⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Sunshine’s Sorrow
By Brittany Tucker
Sunshine’s Sorrow is a villain origin story and the prequel to Sunshine’s Syndicate, a D&D-style heist romance. (Read my review of Syndicate here.)
While Syndicate is a fairly lighthearted intro to its universe, Sunshine’s Sorrow is FULL of trauma, lore, and questions.
In a quest to destroy the fabled vampire queen, known as the Matriarch, the legendary vampire hunter Jayvin Dyre dives in far deeper than he expected, slowly becoming the very thing he has sworn to eliminate.
This is an incredible look into Tucker’s worldbuilding, her hierarchies, and the realm and characters I came to love in book one.
With the addition of new side characters like Gwenny, Myth, and Eli, I found myself deeply invested in the stakes of each character’s arc. Gwenny is definitely my personal favorite; I don’t want to spoil it but I think I want to be her best friend and give her all of the love that she’s seeking.
The Matriarch is cold, complicated, and her gaslighting is EXTREME. I loved the representation of narcissistic abuse in this story, and our characters’ different but genuine reactions to their Matriarch-given traumas.
There are tons of small references to the first book sprinkled throughout this story, and I loved the little pieces of early Jayvin that shine through even in the end.
Thank you Brittany Tucker for letting me alpha, beta, and ARC read Sunshine’s Sorrow. All opinions are my own ❤️
⭐⭐⭐⭐½
Note: my preferred reading order is to read Sunshine’s Syndicate first, then this story because of how the characters are introduced. But you can read them in any order you want! If you read them in opposite order, comment or email me your thoughts 👀
Sunshine’s Sorrow releases TOMORROW, July 24th! You can find both books on Brittany Tucker’s website and the Zon.
The Midnight Review 