3 ½ stars. I’m shocked at how this guy doesn’t take no for an answer! But he was irresistible to her. It was fun but short.STORY BRIEF:During the wedding ceremony, when asked to say” I do,” Sunny said “I don’t” and walked out of the church. She then moved to New Orleans. She never explained why, and the town has been full of gossip and conjecture ever since. It is three years later. Sunny’s best friend Fran is getting married and asked her to come home for a week to help. On Sunny’s first night back she meets Ty at a pre-wedding party. Ty moved to town shortly after Sunny had moved out.The entire book is about Ty wooing Sunny and winning her over. Secondary stories were discovering why Sunny walked out of her wedding and what bad things happened in Ty’s past. It’s shorter than most romance novels.REVIEWER’S OPINION:I recently read Night Angel and enjoyed the guy’s “gentleness and restraint” in wooing and having sex with an abused woman. Ty in this book is as opposite as you can get. He is oblivious to the words “no” and “go away.” I’ve read about a lot of guys who give orders in the bedroom, but I don’t recall reading about someone as “forceful in flirting” as Ty outside the bedroom. For example: When he first meets Sunny, he walks up to her, chats for a minute and then says George “bet a new fly-casting rod against a case of Wild Turkey that I couldn’t get you into bed with me by the end of next week.” He then puts his arms around her and starts dancing with her, even though she said she didn’t want to dance. She’s almost in shock from his words and actions. Although she keeps saying no, Ty keeps showing up. He touches her and kisses her against her will, but each time she melts. I couldn’t stop thinking about or comparing this to date rape, but Ty’s actions were somehow positive, not negative. It didn’t hurt that he was gorgeous and women swooned over him. And he never raped her. He forcibly kissed her and touched her, and she was welcoming in her responses, and then he would say goodbye – and then she was mad at herself because she didn’t wanted him to stop. I think it worked because Ty wanted her to be happy and wanted things to be good for her. I wouldn’t want a guy to read this book and get ideas thinking this is the way to treat women, but for a woman to read it, it’s ok. It’s a definite change of pace, and it was fun. It’s light reading, no suspense or bad guys here – other than picking the right mate.DATA:Story length: 227 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Total number of sex scene pages: 7. Setting: current day Latham Green, Louisiana. Copyright: 1987. Genre: contemporary romance.
(I'm trying my best to be fair with this review, so please be patient with me!)I really disliked this book. Here's why:1. Sunny was stiff, annoying, and way to busy covering up truths that had no business being secret. I felt very little sympathy for her. Oh, and my own personal pet peeve, she did a whole lot of saying no when we all knew it wasn't going to take much to get her to yes. No means no!2. Ty was rude, pushy, and completely ran over Sunny's wishes in almost every situation. Way to stalkerish for me! And for every time she said no, he'd bully her into a yes. 3. The plot had me rolling my eyes A LOT. The bet and the one week time frame were intriguing and I couldn't wait to see how a love might blossom under constraints such as these. Well, how about our hero bully the heroine into a relationship, be crude with her, never take no as an answer, and rub her failed wedding (that she's infamous for in their small town) in her face a few times? Now, why would that work?! And in a week, no less!! And let's not forget the reason Sunny has never told anybody why she called off her wedding -- really? Yeah, I just couldn't lose my brain long enough to buy that.In the last chapter, Ty says this to Sunny after insisting she WILL marry him, "I know you are resistant to the idea right now. You wouldn't recognize what is good and right for you if it came up and bit you. But after you've given it some thought, you'll come around." This is the way he pretty much treats her for the whole book.So, if I hated this book so much, why am I giving it 3 stars? Mainly because the writing was ok and I know some people enjoy this type of hero/heroine combination. I'm just not one of them.
What do You think about Sunny Chandler's Return (2004)?
I saw someone else called this book cheesy. I'm right there on that same page. I read this for my Adult Pop Lit class. It's not something I would have picked up on my own, but my mom and sister (both romance readers)recommended Sandra Brown. I found a lot to hate about this book. Sunny was supposed to be such an independent firecracker, but really, Ty was in control of EVERYTHING. He compares her at one point to a child who has been told she can play with every toy but one. In one scene, he full
—AnnaBnana
I've read a variety of Sandra Brown books. Some are hits, some are misses. This one... is definitely a huge miss.I can't remember the last time I came across a male lead that is so repugnant. Maybe Christian Gray, but Ty Beaumont gives that man a serious run for his money. I can't believe that Ms. Brown thought that such an egoistical jerk would make for a good romantic lead, because holy mother of god.Sunny Chandler constantly rebuffs Ty's advances, and rightly so. However, not only does Ty disrespect Sunny's boundaries, he tramples over them, and then proceeds to drop trou and do a smelly number on them. This may sound like an exaggeration, but this man's attitude is so blatantly disrespectful that had I been in Sunny's place, I'd have punched him in the groin. He keeps touching Sunny after she pulls away from him or pushes him away and he never listens to her when she says 'no'.Yep. She tells him no at least a dozen or so times in this book, and he ignores her every single time. He refuses to leave her house when she tells him to, he keeps closing in on her when she tells him to back off, he keeps telling her he'll get her in bed when she tells him it's not going to happen, and so on.This is bad enough, but then Sunny lets herself get worn down. One night, Ty tells her that she will be going out with him and that he will pick her up at 7. He doesn't ask her, he TELLS her. Instead of finding something else to do, she gets herself ready for the date and goes with him.As you probably figured, at the end of this book they end up together. However, even after he has "won", Ty continues to boss her around and condescends to her. He TELLS her she will marry him, that she will have children with him, that she will have her business in the town instead of going back to New Orleans as she had been planning to do after her friend's wedding. He even tells her that she wouldn't know what was good for her if it bit her. WHY OH WHY didn't she slap him for that?Ty might have plenty of physical/sexual appeal, but god, his attitude is the exact opposite, and I was angry with Sunny for capitulating to him in the end.So why two stars instead of one? Well, Ms. Brown has a good writing style, and some of Sunny's comebacks/rejections of Ty were clever, so I give an extra star for that.
—Delicious Strawberry
This book was an alright kinda read but let me say totally unrealistic. If I found my man in bed with a good friend the morning before our wedding I sure wouldn't have taken the blame when I walked out and left him at the alter. Also if a man made a bet to get me in bed and actually told me about it I'm sorry there's just no way he would have ever gotton close to me. These are the two sticking points for me...but if you can move on from those it's ok to read to pass time.
—Andrea
