Sugar Daddy: My Review

Usually when a book is termed a "romance novel" you know the plot pretty much from the first--boy meets girl, attraction, conflict, resolution (love). Sugar Daddy has those elements, but it is more than that--it is more the story of the teen and young adult years of Liberty, a girl who lost her father when she was four. After that, her mother moved from relationship to relationship and from low-wage job to low-wage job. When Liberty is in high school, they move to a trailer in Welcome Texas and the book follows Liberty through high school romances, gaining a baby sister, losing her mother and beginning her adult life. Along the way she finds love of different kinds but I'm not going to tell you the man with whom she ends up.

The title refers to a relationship one of Liberty's co-workers urges her to form. They work in an expensive, high-end beauty salon where the customers are the rich and famous of Houston. A "Suger Daddy" is a rich man (usually older) and a "Sugar Baby" is a young attractive, not wealthy woman with whom he has a relationship. He gives her lavish gifts, though cash does not usually change hands. She gives him friendship and more.

This book is the first in a series; Blue Eyed Devil, which I read and reviewed last month, is the second. Like Blue Eyed Devil, Sugar Daddy takes a look at issues faced by women in society today. While Blue Eyed Devil looked at abuse, Sugar Daddy looks at poor single mothers trying to improve their lot in life--something that is very hard to do without money for tuition, daycare and a supportive family. I read somewhere once that the difference between single mothers who end up as long-term welfare recipients and those who end up supporting themselves and their kids is usually a family capable of providing physical, emotional and financial support.