Review: Establishment vs. The New Guys
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 12 13, 2013
Thank you so much to the author and Entangled for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review!I am a fan of Burstein’s previous work and was excited to see she was trying her hand at New Adult. I remember her tweeting during the drafting process and thought this story sounded so fun – about a writing grad student trying to live up the expectations of her sexist professor while leading a double life as a erotic romance writer.At face value, Sneaking Candy is a fun, sexy read. Candice is someone we can all relate to because she struggles with seeking approval, trying to figure out her path in life, and navigating romantic relationships. Her roommate, Amanda, is hilarious, and the evil Professor Dylan is a great villain. I especially loved James, the barista turned love interest turned student, who was very swoony and a great match for Candice. In terms of the “new adult” themes, this novel tackles a lot of the things that college and grad students deal with, most notably “what do I do with my life” and also “my parents don’t approve of my choices.” I think all readers will find at least one thing here that will ring true from their own lives.The part that I really enjoyed, though, was the underlying – okay, not so underlying – theme of establishment versus the new guys. Candice is trying to be a serious literary fiction writer by day, and a self-published romance writer, Candy, by night. Her journey parallels what’s been going on the last several years in the writing and publishing world. I chuckled to myself many times because this is a debate that has presented itself in my own life a lot recently.I took a writing class last summer where the teacher, who was probably in her 60s or 70s, felt that the only “real” writers were the dead white ones and was totally hung up on Hemingway, Faulkner and Joyce. At least 2 or 3 of us in the class were interested in writing something outside the literary fiction realm and spent more than one class period arguing that yes, in fact, romance and YA and sci-fi ARE valid and that “good” writing makes the reader feel something, connects, so who cares what it’s about? This is what Candice/Candy struggles with in the book and eventually comes to her own conclusion about what she thinks is right. I applaud Burstein for putting her own thoughts about this debate on the page and for illustrating my own feelings – that writing is good if it reaches the reader. Period.4/5 – this is a very entertaining read, and one with an important statement about writing.