-
Sunshine
- Narrated by: Laural Merlington
- Length: 15 hrs and 22 mins
- Unabridged Audiobook
- Categories: Literature & Fiction, Horror
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Buy for $27.99
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
Listeners also enjoyed...
-
The Outlaws of Sherwood
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
-
-
A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
-
Dragonhaven
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world's remaining creatures. Until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has given birth - and one of the babies is still alive.
-
-
The best audio performance I’ve ever heard
- By doorkeepr on 09-27-18
By: Robin McKinley
-
Beauty
- A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward - but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner.
-
-
Honor and Beauty
- By Carole T. on 09-14-17
By: Robin McKinley
-
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter, and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona's worries.
-
-
A tour de force unimaginably good
- By Joella Berkner on 10-21-21
By: T. Kingfisher
-
Rose Daughter
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It is the heart of this place, and it is dying," says the Beast. And it is true; the center of the Beast's palace, the glittering glasshouse that brings Beauty both comfort and delight in her strange new environment, is filled with leafless brown rosebushes. But deep within this enchanted world, new life, at once subtle and strong, is about to awaken. Twenty years ago Robin McKinley enthralled listeners with the power of Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist retells the story of Beauty and the Beast again - but in a totally new way, with fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight.
-
-
Same story, different characters, new ending
- By Anya C. on 12-30-14
By: Robin McKinley
-
The Blue Sword
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Diane Warren
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl, is pleased with her new home. Life in Istan is certainly easy, but a voice in her ear whispers that the home of her heart is among the Hillfolk, among the descendants of Lady Aerin, who once wielded Gonturan, the Blue Sword.
-
-
Groundbreaking, interestingly dated, & odd
- By Gentle Reader Jill on 07-27-13
By: Robin McKinley
-
The Outlaws of Sherwood
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 10 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Young Robin Longbow, subapprentice forester in the King's Forest of Nottingham, must contend with the dislike of the Chief Forester, who bullies Robin in memory of his popular father. But Robin does not want to leave Nottingham or lose the title to his father's small tenancy, because he is in love with a young lady named Marian - and keeps remembering that his mother too was gentry and married a common forester. Robin has been granted a rare holiday to go to the Nottingham Fair, where he will spend the day with his friends Much and Marian.
-
-
A great story paired with the wrong narrator
- By Gail N. on 11-01-19
By: Robin McKinley
-
Dragonhaven
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Noah Galvin
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Dragons are extinct in the wild, but the Makepeace Institute of Integrated Dragon Studies in Smokehill National Park is home to about two hundred of the world's remaining creatures. Until Jake discovers a dying dragon that has given birth - and one of the babies is still alive.
-
-
The best audio performance I’ve ever heard
- By doorkeepr on 09-27-18
By: Robin McKinley
-
Beauty
- A Retelling of the Story of Beauty & the Beast
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Charlotte Parry
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
New York Times best-selling author Robin McKinley has won numerous awards for her writing, including the prestigious Newbery Medal. Though her two sisters are beautiful, Beauty, despite her name, is thin and awkward - but she's also courageous. So when her father makes a terrible promise to a Beast living in an enchanted castle, Beauty knows she must volunteer to be the Beast's prisoner.
-
-
Honor and Beauty
- By Carole T. on 09-14-17
By: Robin McKinley
-
A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking
- By: T. Kingfisher
- Narrated by: Patricia Santomasso
- Length: 8 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fourteen-year-old Mona isn't like the wizards charged with defending the city. She can't control lightning or speak to water. Her familiar is a sourdough starter, and her magic only works on bread. She has a comfortable life in her aunt's bakery making gingerbread men dance. But Mona's life is turned upside down when she finds a dead body on the bakery floor. An assassin is stalking the streets of Mona's city, preying on magic folk, and it appears that Mona is his next target. And in an embattled city suddenly bereft of wizards, the assassin may be the least of Mona's worries.
-
-
A tour de force unimaginably good
- By Joella Berkner on 10-21-21
By: T. Kingfisher
-
Rose Daughter
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 12 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
"It is the heart of this place, and it is dying," says the Beast. And it is true; the center of the Beast's palace, the glittering glasshouse that brings Beauty both comfort and delight in her strange new environment, is filled with leafless brown rosebushes. But deep within this enchanted world, new life, at once subtle and strong, is about to awaken. Twenty years ago Robin McKinley enthralled listeners with the power of Beauty. Now this extraordinarily gifted novelist retells the story of Beauty and the Beast again - but in a totally new way, with fresh perspective, ingenuity, and mature insight.
-
-
Same story, different characters, new ending
- By Anya C. on 12-30-14
By: Robin McKinley
-
The Blue Sword
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Diane Warren
- Length: 12 hrs and 15 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Harry Crewe, the Homelander orphan girl, is pleased with her new home. Life in Istan is certainly easy, but a voice in her ear whispers that the home of her heart is among the Hillfolk, among the descendants of Lady Aerin, who once wielded Gonturan, the Blue Sword.
-
-
Groundbreaking, interestingly dated, & odd
- By Gentle Reader Jill on 07-27-13
By: Robin McKinley
-
Discount Armageddon
- InCryptid, Book 1
- By: Seanan McGuire
- Narrated by: Emily Bauer
- Length: 11 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Price family has spent generations studying the monsters of the world, working to protect them from humanity - and humanity from them. Enter Verity Price. Despite being trained from birth as a cryptozoologist, she'd rather dance a tango than tangle with a demon, and is spending a year in Manhattan while she pursues her career in professional ballroom dance. Sounds pretty simple, right?
-
-
Monster hunting and ballroom dancing...who knew?
- By Dianne Herbert on 04-06-13
By: Seanan McGuire
-
Deerskin
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Xe Sands
- Length: 11 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The only daughter of a beloved king and queen, Princess Lissar has grown up in the shadow of her parents' infinite adoration for each other - an infatuation so great that it could only be broken by the queen's unexpected passing. As Lissar reaches womanhood, it becomes clear to everyone in the kingdom that she has inherited her late mother's breathtaking beauty. But on the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Lissar's exquisite looks become a curse. Betrayed and abused, Lissar is forced to flee her home to escape her father's madness.
-
-
One of my favorites
- By Shannon GC on 06-11-18
By: Robin McKinley
-
Chalice
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Rachael Beresford
- Length: 8 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The earthlines speak to Mirasol, but her family has lived in the demesne for centuries, and many of the old families can hear the land. She knows that the violent deaths of the last Master and Chalice have thrown Willowlands into turmoil; but she is only a beekeeper, and the problems of the Circle that govern Willowlands have nothing to do with her - although she wonders what will become of her demesne, because the Master and Chalice left no heirs to carry on their crucial duties.
-
-
A favorite McKinley
- By Shannon GC on 03-29-20
By: Robin McKinley
-
The Door in the Hedge
- And Other Stories
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Bianca Amato
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From ensorcelled princesses to a frog that speaks, an enchanting collection of fairy tales from the Newbery Medal-winning author.
-
-
Upbeat and rosy
- By Bruce on 07-17-21
By: Robin McKinley
-
Spindle's End
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Justine Eyre
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
All the creatures of the forest and field and riverbank knew the infant was special. She was the princess, spirited away from the evil fairy, Pernicia, on her name-day. But the curse was cast: Rosie was fated to prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a poisoned sleep - a slumber from which no one would be able to rouse her....
-
-
Delightful world-building, characters you want to have tea with
- By Gabrielle on 10-30-19
By: Robin McKinley
-
Pegasus
- By: Robin McKinley
- Narrated by: Catherine Ho, Kristen Atherton
- Length: 15 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Princess Sylviianel has always known that on her 12th birthday she too would be bound to her own Pegasus. All members of the royal family have been thus bound since the Alliance was made almost a thousand years ago; the binding system was created to strengthen the Alliance, because humans and pegasi can only communicate formally, through specially trained Speaker magicians. Sylvi is accustomed to seeing pegasi every day at the palace, but she still finds the idea of her binding very daunting.
-
-
Cliff Hanger
- By Lana Arthur on 08-31-21
By: Robin McKinley
-
Someone Like Me
- By: M. R. Carey
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 17 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Liz Kendall wouldn't hurt a fly. Even when times get tough, she's devoted to bringing up her two kids in a loving home. But there's another side to Liz - one that's dark and malicious. She will do anything to get her way, no matter how extreme. And when this other side of her takes control, the consequences are devastating.
-
-
Bad Reviews Wrong and the Description is Bad
- By Christopher O. on 06-25-19
By: M. R. Carey
-
The Hunger Games: Special Edition
- By: Suzanne Collins
- Narrated by: Tatiana Maslany
- Length: 10 hrs and 35 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Emmy Award-winning actress Tatiana Maslany narrates a brand-new special edition recording of the first audiobook in the worldwide best-selling trilogy from Suzanne Collins! In the ruins of a place once known as North America lies the nation of Panem, a shining Capitol surrounded by 12 outlying districts. The Capitol keeps the districts in line by forcing them all to send one boy and one girl between the ages of 12 and 18 to participate in the annual Hunger Games, a fight to the death on live TV.
-
-
same great book but the performance.
- By Lavin214 on 08-28-19
By: Suzanne Collins
-
Divergent
- By: Veronica Roth
- Narrated by: Emma Galvin
- Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Beatrice Prior's dystopian Chicago, society is divided into five factions, each dedicated to the cultivation of a particular virtue - Candor (the honest), Abnegation (the selfless), Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the peaceful), and Erudite (the intelligent). On an appointed day of every year, all sixteen-year-olds must select the faction to which they will devote the rest of their lives. For Beatrice, the decision is between staying with her family and being who she really is - she can't have both. So she makes a choice that surprises everyone, including herself.
-
-
It's not for me. Loved it anyway.
- By Grant on 05-24-12
By: Veronica Roth
-
Twilight
- The Twilight Saga, Book 1
- By: Stephenie Meyer
- Narrated by: Ilyana Kadushin
- Length: 12 hrs and 51 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
About three things I was certain. First, Edward was a vampire. Second, there was a part of him, and I didn't know how dominant that part might be, that thirsted for my blood. And third, I was unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him.
-
-
Not impressed with audio book
- By Candi on 09-07-17
By: Stephenie Meyer
-
A Discovery of Witches
- A Novel
- By: Deborah Harkness
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 23 hrs and 59 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Deborah Harkness’s sparkling debut, A Discovery of Witches, has brought her into the spotlight and galvanized fans around the world. In this tale of passion and obsession, Diana Bishop, a young scholar and a descendant of witches, discovers a long-lost and enchanted alchemical manuscript, Ashmole 782, deep in Oxford's Bodleian Library. Its reappearance summons a fantastical underworld, which she navigates with her leading man, vampire geneticist Matthew Clairmont.
-
-
Not for me
- By Jill on 08-29-19
By: Deborah Harkness
-
Dead Until Dark
- Sookie Stackhouse Southern Vampire Mystery #1
- By: Charlaine Harris
- Narrated by: Johanna Parker
- Length: 9 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vampires have officially "come out of the coffin", and Miss Sookie can't wait for one to come her way.
-
-
That Vampire Said ....
- By Pamela on 07-24-08
By: Charlaine Harris
Publisher's Summary
They took her clothes and sneakers. They dressed her in a long red gown. And they shackled her to the wall of an abandoned mansion -within easy reach of a figure stirring in the moonlight.
She knows that he is a vampire. She knows that she's to be his dinner and that when he is finished with her, she will be dead. Yet, as dawn breaks, she finds that he has not attempted to harm her. And now it is he who needs her to help him survive the day.
Critic Reviews
"McKinley knows very well - and makes her [audience] believe - that 'the insides of our own minds are the scariest things there are.'" ( Publishers Weekly Starred Review)
More from the same
What listeners say about Sunshine
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 12-30-08
An absolutely riveting, addictive tale
I've been a member of Audible for a few years now, and have downloaded and listened to over 100 audiobooks, but this is the first time I've been inspired to write a review.
I frequently check Audible's inventory to see if any of my all-time favorite authors have been added. After having read, on the recommendation of a friend, the first of the "Twilight" series, I looked again for "Sunshine" by McKinley. Imagine my delight to find that it has just been added to the Audible library.
On the cover of the print edition I have, Neil Gaiman (another favorite author) writes "A pretty near perfect book." That about sums it up for me.
This is by far the best vampire tale I have ever read. It is the Brothers Grimm to the Disneyesque teen books by Meyer. If you like your tales with gripping characters, suspense, deep mythic depths and a cracking plot that whisks you along, this is the book for you.
I've read Sunshine three times and listened to it once. My only complaint is that there has not been a sequel, which is apparently feedback McKinley has often heard about this book. Along the corridor of the plot, the reader keeps getting glimpses into fascinating rooms where the story might be further developed, and then the book ends without the reader being able to go back and explore those areas. This is an appetizing tale in so many ways, and definitely leaves the reader wanting MORE! (In a good way -- like one wants to go back to a five-star restaurant and order another entree by the same chef, even though the one you had was perfect.)
What I don't understand, with the runaway success of the Twilight series (2 credits per book? Really?) and Buffy, and the Ann Rice books back in the day, why THIS book is not at the top of all the bestseller lists. I envy you if Sunshine is still in your future
89 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Annissa
- 07-23-13
What a difference a narrator makes
This book came extremely highly recommended by a friend whose taste I trust implicitly. I should note, however, that she didn't recommend the audiobook.
I immediately disliked the main character, Sunshine, but as I listened more, I realized it wasn't the character I disliked so much as the narrator's idea of who the main character is. "Sunshine" is written in first person limited point of view, and Laural Merlington chose to add inflections that made the character Sunshine sound much younger than she is supposed to be. Minor complaints were a little too emphatic, and serious revelations read far too flippantly. If I imagined the words with slightly different inflections, the meaning changed and Sunshine immediately became more reasonable, more relatable, and more likable. Additionally, Merlington has a distinctive voice that sounds very much like an older woman. This is completely acceptable for the character of Sunshine, but way off base for anyone else, most of all Constantine.
The story is solid if you like vampire fiction. Before downloading this book, I highly recommend listening to the sample to see if this is a narrator you can bear to listen to for 15 hours. The narrator will make or break this for you.
63 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Sandra
- 04-30-10
Good story, bad narrator
I tried to listen to this story several times and was always so turned off by the narrator that I had to stop. I finally made myself keep listening. The story is actually pretty good. The narrator sounds like an older woman doing the voice of a whiney child. The main character is a woman in her twenties but it is hard to view her as any kind of adult because of the narration. The main character performs adult activities in the book, so it was pretty freaky that the whole thing was read from a whiney child voice. I think this book would have been better to read instead of listen. I noticed the narrator narrates several other books. Even if it is one of my favorite authors, I will not download another book by this narrator.. she's just that bad!
76 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- shar
- 12-29-11
Wonderful book Narrator is terrible
What did you love best about Sunshine?
Con the vampire.
What did you like best about this story?
The story line and all the background details.
What did you like about the performance? What did you dislike?
I she put feeling into it but doesn't have a pleasant voice
Any additional comments?
Great book but not very good Narrator
22 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Mortal Peril
- 09-01-09
Love the book, annoyed by the narrator
I read, and loved, this story when it first came out and have been recommending it unabashedly ever since. I enjoy the way the backstory and world is introduced and explained, I like Sunshine, and I really appreciate that the vampires are not all about sex appeal.
I did not like the narration for this at all. The voice Merlington used for Sunshine did not mesh in the least with the voice "heard" when I first read the book. She made Sunshine sound whiny and far less practical than I read her as. Lines that come across as dry and ironic in the book were delivered in a way that made them sound desperate and self-pitying.
It is nice to have this to listen to when I'm driving or plying, but the print book is head and shoulders better than the audio one.
33 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- michelle
- 11-12-10
Drawn out and then some
The actual meat of this story was great; but the filler was horrible! The relationship between Sunshine and Conn was intriguing and should have been further developed. But what really lost me was all the trivial "commentary." I had to listen to this one in double time to get thru it. This really could have been a great story, if it weren't for so much filler. AND, the narrator did NOT match the character at all.
7 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Natalie
- 06-27-12
Unique and fascinating story, so/so narration
Sunshine is an old favorite; the kind of book you can read over and over again. I wanted to have it on audio, but the narration turned me off even in the sample. I downloaded it anyway, and am still disappointed in the narration. Admittedly, this is a pretty difficult book to have to narrate! But her voice distracted me from the story, making Sunshine sound kind of whiny and a bit dumb (as other reviewers have mentioned). The vampires' voices just made me laugh--which is not what she was going for, I think. I think Sunshine is really best read in print, not listened to. There's too much you can miss if your mind wanders! I do wish other McKinley audiobooks would appear on Audible!
5 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Bookfriend83
- 10-31-12
Not a teen drama, thank God!
Would you listen to Sunshine again? Why?
I have both the print and audible versions of this book. I am a huge McKinley fan, and wish that more of her books were available on audible. Her skill at world-building is second to none. Definitely a keeper, and each time I read this I notice something new that makes the story even richer.
What did you like best about this story?
The story is written from the first person perspective, and Sunshine just starts talking to you like you live in her world an know what she knows. At first it is a little disconcerting, because she makes references to unfamiliar places, people and events. But there's no question from the first chapter that this is her story, and as a result you become really invested in each and every one of her experiences, thoughts and fears...and even come to be amused by her frequent rambling digressions.
Which scene was your favorite?
Every scene with Con. I wish we'd seen more of him.
Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
Every time Sunshine made a decision that took her further and further into conflict, or further divided her allegiance. That's the mark of a good story--nothing is cut and dry, lack and white.
4 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Gentle Reader Jill
- 04-11-09
Refreshing
Interesting and well-written, with strong characters. I especially like the community the author shows us, and the rapport the main character has with a wide range of other characters. If you're looking for a paranormal romance this isn't it, though it dances around the edges; it's more a science fiction/fantasy book about a character coming to terms with herself.
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
- Brenda T.
- 01-04-09
absolutely wonderful
A magnificent story--well presented--I wish I could read it again for the first time, but listening for the first time was nearly as good. McKinley not only tells good stories, she tells stories well. A long-awaited addition to my audio library--and worth the wait.
10 people found this helpful