Review: The Sun in Her Eyes by Paige Toon

Although I have been aware of author Paige Toon for some time, and had been intending to read some of her books 'at some stage' I was not aware of her connection to my home city, Adelaide, until recently. And when I discovered (thanks to some promotional material,) that her most recent book was set almost entirely in Adelaide, I knew that I just had to ask her publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book. Luckily, Simon and Schuster Australia were kind enough to provide me with a copy, and I'm pleased to report that I rather enjoyed this fun and sometimes sad tale of a woman who is forced to return home to Australia after her father suffers a stroke. 

Amber's life in London is not going so well--she has just lost her job, and her marriage is going through a rough patch. Returning to Australia to her ailing father--and his partner who she has never gotten along with--is tough, but some surprising comfort comes in the form of being reacquainted with Ethan, a bad boy that she had a crush on right through her adolescence. Suddenly, Ned and her trouble marriage seem very far away ... but the answer that Amber might really need to help solve her problems might lie with a mysterious stranger, a woman who was there on the day her mother was killed in a car accident.

The Sun in Her Eyes is chick-lit at its best, with a conflicted heroine and a mixture of happy and sad moments. I loved the Adelaide setting--it's not every day I read a book where the heroine drinks a can of Fruita with her lunch (Adelaide folks will know what that is,) or where she visits a bar that I have walked past many times (although it trades under a different name.) As I said, this one has some happy and said moments and the ending tugged just a little at my heartstrings.

Recommended to lovers of chick-lit.

Thank you to Simon and Schuster Australia for providing me with my review copy.

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