Candace "Candy" Carmichael and her best friend Cheri Newberry were living the high life in Tampa, FL making money hand over first in real estate. When the market collapsed just as they sunk everything into a multimillion dollar deal they were left with nothing. Cheri moved back home to Bigler, North Carolina to run her families newspaper and reunited with her high school sweetheart (see Cheri On Top). Now Candy is back home until she puts together the next deal, then she's gone. Tired of living in her car, she ends up sleeping on the couch in her mom's suite at a fancy retirement community.
Sheriff Turner Halliday has to admit he enjoyed pulling Candy over in her clunker of a car. After giving her a warning, he's stunned when Candy grabs him and a peck turns into a hot and hungry kiss. The attraction Turner felt for Candy when they all hung out in high school comes roaring back to life. This is the first time since the death of his beloved wife Junie he's felt desire for another woman. Will Candy stick around long enough to figure out if they belong together?
I WANT CANDY is a wonderful story, equally funny and heartwarming. Candy and Turner have compelling personal histories, with each other and their families. Candy is struggling with her personal identity which had been tied up in being successful and not living in Bigler. Now she's poor and back in her hometown where she is forced to come to terms with a painful childhood and redefine who she is. I really liked the fact that Turner had a loving, healthy marriage with Junie; romance hero's aren't often allowed to have two major loves. I was also drawn in by the way Susan Donovan directly dealt with the issues that still exist with an interracial couple, Candy is White and Turner is biracial. Intermixed with all this personal growth are the humorous situations Candy gets into running on fumes and depending on the kindness of family and friends. I WANT CANDY works well as a stand-alone story but I think you will enjoy it more if you've read Cheri On Top since you will better appreciate the returning characters.
Candace Carmichael was just getting used to the lavish life when everything went sour. Now the down-on-her-luck real estate agent is back in Bigler, North Carolina, jobless and illegally rooming with her her mother in a swank retirement community. All this makes her wonder why she ever considered her BFF Cheri’s invitation to move back home. Life in this small mountain town may not be as glamorous as the one she had in Tampa, but she knows a girl can’t be too choosy in this market. Besides, everyone’s happy to welcome Candy back—especially one handsome widower named Turner… Turner has grown up to be one fine-looking piece of man candy—and looks even tastier in his sheriff’s uniform. Maybe that’s why she couldn’t resist kissing him when he pulled her over for a traffic violation. Even if a relationship was part of Candy’s business plan, Turner would be off limits—he still wears his wedding ring, four years after his wife died. If falling in love too fast is a crime, Candy is soon guilty as charged and ready to be fingerprinted. But is she ready to lock away her dreams and hand Turner the keys to her heart?
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