The Sunshine Girls
Book Summary
A cross between Firefly Lane and The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, a dual-narrative about two
sisters who realize their mother isn’t who they’d always thought when a
legendary movie star shows up at her funeral, unraveling the sweeping story of
a friendship that begins at a nursing school in Iowa in 1967 and onward as it
survives decades of change, war, fame—and the secrets they kept from each other
and for each other.
A moment of great change
sparks the friendship of a lifetime...
1967, Iowa: Nursing school roommates BettyKay and Kitty don’t have
much in common. A farmer’s daughter, BettyKay has risked her family’s
disapproval to make her dreams come true away from her rural small town.
Cosmopolitan Kitty has always relied on her beauty and smarts to get by, and to
hide a devastating secret from the past that she can’t seem to outrun. Yet the
two share a determination to prove themselves in a changing world, forging an
unlikely bond on a campus unkind to women.
Before their first year is up, tragedy strikes, and the women’s
paths are forced apart. But against all odds, a decades-long friendship forms,
persevering through love, marriage, failure, and death, from the jungles of
Vietnam to the glamorous circles of Hollywood. Until one snowy night leads
their relationship to the ultimate crossroads.
Fifty years later, two estranged sisters are shocked when a famous
movie star shows up at their mother's funeral. Over one rollercoaster weekend,
the women must reckon with a dazzling truth about their family that will alter
their lives forever…
Author Bio
MOLLY FADER is the USA Today bestselling and award-winning author of The McAvoy Sisters Book of Secrets, The Bitter and Sweet of Cherry Season, and more than 40 romance novels under the pennames Molly O'Keefe and M. O'Keefe. She grew up outside of Chicago and now lives in Toronto.
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| Reunion of nursing school students |
Author Links
Author Website: https://mollyfader.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/molly.fader
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mokeefeauthor/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18435981.Molly_Fader?from_search=true&from_srp=true
My Thoughts
The Sunshine Girls by Molly Fader is a story about friendship, family, and secrets. BettyKay and Kitty meet at nursing school. They are as opposite as two women can be. They become best friends who are there for each other through thick and thin. The pair are best friends for the rest of their lives. BettyKay and Kitty keep each other’s secrets. The storyline alternates between 2019 and the 1960s. I thought the author captured the late 1960s especially the clothing and attitudes. The feelings about the Vietnam War were spot on. The point-of-view alternates between Kitty, BettyKay, Clara, and Abbie which allows us to know each women’s thoughts and feelings. I found myself quickly drawn into the story. I thought it contained good writing with realistic, developed characters. The women are strong, smart, and courageous. We get to see the women go from unsure young ladies into mature, confident women. As the story unfolds, secrets are revealed.
Excerpt
The wind caught the side door as it
opened, banging against the brick with a sound that made Clara and Abbie jump
like they’d been caught smoking.
Ben, Abbie’s husband, stuck his head out
and Abbie stepped forward. Ben was a good-looking guy in a gentle giant kind of
way. Constantly rumpled, but usually smiling. He reminded Clara of a very good
Labrador retriever.
She wanted to pat his head and give him a
treat. And then yell at him for tracking mud across the rug.
“There you are,” he said.
“I was just getting some air,” Abbie
said, with surprising defensiveness. “Is everything okay?”
“There’s…” Ben glanced over his shoulder
and made a face, bewildered and somehow joyful in a way that made Clara and
Abbie push off the wall. It was his mother-in-law’s funeral after all. Joy was
a strange sentiment.
“What?” Clara asked.
“Well, I think you should come in and see
for yourself.”
Ben held the door while Abbie and Clara
walked back into the packed room. Everyone was silent now, pressed to the walls
and corners in little clumps, whispering in that painfully familiar way out of
the corners of their mouths and behind their hands. There was a path down the
center of the room right to Mom’s casket, where she lay with her arms crossed,
wearing her favorite green dress and way too much blush.
Standing at the casket, was a woman. A
stranger.
Everything about her screamed not from around here. She wore an
elegant long black skirt and a pair of boots with low heels of rich black
leather. A gray sweater (Ralph Lauren Collection cashmere or Clara would eat
her own boots) with a black belt around her trim waist. Her hair was long and
silvery blond, the kind that appeared natural, but Clara would put money on the
fact that it cost a lot and took a lot of time to keep that way.
She kind of…glittered.
“Who is that?”
“You don’t recognize her?” Ben whispered
between Abbie and Clara’s shoulders, his breath smelling of coffee and cough
drops.
Something about the woman did seem
familiar, polished.
“Is she from the publishing company?” she
asked Abbie.
“I don’t think so. They sent a
cheesecake.”
“That morning show Mom did sometimes, in
Des Moines? Ramona?”
“Ramona Rodriguez died, like, ten years
ago.”
Clara should know this woman. But her
mother’s funeral was throwing her off.
“Are you kidding me? You really don’t recognize her?” Ben asked. “It’s Kitty Devereaux.”
The Sunshine Girls is available from Amazon*, Barnes & Noble, Books-a-Million, BookShop, and Harlequin. You can find Molly Fader's other novels here. Thank you for stopping by today. Tomorrow I will be sharing my thoughts on Frozen Detective by Amanda Flower. It is the second A Piper & Porter Mystery. I hope you have a stellar day. Take care and Happy Reading!
Kris
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