutches of a bunch of vampires who leave her in a room with thier captive, Con, another vampire. This is the core of the story, and also perhaps an analogy. Sunshine draws her power and strength from sun light, while that same sun is killing Con. A life debt ties Sunshine and Con together and drives the rest of the book, from villains and secret government organizations to Sunshine's work, making cinnamon rolls. If there is a drawback to this book it would be in its tendancy to be a bit floaty and disconnected, short on description and details and sketchy when it comes to links between events. This is a problem with a lot of YA fiction, so it isn't such a big deal.
Rating:
Summary: A compelling tale with a familiar plot
Review: This is the usual story about a witch and a vampire. Since the Southern Vampire series, even the witch's low income job is not new. The writing is well done, and I enjoyed the book very much. However if, like me, you are a fan of this storyline, you will not be surprised by the plot at any point. But if you are looking for gore, sex, and vampires, it's worth a read.
Rating: 
Summary: Robin McKinley needs a new schtick, pronto.
Review: Nearly all of McKinley's books follow the same pattern. Some loner/outcast girl suddenly discovers she has a Funky Talent and saves the world, or at least the Beast. McKinley has publically admitted that these characters are a reflection of how she saw herself as a teenager. In other words, she's in the same class as the millions of twelve-year-olds at fanfiction.net who write Mary Sues in every fandom and never get over themselves. Except that McKinley gets paid for it. Sure, the Damar novels were stunning and the Beauty novels were enchanting. Not all fanfic, even Mary Sue fanfic, is bad. But in "Spindle's End", McKinley started to show that she had run up against the limits of her pet plot. You can self-project onto some rebellious tomboy princess all you want, but you still need a plot and decent supporting characters to carry a novel. And in a fantasy novel, you need a properly realized fantasy world. "Sunshine" was totally lacking in all of those respects. McKinley locks us up inside the deadly dull mind of her heroine, who spends all her time obsessing over baked goods and sex and complaining about what a coward she is. Yeah, that's really compelling. It would be kind to call the supporting characters one-dimensional. The vampire Con has some promise, but he only shows up every hundred pages or so. In between the reader is slammed with what other reviewers have so charmingly termed "infodumps", gobs of information which are dumped into the novel, rather than being artfully woven in. Ultimately, you don't care about Sunshine or her world... so what's the point? This is the last McKinley novel I buy on name recognition alone. As far as I'm concerned, it is past time for her to grow up, stop writing Mary Sues, and start exploring the fine art of the plot and characterization.
Rating:
Summary: What, no sequel???
Review: This was my first experience with Robin Mckinley, therefore I cannot compare it to her other books. I can, however, compare her to other vampire book authors. This book has become an instant favorite for the following reasons: Like Charmaine Harris and Laurel K. Hamilton, McKinley uses a strong (but realistic) female lead, living in an alternate earth reality. Better yet, it's a post-war America in which society is recovering and rebuilding, creating the perfect place for vampires and other bogies to thrive. Like Bram Stoker, McKinley has used the classical vampire as a model for her creatures of darkness. The vampires are alien, ugly, and heartless. It a tribute to the power of her writing that we can feel something towards the main vampire character, much less understand the feelings the main character has for him. Vampire novels often seem to repeat each other, therefore I like those which contribute something new to the genre. I won't tell you what McKinley contributes, it may spoil the story, however reast assured that you thoroughly enjoy this book.
Rating:
Summary: The Best McKinley Book Yet
Review: I am a huge fan of Robin McKinely and this by far is her best book yet!! I am not really a fan of vampire books, but to my very pleasant surprise this is not your typical vampire book! I was expecting your typical meet the vampire watch the main character hunt and kill it, and that is not was this book is about. Yes that aspect is there, but it is not what the story is.I fell in love with the characters and the plot and was incredibly sad when the book ended.
Rating:
Summary: terrific!
Review: I love it when a book of fiction is so real that you find yourself wanting more.
Rating:
Summary: Success!
Review: The idea that vampires are dark, brooding, angst-ridden creatures of untold sensuality has been passed down since Bram Stoker. Film and television grabbed hold of this notion so tightly that the very idea of an unattractive vampire seems fundementally wrong. The idea that we are food to them doesn't lessen their appeal. Tradtionally, women have found their charms to be irresistable; an answer to the secret longing we all have to be overwhelmed and dominated. I won't deny that if Spike of Buffy the Vampire Slayer looked my way, I'd go trotting after him, but I found myself a little bored by this cliche when I picked up "Sunshine" on a whim. The vampire in "Sunshine" is scary. Scary to the audience and scary to the narrorator. He is unattractive and is described as having eyes the color of "stagnant bog water" and skin the color of mushrooms "--the sort of mushrooms you find screwed up in a paper bag at the bag of the fridge..." He's scary and not cute and not human. He acts as though he's never been human or, at best, doesn't remember. McKinley maintains this focus throughout the novel. He is always scary, not cute and not human. But, he is profoundly compelling. You long for scenes with him and the narrorator, Sunshine. You can feel Sunshine's fear of him in those opening scenes and her continued anxiety about him through to the end of the novel. She thinks he's a monster, the way a psychopath serial rapist is a monster. And she's right. In this amazing world McKinley has created, vampires are wholeheartedly feared and reviled the way our world fears child molesters, murderers and rapists. Despite all of this, I found myself nearly swooning at his every word and motion. What is that??? It's great writing. Amazing writing. So now I have a thing for mushroomy hunks.
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