really enjoyed this!!

the writing was lovely - so descriptive yet easy to read, and it made me fall in love with all the characters. i love books set in this time period and this one didn't disappoint!

Bernice L McFadden's powerful classic multilayered southern American novel evokes the 1950s era with vibrancy and colour, and details the surprising friendship that springs up between neighbours, sex worker, Sugar Lacey, with her in your face attitude, and the still grieving Pearl Taylor, married to Joe, who has never got over the loss of her daughter, Jude, brutally raped and killed, her body discarded by the road 15 years ago, a devastating crime that never saw any form of justice. Set in Arkansas, in the small town of Bigelow, a place seething with gossip, ignorance and judgementalism, Sugar arrives with hopes of starting afresh, but the townsfolk are far from welcoming of this newcomer, whom they regard with suspicion.

The sanctimonious Christian women do not see as one of them, judging and fearing her without knowing her, wanting her gone, but Sugar's presence is going to have a long lasting impact on the town. Sugar's harrowing and horrifying past is revealed in this riveting, emotionally hearbreaking novel, abandoned, never having experienced a childhood, deprived of love, the humiliations and the abuse. Pearl sees Jude in Sugar, both have gaping needs that somehow they fulfil in each other, finding the strength to come to terms with their haunting and tragic history. McFadden gives us strong, independent women, skilfully developing their characters to great effect and the world of pain and suffering that life had dealt them.

This is a intensely compulsive read, beautifully written, with twists and turns, of race, hate, murder, secrets, shame, and the power of friendship. and packing an unforgettable punch that left me reeling. Highly recommended. Many thanks to the publisher for the book.

Very powerful, poignant, touching. I believe there is a sequel which I need to read because I can’t bare for the story to stop where it did! Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

I think I expected something more 'literary' whereas this is more of a popular page-turner. McFadden writes well on a sentence basis but this is more melodrama than I would usually read, and it feels overly signposted. Definite pointers back to 'Their Eyes Were Watching God' and 'Beloved' but in a lower key. Just a mismatch this time between book and reader, and plenty of people will love this.