Sunny Chandler's Return

A Novel

By: Sandra Brown

Narrated by: Beth McDonald

Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

The unforgettable story of a woman who returns to her small hometown in the South - and finds that the sins of her past are right where she left them, from Sandra Brown, author of more than 50 New York Times best-selling novels. 

Never. Sunny Chandler always said she'd never go back to the tiny town where she grew up. It was just three years ago that she was at the center of a notorious scandal, and the good folks of Latham Green, Louisiana, made it clear they'd never let her forget it. So Sunny packed up and headed for New Orleans, and now she wouldn't give up city life for the world. But when she's invited to her best friend's wedding, Sunny has no choice but to go home. And with her return come the whispers...the looks...the rumors she tried to escape. It doesn't take Sunny long to see that Latham Green has nothing new to offer. Except maybe Ty Beaumont. 

The moment Ty and Sunny first meet at a party, he can see she's no ordinary woman. With her dazzling hair, and eyes the color of gold, she's a flesh-and-blood fantasy, and Ty vows he'll have her in his bed before the week is out. Yet even when he turns on his southern charm, Sunny makes it clear she's not interested. Sure, a night with Ty would be wilder than Bourbon Street at Mardi Gras. But Sunny's not in town to become some good ol' boy's latest conquest, no matter how sexy he is. Little does she know that Ty isn't used to taking no for an answer, and he isn't about to start now.

Soon what began as an innocent flirtation becomes a tantalizingly slow, skillfully deliberate, and overwhelmingly seductive pursuit that even Sunny finds hard to resist. But resist him she will. For Sunny is harboring an agonizing secret - the painful truth of why she left Latham Green the way she did. What she really needs now is a friend; and that's when she discovers there may be more to Ty Beaumont than meets the eye. Despite his roguish facade, Sunny comes to see he has a heart of gold. Still, she doesn't know if she can trust another person with her secret heartbreak - not even the one man who may be able to heal it.

©1987 Sandra Brown (P)2003 Random House, Inc., Random House Audio, a division of Random House, Inc.

Sunny chandler

I could not even finish this - even though I expected a romance type novel to be full of romance, it was so full of sexual harassment and little respect for women in the beginning parts I could not go further.

Funny!

This book was so funny to me. Lots of tension between the 2 leads and the banter between them kept me laughing.

There is romance, but it doesn't start right away. All in all, it was okay. I found it much more humerous!

Dated but good

This is an older novel but brings to life Sandra Brown's earlier work that helped make her my number one author. The narrator is a bit grating. She sounds older, unheroine-like. But I did really enjoy the book and am very glad I purchased it.

A fun and sexy romp! Great contrast between the highs and lows

An engaging roller coaster ride! Relatively brief, But well rounded characters. An interesting love story.

Fun paperback, awful audiobook narrator.

AUDIOBOOK NARRATOR - Beth McDonald:
I feel like this narrator is mad at the world so everything she reads has an irritated or negative tone. I read the paperback several years ago and enjoyed it. But the audiobook was bad - due solely to the narrator Beth McDonald (BM). I wanted to quit listening. Here are the problems.

1. For the hero and heroine (Ty and Sunny) most of their dialogue sounded like they were irritated or angry. When I read the paperback I read Ty as desiring her, wooing her, being sensually suggestive. BM made him sound arrogant, angry, scowling, irritated, and mean. One part of the text said “his voice was laced with so much suggestion it seemed tangible.” But BM read it like he was arrogant and angry. For Sunny, BM made her sound haughty, sarcastic, disgusted, condescending, unlikeable. In the paperback I read her in a softer way.

2. For general narration I felt like BM was LECTURING ME. She did not read with interest, wonder, or curiosity.

3. At times BM’s voice sounded like a 50-year-old chain smoker. She made Sunny sound elderly, not a 29-year-old woman.

THE BOOK:
Below is my review of the paperback from 2010.

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:
Narrative mode: 3rd person. Story length: 227 pages. Swearing language: mild. Sexual language: mild. Number of sex scenes: 2. Setting: current day Latham Green, Louisiana. Copyright: 1987. Genre: contemporary romance.

My Absolute Favorite

Love the author! Sandra has written several of my favorites. The narrator did a wonderful job with dialog. Just enough voice difference so you could tell the characters apart, but not too much where it was obvious and distracting. Perfection!

BORING

What disappointed you about Sunny Chandler's Return?

I love Sandra Brown, but I was bored to tears with the predictable story.

What was most disappointing about Sandra Brown’s story?

The HUGE secret that disgraced Sunny was to predictable to be believed.

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Beth McDonald?

Her accents were horrible, but I don't know that anyone could have saved this story.

What reaction did this book spark in you? Anger, sadness, disappointment?

Disappointment

Any additional comments?

Don't waste the credit.