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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
A cute women's fiction that was mainly an escapism read. Certain sections grabbed me, while others were predicable and clinched. Overall a fun summer read.
I just loved this book. I read it two years ago, but I reread it like three more times after that.
Who I love more Sugar Beth or Colin?
I love them both. Amazing characters that swept me of my feet. Wonderful story about two people that just needed love.
Who I love more Sugar Beth or Colin?
I love them both. Amazing characters that swept me of my feet. Wonderful story about two people that just needed love.
Like:
- This book is set in the south and I loved how that was reflected in this book. The setting is a small town and its inhabitants have names like Jewel and Sugar Beth. Sugar Beth also speaks like a southerner which creates some funny situations.
- Sugar Beth is a very sarcastic, funny but lovable character. Seriously enjoying reading about her.
- The sisterly relationship that's showcased throughout this book was so cute. I think it was my favourite part of this.
- It wasn't just a romance novel. There were many other relationships explored and it added another dimension to the story.
Dislike:
- This book is a romance novel. I wasn't feeling the romance. I didn't get how their feelings were starting to develop since the love interest HATED Sugar Beth when she was a teenager. The romance felt unhealthy and too dramatic.
- It feels really weird for the male main character to have been the English teacher for the people he is now friends with.
- I imagined Sugar Beth to be like 40? But apparently she's supposed to be beginning 30's.
- This book is set in the south and I loved how that was reflected in this book. The setting is a small town and its inhabitants have names like Jewel and Sugar Beth. Sugar Beth also speaks like a southerner which creates some funny situations.
- Sugar Beth is a very sarcastic, funny but lovable character. Seriously enjoying reading about her.
- The sisterly relationship that's showcased throughout this book was so cute. I think it was my favourite part of this.
- It wasn't just a romance novel. There were many other relationships explored and it added another dimension to the story.
Dislike:
- This book is a romance novel. I wasn't feeling the romance. I didn't get how their feelings were starting to develop since the love interest HATED Sugar Beth when she was a teenager. The romance felt unhealthy and too dramatic.
- It feels really weird for the male main character to have been the English teacher for the people he is now friends with.
- I imagined Sugar Beth to be like 40? But apparently she's supposed to be beginning 30's.
I really enjoyed this one. Sugar Beth returns to her hometown to claim her inheritance. Although many years have passed, Sugar Beth is frozen in people's minds as a spoiled, spiteful teenager. She had one goal in mind when she comes back to town, but she gets so much more.
This book was a lot of fun. Sugar was witty and sarcastic. The banter was very amusing, and so were many of the book's events. Tears welled in my eyes when we had to relive some of her past, or when she spoke to her step daughter. I am a huge fan of redemption stories, and we get more than one redemption story in this book.
Sugar Beth is a definite star. She was everything you look for in good heroine: strong, smart, determined. She was someone you grew to love, and wanted to root for. I loved a lot of the side characters too.
This book was a lot of fun. Sugar was witty and sarcastic. The banter was very amusing, and so were many of the book's events. Tears welled in my eyes when we had to relive some of her past, or when she spoke to her step daughter. I am a huge fan of redemption stories, and we get more than one redemption story in this book.
Sugar Beth is a definite star. She was everything you look for in good heroine: strong, smart, determined. She was someone you grew to love, and wanted to root for. I loved a lot of the side characters too.
Oh man, I really didn't like how this book ended. The premise is bitch queen from High school comes back to small town and has to deal with the consequences of her actions, and she does, and it's going pretty good. I liked her inner strength and grace, and how she's obviously matured but still had the same core. The focus is a lot on the Ideals of Southern Womanhood and how they can either provide strength or screw you up, depending, forgiveness, mother-daughter and sister relationships and why acting like a dick in highschool is bad, but continuing that behaviour into adulthood is the real problem. The romance plot is more push me pull me than I usually go for, but they two characters are so much emotional and intellectual equals that it felt more like a game then vindictive.
But then the hero, now a famous author, publishes a tell all about how her mother was a bitch and she screwed him over. Mitigating factors being that she did screw him over, he wrote it before she came back and they were reconciled, it was too far along in the publication process to change, and he did give her an ARC once they were reconciled as a heads up. STILL! Infuriated, she tries to dump him, or at least seriously put the breaks on their relationship, then decides to leave town to get away from him because he doesn't want to. He calls her a coward, then leaves town himself so she doesn't have to. When she wants to resume the relationship, having weathered the national media attention that the book brought by herself (since he's vanished), he says he'll only come back if she not only agrees to marry him, but is standing at the alter waiting. Everything has to be on his terms. And the worst part is, she agrees to this! The push me/pull me relationship ends with her putting up a white flag and doing what he tells her. Then it turns out he wrote a sequel to his book as a love letter to her, and everything's fine.
So basically he screws her over via public humiliation in a way that gets national media attention, then refuses to give her space, then will only give her space as a punishment, then wants her to live on his terms. Why the fuck would you marry this guy?
But then the hero, now a famous author, publishes a tell all about how her mother was a bitch and she screwed him over. Mitigating factors being that she did screw him over, he wrote it before she came back and they were reconciled, it was too far along in the publication process to change, and he did give her an ARC once they were reconciled as a heads up. STILL! Infuriated, she tries to dump him, or at least seriously put the breaks on their relationship, then decides to leave town to get away from him because he doesn't want to. He calls her a coward, then leaves town himself so she doesn't have to. When she wants to resume the relationship, having weathered the national media attention that the book brought by herself (since he's vanished), he says he'll only come back if she not only agrees to marry him, but is standing at the alter waiting. Everything has to be on his terms. And the worst part is, she agrees to this! The push me/pull me relationship ends with her putting up a white flag and doing what he tells her. Then it turns out he wrote a sequel to his book as a love letter to her, and everything's fine.
So basically he screws her over via public humiliation in a way that gets national media attention, then refuses to give her space, then will only give her space as a punishment, then wants her to live on his terms. Why the fuck would you marry this guy?
It's darn close to five stars, except I just can't get swoony over an Englishman in the American South. A northerner maybe, but that British accent in print in a small Southern town stopped me every time. (But then, I do not as a rule find British accents automatically swoony.)
However, this is such a good, good book. I didn't want to shelve it in chick lit, I bumped it up to fiction. The real stuff. Why is it so good?
1. Best Wedding Dress Ever.
2. Best conversation with a kid on how to find your personal power
3. Fabulous longtime marriage re-kindling
4. Biting sharp banter instead of eyelash fluttering
5. Relationships with your girlfriends matter, not just men
6. Small town personalities and politics (always fun fictionally if not in real life.)
However, this is such a good, good book. I didn't want to shelve it in chick lit, I bumped it up to fiction. The real stuff. Why is it so good?
1. Best Wedding Dress Ever.
2. Best conversation with a kid on how to find your personal power
3. Fabulous longtime marriage re-kindling
4. Biting sharp banter instead of eyelash fluttering
5. Relationships with your girlfriends matter, not just men
6. Small town personalities and politics (always fun fictionally if not in real life.)
emotional
funny
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A cute, fun, and sexy read. Good bantering - especially between the main characters - and satisfying sub-plots for secondary characters. Entertaining, but I'm not sure how memorable it will be.
"So far in my major book reading lately I have found that no one else but Susan Elizabeth Phillips can write a great romance novel where every single one (thus far that I've read) deals with opposites attracting to each other (or at least that's what the characters believe in the beginning). My favorite of her novels is still "Match Me If You Can" from her The Chicago Stars books.
However, I just finished reading "Ain't She Sweet"!! And I have to say it has become my second fave out of all her books! Definitely 5 out of 5 stars! It's all ..."
Read more of my review here: https://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-opposites-attract.html
However, I just finished reading "Ain't She Sweet"!! And I have to say it has become my second fave out of all her books! Definitely 5 out of 5 stars! It's all ..."
Read more of my review here: https://frommetoyouvideophoto.blogspot.com/2009/11/when-opposites-attract.html