Review – Sugar Daddy by Rie Warren

Ms. Warren interspersed humor and sadness to make the story less about the affair and more about moving on. ~ Kitty, Guilty Pleasures

Description:
Shay Greer is pure GRITS—a Girl Raised In The South–but nowhere near a demure southern belle. She’s looking for a way out of her broken down marriage when she lands an unexpected job offer she really should refuse. Position? Mistress. Fringe Benefits? Of course. Fraternization with sexy CEO Reardon Boone? Required. Lured by the promise of intimacy missing from her failed marriage, Shay signs on. She’s barely survived a hellish year of heartbreak and needs a fresh start, but she gets more than she bargained for with lowcountry-boy-made-good Reardon Boone.

Bankrolling Shay into his bedroom, Reardon sticks by his tried and true rules: no-strings-attached seduction, no messy emotions, absolutely nothing resembling a relationship. This sassy, sultry woman fits the bill precisely…until she arouses more than his erotic appetite.

So desirable he sets hearts on fire in everyone from downtown debutantes to downhome mommas, Reardon is as irresistible as he is unattainable. Shay falls hard despite their unorthodox arrangement. Determined to discover what’s concealed beneath his Forbes 400 facade, she has no idea how close to home the truth will hit.

Review copy provided for an honest review

Sugar Daddy sounded like a real interesting read and the title really caught my interest. When I hear “Sugar Daddy”, I think of a younger woman with an older man being kept on the side, living a high-class life and kept in sapphires and pearls (sorry, I don’t like diamonds but love sapphires). Well, this book was anything but that. It’s really about 2 people who have loved and lost and looking to just move on. Neither had any intentions of falling in love but, as we all know, sometimes the unexpected happens.

Shay is broke, in a crumbling marriage and looking to move on with her life. Answering a job ad for a Personal Assistant. She didn’t realize that it was just the politically correct was of saying that Reardon Boone wanted a mistress, contract and compensation included. After one look at him, and not being touched by her husband in over a year, her girly bits were doing a happy dance. But, could she really do this to her husband, even though their marriage has been in name only since a tragic event? Well, in order to leave Palmer, she has to get a job. Hm, kill two birds with one stone – money and sex. Yea, she could do this – she thinks.

Reardon Boone is more that what he appears to be. He’s not really just an arrogant playboy out looking for a good time. He has layers and refuses to let any woman get underneath them. The only ones allowed in are his family and closest friends. They know his fears, his agonies and the real him. He was born with the proverbial silver spoon in his mouth but didn’t have that perfect life everyone thought he had. Until Shay. She drew him to her. He never brought another one of his mistresses to his beach house, never introduced one to his friends, never brought one out to meet his family. She got through those layers and slowly peeled each one away leaving a bare, broken shell of a man who was grieving for the something he lost. Now it’s Shay’s mission to rebuild him and let him know that he can love again. She made him see that there was life after death and his life could include her.

As I said in the beginning, I wasn’t expecting this book to be what it was really about. I thought I would be reading about a hot affair which ended with an HEA (as always). I got a lot more than I bargained for with Sugar Daddy. It was about love – lost loves and new loves. It was about death and rebirth. It was about facing the past and looking forward to the future. I was surprised but it was a nice surprise. To be totally honest. I was a little taken aback with the fact that she was going to have an affair – that did turn me off just a bit especially when Reardon was backing off and Shay was begging for it. He wanted her to be sure and she just wanted sex with her hunk of a boss. He turned out to be the gentleman and she the hussy. But, Ms. Warren interspersed humor and sadness to make the story less about the affair and more about moving on. She had some wonderful characters that made you laugh – absolutely loved Augie – if there was ever a flaming gay guy written with such aplomb, I haven’t read it yet. He was wonderful! “Boom Boom Boone” was his nickname for Reardon. And Shay’s momma added just the right amount of umph to keep Shay on her feet. Reardon’s family was just wonderful – open, honest, loving. They showed you that he was brought up right, learned to protect and help those in need. But, unfortunately, there were some parts that confused me. I felt that they storyline jumped just a little too much and some of the stories weren’t completely told and left you hanging. We went from a Bunko game talking about St. Joseph and not being able to sell the family house right into Shay having a quickie with Reardon in his office. Then there was the discovery as to who was to blame for Shay’s father dying and then it was dropped – she didn’t even tell her mother that she knew what really happened. Even though the the story didn’t gracefully flow from one storyline to the next, it all fit in. It was a good book, with a great ending, and I did enjoy reading Ms. Warren for the first time.

DiDi’s two cents….I enjoyed this book for the most part, I didn’t care for the way Shay pursued the affair.  I am usually the kind who will not read a book with infidelity, but the way it was written and the circumstances made me keep reading.  What I absolutely HATED about this book is the improper  and overuse of “y’all”.  I am TEXAS born and bred, and the way “y’all’ is used had me rolling my eyes and made me want to chunk my tablet.  I really wish that authors would take more care when using dialect from regions they are unfamiliar with.

3.5 Stars.