Summary: “A sugar daddy can make your money woes disappear overnight. But for sugar babies, life is like a chocolate covered time bomb: sweet on the outside, deadly on the inside.”
Young, beautiful, and hungry, Esme, Maire, and Niki want what every woman wants: love, work, safe shelter, the bills paid off, a diamond-studded Rolex and a two-bedroom condo with an ocean view. Working as sugar babies seems to be the only way to make this happen. But the sugar life is more dangerous than they thought.
Maire O’Rourke is too hot to handle herself appropriately. She tends to wear too tight clothes and too much make-up, but she’s got more than sex on her mind. She’s already landed one of the wealthiest sugar daddies in Coconut City, a tropical paradise boasting more lonely men per multimillion-dollar estate than just about anywhere else.
Esme Grant is a curvy blonde with a rough and tumble boyfriend she’s left behind somewhere in the hill country. She’s come to Coconut City to find herself a sugar daddy, a wealthy older man willing to fund her, along with her hometown boyfriend and their Mayberry-gone-bad dreams of owning a sports bar.
Niki Stephanopoulos, an artist enrolled in a teaching certification program at Coconut College, struggles with depression fueled by guilt. She is embarrassed by her dependence on her family for the money she needs to survive. But she feels even worse after sleeping with her sexy, much older landlord when she’s short the rent. Welcome to the secret lives of sugar babies.
Review: Sugar Babies, a “career” that is becoming popular amongst young college coeds and young people unable to meet their bills, is depicted in vivid detail in this novel. A glimpse into the glamour and the not so happy endings these girls dream about living; this is a new kind of American morality tale. As the cover suggests, “A blue martini with a nasty twist.” As the girls struggle to pay the rent, they rationalize how to make love to indecent men, and how to maintain some morals on their way to success and happiness.
With a suspenseful vibe from the very first ages of the book, I was drawn into the illusions and the grittiness that was the lives of three young, smart and beautiful women. There is an edginess to the glamorous world of Coconut City, dark undertones that will keep you on the edge of your seat.
I enjoyed the way the author slowly built the characters lives, from their very different backgrounds to where they find themselves now, desperate and searching for a more comfortable existence. The real mystery begins before the story, with an introductory letter by the narrator:
“SUGAR DADDY’S DIARY
Three women. I broke one’s spirit, I broke another’s neck, and I married the third. “
I admit to being hooked right from that point. Who was pulling strings? The possibilities were unnerving. His identity is a well-kept secret until the very end when along with a few plot twists, all is revealed. If you love a solid but sexy, suspense story with sex, angst, and some pretty young women trying to their lives eventually mean something, then this story is for you. You will not be disappointed.
Equally fascinating and sigh-inducing (they are professionals after all), and with a twist at the end that I didn’t see coming, I recommend “Sugar Babies” to anyone who likes a little bit of the dark side and mystery in a warm, mysterious tropical setting.
Publisher: Champagne Books
Genre: M/F Contemporary
ISBN 13: 9781771550260
About the Author: I have reviewed Mickey Corrigan’s books before (see The Ghostwriter). A fellow Floridian, she knows how to add the right amount of spiciness to what would ordinarily be chick-lit. You can visit her website at http://www.mickeyjcorrigan.com.
Note: I received a copy of this book from the Author in exchange for an honest review.