Review: Ain't She Sweet

Ain't She Sweet by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

3.7 stars 

Quick wrap-up: Woman limps back to her hometown where she was a capital B, trying to find a painting left to her by her aunt. The teacher who she lied about and got fired owns her childhood home now and is out for revenge, along with everyone else in town. It was all “young tough girl in a push-up bra” because her dad ignored her but showered love on his illegitimate family, but she still refuses as an adult to let down her wall but everyone eventually figures out she's got some caring in her. 

Fighting, flirting, grit, tears, dated-ness, and laughter. 

And Gordon, he should have gotten a pov! 

It was cold outside. She rested her cheek against his shirtfront. He wasn’t even breathing hard as he carried her across the yard with Gordon leading the way. 

“Furthermore,” he went on, “you will be rested. And”—he gripped her tighter—“sweet-tempered.” 

“You had more to drink than I thought.” She yawned and closed her eyes. “Go ahead and admit it. You’re afraid of me.” 

“Terrified is more like it.” 

She burrowed deeper into his chest. “I’m a handful, all right.” 

“My worst nightmare.” 

Oof, this story. It is, obviously, aged in some areas. He was her high school teacher and some of the lines he has when he thinks about how she looked back then, Cringe. But, also, there was a raw fearlessness to the writing, the characters make mistakes, they're so far from perfect, but gah, that delivered hit you in the gut emotion. This was also that blend of funny wild, almost off the rails that the late '90s-early-to-mid 00s had. 

He wore the raunchiest pair of Levi’s she’d ever seen—threadbare in the right knee, a hole in the butt—an equally ratty gray T-shirt, worn work gloves, and scuffed, dirt-encrusted brown work boots, one of which had a knot holding the shoelace together. An honest-to-God smudge ran up alongside that gorgeous honker of a nose. And he’d never looked more irresistible. She scowled. “Even your hair’s a mess.” 

I don't even know how to articulate how this descriptive scene makes me feel, but it does, and it's such a blip on the radar scene but I see his hotness and I feel how it makes her feel. It's one of those, we're losing the recipes examples for me. 

He didn’t say it sarcastically, but she stiffened, and he cursed the part of him that was so terrified of the sentimental that he tainted everything with cynicism, even when he didn’t intend it. 

I hate when books personally call me out. 

Anyway, this felt Adult, whether it was the emotions, actions, or words, relentlessly adult. 

Since you are a lunatic, however, this is the only way.” 

“You planned this from the beginning, didn’t you?” 

“Let’s simply say that you’re not the sort of woman who can be permitted to run amok.” 

One of the best love you warts and all story 

*I didn't know you used to have to get a blood test before you got your marriage license??? I was enjoying the HEA ending and this little line “Leeann dragged Sugar Beth to the lab for her blood test.” had me losing my mind and Googling for an hour. I hate I'm this way but now I can say, “I learned it from a Romance book!”

View all my reviews