Now this is more like it! Episode five contains what I love the most about The Sunshine Time – drama, romance, Lea being a badass protagonist and the humour. If the rest of the season can be like episode five, then I will be a very happy reader!Visiting Drumont’s Bar, a shady cabaret, to listen to the indie folk band Moon-Web and to, hopefully, retrieve her sketchbook from the clowns, Lea Chantry is amazed to run into acquaintances from the train.

This is definitely what I wanted after reading the first couple of amazing episodes! The pace was definitely on the right track; it wasn’t too fast and it wasn’t too slow. I loved the grungy description of Drumont’s bar and I loved that Lea’s mom went with her! I can just imagine her mom sitting at the table, looking around her and making a face at anything weird or dirty that she might see. Just picturing it made me laugh.

I loved how Panse brought some familiar faces back into the fold; I was scared that the old characters would be forgotten about and we were going to be introduced to new characters all the way through. But no: The Countess came back which I was happy about because I absolutely loved her when she was on the train with Lea and I loved how she went along with Lea’s story. It made the relationship between the two of them seem so sweet.

“We have no business squatting on other people’s land and we have only ourselves to blame if they take a dim view of it. I mean, c’mon, what would you do if someone barged into our house and just took it over? How would you react? Are you going to say, welcome, intruders, take it all, we’ll gladly confine ourselves to the bathroom. That is, until you want us out of the bathroom as well. Then we will happily kill ourselves and leave you to deal with our bodies as you please. Is that what you would say? Of course not. You would make a complete ruckus. So why are you surprised when other people do the same?”

– Sonal Panse, The Sunshine Time S1 E5

The identity of Pumpkins is also revealed and I was so shocked! I genuinely didn’t see that coming!

There was a tiny amount of filler dialogue half way through whilst they were waiting for the band to come on stage but in reality, that’s what a gig is like: you talk to the people you’re with and the people around you whilst you eagerly wait for the performance.

I cannot wait to read episode six. At the time of writing this, episode six hasn’t been released but as soon as it is, I’m definitely going to reading it!

Disclaimer: ‘The Sunshine Time’ is a serial novel. The episodes need to be read in sequence. This is not a standalone novel. Please be aware of this.

Each episode will be published on a fortnightly schedule (that is, every two weeks). At present, 30 episodes are planned for Season 1

This episode was sent to me by the author for an honest review.