Blog Tour: Like Candy by Debra Doxer {Review+ Giveaway}

Like Candy by Debra Doxer
(Candy, #1)
Publication date: July 28th 2015
Genres: Mystery, Romance, Young Adult

Goodreads | Amazon

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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REVIEW

I’m still trying to figure out what happened. Warning: Massive Cliffhanger ahead! This book is nothing if not addictive. After I got to a certain point, I devoured it all the way through without pause. If you read this book (Trust me, it’s worth every second), then be prepared for the feels. I was so caught up with trying to figure out what was going on with one character, that I ended up blindsided by the plot twist.

Candy has turned eighteen, and therefore, packs up her things and runs like the wind back to her father. After her mom died when she was twelve, her aunt took custody of her. And her father, being the person that he is (I’m not sure of his profession yet, as it wasn’t exactly named – there are little clues here and there about him, but it remains to be seen what he does for a living. He could be a hit man for all I know), doesn’t fight the aunt for his daughter. Candy has her own theories of what he does, and she wants to be just like him. But, Candy wouldn’t be Candy if she didn’t seek retaliation on her cousin and ex-boyfriend, for antagonizing and cheating on her. Her only regret is leaving behind her best friend, Theo (who has cancer and is really not doing good). I sure thought that I would end up crying before it was all over. She starts school and is picking which side she’d like to play. Getting in with the cool kids is her goal, but she has to watch out for the Queen B, Parker. She doesn’t want to step on any toes, but she never thought that she would fall head over heels for the mysterious Jonah. And Parker just happens to want him as well, which hasn’t turned out how she’d like. When he and Candy start hanging out, Parker is dead set on pouring salt in Candy’s game. Which turns out to be a stupid thing since Candy will fight fire with fire.

Candy is a straight up, no nonsense type of girl. Sure, she fakes it half the time. That didn’t stop Jonah from figuring her out real quickly. I won’t spoil this book for you, but it totally took me by surprise. It’s filled with teenage angst, and “mean girls”, the ususal tropes of high school dramas. You know those girls that think everything and everyone revolves around them? And Parker is the head prima donna of the pack, who undoubtedly annoyed me to no end. Her little games of revenge was expected because she thinks that she can do whatever she pleases. Candy, being the eye-for-an-eye chick that she is, won’t let you get away with doing her wrong. Trust me, her ex-boyfriend and cruel cousins are left behind to deal with the aftermath of her vengeance.  I wish that there was more of that bad girl shown in this book though. I’d say she’s immature, but that’s pretty obvious with her being an 18 year old. And then came the plot twist of all twists. I didn’t see it coming when I started reading, and I think that it really gave the story an edge.

I really enjoyed reading this. There were things that bothered me about it, but it didn’t take away the feeling of the overall story. For instance, I would have liked more Theo than what we get. He has to have more than that little visit, because why introduce him as a character if you don’t plan on him making an impact? I want more of the cousins she despises so much. We only get told a little about what happened between them. Another thing is Candy’s dad. For him being ex-military, one would think that he would be more vigilant than he is in this story. The alarm thing is something that I thought he would already have taken care of; what, with him being some kind of mercenary/hit man. Those guys are super guarded, and the only thing that really stood out was his OCD. Other than that, I think that the author delivered with this one. I can’t wait to read the next book because that cliffy is not the business. I need book 2 right now. Definitely recommended!

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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.”

Connect with Debra. She loves hearing from readers.

Author links:

http://debradoxer.blogspot.ca/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6876249.Debra_Doxer

https://www.facebook.com/AuthorDebraDoxer

https://twitter.com/DebraDoxer

GIVEAWAY!!!

Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)  $50 Amazon gift card and an ecopy of Like Candy

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