Ain't She Sweet?

staying up late and then waking up early to finish a book >>>

Loved LOVED LOVED Sugar Beth! BUT! I do think the secondary love story was given more interesting shit to chew on? Which is wild considering Sugar Beth falsely accuses the MMC of sexual harassment! Essentially, Sugar Beth and Colin's shit from enemies to pants feeling to I guess we're in love with one another felt a little too easy? There wasn't enough exploration of Colin being a teacher and now friends with everyone Sugar Beth went to high school with? Or the fallout from the accusations - which all seemed to wash away pretty fast. I guess I was hoping for more complicated confrontations wrt this aspect of Colin and Sugar Beth's history. I enjoyed the HS flashbacks and I show more loved how Sugar Beth was actually a bully bitch. She did some terrible things to people and this isn't ignored in the text. Her family history is MESSY in ways that I wish was more common in romance? Anyway, back to the secondary romance (Winnie and Ryan) who had all the messy, complicated conversations that the main couple did not have. Also, what Winnie did to "trap" Ryan WAS fucked up but we process this on page more satisfyingly: Ryan knew all along about what Winnie did and let that anger build up for over a decade. I loved not knowing if they were gonna make it - I was on the edge of my seat! But Sugar Beth and Colin? I stoped caring because I never really believed they meant anything to one another. show less

3.7 stars

Quick wrap-up: Woman limps back to her hometown where she was a capital B, trying to find a painting left to her by her aunt. The teacher who she lied about and got fired owns her childhood home now and is out for revenge, along with everyone else in town.
It was all “young tough girl in a push-up bra” because her dad ignored her but showered love on his illegitimate family, but she still refuses as an adult to let down her wall but everyone eventually figures out she's got some caring in her.
Fighting, flirting, grit, tears, dated-ness, and laughter.
And Gordon, he should have gotten a pov!

It was cold outside. She rested her cheek against his shirtfront. He wasn’t even breathing hard as he carried her across the yard with show more Gordon leading the way.
“Furthermore,” he went on, “you will be rested. And”—he gripped her tighter—“sweet-tempered.”
“You had more to drink than I thought.” She yawned and closed her eyes. “Go ahead and admit it. You’re afraid of me.”
“Terrified is more like it.” She burrowed deeper into his chest. “I’m a handful, all right.”
“My worst nightmare.”

Oof, this story. It is, obviously, aged in some areas. He was her high school teacher and some of the lines he has when he thinks about how she looked back then, Cringe. But, also, there was a raw fearlessness to the writing, the characters make mistakes, they're so far from perfect, but gah, that delivered hit you in the gut emotion. This was also that blend of funny wild, almost off the rails that the late '90s-early-to-mid 00s had.

He wore the raunchiest pair of Levi’s she’d ever seen—threadbare in the right knee, a hole in the butt—an equally ratty gray T-shirt, worn work gloves, and scuffed, dirt-encrusted brown work boots, one of which had a knot holding the shoelace together. An honest-to-God smudge ran up alongside that gorgeous honker of a nose. And he’d never looked more irresistible. She scowled. “Even your hair’s a mess.”

I don't even know how to articulate how this descriptive scene makes me feel, but it does, and it's such a blip on the radar scene but I see his hotness and I feel how it makes her feel. It's one of those, we're losing the recipes examples for me.

He didn’t say it sarcastically, but she stiffened, and he cursed the part of him that was so terrified of the sentimental that he tainted everything with cynicism, even when he didn’t intend it.

I hate when books personally call me out.
Anyway, this felt Adult, whether it was the emotions, actions, or words, relentlessly adult.

Since you are a lunatic, however, this is the only way.”
“You planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?”
“Let’s simply say that you’re not the sort of woman who can be permitted to run amok.”

One of the best love you warts and all story

*I didn't know you used to have to get a blood test before you got your marriage license??? I was enjoying the HEA ending and this little line “Leeann dragged Sugar Beth to the lab for her blood test.” had me losing my mind and Googling for an hour. I hate I'm this way but now I can say, “I learned it from a Romance book!” show less

This book shows what the romance genre can achieve. Its major themes are redemption and forgiveness, and it attacks those themes from multiple angles, through the perspectives of a number of characters, in a way that allows it to balance acknowledgement of the lasting damage of bullying and other cruelties against the potential psychological and social value of pursuing understanding and restoration with those that hurt us. I love it!

I absolutely adore Susan Elizabeth Phillips, she is one of my favorite authors ever! Okay, just had to say that first! Now, on with the review of one of my favorite books in the entire world...

Sugar Beth? Did I read that right? Sure did! How amazing is that name? When I saw this book I had gotten no further than the first sentence of the synopsis and I had already decided to buy it, I knew that with the leading character named Sugar Beth I would love this book.

Ain't She Sweet is one of those books that you finish, and instantly want to reread. This book has betrayal, lies, love, sex and everything in between. The total package okay?

You absolutely want to hate Sugar Beth, but you can't. Everyone makes mistakes and SB made more than her show more fair share! Trying to overcome her reputation as a 'mean girl' in the town she grew up in... Where her illegitimate half sister is now married to her high school sweetheart... She ends up housekeeping for her High School English teacher... The same guy she had rode out of town on a red hot rail...

I find myself not even being able to describe how immensely great this book is, because all the words I put together don't do it justice. In short- JUST READ THIS BOOK. show less

Simply put, this might just be the most perfect romance ever written. SEP is a MASTER!

How do you go about convincing readers to root for a heroine you would have taken a contract out on in high school??? MS. Phillips has done the impossible, inspiring compassion for a world of characters who, half the time make you hate them, the other adore them.

Sugar Beth returned home in search of a painting, and must confront those she wronged years ago and prove to them all she's changed.
If I had a scoring system, AIN'T SHE SWEET would be off the charts.

I just finished reading "Ain't She Sweet". Thank goodness my husband was late coming home from his split shift Saturday!! I absolutely loved Sugar Beth from the opening introduction. Can't imagine why it took me so long to read it but glad I didn't miss it! For all of you last minute shoppers, this title should be shared with every reader who adores romance novels. It's the best! It is highly unusual for me to think of reading a novel again as there are so many books to read - but this is one that I would definitely read again! Now I can wrap the rest of the gifts. I couldn't wrap the gifts first and finish reading this one later. Definitely not.

Inte någon snäll flicka är lite som en modern Borta med vinden om man tänker på huvud karaktären Sugar Beth som har stora likheter med Scarlet O Hara, även romansen med Colin Byrne e lik den hat kärleken som fanns mellan Scarlet och Rhett Butler, miljön utspelas i Söder i en liten stad vid Mississipi. Tyvärr går inte språket i Inte någon snäll flicka att gemföras med Borta i vinden, visa beskrivningar kan kännas som i en harlequin roman sliskigt och dåligt. Men jag är svag för böcker med starka kvinnliga karaktärert och tycker detta var en bra bok. En stark 3 får den i betyg :