You’ll find out very quickly that Sugar Beth Carey ain’t so sweet. She was a lying, snobbish bitch who made life hell for the not-so-beautiful, not-so-rich nerdy girls at school. She toyed with them, made fun of them, and destroyed them. And they haven’t forgotten! So the nails get sharpened when the adult Sugar Beth returns to Parrish, Mississippi, absolutely broke, to look for a hidden, valuable painting on her aunt’s death. Sugar Beth’s old lover hasn’t forgotten her, along with his emotionally brittle wife Winnie, Sugar Beth’s former nemesis. Nor has her English teacher Colin Byrne, whose career Sugar Beth destroyed in a fit of pique. Everyone has a vested interest in turning the tables on Sugar Beth! But a lot of water has gone under the bridge and Sugar Beth has a whole new set of urgent priorities in her life, most of which she’s keeping top secret. As you would in such a hostile environment! Colin, in particular, enacts the most hideous revenge, but passion, hate and love tend to run very close together. He isn’t immune – sexually and emotionally – when he begins to discover the new, vulnerable, lovable Sugar Beth hiding inside the tough, smart-mouthed, bite-me exterior. SEP works a miracle in this book, turning a most unlovable heroine into someone admirable, even as you cringe at her former ‘crimes’. A complex, addictive, steamy and honest book, with a brilliant cast of secondary characters. A real slice of emotional life.