This was a book that you could get lost in easily and then realise that hours had passed! It was enthralling, darkly comedic and utterly addictive. I can't wait to read more from this author.
Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the ARC.

I was very excited to read this, and did enjoy it, but I just felt this idea & plot could have been taken in such a unique, fresh direction. Instead, overall, I was left feeling like there were a few too many cliches, generalisations and stereotypes. That being said, the writing flowed well and I would read more by this author!

Very insightful take on modern issues and perspectives. I loved the novel all in all, especially the authors unravelling of such an interesting dynamic within society, it was fantastic. Every word pulls you deeper into the story and I love the descriptive writing style - you can visualise the story so clearly. Agnes is such a multi-faceted character. Following her and how she navigates this new world kept me hooked on this book; morning and night until I finished it.

Twenty-one-year-old Agnes is in a rut. Having crashed out of sixth form without any A Levels, she has watched her peers head off to university or begin exciting careers while she works for the same cleaning agency as her mother, spending her days scrubbing and polishing the homes of the wealthy and daydreaming about another life. That is until she meets Emily, the beautiful, mesmerising daughter of one of her clients, who inducts Agnes into a life of partying, designer clothes and sugaring - dating rich older men in 'mutually beneficial relationships'. Agnes can't resist the lure of Emily's glamorous life, but now she must try to square the lifestyle she covets with her strict, religious upbringing and decide if this is really who she wants to be.

Sugar, Baby is a book which is unsure what it wants to be. At times it reads like a frothy, sexy romp, a shiny tale of what it is to be young, hot and scruple-free. Elsewhere it toys with being an exploration of how Black women are fetishised and sexualised - Agnes herself is mixed-race - but this ends up being very superficial, more a series of throwaway musings than anything deeper. The underlying theme of
a young person torn between their parents' culture and that of the country they've grown up in is an interesting, relatable one - and leads to some witty, clever observations - but again this storyline is not developed as well as it could be. Agnes is thrust into a world of girls who prize all the things she has been taught to shun and men who want her because of what she looks like, what she represents to them, but she quickly develops an ability to compartmentalise the different parts of her life. When she is reminded of her mother's (and God's) disapproval of her behaviour, these reminders feel repetitive and never truly cause Agnes to reflect.

The first two-thirds of the book are fast-paced and flow well - this book is over 400 pages but doesn't feel like it - but the final third meanders into tangents which felt unnecessary or too heavy-handed in making their point. There is also a minor plot line about Agnes' dream of being an artist which feels like something of an afterthought.

Agnes is a difficult character to understand. As she embarks on her new life as a sugar baby, she undergoes a series of degrading, humiliating experiences, each of which I kept expecting to lead to some kind of crossroads where Agnes would have to seriously question what she was doing. However, most of them seem to lead to neither personal growth nor lasting trauma, and she breezily moves past these episodes in a way that feels jarring and unrealistic. For some of the supporting characters, intriguing character depth is eluded to but never really materialises. I wanted to know more about who Emily really is behind her glossy façade, about Yomawu's feelings about her choices, but this was never properly explored.

Sugar, Baby is an easy, enjoyable read if you don't think too deeply about it. It is very funny in parts and the sex scenes are refreshingly female-centric. It's just a shame that it could have been something so much more interesting and thought-provoking.

Thank you to NetGalley and Atlantic Books for the opportunity to read and review an ARC of this book.

Agnes Green is turning 21 and going nowhere, still living at home with devoutly religious mother, working as a cleaner by day and spending her nights clubbing and dating Toby.
Then she meets Emily, a daughter of one of her cleaning clients.
She’s a model and a Sugar Baby - going with rich older men who shower her with a luxurious lifestyle and designer gifts.
Agnes new life is beyond her wildest dreams, but it comes at a cost, straying further and further from her mother’s holy teachings, she must decide how far she is willing to be adored,
Agnes came across as naive and longed for an escape from her hum drum life.
Loved her journey of self-discovery, covered important topics such as obsession with beauty, how women are treated in the sex industry, strength and indoctrine of family.
Would make an excellent Book Club read as lots of discussion starters with topics covered .
Thanks @celinesaintclare @atlanticbooks and @netgalley for the eARC

A sexy, flirty novel which has glamour and a intriguing plot. This books truly highlights the highs and lows of this lifestyle. I enjoyed the prose which felt intentional and fun which fit the books overarching theme. I enjoyed our main characters grapple with her life style and her religion which is something I think many who have been brought up in religious background can relate to. The book doesn't shy away from the very serious drawbacks to being a sugar baby including violence and much other sinister matters and I glad it didn't completely glamourise the sugar baby lifestyle. I would recommend for those who are curios about this lifestyle and who are fans of books about women versus the void. Thanks to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for this ARC!

I really enjoyed this book, it was interesting to read and eye-opening to the world of sugaring, which is something I didn't know much about. I found the characters, especially the main character Agnes, to be really well developed and I was really intrigued to follow her story and her journey and was rooting for her to find her way.

I really loved the first two thirds of this book. Agnes is stagnating in her job as a cleaner and is not allowed to behave how she wants because her mother is a very devout Caribbean immigrant who believes in fire and brimstone!
When she goes with her mother to a wealthy client’s house and meets her daughter, she becomes introduced to the world of sugar babies - girls who are seen out with men in return for gifts and money. .
She feels like she belongs in this world until it all goes a bit far.
The book lost it for me when Agnes goes to Paris and her behaviour changes. From this point on I no longer enjoyed the book as much.

When we meet Agnes, she is working as a cleaner, living at home with her very strict and religious mother, and just generally feeling lost. When a client's daughter Emily offers to guide Agnes into the world of sugar babying, it seems like it could be the answer to the stagnation she feels.

I didn't know what to expect from this, given it is a debut novel. But the thing that absolutely drew me in was the writing style: it is punchy and engaging and honest. It was so easy to read that the pages just flew by, and I was never ever bored. Although the book covers some challenging topics, it never feels too dark or even judgmental of its characters. Agnes is a pragmatic and unique protagonist in that regard - as she gets deeper into this world, the more resigned she becomes.

That said, I would liked to have seen a little more introspection from Agnes. There's so much complexity that underlies the narrative, and sometimes it felt like this book didn't quite go deep enough for me. That said, perhaps that was intentional on the author's part, but I think that would really have kicked this up that final star for me.

That said, I enjoyed this so much and will definitely be on the look out for future books from Saintclare.

I really enjoyed this book. Great character and plot development, lots of twists and turns that keeps you wanting to find out what happens next. Would recommend.

It doesn't happen every day that I read a book with MC named just like me. So, the book gets a bonus point for that from me!
The name aside, this book was good. Really good. It is so well written, and the characters are really coming alive as the story unfolds.
Nothing shocking happens, and there are no crazy twists and turns, but the story is very, very gripping, it sucks you in within the first 15 pages, and you just can’t put it down, you have to know how the story unfolds – it is just a very interesting read that feels slightly like as if you are peeking through the window and eavesdropping on other people’s lives. You just want to know them better. You just want to know what is happening. You just want to know how they feel.

I devoured this in 24 hours! I really enjoyed the exploration of religious guilt, and a glimpse in to the good and bad of being a sugar baby. I really appreciated the author didn’t send Agnes back to her mother at the end (which I feared would happen), though they did reconcile.

I truly could have read another 300 pages of Agnes’ story. If you liked Queenie, you’ll like this!

In Sugar, Baby, our main character is 21 year old Agnes Green. Agnes works as a cleaner, helping her mum out whilst also dealing with the restrictions of living with her super religious mum; her best friend Jess is off travelling and her relationship with boyfriend Toby is going nowhere. When she meets the mysterious Emily, the daughter of one of their cleaning clients, Agnes is very much attracted to the promise of a glamorous alternate life, and slowly we are introduced into the world of "sugar babies" (aka escorts).

It's spicy, its scandalous, there's nothing sugar coated here but at the same time, nothing really bad happens to any of the girls and we don't see the drawbacks of the lifestyle. Their lives seem glamorous, they convince themselves that what they're doing is fun and that it's just like acting - Emily coaches them to "never step out of character". I realise I'm sounding judgemental about this topic now purely as I can't imagine that it would be *that* fun but honestly I did really enjoy reading this, it's definitely a fresh perspective, I've not read anything like it before and couldn't believe that it's also a debut novel, it's beautifully written. It's a long one at over 400 pages but I flew through it and it never felt stilted or too slow, as some longer books do. I'm looking forward to reading whatever this author writes next!

Well, this was a pleasant surprise!
Going into this, I for some reason, had the impression that this was going to be literary and could possibly be a little boring. Boy, was I wrong. This falls more into contemporary fiction and I'm so glad it did.
This was an absolutely captivating read that I devoured in two sittings.
I was hooked from the start and was invested in the story and the character of Agnes.
The writing was really enjoyable and it and the plot flowed effortlessly. When I see a book is 400 pages+ my heart tends to sink as in my opinion, most books don't need to be that long. This however, wasn't an issue, it never felt too long. If anything the ending felt a little abrupt.
This was a great debut novel and I will definitely read from this author in the future.

Reading this I was reminded of the classic Clueless quote 'From far away it's ok, but up close it's a big old mess'. I mean, that's a bit harsh because I wouldn't call this a mess at all, the writing is great, however I do think the idea and the setting of this glitzy world protagonist Agnes gets drawn into outweighs the hard hitting topics I think the author was trying to get across.

And that's a real shame because there are a lot of really meaningful conversations to be hard here. Agnes is black and from a poor, religious community which is what intially leads her into this world. A world she thinks is full of opportunity and fast money and friends with influence. To see her struggle with her religious upbringing, her mother's voice constantly talking in her mind, and current lifestyle was interesting to read. However Agnes really changes as a character towards the back third of the book. To the point that she almost became unrecognisable to the earlier woman we see, and the change isn't really explored or explained. It was odd, almost as though reading about two different women who were completed disconnected from the other. One naive and optimistic, full of the joys of money and sex. The other was a lot more sedate and hard.

Some interesting ideas, but I wanted more from growth from Agnes in the middle section of the book to outshine the glamour.

⭐ ⭐ ⭐
Sugar, Baby
by Celine Saintclare

This has the makings of a great story. Told in first person narrative it is about Agnes, a 21 year old cleaner who is going nowhere fast, resentful of the restrictions imposed on her by her ultra devout pentecostal Caribbean immigrant mother and now it looks like she's being ghosted by her monosyllabic and uninspiring boyfriend.

When she makes an unexpected connection with a wealthy client's daughter, she finds herself sucked into the world of sugar dating. It's highly lucrative if you have the looks, the poise and the emotional ability to compartmentalise. But can she?

I love the character of Ag. She's real and raw and with her need to be loved and taken seriously she is highly vulnerable. She imagines herself as an Anna Karina character in a Helmut Newton photo, wearing Marly perfume, a Gucci bag and an Hermes scarf. But her mother's face is everywhere she looks and her voice is in her ear in the most compromising of situations.

Lots to unpack about the sex industry, about the layers between questionable and unacceptable. Themes of slut shaming that aren't explored optimally.

Unfortunately for me this goes off the rails at around the 65% mark. Whatever changes in Agnes' behaviour during the trip to Paris feels jarring and from that point on, I feel disconnected from the earlier story. The writing isn't consistent, it segues into unresolved tangents and continue that way throughout Miami and Rome. It feels like this section was written by a different author, or perhaps edited by someone different. It's bizarre. A second reading didn't help me resolve it.

The final 5% brings the original style back, and while the conclusion wraps up with growth and redemption, it does not feel earned and to me, there's a glaring hole in the narrative arc.

This is a debut, it has a fresh and interesting voice (think Queenie), it's got dark, biting humour and themes that are highly relevant to today's label conscious, highly groomed, over-influenced young adults. I'd love to see where this author goes next.

Publication date: 27th July 2023
Thanks to #netgalley for the egalley.

Sugar, Baby follows Agnes as she leaves her religious home and joins Emily and her new friends in the world of sugaring.

I enjoyed this book at first as it seemed like it was going to be an honest and revealing take on what it is like as a sugar baby. We have all dreamed of the life of luxury and wondered what it is like to dip into it, and whether it is all it is made to be. Agnes reaches the edges of this by working as a sugar baby.

I didn't really enjoy it towards the end, however. It became a bit "I am better than this" and diminished the earlier exploration of the things that can happen in sex work and sugaring. The book talks about body image and fillers but doesn't really acknowledge that this is an exclusive and rare experience in this line of work. There are many average sugar baby experiences and average sugar babies that I think this sort of began as but then was lost. I did enjoy the friendship aspect and how the girls support each other, and the lead up to Agnes' introduction to the sugar baby world was well written. I felt at times Agnes' character changed without warning and she switched her opinions very fast.

Overall this was an interesting read and I did enjoy some aspects of the story.

I DEVOURED this book, an absolute delight. A bit of a slow start but I was absorbed by chapter three. Vivid, engaging and wonderfully written. Very rare I don’t find written sex scenes unbearably cringe, but Saintclare hits the right balance of sexy and realistic.

It was only after finishing Sugar, Baby and reading another readers review that I realised this book was 400+ pages long?! I was completely invested in Agnes’s story that I didn’t even realise how long I’d been reading and I loved Celine Saintclare’s writing style. Some of the dates made for uncomfortable reading which says a lot about Saintclare’s character descriptions!

Part of me would have liked to have seen more of Agnes’s relationship with her mother as that aspect of the story was quite intriguing and but all in all a good read!

This book made me think and I enjoyed that greatly.

I didn’t particularly like Agnes but I do love a flawed character.

This is a quick read and a good one, I think it would suit a beach read too.