Sophia's Reviews > The Sunshine Club

After burying her last living relation and most dear Aunt Bee, Sissy faces a lonely holiday season and dreary future. But that was before she discovered the boisterous Sunshine Club had her back and were ready to teach her something about found family and love. I was tickled to dive into a new small town women’s fic from Carolyn Brown narrated by Brittany Pressley.

Sissy, known to everyone outside small town Newton, Texas as Martina an excellent family counselor, is at a crossroads in her life. She just gave her Aunt Bee a fabulous sendoff and inherited her house, her outlandish raggy rooster, foul-mouthed cockatiel, and her sassy senior friends, Gussie and Ida Mae, but the loss of her aunt was her last mooring to family. Or so she thought.
The remaining members of the Sunshine Club, Gussie and Ida Mae and their long, rich history with Blanche will show Sissy a thing or two about life and living that her counseling degree and life on the road with her eclectic rock n’ roll parents never taught her.
This is Sissy’s story in one respect, but in truth, it’s the story of her Aunt Blanche’s legacy. Everyone surrounding Blanche much pick up the pieces once she’s gone and I loved seeing them go through the sadness of loss to finding a reset on life. Sissy’s reset involved learning about found family and opening herself up to love with the last type of person she thought would be her match, a small town preacher, Luke Beauchamp.
Luke was taken with Sissy from the beginning, but a developing romance isn’t easy for him because an interfering church member never liked him for the pastoral vacancy after his uncle retired and now she really doesn’t like him dating Sissy and is forcing him to make a choice causing Sissy to backpedal not wanting to be the reason he loses his church ministry.
But, Luke and Sissy have the support of a group of seniors including his uncle, his uncle’s best friend both widowers and Sissy’s aunt’s besties who will ‘ride or die’ to help the young pair find and keep happiness and get a little of their own along the way.

Brittany Pressley is not a stranger to narrating Carolyn Brown books and I love how well she matches up with the feel of these down home country charmers and the multi-generational casts of characters. She brings a bit of extra sass and sparkle to the story.

All in all, this holiday season read hit the homey spot and left a satisfying feeling when all was said and done. Those who like light and fun women’s fic should not hesitate to put in their earbuds and click play on this one.


My full review will post at Books of My Heart Nov 22nd.