Sunshine
McKinley, Robin
Paperback
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Sunshine originally appeared in 2003. Reissued by Berkley Trade (October 7, 2008) and Transworld/Bantam UK (August 14, 2008).  Sunshine won the Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature in 2004.

Rae, nicknamed Sunshine by her stepfather, is the baker at her family's coffeehouse. She's happy getting up at 4 am to make cinnamon rolls for the breakfast rush, and dealing with people and food all day. But one evening she needed somewhere she could be alone for a little while, and there hadn't been any trouble out at the lake for years.
    She never thought of vampires.
    Until they found her.

"Sunshine is a gripping, funny, page-turning, pretty much perfect work of magical literature that exists more or less at the unlikely crossroads of Chocolat, Interview with the Vampire, Misery, and the tale of Beauty and the Beast." Neil Gaiman

"McKinley knows very well—and makes her readers believe—that ‘the insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.'" Publishers Weekly, starred review

Can i just say that Robin McKinley is probably one of my most favorite authors ever. Seriously, ever (next to a long lists of other authors that I'm terribly in love with - well, their work anyway).  Part of it has to do with McKinley's heroines - they always seem so much stronger, yet realistic (they're definitley not perfect, but they're not the simpering idiots you get in some fiction, especially in young adult fiction for some reason, inculcating our young women to the cult of cosmo perhaps. But enough, I digress). 

The heroines always seem so much more capable, more like the heros of classical male centered fictions - someone you would want to be someday, despite a few faults or imperfections.  Yet, they're female.  I lament (quite often - people are probably tired of me lamenting) that there are not very many positive, strong, independent female characters - especially in Science Fiction and Fantasy, or young adult fiction.  Not that I have a problem with romance or other fictions with less strong female protagonists - I've been known to read them myself a time or two, however, after about the umpteenth female heroine who needs some big strong man to come in and "fix" things for her, well I get frustrated.  At least when McKinley has a male and female character they seem to work together much more than otherwise - each relying on the other for something or getting assistance. 

I first fell in love with McKinley's writing as a young reader (middle school I think) - the first two books I picked up of hers were The Hero and The Crown and The Blue Sword (published in the mid eighties).  Since then I've re-read them at least once a year (so much so that the poor soft-cover books are literally falling apart).  They are the books I reach for when I'm down with the flu or a really nasty cold, or just in the need of some stress relief and comfort reading.  My favorite time to read them is during the winter - preferably with snow on the ground, although i haven't seen any of that for many a year.  The desert setting always seems to warm me up. 

Which is something I've noticed about McKinley's novels as I've slowly began collecting them - they always seem to light up a dark moment in your life.  While not all roses and sunshine she writes with this constant idea of hope drifting in the background - it's a bright shining token of hope, and healing, that things will not always be darkness and despair.  Sunshine brings this idea to life - well, to fictional life. She almost feeds on the sunlight, it helps her heal, helps her feel rested; sunlight is her element, and she uses it to help a most unlikely character.  It's a fascinating, gripping, moving story, one every fan of McKinley should read if they have not done so already and one I would recommend to any reader.