Crush. Candy. Corpse

Finished April 9
Crush. Candy. Corpse. by Sylvia McNicoll
This novel goes back and forth between the life of young Sunny as she completes her required 40 volunteer hours at a local nursing home, and the court scene where she is accused of manslaughter.
Sunny didn't want to volunteer at the nursing home, but the other volunteer options were gone and she had always felt close to her grandmother, so she figured she could handle it.
She finds herself on a ward with patients with memory issues, many with Alzheimer's. She finds herself drawn to the patients, looking for ways to improve their quality of life, wanting to make them smile. She buys them small gifts from her own pocket. She also finds herself drawn to a young man, Cole, who comes to visit his grandmother. Torn between her attraction to geeky Cole, and the bad boy Donovan she is currently seeing, she delays choosing between the two.
When her last visit to the nursing home occurs at the same time as a tragedy and she is accused of a connection to the death of a nursing home resident, she finds herself looking to her family and friends for support.
The book moves back and forth between witnesses in the courtroom and Sunny's experiences at the nursing home in a way that shows the reader different sides to a story.