Sunshine

The last several books I've read have been things I've had to read, for one reason or another.  So after finishing Between Gods, I decided that I was going to read something I wanted to read.  After deciding not to start a trilogy (meaning Terry Brooks' Dark Legacy of Shannara was out for now), I chose Robin McKinley's Sunshine.  Sunshine was a book that caught my eye recently, in no small part thanks to Neil Gaiman's endorsement "Pretty much perfect."  So I jumped in.

Sunshine is the story of Rae "Sunshine" Seddon, a girl who loves baking and feeding people at her step-father's coffee shop.  But she's restless one night and drives out to the lake by herself.  While there have been no incidents at the lake in a long time, on this particular night she finds herself surrounded by vampires.  They kidnap her and bring her to one of the old mansions on the lake as a meal for their "guest," a powerful vampire held captive by their leader.  It is during her captivity that Rae rediscovers the power of her father's blood and frees the both of them.  Of course, no one survives a vampire attack.  And even more importantly, no one saves a vampire.  Particularly by walking with one for miles through direct sunlight.  But she can and did.  And now she has to live with the consequences, dodging the questions of the SOF ("Special Other Forces"), dealing with a power that refuses to be forgotten, and hiding from the vampire master who imprisoned her.  Will her life ever be able to go back to how it was before she drove out to the lake?

I really enjoyed reading Sunshine.  It was a rather different take on vampire (particularly the way humans can tell exactly how Other they are just by being around them).  This is the first book by McKinley that I've read, but I'm sure it won't be the last!