South Of Sunshine.

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south of sunshine.

dana elmendorf.

Publisher :Albert Whitman

Publication Date:April 1,2016

Genre: YA LGBT Contemporary Romance

Format|Pages: Digitial ARC|256.

 Source: Received digital copy from Netgalley.

“How do you expect anyone to accept you if you can't accept yourself?”

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What is Kaycee willing to risk for the sake of love?


And what will she risk for acceptance?



In Sunshine, Tennessee, the main event in town is Friday night football, the biggest party of the year is held in a field filled with pickup trucks, and church attendance is mandatory. For Kaycee Jean McCoy, life in Sunshine means dating guys she has no interest in, saying only “yes, ma’am” when the local bigots gossip at her mom’s cosmetics salon, and avoiding certain girls at all costs. Girls like Bren Dawson.



Unlike Kaycee, Bren doesn’t really conceal who she is. But as the cool, worldly new girl, nobody at school seems to give her any trouble. Maybe there’s no harm if Kaycee gets closer to her too, as long as she can keep that part of her life a secret, especially from her family and her best friend. But the more serious things get with Bren, the harder it is to hide from everyone else. Kaycee knows Sunshine has a darker side for people like her, and she’s risking everything for the chance to truly be herself.

(I received digital ARC from Netgalley, in exchange of review )

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When I first came across this book while I was on Netgally, what caught my attention were the title and the cover. SOUTH OF SUNSHINE what a beautiful title and as a reader you can’t help but wonder about it. I was. Once I read the description I had a feeling that this would be a book that I was going to love. Once I received the ARC I was excited about the book and I wasn’t disappointed. SOUTH OF SUNSHINE was a beautiful story about love, friendship and acceptance. It featured so much more than love; it had everything from anti-gay, racism and so much more. I have read few books about lesbians but nothing like this. SOUTH OF SUNSHINE is one of the most realistic coming out stories that felt real to me. What Kaycee and Bren went through, and the way that Kaycee struggled with herself, is what I can see happening in real life. I couldn’t get enough of Kaycee & Bren’s story and the emotions in this novel were astonishing.



Bren & Kaycee: I loved the relationship between the two of them, watching them fall for each other was magical. I could tell that from moment that Bren came to town, to Kaycee’s school that there was something there. I could almost feel the emotions that Kaycee was feeling when she first saw Bren, even though she wouldn’t admit it then, but she knew that there was something there. Relationship between the two of them was different but real, even though Kaycee had trouble accepting what two of them had, most of all she had trouble accepting her sexuality herself. Kaycee was trying to hide it. That was the difference between the two of them, Bren was out and open about but to Kaycee, it was new. I imagine that it couldn’t been easy for Bren to have a girlfriend who had hard time accepting herself. That what made their relationship real. From moment that two of them got together, I found myself rooting for Kaycee to accept herself so two of them could be together, without having to hide.




SOUTH OF SUNSHINE is not just a book about love but it’s about acceptance, heartbreak, hate and hope. There were so many subjects covered in this book, and there were times that you couldn’t help but feel bad for Kaycee with everything that she went through. All that she had deal from community, her mother and classmates once the truth about her sexuality came out. I was just glad that she had her friends to help her through it all. That’s true friendship and considering what they helped her with at end, that was astonishing and breathtaking. There were slow parts in book, in the beginning for me, it seemed like it slow paced for me but once it picked up, I couldn’t put it down. An astonishing debut novel by DANA ELMENDORF I can’t wait what story she has in store for us next.