A Good Day for Chardonnay - Review

A Good Day for Chardonnay (Sunshine Vicram, # 2)

By: Darynda Jones

Expected Publication: July 27th 2021 by St. Martin's Press

400 pages

Genre: Adult, Mystery, Fantasy, Humor

Source: Publisher via NetGalley (Thank you!!)

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Goodreads description--From the New York Times bestselling author Darynda Jones comes the second novel in her laugh-out-loud Sunshine Vicram mystery series, A Good Day for Chardonnay.

Running a small-town police force in the mountains of New Mexico should be a smooth, carefree kind of job. Sadly, full-time Sheriff--and even fuller-time coffee guzzler--Sunshine Vicram, didn't get that memo.

All Sunshine really wants is one easy-going day. You know, the kind that starts with coffee and a donut (or three) and ends with take-out pizza and a glass of chardonnay (or seven). Turns out, that's about as easy as switching to decaf. (What kind of people do that? And who hurt them?)

Before she can say iced mocha latte, Sunny's got a bar fight gone bad, a teenage daughter hunting a serial killer and, oh yes, the still unresolved mystery of her own abduction years prior. All evidence points to a local distiller, a dangerous bad boy named Levi Ravinder, but Sun knows he's not the villain of her story. Still, perhaps beneath it all, he possesses the keys to her disappearance. At the very least, beneath it all, he possesses a serious set of abs. She's seen it. Once. Accidentally.

Between policing a town her hunky chief deputy calls four cents short of a nickel, that pesky crush she has on Levi which seems to grow exponentially every day, and an irascible raccoon that just doesn't know when to quit, Sunny's life is about to rocket to a whole new level of crazy.

Yep, definitely a good day for chardonnay.

A Good Day for Chardonnay was one of my most anticipated reads for 2021. Darynda Jones does a great job writing quirky female leads. I can't lie. Sunshine and Levi are the reason I was anticipating this book so much. Would they be able to work through some of their history and tension to make progress or move forward? I needed to know. I also had several theories concerning Sunshine's abduction, rescue, and Auri's parentage that I wanted to see if I was right about. (Spoiler alert: I was.)

As usual there are multiple mysteries going on within one book. There's the main mystery, Keith Seabright getting stabbed. Who did it? And how does it relate to Sunshine's first unsolved case of her detective career. There's also the ongoing search for the Dangerous Daughters rumored to run the town. Sunshine still doesn't know the details of her abduction and rescue due to retrograde amnesia. And then also Auri begins researching a series of missing persons cases that she believes points straight to Mrs. Fairborn. Darynda Jones wraps all of these mysteries together in just the right way.

One of this author's talents is bringing her characters to life. Every single character comes off the page no matter how little of a part they have in the story. Sunshine, Levi, Quincy, Auri, Cruz, Sybil, Poetry, Zee, Mrs. Fairborn, Sunshine's parents, Wynn, Jimmy, even Keith Seabright who technically never even had a scene but was only mentioned feels like a complete character.

I really feel like I should have much more to say about A Good Day for Chardonnay, but I don't want to spoil anything. I've had little time to read since Baby Boy was born in January, and I devoured this book. I even sacrificed sleep (okay okay just a potential nap) in order to finish. The next book will also be on my most anticipated list for next year. A Good Day for Chardonnay gets 4.5 Stars. I can't wait for more. Have you read A Good Day for Chardonnay? What did you think? Let me know!