A review by downtown_kb
Ain't She Sweet? by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

emotional funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 Sugar Beth returns to her small town, widowed and broke. Unfortunately, in high school she was the “meal girl” and the townsfolk have a long memory.

I felt the romance wasn’t really flushed out fully between these two - although they had good banter, and seemed to really understand each other - it was an abrupt switch from enemies to “I love them.” I do always like a buttoned up, sarcastic MMC, tho. 

However, this was a really interesting read as a character study. I was fully into the bully who returns to town as a changed woman but everyone in the town is still stuck in the past so they treat her poorly and are all quite horrible. haha. She had a great redemption arc and, despite hearing the terrible things she did as a teenager, I was fully on her side and really really liked her as a still flawed but genuine fmc. SEP did a great job of making me upset by how mean/immature/closeminded all the adults were being. 

SEP is a great writer, this is no exception, and built a great cast for some classic small town shenanigans and it was all very clever. 

 
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