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: Very disappointing for SEP
Review: I love all her books and actually bought this in hardback - what a disappointment I have found it to be. It reads like she just took a little of this from "It had to be you", a little of this from "Lady be good" etc. and mixed them up. I am 2/3 of the way thru this book so maybe it picks up but so far I feel like she owed the publisher and book and threw this one together with bits of pieces of her other books and a little Gone with the Wind too.
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: How could SEP write such a dull book?
Review: First of all, I am an avid reader of SEP and she is one of my favourite authors. Unfortunately, she is not quick as an author and each time we have to impatiently wait to read her recent book for almost two years. Because of her previous books, as a reader I am somehow spoiled and have "gold standards".
Therefore I personaly expected to read something more exciting than "Ain't She Sweet".
There is no funny thing in this book. Other reviewers emphasized that this one was supposed to be a comedy. Where is the comedy part? At least Dream a little dream was bitter sweet, this one is only bitter!
I am sure that the loyal fans of SEP will start protesting against my review and it will probably receive some negative votes. Why does this have only 2 stars? It lacked a definitive emotional depth and touch that I know SEP is capable of. The reasons that I gave this book two stars are;
1. Same old same old. As some clever readers have already pointed out the storyline is a combination of "It had to be you" and "Dream a little dream". Obviously a shallow attempt to repeat.
2. The main characters had been unsuccessfully drawn and the main plot was weak. Sugar Beth is OK but I could not feel any sympathy toward her.
3. I always like the secondary characters in her books and no other writer can do it as magnificient as her (For example; Torie and Dex in Lady be good, Bobby Tom's mother in Heaven Texas, Kevin's mother in This heart of mine etc). Too much effort had been spent on the secondary characters (Winnie and her husband, Seawillows so on...) and the result is futile.
4. Just from the beginning I disliked Winnie the whiner and felt no sympathy at all. Sugar Beth's childhood has been somehow abused. Her father had another affair with the mother of Winnie (why we did not hear of her in the book is also another question) and just 3 months after the death of Sugar Beth's mother, he married her. Worst of all, the jerk father made two women pregnant at the same year. Sugar Beth had to go to the same school with her secret (!) sister. Please correct me if I am wrong, is that the moral code? The reason of ex-shabby behaviours of Sugar Beth is obvious.
5. The drama part was very heavy and I felt miserable. The plot was ridiculous and unbelievable. I was so irritated by the people of the small town. Their IQ's were an average 100. Everyone was interested in the past and/or what happened more than 15 years ago. I grew up neither in a small town nor in USA. SEP is a world-wide popular author, that's why we the readers from the rest of the world expect more.
6. I did not understand why everybody else (apart from Colin and Winnie) held a grudge with Sugar Beth. What she did only harmed herself. Is the reason that she left the town and did not keep in touch sufficient to be enemies with Seawillows till deathbed? Why did they hate her and want a revenge?
7. The only person who has some logic in this book was Gigi, the 13-year-old daughter of Winnie.
8. Sugar Beth's past was full of experiences. SEP did not focus on showing us what was exclusive and remarkable with Colin. Nothing new, not even a first real love! Because she had already had the love of her life with her third and 70-year-old-husband. I could cope with the fact that she thought of him as a father figure (since she was deprived of the father-daughter relationship). No, SEP again disappointed me. What kind of role did the mentally impaired 51- year-old step daughter play? SEP clearly wanted to show Sugar Beth's positive sides and awaking. Again another futile attempt!
9. Somewhere in the middle of the book Sugar Beth told Colin that she lost the chance of mummyhood due to an ectopic pregnancy and some additional medical problems that she had when she was 22 years old. Everybody can experience such a tragedy, but what I can not understand why Sugar Beth never expressed her feelings towards that fact and how she got pregnant in the end (I mean without any modern medical help)?
10. SEP's publisher and avid readers made the book look like sooo super and I feel that I am cheated. May be you might enjoy reading it. It just wasn't for me. SEP will be still an auto-buy for me even though this one was such a disappointment. I hope that she does not keep changing her unique way of writing and does not take part in the same path with the current authors who write easily digested meaningless books.
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!
| 
