The Sunflower

The best part is the orphanage!

While reading the other reviews, I think the best part is left out. The Sunflower orphanage in the book really exists to this day...it is amazing. They literally save the kids from the streets and they are giving them a new life. I think that is the best part of the story. I now want to go help in places on earth that are not as fortunate as we in the US are. It's a great read for anyone who has considered missions work. Southern Cross Humanitarian makes trips here alot. Read the book and go help save lives...make a difference!

1 out of 2 people found this review helpful.

Thrilling and Romantic at the same Time

This ia a wonderful book to read. The whole story made me realize how fortunate we are to live here in the USA but also how much we take for granted.

1 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Love

Love

A touching story that everyone needs to read. Made me feel so th

A touching story that everyone needs to read. Made me feel so thankful to be where I am.

Enjoyable

This is a book that you should read, its about love, sacarfice, and friendship, a good overall read

Highly Recommended

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and had a hard time taking putting it down. If you are looking for a weekend read where you just curl up with a romantic book. This is the book I would recommend for you!

AWAZING!!

i got this book before i got my nook and i must say that i LOVED it. its a good story abbot love and hope i think everyone should read this book:)

Great Book

This book inspired me to go to Peru and see the sights that the author wrote about. I am so glad I read it! Machu Picchu is incredible. I did not climb to the top of Huayna Picchu, like they did in the book, because we didn't have time after our tour. My son and I did, however, do the 1 day Inca Trail that starts from the 104K marker in order to get to Machu Picchu. It was sureal to just hop off the train in the middle of nowhere and watch it leave us there. It was a tough climb due to the altitude but it was so worth it! We chewed coca leaves and drank coca tea while we were there and didn't have any altitude sickness at all. We also tried the cuy while we were in Cusco like they did in the book - it tasted like roasted duck. I don't remember the book mentioning the national drink, Pisco Sour, but we tried that too, a few times! We didn't go to the Peruvian jungle but we did go to the jungle in Ecuador. It was exactly like the author described, we even stayed in a lodge very much like the one in the book. We made sure to take malaria pills!! I know everyone else wrote their reviews about the characters and the storyline in the book but the places those characters went were so interesting to me that I just had to go and see it myself... Great book!

A clean romantic book.

This book was a very nice book to read. It was a sweet book without all the sex. It was about a woman moving on and finding a love and a mission at the same time helping another find his way back to living.

A great love story

A wonderful book to read about love, between two people. I will read it again someday.

Story full of hope.

Another great story by Evans. A little bittersweet. Anyone who's suffered a breakup of a marriage or love will find inspiration in this book.

Amazing and Intellectual

This book was full of characters you can relate to and a wonderful plot you can just dream about. It might not have been up to par with the high standards which we seem to put with all his books, but definently an extremely suspence filled book. It took me a while to finish, but 'The Sunshine' will remain a favorite of mine.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Waiting for a movie to be made

Again Richard Paul Evans has captivated me with a story. I read this book rather fast, because it was so hard to put down. This year it will be Christmas gifts for all my book reading friends and family. This is a heart warming story and a bit of a surprise is in store for you. I think it would make a lovely movie, not only is the story great, but it would raise awareness, too

Hope latches on to anything that floats...

¿El Girasol (the Sunflower) is a sanctuary, as much to me as to the orphan boys we rescue from the Peruvian streets. For in a world where evil seems to triumph more then not, El Girasol is evidence that we might be something better- evidence that we might be good.¿ In the book The Sunflower by Richard Paul Evans, El Girasol (the Sunflower) is exactly where the adventure for a women named Christine begins, a women who is recovering from the call off of her wedding. Christine¿s best friend Jessica enrolls her in a humanitarian mission in Peru in a desperate attempt to get Christine to forget. What Christine doesn¿t realize is that Paul Cook was right when he said, ¿ The surest way to minimize your own burdens is to carry someone else¿s.¿ And that is exactly what happens when Christine visits the orphanage (El Girasol) and meets with the boys and girl who love each other more then she ever thought anyone could after the pain they had been through and falls for the one man that is everything to these children. But in a twist of fate, her time with Paul is extended when under horrible circumstances, her guide is unable to take the group through the jungle, and steeping up to the challenge Paul becomes the new guide. But when Christine falls ill, and she and Paul are stuck together in the jungle, they both must learn to trust and love again, forgiving all that happened to them in the past. IN a world where ¿we fret over a sport star¿s twisted ankle or ill-fated marriage of celebrities, yet lose no sleep over a hundred million children living in the streets.¿ Can these two lovers make it when the jungle scene is traded in for the city, and they are no longer alone, but joined by Christine¿s doubtful friend Jessica, and an unexpected guest? ¿Feelings can be like wild animal- we underrate how fierce they are until we¿ve opened their cages.¿ Just how fierce do their feelings turn out to be? Enough to over come the difference between Christine¿s world and Paul¿s?

Amazing :)

The setting and justification for the plot was amazing. It took place on a missionary trip and what unfolds throughout the trip makes you believe in possibilities, and the unexpected. I love a good old fashion love story, but when you fall in love with the characters as their love grows, you just can't get any better than that. Renews the hope for any single or recently seperated girl out there. Just a wonderful book to lift your spirits.

0 out of 1 people found this review helpful.

Critics Reviews are Right On

Not a Richard Evans best. The character development was poor, I cared far less about the main characters than I did the children in the story. What Mr.Evans has been able to do in helping at The Sunflower is fantastic. But I was truly disappointed in the storyline. I had much higher expectations and was a little insulted that the author would think his loyal readers would be drawn into a story with such shallow characters. Diary excerpts were the saving grace of the book, although they really didn't have a place in the story. Save your money & check out The Sunflower from the library. Donate your money to help the children in the book at the authors website instead: richardpaulevans.com

YOU'LL LAUGH AND YOU WILL CRY

I loved this book so much that I found myself reading it by flashlight when the power went off one night! I love a good love story but, even more, I love a love story with substance, with characters that move me and change me. The Sunflower did just that. Thank you, Richard, for another winner!

Worth the Wait

I love this book! Evans casts a spell from the very first page. I laughed. I cried. I didn't want it to end. Christine's wedding getting canceled was heartbreaking. Paul's E.R. experience was more so. But just like in life, greater gifts came from the pain. Might I add, every woman could wish to be dumped to spend just one day with Dr. Paul Cook! Yum.

A tale of love and hardship.

This book reminds us that when taking chances we may never know how much we can gain if our focus is on what we may lose. It really is better to give than receive and love can be found in the places we least expect.

An uplifting, compassionate tale

Since I've recently returned from a village where our group helped set up a medical clinic, I enjoyed the humanitarian setting as compassion meets romance in the lush, Amazon jungle. In 'The Sunflower,' Evans again weaves some wonderfully insightful journal entries from our hero into the story, so his dedication to the children is as vivid as it is to getting the girl.