Long time no speak! With all the changes Blogger has recently made to its interface (I hate how everything looks right now and it's made me want to not update this blog or switch to a different site), general anxiety over the global pandemic and keeping up with my TikTok/BookTok, I had to take a little unplanned hiatus from the blog. 

Everything was just kind of... a lot, recently, and I found myself needing to take a step back temporarily. But, I'm back! And I read a lot. So get ready for a slew of upcoming reviews. 

 Sugar Daddy
by Sawyer Bennett

Seduction has never been so sweet! The New York Times bestselling author of the Cold Fury series—Alex, Garrett, Zack, and Ryker—returns with the first novel in a hot new trilogy.

Sela Halstead lost her innocence in a way that no sixteen-year-old should ever have to endure. She’s spent years trying to forget that night even while wondering about the identities of the monsters who brutalized her—until a telltale tattoo flashes across Sela’s TV screen. The incriminating ink belongs to Jonathon Townsend, the millionaire founder of The Sugar Bowl, a website that matches rich older men with impressionable young women. Obsessed with revenge, Sela infiltrates Townsend’s world, only to come face-to-face with a tantalizing complication: Beckett North, his charismatic business partner.

The tech mastermind behind The Sugar Bowl, Beck always gets what he wants, in business and in bed. And yet, for a man who’s done every dirty thing imaginable, there’s something about the naïve, fresh-faced Sela that sparks his hottest fantasies. Because with her, it’s not just about sex. Beck opens up to her in ways he never has with other girls. So why does he get the feeling that she’s hiding something? In a world of pleasure and power, the shocking truth could turn them against each other—or bind them forever.

Note: Sugar Daddy ends on a cliffhanger. Sela and Beck’s story continues in Sugar Rush and Sugar Free!

Sugar Daddy (Sugar Bowl, #1) by Sawyer Bennett
Rating: ★★☆☆☆

Seeing that I am a spiteful person (although, I wouldn't say I'm cruel) and love a good tale of love, lust and revenge, Sugar Daddy had a particular appeal to me from the start. It was only an added bonus that the cover art was uniquely minimal, vibrant and sparkling with intrigue. And with the way 2020 was going, I was definitely keen on startling a darkly woven tale of suspense and romance.

The first thing I want to say is that Sugar Daddy has a specific appeal; because of this specific appeal, it won't be for everybody and, frankly, is quite triggering. There's this sense of reality grouped with fantasy all throughout Sugar Daddy that makes for an interesting read. In the end, I realized, I neither hated nor loved Sugar Daddy because of these things. 

So much of the story felt up in the air with questions. Even as things unraveled and the story hit its climax, I couldn't help but to feel like something was missing for my personal preferences. Which is not a dig at the story or the author, because I still found myself compelled to read until the very end.  I think my major issues with Sugar Daddy lay in the fact that some bits and pieces of the story felt less like a starter novel/introduction to a series but rather a filler novel. 

There were still a ton of positives: the characters. I thought each one served a very specific brand of morally grayness. It made me intrigued and disgusted by them, depending on the character and their scenarios.

That being said: Sawyer Bennett's prose is very, very well done. Her writing reflects the trauma, steam and betrayal as the story progresses in a way that feels real. Even in its most contradicting and far-fetched moments, you can't help but to believe every inch of this story. Not only this, it makes Sugar Daddy impossible to put down. 

Readers can find themselves flushing just as easily as they flinch. One thing is certain: Sugar Daddy, though flawed, was compulsively readable and viciously sexy.