By Molly Fader
I was first drawn to this novel because of my fascination with Hollywood cinema and historical fiction war novels. Finding a book that touches upon both is rare, so I was eager to get my hands on this one. Ultimately, what kept me interested throughout the exhilarating tales of BettyKay and Kitty was not the glamor of Hollywood nor the nitty-gritty reality of a nurse during wartime. Rather, it was the unbreakable bond between two women who could not be more different from one another that made me stay up far too late, turning pages.
The Sunshine Girls tells the story of BettyKay, a young woman from Iowa who leaves her farm town to go to college and study nursing right at the helm of the Vietnam War, and Kitty, an Atlanta-born city girl with big dreams escaping a past she’d rather not talk about. The story splits into two parts: one following BettyKay and Kitty through nursing school as roommates, and another showing Clara and Abbie resolving their differences to bury their mother, BettyKay. When Kitty, a world-famous movie star, shows up at their mother’s funeral in the middle of nowhere Iowa, Clara, Abbie, and the rest of the Greensboro population are stunned. BettyKay had never mentioned knowing the alluring actress, let alone being her very best friend. As Kitty reveals what other secrets BettyKay kept from her children, Clara and Abbie must grapple with the fact that perhaps their mother had more to her than what meets the eye.
Following this story beside Abbie and Clara was a genuine gift. As Kitty lays it all out on the table for them, the reader feels the shock, heartbreak, relief, and love right beside Clara and Abbie, making us feel like we, too, are one of BettyKay’s girls.
Because I don’t want to rob the reader of the emotional, thrilling turning points in this novel, I won’t say anything else about the plot. I will, however, say that this book is a testimony to the strength of a mother’s love and the beauty and rarity of female friendships in our world. Some of us are fortunate enough to have a mother who is like a best friend, some of us have sisters who fill that role. And sometimes, if we’re really lucky, we find our soulmate in an unlikely stranger who becomes a part of our soul. Who not only knows all our flaws and low points, but who lived them with us. Who drives us mad but is also the only one who can talk us off the panic rail. They are the first ones we call when all hope feels lost. The one who sees through all our fake smiles and insincere pleasantries. Who knows us better than we know ourselves? Who knows when to pry and when to just listen? Who, when we look back on all our fondest memories, is present in every single one of them. They are the ones whose souls seem interwoven with ours. They are our Sunshine Girls. And if you are ever lucky enough to stumble upon a friend like that, hold on to them with everything you have. That is the biggest takeaway I got from this beautifully written novel. With tears in my eyes and a longing for more of BettyKay and Kitty in my heart, I closed this book and immediately gave a call to my Sunshine Girls.
–Katherine Bilbao