I grew up on Robin McKinley's Damar books (Blue Sword and Hero and the Crown) and really loved them at the time. Now that I'm older and a little more cynical, I have problems with Blue Sword especially, as the epitome of What These People Need Is A Honky trope.

I think her best but most gut-wrenchingly hard to read book is Deerskin, which is a sort of feminist retelling of the folktale Donkeyskin, which is about a young princess whose father tries to "marry" (ie., rape) her, and she runs away and bags a prince. Anyhow, I think McKinley really outdid herself on that one--I think by the metaphors you mention I would consider it a "dancing" book, and fairly unusually beautiful given how hit-or-miss her books can be.

I've bounced off of all of her other books--didn't make it even a third of the way through Spindle's End. Like you said, it's a cute premise but I couldn't get into the characters, and it didn't grab me. Sunshine was cute as far as vampire romances go, but I don't consider it particularly noteworthy.