Review: Ain’t She Sweet – Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Sugar Beth Carey’s come back to Parrish, Mississippi, and she’s brought her reputation for wreaking havoc with her. She’s broke,desperate, and too proud to show it, even with her old enemies lining up for a chance to get even. Her former girlfriends havet heir eyebrow pencils sharpened into lethal points. Winnie Davis,her longtime rival, is fully armed with the money, power, and prestige that had once been Sugar Beth’s. But worst of all is Colin Byrne, the man whose career Sugar Beth had destroyed — and not exactly accidentally.

Now Colin’s a famous novelist living in Sugar Beth’s old mansion,and this modern day dark prince is using his writer’s imagination to figure out how to bring the town’s beautiful former princess to her knees. But despite her sassy mouth, feisty spirit, and hardheaded ways, Sugar Beth’s no longer the spoiled rich girl they all remember. No, now she’s a woman to be reckoned with …and a great big reckonin’ is about to happen, not least of all for one dark prince who might — just might — be thinking about falling in love with the wickedest girl in town.

Ain’t She Sweet? A funny, heartwarming, oh-so-spicy story of love, friendship, and the possibility of happily-ever-after.

Series:
Release Date: January 25th 2005
Publisher: Avon
Source: Provided by Publisher
Reviewer: Shannon
Rating:

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Reviewer’s Thoughts

AIN’T SHE SWEET is one of my all time favorite SEP books.  It’s a combination of many things that makes this one of my favorites, but it’s the sassiness of Sugar Beth and the determination for her to prove she was more than the spoiled rich girl in high school that made me love it.

Sugar Beth was the teen queen been of Parrish.  She was mean, she lied and she used people when it was convenient for her.  She was a product of her mother, who thought they were better than everyone else.  But Sugar Beth fell and she fell hard.  Sugar Beth as an adult is a very different person.  She humble, she works for what she has and she’s determined to do what she needs to in order to take care of her late husband’s daughter.  She’s still got sass, but she’s a bit jaded and she’s lost.  But, unfortunately, when she returns home to basically the scene of her youthful crimes, she discovers that she’s the outcast and that not everyone is willing to give an older Sugar Beth a chance.

Sugar Beth’s love interest is ex-high school teacher and highly successful author, Colin Burns.  Despite what Sugar Beth did to him as a teenager, Colin is the only one in town that will talk to her and willing to give her a break.  Even when he’s talked into hosting a party meant to shame her, he does his best to defend her.  It’s really hard not to love Colin.  One of the few people who should hate Sugar Beth, his sometimes uptight, sexy British self was one of the best people to have in her corner.

SEP always gives us secondary character that bring out the best (and sometimes the worst) in the story’s main characters.  Between half sister/arch-nemesis Winnie, brother-in-law/ex-boyfriend Ryan and the rest of the Seawillows, they give readers plenty of comic relief and some additional emotional drama to round out a perfect story about an inperfect woman trying to move forward from her past.