Book Review: Hello, Sunshine, by Laura Dave

On the morning of her 35th birthday, Sunshine (Stephens) Mackenzie's carefully-curated world begins to unravel in a very 21st-century fashion.  She has been hacked.  Her life as she knows it is gone:  the hit Youtube cooking show, her cookbook contract...her marriage...everything.  She has nothing left, and no one to help her.  Everyone has turned their backs.  What is a girl who built her fortune based on lies to do?  Go back to the truth...where it all began....home.

Sunshine begins to build her life back, slowly.  Her estranged sister and precocious niece are great characters--they cut through Sunny's persona and allow the real Sunshine to peek through.  I felt like Ethan did not add a lot to the story--he and Sunshine got close (friends?), but I did not like him as a character/person.  By the end of the book, I was happy that Sunshine unraveled the hacker's identity, but was disappointed in who it turned out to be, because that ruined that particular character for me.

It was hard for me to feel sympathy for Sunshine, but also hard for me to feel bad for Danny.  The ending of the book was a little unresolved for me...I would have wanted to read more about where Sunshine's path eventually takes her and if Danny is a part of her future.  All in all, it was a very fast-paced, enjoyable book that I recommend for reading on the beaches of the Hamptons or in your own backyard on a sunshine-filled day!