This was the first book of Lisa Burstein's that I've had the pleasure of reading. I freakin' loved it. Candice is one of my favorite female leads that I have read in a long time. She is strong and savvy, but she isn't perfect. She is still hesitant in many ways with herself. Sneaking Candy was about her becoming comfortable with being Candice AND Candy. And I loved the journey that she went on.

I'm from South Florida so I liked that the book took place at the University of Miami (even though I'm not a huge hurricane fan, it was still nice to know the setting of the book.) Candice is a graduate student so she was taking classes as well as teaching classes. This girl seemed busy! But she still has time for a rockin' romance. As soon as I met Candice's professor I thought he was an arrogant jerk. He may have been hot but he was awful. I was really worried that there was going to be some sort of love triangle going on in Sneaking Candy, but I am super happy to report that there was no love triangle. Sneaking Candy was much more about Candice's personal growth and her romantic endeavors included only one, very awesome guy.

Candice was so hesitant about James at first, but I liked him right off the bat. He was cute and more importantly he seemed to be a guy of substance and he just seemed so sweet. I liked how much he seemed to genuinely care about Candice, but that didn't mean he would blindly just do whatever she told him too. He wanted something real and I really respected that. The romance isn't rushed or forced, it takes some time to develop and more than one curve ball is thrown their way but I loved reading about the two of them.

Lisa Burstein has such a gift with words. The writing in Sneaking Candy was wonderful. More than once I thought, "that would be an awesome quote to blurb somewhere." And I don't normally think that with books. Sneaking Candy is a fun and sexy read, but don't let that fool you. It isn't just frivolous fun, it has so much substance too. I kind of saw it as a second coming of age story for Candice. She had to learn to accept her "other half" as well. I am addicted to Sneaking Candy.