Rating: 
Summary: SEP does a great job!
Review: I love all of Susan Elizabeth Phillips books and when I read the preview for this book, I wasn't too sure I was going to like it. SEP did a beautiful job with the character of Sugar Beth. You really wanted to hate her, but you just couldn't. I would feel the "pang" of discomfort as some parts, then I would laugh out loud. I dont like "?itchy" characters, but the story was done in such a way that you felt the hurt, but the pain was eased with love and laughter. She did a really great job! It's a don't miss. Makes you think back to how you were and where you want to be today.
Rating:
Summary: Loved it!
Review: This book was fabulous. It is laugh out loud funny, thought provoking and poignant. It is a keeper. I will probably read this book again and again just to relive the magic. Well Magnolia...you've done it again! Now I have to wait another year for your next book. Heavy sigh...
Rating:
Summary: Never wanted it to end
Review: I loved it! I have been looking forward to her newest book since the day after her last year release. I had this pre-ordered and I couldn't wait for it to arrive. The truth was I was not all that crazy about Breathing Room (I still enjoyed it very much) so I was hoping this was going to be more fun. I was not disappointed. The hardcover price was so worth it, I brought a few more as gifts for friends. All the characters were imperfect but so very lovable, I had just wanted it to never end.
Rating:
Summary: One of SEP's best!
Review: Some of my favorite stories by SEP are about redemption. And boy, does Sugar Beth Carey need redeeming. Nobody takes risks like this author, with her stories and her characters. Sugar Beth did some vicious things in her past that she hasn't outlived and when she returns home to Parrish Mississippi, nobody's in the mood to forgive her. Sugar Beth is broke and 3-times divorced and in desperate need of a job while she searches for the valuable painting her Aunt Tallulah left her. Nobody wants to hire Sugar Beth until Colin--the high school teacher she got fired from his job years ago--hires her as his housekeeper. What SEP does is take an unsypathetic character and expose different layers of Sugar Beth until we grow to like her in spite of ourselves. And SEP doesn't pull in punches. Sugar Beth did some awful things and she richly deserves the humiliation that's coming her way. But somehow, in the middle of the lesson, Sugar Beth's smart mouth, sassy attitude and pride turn the tables. I laughed out loud so many times in this book, I can't count them. SEP has never been funnier. Sugar Beth's aspersions about Colin's sexuality (he is a bit of fop) are hilarious. And Colin is sarcastic enough to both enjoy them and return the favor. This book has some of the best dialogue I've ever read in a romantic comedy between the two leads. Then there is Sugar Beth's relationship with her half-neice, Gigi, a budding Sugar Beth who's the richest girl in town and shows signs of being a beauty. Gigi is forbidden to have anything to do with her aunt, which of course drives her right into Sugar Beth's path. Sugar Beth teaches Gigi about how to grab hold of her power and it's one of my favorite subplots in the book. I have to put this one up with my two other favorites--"It Had to be You" and "Dream A Little Dream".
Rating:
Summary: Captivating and Witty Romance
Review: Sugar Beth Carey is back in town. After a fifteen-year absence and three husbands later, Sugar Beth returns to the small town of Parrish, Mississippi, to claim her inheritance from Aunt Tallulah, the carriage house belonging to Sugar Beth's childhood home, Frenchman's Bride. Desperately seeking funds to help support her mentally disabled adult step-daughter, Sugar Beth searches the carriage house for a precious painting hidden by her deceased aunt. But there is hell to pay, as Sugar Beth has nary a friend in Parrish, and Frenchman's Bride is now owned by Colin Byrne, her former English teacher that was bounced after she accused him of sexual misconduct. Even her long ago friends, the Seawillows, have deserted Sugar Beth in favor of her step-sister Winnie, after Sugar Beth abandoned them years ago. In this complex study of small town relationships, Sugar Beth must learn to co-exist in a town that has abandoned her as its golden girl, even as she faces Winnie, the woman she humiliated as a girl who married Ryan Galantine, the man Sugar Beth discarded years ago. While the sparks fly between Sugar Beth and Colin, he is determined to exact his revenge for her role in getting him fired years ago. Hiring Sugar Beth as his housekeeper seems to be the perfect humiliation, but underneath Sugar Beth's witty banter, Colin is surprised to find a woman as desirable for her looks as her strength of character. Ms. Phillips latest never ceases to entertain in this novel that creatively combines steamy romance with a captivating plot line.
Rating: 
Summary: engaging relationship drama
Review: In high school, Sugar Beth Carey and her Seawillows dominated the local scene treating everyone else with contempt. Among her victims was a young British teacher Colin Byrne, whose career she ruined. Years later Sugar Beth returns home having accomplished little in her life except regrets. She hopes to sell her deceased aunt's valuable painting done by renowned local artist Ceredon Ash. Sugar Beth is shocked at how well everyone has made it since she dumped her sweetheart Ryan when she left for U of Mississippi for a football star who is now her ex-husband. When she sees Colin she is sorry for what she did to him and is very attracted to him, but he does not trust her though he finds he desires her. Winnie Davis is running scared that her spouse Ryan still loves Sugar Beth. However, that does not matter to Sugar Beth as she now believes you can never go home as nothing remains the same. She wants Colin permanently in her life, but believes he could never forgive her though she hopes he lovingly deem her his forever honey. AIN'T SHE SWEET is an engaging relationship drama that focuses on whether a former teen pack leader can ever go home especially as a failure. The story line is character driven as the audience understands what makes key players tick, especially the fear that motivates the lead couple, the former Seawillows, and the Davis duo. Though not much action occurs, to fans of tales that go deep inside the soul of its stars Susan Elizabeth Phillips provides a delightful read. Harriet Klausner
Rating:
Summary: My favorite book this summer!!
Review: I just finshed the audio version of this book, and I have to say it is one of the best books Philips has ever written. I laughed so hard I cried, and I cried at times too. Sugarbeth is not quite what she appears to be, and I will not spoil the book for any new reader by saying much about the plot, but Sugarbeth truly is a "woman for the ages." There is a lot of wisdon buried in the pages of this book, and Philips does not cheat her readers by ending the story too soon, or taking the easy way out. I spend a lot of time and money on books, in particular audio books which cost a lot more than a paperback, and I appreciate an author who gives me 110%. That is rare today when a lot of best selling authors pump out books by the dozen and feed us recycled junk in order to get us to buy another book. That is not true with Philips, and this book is a great example of the writings of an author who loves her audience and her characters.
Rating:
Summary: Sugar Beth -- An Antiheroine for the Ages!
Review: I don't actually read that much contemporary romance--but if it is all as much fun as "Ain't She Sweet", perhaps I should! I *devoured* this book in less than a day and enjoyed every minute of it.
Sugar Beth Carey was the richest, most beautiful and *bitchiest* girl in her high school class in Parrish, Mississippi. The homecoming queen who dated the most gorgeous guy in the class, Sugar Beth seemed to have everything anyone could possibly want. She ruled even her friends with the iron hand of social intimidation and made life *hell on earth* for her enemies--most notably Winnie Davis, a shy, geeky classmate and Colin Byrne, a young teacher whose clash with Sugar Beth resulted in his dismissal for sexual misconduct.
Fifteen years and three marriages later, Sugar Beth returns home to Parrish broke and desperate, hoping to find a legacy left by her aunt that could solve her financial problems. Her former victims are now wealthy, successful members of the Parrish community and thirsty for revenge against the girl who once callously rejected, humiliated or destroyed them. But as they try to extract their vengenance, they slowly begin to realize that Sugar Beth is not the same girl that she was fifteen years ago.
I adored the character of Sugar Beth! Kudos to Susan Elizabeth Phillips for taking such a truly negative character and giving her a heart and soul. Although there is no excusing her really *bad* behavior as a teenager, it becomes clear that Sugar Beth's young life was not as perfect as it seemed and that she has had to do some serious growing up in the intervening fifteen years. She was such a terror as a teenager that just about everyone in the town has some sort of grudge against her--many for reasons that she cannot even recall. The scene where a humbled but not broken Sugar Beth is obliged to wait upon her malicious former classmates is wonderfully done. The character of Colin Byrne, the disgraced teacher who has become a successful writer, is also excellent and his reasons for hating Sugar Beth are *very* valid, making his efforts to resist her attractions quite believable.
In summary, this is a very enjoyable contemporary romance with a strong, complex, very imperfect heroine and a fine hero. The story line is fast and fun and the dialogue (especially between Sugar Beth and Colin) witty and spirited. Oh, and I *loved* the quotes from Georgette Heyer novels at the beginning of each chapter!
Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Total 180
Review: This is only the second book that I have read by SEP and I liked the first book well enough to look at others. I had just picked this book up on a whim at the book store when I saw it there. I figured it would at least be ok. It started out intreguing. Why did Sugar Beth do this or that? Why does she have to stay? Then you start to meet all the others. The Seawillows, Colin, Ryan and the others. About 1/3 of the way in the book I was mad. Sience when is it ok for people to act like that? Who do they think they are. It was a dicusting display of retubitition. I could not believe what I was reading. And why oh why was Sugar Beth Staying there? Why was she taking what they were dishing? Oh, dont get me wrong, Sugar Beth was a great heroine, and she did not take it without giving some back. She did not exactly take it, but she didnt really dish it how she could have. You will see what I mean. Hard to discribe. Quiet dignity Maybe?
From everyones memories of Sugar Beth you learn that she was not so sweet growing up. But when you compair that Sugar Beth to the one we meet in the book, you see a vast difference in the two. She grown up to be a different person. She is really strong. She is one of the greatest heroines that I have read. Disregard stupid name. She really is not like you would think.
The story progresses to Sugar Beth looking for her painting and life as she is learning to live it at the opposit end from where she started in the town. Everyones roles are reversed. Sugar Beth is now the better poor person, while everyone else turned into the rich-better-then-everyone-that no one can stand. Quite the turn around. Reversed Cinderella story I believe it said in the novel and it was.
I did not like Colin in the begining and almost hated the man after what he did to Sugar Beth at the dinner. Yet the dinner seems to be the start of the turning point of the novel. I almost put the book down after the whole dinner scene. It ws like watching the bad part of the movie peaking through your fingers, you dont want to watch, but you cant help it. You have to know.
Anyway, things really pick up steam and fly after that. Everything starts to turn around, you get to see into the characters more and really understand why you love to hate these people and what makes them loveable at all.
This actually was on the lighter side for the plot, its the emotional value of this book that sets it so far apart. There are no deep issues, no murder. Its the emotion. This story really gets into you and makes you feel. No matter how much I disliked a character or how distasteful a particular scene was I could not put this book down.
From the middle to the end, my whole preception of the book had changed. Once you get to delve into every characters memories, thoughts and feelings it makes everything so much clearer. I felt like I was Sugar Beth going through all that and feeling the way she did. This is definetly an emotional roller coaster and it takes you all over the place.
Once I got to the end I loved everyone. Even Winnie and Colin, the two most hated in the begining. I loved everything about this book. I loved even hating it in the begining. Kudos to SEP for writing such a stunning novel that can pull youin such opposite directions and have you love it the whole time. To come out on the opposite end from where you started.
I read once that you remember things more clearly then others because of the emotion involved. More emotion, the more it sticks out in your memories. I get the feeling I will remember this book for a long time. It is going on my keeper shelf.
I was so worried, I thought I would hate this book from the reviews and once I started to read it I thought I was right. I have never been so glad I was way wrong. Highest recommendations.
Rating:
Summary: Cover to cover in 1 sitting
Review: I loved this novel. I was kicking myself on my way to work this morning because I had to stay up to finish this book, and didn't get to sleep until after 3:00am. I love to read, but I also love to sleep; I'm usually disciplined about bookmarking my spot and going to bed at a decent hour. It takes a great book to keep me up all night. This is my first Phillips novel; I'm going to go buy a few more right now.
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