Tag: Sugar Shack Series

Review/Rant: Any Given Christmas by Candis Terry

Posted March 10, 2012 by Holly in Reviews | 0 Comments

Holly‘s review of Any Given Christmas (Sugar Shack, Book 2) by Candis Terry

Dean Silverthorne’s mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.

When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne’s Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana with a chip on his wounded shoulder and more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but his trip home is nothing but a very brief Christmas visit.

His game plan didn’t include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can’t help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.

Beware: This review is riddled with spoilers.

This is the second book in Terry’s Sugar Shack series. I believe it can stand alone.

Emma is a school teacher who wants to find a man to spend her life with. A man who is not like football star Dean Silverthorne. She doesn’t do bad boys – in bed or otherwise – anymore. And Dean is the baddest of them all.

Dean has taken a couple hard hits on the field, which means he’s got some time off to recover. Spending it in Deer Lick isn’t exactly his idea of a good time, but his dad needs him. Emma would be the perfect distraction…if only she didn’t seem immune to him.

As they spend more time togther, Dean and Emma realize they aren’t so different..but can Emma let go of her past enough to embrace what could be a bright future?

Ok, here’s the thing about this book. It features a theme I loathe. One that, unfortunately, is seen quite often in romance. The hero being punished for his past (or, alternately, the heroine being punished for her past – though this is less prevalent). I do not believe a man (or woman) should be judged based on things that happened in their past. Unless they’re mass murders or something equally nefarious (something no romance hero should ever be…unless they’re highly trained, super speshul government agents – but that’s a post for another day). Just because a man (or woman) has a checkered past (i.e., slept around a lot) doesn’t necessarily make him (or her) a bad person.

In this case, Dean is known as one of the bad boys of football. He’s wild and crazy. He parties hard. He dates (ok, sleeps with) a lot of women. But that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. It means he’s a bit of a manwhore, but even manwhores can have good qualities. Are they the best candidate for happily ever after? Probably not. But are they lower than dirt? No. No they aren’t.

Right from the beginning Emma jumps to the conclusion that Dean is an asshole because he dates sleeps around a lot. How sleeping with a lot of women makes him an asshole, I’m not quite sure. Does he torture small children? No. Does he talk crap about his mother? No. Is he careful to let the women in his life know he isn’t interested in something long term? Yes. So..again, not the best candidate for Wuv, Twu Wuv, but not an asshole.

I was really enjoying this until about 3/4 of the way through. Then the heroines “poor me” routine got old. She was selfish and immature.

Emma had a bad experience when she was in high school. She was one of the nerdy chicks who didn’t get out much. She was invited to one of the cool kid parties and ended up giving her virginity to a friend of Dean’s – who was home from college and brought his buddy to visit – and he never bothered to call her the next day. Then some other stuff happened. The moral of the story? Bad boys aren’t to be trusted. There are so many things wrong with that kind of thinking, but I was able to move past that and go with the flow.

Until Emma started acting like a selfish bitch. She wanted Dean but didn’t want to want him. Even though he treated her really well and was there for her when she needed someone, she still pushed him away. No matter that his present actions showed him to be a compassionate, responsible man, she still insisted he was nothing but a douche bag who was going to screw her over. I went along with this until toward the end of the book. Then I just couldn’t take it anymore.

The final conflict came about because Dean’s career imploded. He thought he’d be able to go back to playing football, but he was told he needed a lot more PT before that could happen. He is then released from the team. Instead of calling Emma, he heads straight home so he can be with her. She hears about it on the news and decides to kick Dean out of her life because he didn’t come to her first. Dean has just had a major blow to his self-esteem, but are her thoughts with him? No. She was focused only on herself. “If Dean really cared about me he would have called me before he called anyone else.” Of course what she doesn’t know is that Dean asked the announcement be held over the weekend and his first thoughts were of her. He just wanted to see her in person. All this because she went through a bad time 10 years ago. Really?

On top of that everyone – including her – blamed the Dean for everything. She was the one who kept pushing him away and judging him based on things that happened in her past. Yet he was in the wrong? He had to apologize and grovel? No. Just no.

I did like Dean. Though he started out as a jaded playboy, he really grew up over the course of the novel.  I also liked the bits with his mom, mostly because of his reaction to seeing her ghost. Too bad he was saddled with such a terrible heroine.

I enjoyed the first book in this series enough that I’ll read the next book. I hope its better than this one.

 2.5 out of 5

The series:

This book is available from Avon. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Guest Review: Any Given Christmas by Candis Terry

Posted January 26, 2012 by Book Binge Guest Blogger in Reviews | 4 Comments

Judith’s review of Any Given Christmas (Sugar Shack #2) by Candis Terry

Dean Silverthorne’s mother may be dead, but she still has matchmaking to do.

When an injury dashes NFL Quarterback Dean Silverthorne’s Super Bowl dreams, he heads back to Deer Lick, Montana with a chip on his wounded shoulder, more determined than ever to get back in the game. He loves his kooky family, but this trip home is going to be a very brief Christmas visit.

His game plan doesn’t include an instant attraction to Emma Hart, a feisty kindergarten teacher who seems to be the only person in Deer Lick not interested in the hometown hero. Or his dearly departed mom popping up with mistletoe in hand and meddling on the mind. Now Dean can’t help but wonder if there’s more to love than life between the goal posts.

Christmas may have come and gone for 2011, but the very readable and enjoyable stories built around that holiday are still with us and still calling out to anyone who loves a good love story. Now, as the Super Bowl approaches, it is appropriate to review a story about an NFL quarterback who is at the top of his game with the arm candy he attracts and has been at the top of the heap for 12 years–that is, until a career ending tackle occurred in the Thanksgiving game against the Denver Broncos had severely injured his weak shoulder. Now he is back in Deer Lick, Montana, attending his youngest sister’s wedding to the newest candidate for sheriff and the love of her life. He is still the hometown hero, and in Dean’s inner being he is still convinced that he will heal and be as good as new for Spring training and summer football camp.

Now I know the blurb talks about Dean’s dead mother who is a matchmaker, but in truth, Lettie Silverthorpe was much more of a “I’ve come back to finish up some unfinished business” kind of ghost. And she particularly liked to visit whenever one of her kids was driving her 20 year old rust-bucket Buick. The back seat was still filled with all her “stuff” and her kids couldn’t seem to figure how to part with all the bits and pieces she had carted around in her “office on wheels.” Now Dean is visited by a mother who had been dead for about five months and who was terribly troubled about her son, his understanding of himself apart from his identity as a sports superstar which was seriously in jeopardy along with his refusal to look at anything in the future apart from playing football. Dean’s way of insuring that he never has a troubled marriage is to never marry. Supermodels and actresses aren’t hanging around him to get a husband. They want his public to pay attention to them as well.

Fate seems to play a hand in many circumstances and so I would seem for Dean. One of his sister’s bridesmaids catches his eye in a big way–certainly not hard and boney like some of his supermodel gals. She has curves in all the right place and she’s soft like women should be. She wants absolutely nothing to do with him and the factor that seems to turn her off the most is that Dean simply doesn’t remember her. As things go with Emma, that’s just about the cardinal sin–being forgotten.

There is so much in this story that is noteworthy and there is most definitely not sufficient room to discuss all of it here. Suffice it to say that some of the characters that made an impressive appearance in Second Chance at the Sugar Shack are once again a part of the context in this tale and bring the warmth and human connections of this community to bear upon the story. This is also a look at the thoughts and struggles of a superstar athlete when real life begins to make itself felt. One very important positive about Dean: he has a heart for children and he deeply respects women. His parents loved each other to distraction and he knows that such is the kind of relationship he wants if he ever does find a woman who can tempt him to settle down. He wants to use his wealth to help people, and under all the glitz and putting football first in his life, Dean is a stand-up guy in so many ways.

I really enjoyed this book–no, that isn’t exactly true. I loved this book and felt that I had become a silent presence in the town of Deer Lick, Montana, and a part of the lives of its citizens. I am looking forward to the third book in the series which will feature the middle sibling–a hard punching prosecutor in Chicago who may have the upper hand in her professional life, but I bet her mom will be having conversations with her in the back of the old Buick when it comes to the mess of a personal life. This may have a holiday theme, but it is a marvelous read for any time of the year. You owe it to yourself to read it.

I give it a rating of 4.75 out of 5

You can read more from Judith at Dr J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Avon Impulse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Review: Second Chance at the Sugar Shack by Candis Terry

Posted August 11, 2011 by Holly in Reviews | 2 Comments

Holly‘s review of Second Chance at the Sugar Shack (A Sugar Shack Novel) by Candis Terry.

Kate Silver’s back in town, and her dead mother just won’t leave her alone.

Kate usually spends her days dressing Hollywood A-listers, but after her estranged mother dies she finds herself elbow-deep in flour in her parents’ bakery . . . in Deer Lick, Montana. She thought she’d left small-town life far, far behind, but it seems there are a few loose ends.

The boy she once loved, Deputy Matt Ryan, is single and sexy and still has a thing for her . . . and handcuffs.

Her mother, who won’t follow the white light, is determined to give maternal advice from beyond the grave.

And somehow Kate’s three-day stay has, well . . . extended. She never planned to fill her mother’s pie-baking shoes—she prefers her Choos, thank you very much. But with the help of a certain man in uniform, Kate quickly learns that sometimes second chances are all the more sweet.

Another sweet contemporary romance. Matt and Kate were high school sweethearts. Matt thought they were headed for 2.5 kids and a white picket fence, so when Kate took off for the big city without a word to him he was devastated. Now she’s back in town and he’s determined to stay far away. Unfortunately the chemistry between them is just as strong as ever, so that’s easier said than done.

Kate only ever wanted to find herself. After years of hard work she finally has the career she’s always dreamed off as a stylist to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. But when she comes home to Deer Lick, MT for her mother’s funeral she realizes her glamorous life in LA might not be what she’s always wanted after all…

I really liked both Matt and Kate. They were both down to earth, hardworking and honest. I did get frustrated with Matt here and there for being so stubborn, and I wish they would have opened up and talked sooner, but overall I really liked this novel. It left me feeling warm and fuzzy inside.

I didn’t like how Kate’s family pushed her into staying behind. It was something that really frustrated me. To claim their lives were more important is one thing, but the way they went behind her back to make sure she stayed was beyond the beyond.

I also thought the ghost thing was..I don’t know, to be honest. I think it worked in the context of the story. It could have been taken out and the story would have worked, though, so I can’t say it was necessary to the plot.

Overall the romance was flawed but sweet. I enjoyed the novel as a whole, though I did have some gripes.

3.5 out of 5

This book is available from Avon Impulse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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Review: Second Chance at the Sugar Shack by Candis Terry.

Posted August 4, 2011 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments


Rowena’s review of Second Chance at the Sugar Shack by Candis Terry.

Hero: Matt Ryan
Heroine: Katie Silver


Kate Silver’s back in town, and her dead mother just won’t leave her alone.

Kate usually spends her days dressing Hollywood A-listers, but after her estranged mother dies she finds herself elbow-deep in flour in her parents’ bakery . . . in Deer Lick, Montana. She thought she’d left small-town life far, far behind, but it seems there are a few loose ends.

The boy she once loved, Deputy Matt Ryan, is single and sexy and still has a thing for her . . . and handcuffs. Her mother, who won’t follow the white light, is determined to give maternal advice from beyond the grave.

And somehow Kate’s three-day stay has, well . . . extended. She never planned to fill her mother’s pie-baking shoes—she prefers her Choos, thank you very much. But with the help of a certain man in uniform, Kate quickly learns that sometimes second chances are all the more sweet.

For some reasons, I overlooked this book the first time I came across it but then we got an email about it and I had to check it out again to see what it was about. I’m so glad that I went back and checked because I ended up liking the blurb and requested it, read it and adored it.

This book has that “one that got away” storyline going on and immediately, I was a happy camper. It’s got its own small town named Deer Lick and characters that I just fell right in love with. I thought Katie was a great heroine, one who was real and had regrets but didn’t shy away easily. She assumed things and she heard things differently than everyone but she was passionate and I could relate to her.

Katie gets accepted into a FIDM type college and she’s super stoked about it. She tells her parents and her Mom is not happy about it and they get into a huge argument that makes Kate run away to college, determined to make something of herself and prove her Mom wrong. Ten years later, she’s still estranged from her Mom but she’s got a kick ass career as a celebrity stylist and she’s wearing all of the newest and greatest clothes that would leave women jealous the world over but when she gets that phone call that her Mother died, she rushes back to the small town that she once called home.

And runs into the boy she left behind. Only now he’s a sexy man and he’s mouthwateringly hot and she wants to lick him but that’s not going to happen because he is not happy to see her.

Matt Ryan was the boy from the wrong side of the tracks with the dysfunctional family who didn’t care one lick about him. He grew up to be a really good man thanks to his childhood girlfriend’s parents and there wasn’t anything he wouldn’t do for them. He longs for a family of his own but hasn’t found anyone in Deer Lick that gets him excited and for that, he blames Kate Silver because he’s never been able to forget her even though she took off running as far and as fast as she can away from him. Now she’s back for her mother’s funeral and she’s looking good and he can’t help himself.

Watching both of these guys fight their feelings (and the moonlight, haha) for each other made for a great romp of a story. I enjoyed watching Matt squirm whenever he was around Katie, wanting her but not wanting to want her and I enjoyed watching Kate be confused over Matt’s hot and cold attitude. The way that Kate just tackled everything around her and her go getter attitude made me like her and wish she was my friend so she can tackle some of the things that I got going around here.

I liked both of them a part and I liked them together so kudos to Candis Terry on writing a story that had me laughing and sighing all over the dang place. The secondary characters in the small town of Deer Lick added another layer of enjoyment to the entire reading experience. I’m looking forward to continuing this series and seeing what other antics Letty Silver will bring to her other children and I’m so looking forward to it all. I’m really anxious for Dean’s story, woo hoo I can’t wait for a sexy NFL player’s story. Bring it on!

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

This book is available from Avon Impulse. You can buy it here or here in e-format.

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