The Secrets of Sunshine by Phaedra Patrick is a charming and uplifting novel about a widowed father who embarks on a journey of self-discovery and healing with the help of his young son and a quirky community of artists. The book is full of humour, heart, and surprises, as well as some valuable lessons about love, family, and friendship. The author has a knack for creating realistic and relatable characters that you can't help but root for. The Secrets of Sunshine is a perfect read for fans of feel-good fiction that will make you smile and cry in equal measure.

Beautifully written book with great characters and storyline to boot, a nice easy read for a Sunday morning! Really enjoyed it 😊

A lovely lighthearted read, with likable characters. I’ve read a book by this author before and this was just as good. Would recommend.

Thank you NetGalley for my complimentary copy in return for my honest review.

A great read.

Mitchell is a single parent to Poppy, after his partner Anita is killed in an accident. He feels it is his fault, so when he sees someone fall off a bridge one day he jumps in to rescue them, knowing he needs to save them. He helps her and then loses her again. he doesn't think much of it until he meets the sister of the mystery woman and finds that she has been missing for a year. Can he help try and solve the mystry and track her down.

I read this book very quickly thanks to such an engaging talented author! Thank you Netgalley for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review. Great characters, setting and storyline. Would highly recommend.

Everything I have come to expect from a Phaedra Patrick novel - this has taken me on a journey, secrets have been uncovered and leaves me with a smile on my face.

There is an action sequence early on which sets up the rest of the book, and makes a reluctant hero from Mitchell, who is just trying to do his job of cutting padlocks off the towns bridges, while being a single parent to Poppy. He is rather regimented and likes schedules, targets, spreadsheets etc...

He rescues a mystery women from the river, and then a few days later discovers he is the only person to have seen her in a year. Thus starts the search into just where she is now, and just why she disappeared a year ago.

There are also a lot of good old fashioned letters, mainly written to Mitchell after his heroics on the bridge and some of them are just lovely, and you can see he is starting to be affected by them, whether he wants to be or not.

I really loved the variety of characters especially Mitchell's best friend Graham and his girlfriend Rosie. We don't see much of them but I really did enjoy their character.

I was hooked on this book and just wanted to keep on reading the entire time. It was very absorbing and I loved all the various plot lines. Another really fabulous book from this talented author.

Thank you to HQ and Netgalley for this copy which I have reviewed honestly and voluntarily.

The Secrets of Sunshine by Phaedra Patrick is a nice, gentle and heartwarming story.
Mitchell is a widower and single parent to Poppy. He is still grieving the sudden and tragic loss of his wife Anita in a car accident a few years ago. Previously an engineer, designing and working on bridges, he now removes the padlocks from them; love tokens left by others. Mitchell is full of regrets, bitterness and a certain amount of anger over the path his life has taken.
One day however, following a freak accident in which a young woman falls from a bridge into the river below, Mitchell unexpectedly becomes something of a local hero when he jumps into the water and saves her. Amidst local press interest, Mitchell meets Liza, a young teacher grieving losses of her own.
The Secrets of Sunshine was not a taxing read, either cognitively or emotionally, but it did leave me with a warm feeling of certainty that love conquers all, and that Mitchell had finally found his happy ever after.
I give this book 3 stars.

Many thanks to Netgalley, HQ and Phaedra Patrick. I was delighted to be able to read this book as I loved The Library of lost and found. It didn't disappoint. I adore this kind of story, a lovely mix of characters and a sweet, funny and moving plotline. If you like Ruth Hogan you will love this book too.

One of my favourite books of 2020, hands down! If you don't read this book, then well, we can't be friends.

Mitchell and his daughter Poppy take on the world and are the perfect partnership. Their relationship is caring and filled with love. However, Mitchell is stuck in a rut and feels like he is just plodding along with life, that's until he saves a woman from falling from a bridge. A journey commences of discovery and evaluating life.

I bloody love this book and I think you will too. It's funny, humble and a feel-good story. Phaedra's attention to detail is endearing and I love her ability to make the story come alive.

The grief the main character experiences is so very real and so very sad. Made it hard for me to read.

I liked the premise of this book but for me the pace was too slow and it felt drawn out. The relationship between Mitchell and Liza didn’t seem strong enough for the time they were spending together; albeit discussing her missing sister. There were numerous visits for the two of them to her family and I just didn’t feel that as a reader we had seen their relationship develop enough for this. I wanted so much to enjoy this and perhaps my expectations were too high. I love the cover, It immediately drew me in.

A refreshing change to have grief, guilt, single parenting and love from the man’s perspective. A feel good factor book which was perfect for these isolation times

How do you learn to move on with your life when all you want to do is go back? Mitchell is an unhappy man who unwittingly becomes the hero of the day and thus begins a new chapter for him. Can he find some meaning in his life for himself and his daughter by helping others?
This is a gentle story of loss, love and the need to feel needed and that life is worth moving on with. It will leave you wanting Mitchell to find new purpose in his life. A lovely story.

It makes an interesting change for a male character to be the lead in a story that deals with grief, healing and moving on with life. I’ve really enjoyed Mitchell’s transformation and his experiences from stepping out of his comfort zone. He’s such a solid character and I must admit took a piece of my heart. His situation, is in part, a reflection of the duties and responsibilities society throws at us. His speech at Graham’s wedding just made me fall in love with him a little bit more.

Poppy is fabulous. Her perception of life as a 9 year old is spot on. I hadn’t thought of one piece of wisdom she said to Mitchell in one very emotional scene. She was so right. Aunt Jean is great too and is only the start of Mitchell’s move away from planning and structure. I wasn’t sure what to make of Liza – was she too whimsical and insubstantial?

I didn’t realise just how much I was attached to Mitchell and Poppy until I cried with them.

I’ve loved the mystery and the intrigue. The disappearance of Yvette kept me guessing and I so wanted to know what was in the lilac envelope! I could empathise with Mitchell’s reluctance… I’ve also enjoyed the padlocks and letters but most of all, how these things bound people together and the impact they had on everyone, even Carl the concierge. 🙂

Sometimes a book comes along that you’re so absorbed in that when you glance at how much you’ve read (on the Kindle) you’re gobsmacked you’re so far in. This is one of those stories.

The Secrets of Sunshine is entertaining, emotional and might even prompt you to look at life with optimism. A perfect read to escape with.

Highly recommended.

With thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for the arc, which I have enjoyed reading. This is a wonderfully happy book to read and enjoy. The author, Phaedra Patrick has written a book to lift the spirits at the time of lockdown because of the Coronavirus pandemic. The Secrets of Sunshine a warm, comforting book to read. A hug in a book.
Highly recommended.

This is a charming and sweet story. Mitchell Fisher had been an architect, working very hard to make a good life for his family, his much loved partner Anita, and their daughter Poppy. He works too hard on a large project, staying in the city in a small apartment several days a week because he works long hours, and often only manages to get home every other weekend. Then one day when he had promised to be home before lunch, he is called Into a meeting. Tragedy occurs, and he cannot forgive himself, he is left to look after Poppy alone. He tries too hard with her, tries to fill every moment. He changes his job so that he is home with her, but they have to move to his small apartment in the city. Poppy, like a lot of little girls her age is nine going on nineteen, she is very aware that her dad is a very lonely man. He is also a rather old-fashioned man, in a very sweet way. When he cannot sleep he writes love letters to Anita, puts them in an envelope, and places them in a drawer by his bed. The drawer also contains a letter from Anita, he has never opened it, he is scared what it might say.

He has a rather novel job, working for the council, removing the romantic padlocks from the city bridges, their weight causes damage. One evening when he is packing up to go and meet Poppy, a beautiful woman smiles at him, and shortly afterwards he sees her fall into the river. He jumps in to save her, and manages to get injured, ending up in hospital, whereas the woman is fine and rushes off ( he finds that out later). The story of the rescue is published in the local paper, and soon he is inundated with letters from people, wishing him well or telling their stories. The reporter who wrote the story want him to pick a winner who will receive a prize. Mitchell is thoroughly embarrassed!

It turns out that the woman who fell in the river is the sister of Liza, Poppy’s music teacher, and she has been missing for a long time. She writes to her family occasionally to say she is alright, but they have no idea where she is. Mitchell agrees to help look for her, and by chance he manages to find two people who were there when he rescued the woman, and they are able to give tiny clues which help to eventually track her down. Meanwhile Poppy Is asserting herself, making Mitchell realise that he is too organised, he needs to be a bit more carefree and spontaneous to keep her happy.

Mitchell is getting close to Liza, but he does not realise that their relationship is making him happy, he is so caught up in how he failed Anita, he has no expectations of ever finding love again. It takes a shock for him to realise how she has changed his life. The author has a lovely writing style, her characters are finely drawn and you are soon hoping that Mitchell will get the happy ending he so badly needs. The story is very logical, with tensions and excitement which builds, and gathers pace. There are a couple of unexpected characters who bring joy to the story. It is an uplifting tale, well worth reading. A delightful summer read.

This was a great story. Some sadness but a lot of joy. Likeable characters that moved the story along and a lovely conclusion. Just like we will feel when lockdown is over!

This is a beautifully written heart warming story. I loved it. It was a lovely way to spend an afternoon.

Thank you to Netgalley for my copy.

Going by the blurb I kinda thought this might be my book of the summer but unfortunately it just wasn’t for me. I found the tone of the whole book very suppressed and quite sad. I felt like I had to wait an awful long time for the story to get going and I really just didn’t connect with the main character unfortunately. I definitely think if you like a more subdued story then you will enjoy this.

If you need a book to give you a real pick-me-up just now, then look no further than Phaedra Patrick's latest novel, The Secrets of Sunshine. It's as cheerful inside as that bright cover suggests. The author's last novel, The Library of Lost and Found was one of my top reads last year so I had high hopes for this novel and I wasn't disappointed.

Mitchell was an architect who designed bridges but following the death of his wife, he gave up his job and now works for the council cutting love-locks off bridges instead. One day, a woman falls off the bridge and Mitchell jumps in to save her. It's fair to say that this changes his life in ways he could never have imagined.

I loved the way that Mitchell began the learn about the stories behind the love locks and to appreciate the significance of them. I'm not going to tell you how this came about as I don't want to spoil the story for you. Rather than seeing them as an act of vandalism to be removed, he could see the people behind the messages on the locks. There were lovely stories shared some of which brought a lump to my throat I must admit.

As with Phaedra Patrick's previous novels, the characters in this book are what made it so appealing to me. Mitchell himself although sad and grieving was clearly a man who had a big heart, shown not least by his love for his small daughter Poppy. The family of the woman he saved were all really fascinating to read about too, particularly quirky Auntie Jean. Then there's Carl the concierge in Mitchell's building, trainee newspaper reporter Susan, his boyhood friend Graham (who has some rather useful friends) and his workmate Barry. Each character added so much to the story for me, and the author brought them colourfully to life.

The Secrets of Sunshine is a gorgeous story about second chances and living life to the full. It's such an uplifting and hope-filled book that I can't imagine anyone not finishing it with a huge smile on their face.