This is the second book in the series. If you haven't read the first book of this series, then don't read this one until you do. You will have no clue as to what is going on and it will only frustrate you. Once you've read that one, come back for this one.

We pick up right where CCC left off. Sasha is driving Tavin away from Alex's house. He's so angry at her, and Tavin is broken up about it. He just doesn't understand what's going on and what just happened. He thinks that she purposely did what he thought she did, but the fact is that she had no choice. She's devasted, but at least Sasha, who knows most of what's going on, is there to help her.

Alex, on the other hand, really has no one to help him. All his friends are telling him good riddance to bad rubbish. He's just lost and floundering and knows that all he wants is Tavin. When he learns more about her story, his viewpoint is completely changed.

While it may look like this story is about a whole lot of things, what it breaks down to, at least for me, is what love is. The question is can someone love someone else no matter what horrible things they've done in their lives or been forced to do? Can that someone actually believe that they are loved and that they deserved to be loved? No matter what's going on, that's what Sweetened Suffering is to me, one person loving another unconditionally and fighting to deal with horrible things that have happened to the person that they loved. Alex sometimes gets really angry at what happened, which does sometimes scare Tavin, but he's rarely angry at her, more like angry for her. Totally different thing. Even through some extreme tests, he doesn't change and he tells her that he will always love her.

Charity has followed up CCC, which was an amazing debut, with a book that holds its own against that first book. That can be hard to do, especially with as strong a showing her first book had. But, she manages it quite well. ( )