When I first read the blurb, I was quite excited about the sound of Stealing Candy but unfortunately it didn’t hold up to my expectations. Candy is quite the self-centered person. From the first page on, I got a vibe from her like she thought she was better than everyone else and also that she didn’t appreciate what and who she had in her life. All she wanted was to get away from everything, but when her wish comes true, it’s not at all what she wanted … or is it?

To be kidnapped is, I imagine, a very terrifying thing to experience. Candy was scared all of two seconds, but then she was sort of happy? That’s just something that did not go into my head. She had absolutely no feeling for how much danger she was truly in and she basically regarded the whole situation as a fun adventure. All I wanted to know then was “How?!”. In addition to that, she got a closer look at one of her abductors and decided he is hot? I understand how you might hold on to the person that is treating you well in a traumatic situation like this, instead of the other guy, who beat and threatened her. Nonetheless, I would have expected her trust in him to grow over time and not for her to ponder how dreamy he looks and just be okay with how they met and his intentions for their journey. There was just no build up of them getting closer, but rather this immediate attraction, which I found odd considering the circumstances.

There were some interesting elements to this, such as the reason why Levon kidnapped her and how Candy’s famous dad played into all of it. It added mystery to it somehow. The pacing was alright too, albeit a little repetitive in terms of how they progressed on the road.

At the end, there is a change in Candy’s attitude. She opens up to people and accepts them just like she wants to be accepted, but the change was too sudden for me. I couldn’t comprehend where it was coming from exactly, it felt more like she just had to do that to come across as a better person in the end. Speaking of the end, I didn’t mind that it was quite open in terms of the romance. It seemed to be more about where Candy was in life than where she was with her relationship with Levon and I appreciated that.

"I should be freaking out. Crying or shaking like before, or screaming for help. I’m being kidnapped. The wild thing is, my heart is not only pounding with fear, but also with a twisted freedom."

To say this book was awful would be an overstatement. To say it was good would, again, be an overstatement. As a YA contemporary with coming of age & romantic themes it falls into the I can read this easily in a day or two category. Unfortunately, the actual content seemed absurd to subject to a YA audience. This book paints a romance and justification through Stockholm Syndrome.

Stealing Candy is about a rock star’s daughter, Candy, being kidnapped outside of her school. Right away she notices that only one of her captors is a psychotic druggie (she calls him “Cancer Stick”) while the other is an attractive young man who doesn’t tend to be as violent (she calls him “Half Smile”). In the duration of her kidnapping Candy learns about the reasons behind her kidnapping and starts to just go along with it.

Okay, WHAT THE FREAKING HECK. This chick is so dumb. Before she even gets to the whole “swooning over half smile kid” she has plenty of opportunities to run away from the people who are kidnapping her. Screw the fact that only one of the guys beat her over her head and duct taped her and shoved her into the back of a junky Toyota. Here’s the facts- it was Half Smile’s idea in the freaking first place! I know, I know. She lived a sheltered life and has her daddy issues to top all of this. But really? Hi, yeah, I got kidnapped…2 hours in I decided it felt like an adventure. WHAT THE F!? This entire time you are running all the scenarios from movies of kidnappings.
So not only does Candy screw her few opportunities to escape from her captors, but she totally falls for one of them. So within reason, with SS typically there could be a traumatizing situation (kidnapping/rough captor) followed by someone who is gentle (half smile is nice to her). I don’t see how that constitutes having sex with the guy like2 (I think? I wasn’t exactly counting) days later.
So here’s the few reasons why I hate Candy, and have zero sympathy for her crazy ass:
1. She talks about her classmates in shallow and cliché categories: The Borings, Max the Goth
2. She bitches about her dad, all the while living off the cushy living he provides for her (typical teen)
3. She thinks getting kidnapped is an adventure ( I STILL CANT GET OVER THIS)
4. She has sex with a captor, who also has a girlfriend that she’s aware of, and doesn’t feel any remorse for her action
5. At the end, after time being apart from Half Smile she still decides to go back to him. Like shit girl, meet a new guy! If he wanted you around, he would have emailed more in year since you had seen him…
6. We are somehow given a personality with her because she’s super into film, and all I could think of was that scene in American Beauty with the floating trash bag.

Okay so Half Smile. The entire reason why he does all this was to get his dad some retribution. 1 million dollars from the guy who framed him – Candy’s dad. So after finding out about the framing and not receiving the payout. He decides to save a ton of money to drive up the Eastern seaboard kidnap a girl and spend all that money driving back down to Florida to a concert where her dad is playing so she can be used for ransom….How he was going to complete final task he hadn’t planned out. Just took all the time to save enough money from mowing lawns to make this trip (I mean, that’s a lot of time saving money…how had he not thought it through?!) Also, towards the end, they end up just letting a detective know that it was this famous rock star not Half Smile’s dad and of course he looks into it because dang it’s this famous rock star! This kid is dumb too.

Moral of the story kids? Don’t be scared or try to escape if you’re kidnapped? They might have some reason for the awful act, and they might be the love of your life….
So many nopes.

Not a terrible read but not the best book I have ever read. Candy is kidnapped while walking at school and she is thrust into a bad situation. She finds a connection with one of her kidnappers, Levon, and the story continues on following their adventure together. Candy wasn't a terribly annoying character, but she was so quick to be unafraid and fall for her captor. Over, it was a cute, quick read, but I just didn't fall in love with it.

Candy's personality is a little hard to swallow at first, I mean, whose happy about getting kidnapped? But over time I grew to love her sarcastic way of handling things, and realized that she was pretty good at getting herself out of rough situations. It was fun to see all the characters actually develop in an easier way, and I know the ending will piss off many younger fans; I found it to be quite realistic.

Bio:

Levon thinks he’s kidnapping Candy, but she’s the one calling the shots in this darkly comedic road trip story

Candy hates boarding school. As a junior, graduation is still eons away, and making films is the only way to survive the boredom.

Until she is kidnapped.

Candy panics. Along Came a Spider, Ransom, Taken, Cellular… Candy knows how these movies end. The only reason anyone would abduct her is to get a payout from her rock star father. Except Candy and her father are estranged. There’s no way he’s going to pay.

But with every hour that passes, Candy’s fear slowly recedes. Being on the road is freeing, not to mention great material for a new documentary. And the more time she spends with her handsome captor Levon, the more she learns the whole scheme is not just about ransom. It’s about revenge. What began as a kidnapping is spiraling into a crazy road trip adventure as Candy and Levon find a lot of wrong ways to do the right thing.

Review:

I don't even know what to say about this book. It's bad. It's good. It's surprising. It's amazing. It's one adventure after another with these two. Everytime I thought things would calm down, they land themselves up into something else.

It's funny, it's thrilling, it's almost edge of your seat at times. I laughed, I screamed, I yelled at the dumb girl who "has fun" while being kidnapped. She's absolutely crazy in a glass half full kind of way.

I honestly don't even know where to begin.

I think my favorite part, which really spoke volumes of this girl's character, was when Candy and Levon argue over a potential dead body. She is not okay with leaving the guy to die... and he just wants to get out of there before they get caught.

More parallel to that, when you find out his reasons for "Stealing Candy" you begin to wonder exactly what kind of person Levon is.

The ending did not make me happy, it was very cliff hanger-y... but if there is a second book coming I can be okay with that.

Rating: ❤️❤️❤️❤️ Four Hearts

For me, Stealing Candy had a rocky start. The book begins with Candy being kidnapped quite early on (Chapter 2) and I couldn't connect with her at all at first. In fact, I had trouble connecting with her the whole time, which I talk in depth about later. I can say she did get better, as did the book, as it progressed.


My least favorite thing about this book was the romance. It is supposed to be one of the selling points of the novel, and it fell really flat. I felt as if the interaction between Levon and Candy were awkward and scripted. And though obviously they are "scripted," the conversation should still be able to flow naturally. I didn't believe in it, and whenever the romance was mentioned, I was just taken out of the story.


What really saved this book for me was the pace. Stealing Candy was so fast paced that even when I didn't like it, I kept going. From what I remember the chapters are relatively short or have breaks in them. Another thing that I really liked was how big family was in this book. My favorite moments were by far when Candy was reminiscing about her mother, or even her father. My favorite scene is when Candy is telling a story about her best memory with her estranged dad.


However, Candy's dad is where things began to go awry. This book takes a completely different turn than the synopsis. Pretty early on Candy actually starts to help her kidnapper, Levon, take down her estranged father. I wanted a gritty kidnapping novel and I got something else in its entirety. So though I like the interactions between Candy and her father, the whole sabotage thing was out of left field for me.


Candy's character herself was very contradictory. She was selfish in the way that she was always complaining about how hard her life was, but then she was able to put morals above family, which is hard even if you are estranged. I didn't agree with her actions, but at times she was poised. Basically, half the time I hated her, and the other half I respected her.


Stealing Candy is nowhere near perfect. I definitely had my flaws with it, but overall I had a good time. Candy is an annoying protagonist, as is the romance. However, the fast pace and general plot of the book saved it for me, even if things went a bit sideways. Friendships and family are portrayed in a really great light here. I love how Lewis contrasted family, who you can't choose, with friends, who you can.


With that, I give this book

3.25 out of 5 Stars!

After I reading the description I was pretty excited about reading this book. I had a lot of expectations. Sadly My expectations where to high. I expected to be on the edge of my seat, to be glued to my screen.
I understood that she actually was existed to feel connected to something, that she felt free instead of feeling scared to be in the situation she was, but as a reader you need more. This became boring after a few chapters, it was like the scenes were on repeat. On the road, on a motel, and back on the road. I sincerely felt more excited with her relationship (friendship) with Billy than with Levon.
This had so much potential to be a great book. If she would of fight a little bit more and not feel so content right away. She attach herself to Levon too fast.
I was expecting more The Big Hit (If you haven't watch this movie I recommend it) The romance was so intense with no sex scenes, their connection was amazing, The lead girl was sassy and fought back, but ended up feeling some what like the lead here.

This is an interesting young adult novel that starts off pretty slow but picks up toward the end. While I didn't love this book, I certainly didn't hate it either. It did have redeeming qualities which were mainly the premise behind the book. On the other hand, I couldn't really stand the heroine of this story which is why I gave this book a 3 star rating. Sure, her attitude is typical of a teenager her age but I just couldn't vibe with her. Perhaps it's her reaction to being kidnapped? I am not sure but I just didn't care for her.

Overall, this is a decent book. It's well written by the author but dry when it comes to the characters. This is only my opinion though and I think may people will love this story especially if they fall into the heroines age bracket as they may better relate to her character.

I went into this from the first page confused by the narrator's tone and maturity level. She is a junior at a prep boarding school and daughter of an old Mick Jagger-type one hit wonder rock star who has neglected her her whole life. She is the very cliche, stereo-typical snarky, depressive, overly-defensive teenager who wishes for "more" from her "boring" life. I immediately was tired of her inner thoughts and dialogue, her bad attitude and generally looking down at everyone around her. Her only friend at the school is the older janitor. We are told all of this in 1st person and I don't think I have ever liked first person less than in this story.

So, after we learn all of the above about the heroine, she is kidnapped-stolen, hence the title of the book. Within the first day of being kidnapped she crushes on one of the kidnappers, even though the other kidnapper has hit and punched her to the point of vomiting! But the other one that didn't hit her is cute and laughs at her wise cracking (not really but we are supposed to think so) remarks.

It continues to spin out into just ridiculousness. She falls more in with the kidnapper and begins to help him and basically aids him in her own kidnapping and ransom and on and on and yada yada yada...

I honestly cannot go on. I finished it hoping there would be some sense but as it went on it got more ridiculous. The dialogue more juvenile-I mean the janitor is a grown man but gives her advice like a teenage girl! And the ending! Woah, I wont spoil it but WTH? What kind of ending is that? I hate unclear, no closure endings-thats all I will say. It's disappointing. I like good YA-I really love it, but this does not fall into that category.

I had high hopes for this book, sadly they weren't quite met. Candy as a character annoyed me, and I found the whole plot fairly unrealistic.