I am a really big fan of Collins's Disaster Mystery series and after reading those found I had picked this up when I first got my Kindle as a freebie. I didn't enjoy this one as much. I felt that there was a lot of build up and the delivery fell a little short. The ending felt like there was "twist" there just to have one and the story cycled through so many of the character's PoV that after awhile that got a bit much (including that of the Messenger). Which is not to say I hated the book I didn't it just didn't interest me as much as the others I have read by him and I'm not sure I would want to pick up any more in the series since I felt like the main character's story (J.C) was wrapped up here.

I got this book as one of the Amazon Kindle freebies not noticing until sometime after (my TBR pile is ridiculous) that it was "New Adult" which made me groan since I really don't 'get' that genre. But the synopsis interested me so I did eventually get around to it and enjoyed it. The title says it all; it's like sneaking candy. It's short but sweet, light and fluffy, and something you could go back to whrn you wanted a quick burst of sugar.

The language of the author as well as her impulsivity and indecisiveness (as well as overall paranoia) did get tedious after awhile (much like other reviewers touched on) but again she's 22. It's been awhile since I've been 22 but it seemed spot on for how people that age would act. I found that the professor being the jerk he ended up being was a bit phoned in. Sure he was very pretentious during the entire thing (which was also kind of a cliché) but it seemed like it was decided at the last minute to make him that way. Also the surprise ally at the end kind of made me roll my eyes because again it seemed a way to just wrap everything up but again it was a quick enjoyable read.

One thing I did find spot on was how students in the MFA can act especially towards Creative Writing. It's very competitive and writers are very self conscious and insecure so the worry about having your story dissected and ripped apart just because people want to tear you down to make you feel horrible, to make themselves feel better and not actually help you become a better writer is actually spot on from what I've heard from other students in that field and while I didn't pursue a Masters after getting my undergrad in that field. So that was one of the things I actually enjoyed as well as Candice's recurring idea of why is it bad to want to write something that people enjoy even if it is not some deep, layered metaphor for something.

Also the sex wasn't too much, meaning they were not doing it every other page. Much like movies when there is too much sex in a book it gets boring and tedious and usually indicates a severe lack of a good plot so the fact that it wasn't as much here also helped to give the book extra bonus points. A good quick read for a rainy weekend or one at the beach.

So this book had a lot of potential in terms of being a really good Regency era romance but after about the first 3/4ths kind of fell flat. It seems like there were some plot "twists" (if you want to call them that) thrown in at the end to prolong the novel and the constance back and forth between the marriage thing got a bit tiresome. It seemed like this could have been a fantastic novel were it about 50 pages shorter or the end didn't feel like it was rushed and thrown together. You also wanted to shake Lana at some point for her continuance to doubt Drew's feelings for her, rake or no.

I didn't hate the book it just wasn't my favorite in terms of romances in this time period. I also feel that the synopsis is a bit misleading so keep an open mind when you read it and know that while it is kind of like the summary there is so much more to it.

I’m a huge fan of cozy mysteries and make no apologies for it. This was the first I had heard of set in a school setting so that alone intrigued me.

The beginning was rocky for me. I don’t know if the writing style wasn’t engaging enough or I was reading it at a bad time. Either way, it took roughly a quarter of the book to interest me. By the end I was staying up a bit later to get a few more chapters in. But part of that too was to get it finished.

One bone of contention is that I didn’t care about the main character. I wanted to but it never happened. Even giving the benefit that this may be due to it being the first in the series, there was no connection. Her personality was all around inconsistent. The only steady trait was her stubbornness. This translated into a complete lack of survival skills which quick became tiresome. This resulted in her almost getting killed a lot of times. I cared more about the secondary characters than I did her and would have loved to hear more about them.

In truth, I can’t call the ending predictable since it took me the better part to piece it together. Once the ‘reveal’ for the Coach was done the pieces did fall into place quickly for me. The ending seemed a bit corny and forced. It wasn’t natural at all by any stretch of the imagination. I am unsure if I would continue this series since the feeling it left me with was a little bit less than ‘meh’. I won’t avoid the books if they come across me, but it is unlikely I will actively seek them out.