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It was the girl, of course. The girl from the station. The girl with the smile and the skin and the eyes …  

Joe is hooked from the moment he sees Candy. What is it that catches his eye? Is it her hair, her smile, or just the way she’s standing? When they chat over coffee there’s an instant attraction, but can love ever be this sweet? As the bitter truth about Candy’s dangerous world emerges, Joe must decide whether love and hope are worth fighting for.

Reviews:

'Brooks is one of the best young adult writers around. Get this book. Word-of-mouth will do the rest.' IRISH TIMES

'... a story as sharp as the title is sweet, with something dark lurking inside and no cosy answers ... Some words of warning: Candy may hook you too.' GUARDIAN

Up the street, around a corner, and there I was – on a broad paved area, dotted with telephone boxes and newspaper stands, right outside the station. Right next to Euston Road.

            Piece of cake.

            Now all I had to do was follow Euston Road ...

            But ... which way?

            This way?

            Or that way?

            Left or right?

            I closed my eyes, trying to picture the A-Z. I could see it, I could see all the roads, but the map was upside down in my head. The page was the wrong way round. The station was on the wrong side of the road. All right, I said to myself, if the road’s upside down on the map, all you have to do is go the other way. If you’re on this side of the road, which is the other side on the map, then instead of going right, you have to go left.

            I started moving off to the left, then paused, remembering something – the map was supposed to be upside down. When I’d looked at the A-Z before leaving home, I’d turned it upside down so the page was the right way round. The map in my head was right all along. I didn’t want to go right, I wanted to go left.

            So I turned around, bumping into a crazy old woman pushing a shopping trolley full of rags – ‘Yageddabaddageddaahh!’ – and moved off back the way I’d come.

            But I hadn’t taken more than half a dozen steps when I stopped again, reconsidering the map. Had I really turned it around? Maybe not. Maybe I was right in the first place? I half-turned, thought about it again, turned back, and was just about to get going for the final time, when a voice called out from behind me.

            ‘You want to make your mind up.’

            It was a girl’s voice – sweet and clear, like a shining jewel in the gutter. It wasn’t particularly loud – she wasn’t shouting or yelling – but somehow the sound of it managed to cut through the chaos and pinpoint my mind like the diamond-tipped blade of a knife. I turned around, taking in a sea of blurred faces, and there she was – standing in the doorway of Boots, leaning against the wall, smiling at me. It was the kind of smile that rips a hole in your heart – lips, teeth, sparkling eyes ...

            God, she could smile.