LIKE CANDY (Candy #1)
by Debra Doxer
GENRE: Contemporary, Mystery, Romance, Thriller, Young Adult
PAGES: eBook, 258 pages
PUBLISHED: 28 July 2015
SOURCE: copy provided for a tour
Revenge is sweet, just like candy.
Candy Seaborne knows she’s badass. She takes after her father, an assassin and possibly a spy, although he won’t admit to either. She idolizes him. Her dream is to follow in his footsteps. But first, she has to finish high school.
Biding her time, waiting for real life to begin, Candy craves drama and isn’t above manufacturing some. If you’re a classmate who wronged her or a boyfriend who cheated, watch your back. She’s no pushover, and revenge may be her favorite pastime.
Jonah Bryson is the senior class heartthrob who breaks all the stereotypes. He’s a jock, but he isn’t the typical player. He’s moody and antisocial. No girl has gotten anywhere with him since his last girlfriend broke his heart.
Candy sees Jonah as a challenge and the perfect distraction. But she may be in over her head because unlike everyone else, Jonah isn’t buying her tough act. He sees the lost, lonely girl inside. He sees too much. When he looks at her that way, she wants to let her guard down and be vulnerable. But that’s the last thing she should do because her father’s world is spilling over into hers, and life is about to get real much sooner than Candy expected.
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Debra Doxer was born in Boston, and other than a few lost years in the California sunshine, she has always resided in the Boston area. She writes fiction, technical software documents, illegible scribbles on sticky notes, and texts that get mangled by AutoCorrect. She writes for a living, and she writes for fun. When her daughter asks when she’ll run out of words, her response always is, “When I run out of time.”
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Life update: I’m glad I signed up to review the second book, Sweet Liar, but I haven’t received any confirmation emails about it. I’m dead.
Me after reading this book (except I’m not a cute panda nor cute.) 
Me waiting (im)patiently for the email about my review request:
(That’s the door of YA Bound Book Tours)
OH WELL ANYWAY
Let’s start from the ending. I anticipated that kind of twist. Sorry (not.). But yeah, I did soooo it was kind of meh yet yaass yet NNNOOOOOOO *cries* for me. The thrill was definitely there and I felt like running away and/or pacing round and round the room yet I can’t stand up from my seat. (Ya feel me?)
In other words, I had a lot of feelings while reading this because it’s the kind of book that makes you feel everything.
The thing is, (“thing” because I don’t want to spoil anything to anybody and it’s making me cry because it’s a lot harder than it looks like) Jonah was cliche in the anti-cliche way. He’s like a compilation of all the things cliche so it doesn’t look like he’s cliche enough but that entire thing is a cliche move. (I said cliche at least five times) ANNNDDD who exactly doesn’t fall for guys like him??? I know I love him. He’s so adorable with a mysterious aura and the prince charming kind of type and bad boy vibe. He’s the extreme YA love interest.
Then Candy (bless her name) is adorable and kinda self centred. Just kinda. It’s the teenage angst. But at the same time, she’s so loving and lovely and loved. I love her. Her character is just literally half of the teenage population. Hard shell, warm heart. With a little bit of emotional side and lots of dangerous sass. I love her personality, her character, her.
Like Candy is not what I was expecting. If you don’t know, I don’t read blurbs so I judge a book mainly on its title and cover (I know but yeah whatever, I don’t like being spoiled and reading blurbs make me guess the entire book flow/plot including twists so naaahhh) and usually, genre. But I don’t care much about genre. But I love this cover and I love the title so I guess I didn’t pay attention to the genre because I thought this would be NA but it’s very YA and it was the greatest overlooked detail of my life. I’m glad I don’t pay attention to stuff sometimes.
To all mystery-people (like me) you’ll definitely see the build-up towards what happened (yes, it’s that obvious for me) but in my judgement, it’s a pretty good twist for people who may not pick it up first hand.
This book is written in Candy’s POV in first person. And let me tell you that I love Theo before everything else. Right when he first appeared. He’s the spice of the book and the quotes (!!!!!!) (more exclamation marks)
As I mentioned, this book has a little bit of mystery factor and the underlying thrill plus the great romance and action-packed family drama. Overall, I’d say it’s your typical YA book not. It’s sweet in so many levels, thrilling and brimming with mysterious action-y happenings and drama-filled lone nights courtesy of a teenage girl. It’s everything you need and may not have been looking for but you need anyway. This is a gem that ya’ll YA lovers need and even if you’re not into YA (yet because that genre swallows everyone up) you can have this book swallow you up.
nerdychampagne 