Ain't She Sweet? [Paperback]

Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (February 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060824670
• ISBN-13: 978-0060824679
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (160 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,374,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SUSAN ELIZABETH PHILLIPS is a New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and USA Today bestseller, whose books are published all over the world.

If you'd like to know more, including info on her newest book, whether any of her books will be made into movies, how to get an autographed book, where she gets her ideas, please visit her web site. You can also see goofy vacation photos. register for her monthly contest, and chat with her on her Message Board. http://www.susanelizabethphillips.com

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

90 of 93 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Light novel, heavy questions, April 17, 2004

By 

Dr Cathy Goodwin (Seattle, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ain't She Sweet? (Hardcover)

This book was given to me for review and my first reaction was, "Not my kind of book!" The book's opening didn't help: -- a disheveled down-and-out southern woman returns to her hometown, driving a beat-up old car, accompanied by her late husband's only legacy: a basset hound she loves to hate.

But after a few pages, I began to care about the story line. Why did Sugar Beth dread returning home? Why did so man people hate her so much? And how can we care about a heroine who's done such despicable things in the past?

This book is a model of a book that's a crossover between romance and women's fiction. The author takes us to the edge of the cliff with a worst case scenario. Sugar Beth, high school prom queen, the girl everybody envied, has become a woman who's lost everything.

Meanwhile, Sugar Beth's former victims have all grown up and become wildly successful. They vividly remember Sugar Beth and they're perfectly positioned to take revenge.

So why doesn't Sugar Beth just go to, say, Los Angeles and get an anonymous job? Turns out she needs to find a painting she inherited. She can sell this unique art work for millions of dollars. And while she hunts for this painting, she needs a job. And who has the power to give her a job? You guessed it: Those she once scorned.

In one climactic scene, Sugar Beth is pitted against these vengeful people and she's in a one-down position. She's backed into a corner.

But Sugar Beth rises to the challenge. She handles herself with dignity and we soon learn her secret reasons for needing the money from the sale of the painting. She's different yet she's held on to the strongest parts of herself. She triumphs by her own grit and we're mostly satisfied with the ending.

The big romance between the two main characters follows conventions of the genre. If you can't figure out who will get together with whom, you haven't read enough, although author Philips throws in enough quirks to keep the romance line from being too trite.

Underneath the main story, the author raises intriguing questions that could keep a book club going for hours. Are we the same people we were ten years ago? Fifteen years ago? Should we be held accountable for dumb things we did when we were seventeen? And should people pay for those mistakes for the rest of their lives?

29 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The BEST Story I've read in a long time, March 27, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Ain't She Sweet? (Hardcover)

I'm a big SEP fan because she writes funny, quirky characters who aren't your run-of-the-mill romance novel characters and she writes the absolute best dialogue I've ever read.

This book is phenomenal. I could not put it down. Some parts had me laughing out loud and others just made me want to cry. Sugar Beth was a spiteful, mean-spirited girl in her youth, most especially to Winnie, but SEP delves so deeply into Sugar Beth's psyche that you understand why she acted the way she did. Her motivations are very clear. The Sugar Beth we meet at the beginning of the book has grown up and taken her fair share of lumps and she ends up taking several more before the book is through. But she doesn't let any of it break her spirit.

I'm a sucker for a heroine who's a wise ass and a hero who can throw it right back at her and that's Sugar Beth and Colin. They are just so funny together, yet touching at the same time. The kind hero and heroine that stay with you long after you've finished reading the book.

This is a wonderful story. I wish I could have given it more stars.

28 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A terrific bunch of women . . ., March 8, 2004

By 

Jenny Crusie Smith (Ohio) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ain't She Sweet? (Hardcover)

This book has great female characters--especially Sugar Beth, Winnie, and Gigi--and a wonderful sense of community. Top that off with a trademark SEP romance and it's just flat-out fun. She gets extra points with me for trying a very different kind of heroine and pulling it off beautifully. Susan truly is the queen of romantic comedy.
(Note: I posted a review of this two weeks ago and it still hasn't appeared so I'm trying it again. If two reviews from me show up, it's not because I'm padding Susan's rating, it's because the other one wandered around in the ether for awhile, although this book is worth ten stars, so it's all good.)