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Sugar (Sugar Lacey #1)

by Bernice L. McFadden (Goodreads Author)

4.24 of 5 stars 4.24 · rating details · 1,823 ratings · 170 reviews

"Strong and folksy storytelling...think Zora Neale Hurston...Sugar speaks of what is real." --The Dallas Morning NewsFrom an exciting new voice in African-American contemporary fiction comes a novel Ebony praised for its "unforgettable images, unique characters, and moving story that keeps the pages turning until the end." The Chicago Defender calls Sugar "a literary explo...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published January 2nd 2001 by Plume (first published 2000)

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Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston

Best Black Historical Fiction

5th out of 112 books — 86 voters

The Coldest Winter Ever by Sister Souljah

Black Caucus of the ALA Award Winners - Fiction

5th out of 104 books — 67 voters

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Jan 30, 2013 kisha rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, african-american-fiction, southern-fiction-or-historical-fic, rereads

I just finished reading this book for the second time after ten years. So much respect is due to Bernice Mcfadden. She's a wonderful writer and storyteller. Her style is amazing. Her excellency in character analysis is outstanding. It was impossible not to fall in love with the characters or at least have an understanding of how or why they are the way that they are. I couldn't get over the language of the narration. So beautifully written. I definitely can't wait to read the sequel. This is a b...more

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Aug 12, 2011 Ms.Toni rated it 4 of 5 stars

More Sugar, Please

Okay, so I’ve heard about this book, heard about this book and heard about this book. Haven’t run into a single person who read it and didn’t love it. But this is me we’re talking about so that doesn’t mean anything to me. I had read a previous title by Bernice McFadden and it didn’t do anything for me. I tried her alter ego, Geneva Holiday, and wasn’t moved. It wasn’t until a dear friend who is also a bookseller actually put the book in my hand and told me to take it and read...more

3 likes · like · see review

Apr 14, 2011 Shonell Bacon rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

If you haven't read this, then SHAME ON YOU...for real.

6 likes · like · see review

Mar 11, 2010 Jennifer rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: literary, fiction

From my blog...[return]Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden is a shining example of how literary fiction should be written; with warmth, depth, vivid imagery, and beautiful prose. Sugar is a novel about two women; one born in brothels and looking for a new life, the other an ideal wife and upstanding community member grieving the loss of her son. When Sugar moves in next door to Pearl their lives are destined to become intertwined and McFadden weaves their lives together so delicately and lovingly, it i...more

1 like · like · see review

Nov 01, 2007 Shawnette rated it 4 of 5 stars

Totally Spellbinding

"Sugar" was one of the best novels I've read in a long time! I applaud the talents of the writer because as a debut novel, she was able to capture the attention of the reader and maintain it throughout. I remember thinking that this was going to be a slow read, however, I found myself enjoying the fact that she didn't reveal too much, too soon. I enjoyed the characters in "Sugar". This book will have you feeling a range of emotions from beginning to end, it was an incredible...more

4 likes · like · see review

Mar 09, 2010 April rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: multicultural, for-review, historical-fiction

When Sugar Lacey comes to the small town of Bigelow in Arkansas, life is shaken up. Women eye her with disdain, men eye her with lust. This is the basis of the novel Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden. Sugar begins with a bang, immediately we are drawn in with a murder of a little girl. Emotion is ripe and we see how the murder takes a toll on Pearl Taylor, the mother of the victim. The book then flashes forward fifteen years, when the lives of Sugar Lacey and Pearl Taylor will intertwine over sweet p...more

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Dec 12, 2012 Leone rated it 5 of 5 stars

The story of Sugar makes you feel. I really can't describe the emotions I went through, except for wanting to hug everyone I know and love...and kicking a**es of everyone who ever did something wrong to me or my family.

This is a MUST READ. Bernice L. McFadden has a true gift of getting you emotionally involved in her stories. I'm still trying to figure out why this isn't on film.

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Dec 31, 2008 The Black Pearl rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: african-american, favorites

McFadden's style reminds me a lot of J. California Cooper, who IMHO is THE BEST African-American author I've ever had the pleasure of reading.
I was half-way through "Sugar" before I found out there was a sequel to the story, "This Bitter Earth". I promptly ordered the sequel and look forward to adding the rest of McFadden's titles to my library.
The characters were so real - it seemed as if they were people I actually grew up around...or with. The story drew you in from the beginning and held y...more

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Dec 28, 2012 Karen Miller rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Karen by: Brothers and Sisters Book Club

This book that has to be a new classic!

The story begins in 1940 which a young teenage 'negro' girl is brutally murdered, her 'private part' cut out and left alongside the road next to her butchered body. The murder is enough to set her family into a tailspin of despair, and threatens to send the mother -- Pearl -- totally insane as she mourns the loss of her only daughter.

But then, 15 years later, a stranger comes into town. Wearing high-heels, a gaudy wig, tight clothes, and toting a suitcase,...more

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Mar 24, 2010 Suzanne (Chick with Books) rated it 4 of 5 stars

I didn't know what to expect from Sugar as I read the opening scene of a horrendous murder of a young black girl named Jude and the devastated mother she left behind named Pearl. The year was 1940, the place was a southern black town, and it was the era of segregation...

"No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color"

Bernice McFadden made me feel the anguish of a mother who lost her child; the injustice of the times as it was known nothing was going to be done about it... And the...more I didn't know what to expect from Sugar as I read the opening scene of a horrendous murder of a young black girl named Jude and the devastated mother she left behind named Pearl. The year was 1940, the place was a southern black town, and it was the era of segregation...

"No one cared except the people who carried the same skin color"

Bernice McFadden made me feel the anguish of a mother who lost her child; the injustice of the times as it was known nothing was going to be done about it... And then she whisked me ahead 15 years. Pearl is still mourning the loss of her daughter, Jude, in her quiet reserved manner... But there's a new girl in town, and her name is Sugar - a young prostitute looking to change her life. Sugar exudes sex, with her short short skirts, spiky high heels, and BIG attitude. Pearl is a quiet obedient church-going wife. Their unlikely friendship creates amazing changes in both of them... much to the dismay of Pearl's church going friends, but to the delight of Pearls family.

Bernice is a master storyteller. Her prose is beautiful. As the layers of this story unfold, of murder, secrets, jealousy and pride, Bernice seamlessly weaves it all together to an amazing ending. I felt a whirlwind of emotions as I read Sugar; I laughed, I cried and I felt anger. I saw past those short skirts Sugar wore and found a little girl struggling to catch her breathe. And I walked through a small town scared to open its arms to someone who obviously wasn't 'one of them'... or was she? I kept turning those pages... Graphic in nature at times, but not gratuitous, you will appreciate Sugar's sincerity. You'll appreciate the rich, complex and strong female characters fully fleshed out and who don't shy away from sharing their feelings. Bernice has also captured the feel of small town life, with the soft whispers heard between small clutches of people. The story will grab your attention, and your heart, and will not let you go until the very last page.

Sugar is friendship... it's honesty wrapped up in the poetry of words... it's redemption and it's powerful...(less)

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Mar 06, 2010 Corinne rated it 3 of 5 stars

Who is Sugar? She's the new woman in town - and she clearly does NOT belong, what with her flashy wig and skin-tight clothes, with wickedness written all over her. The women of Bigelow, Arkansas, in 1955, decide from the start that she is not THEIR kind - and truthfully, she's not. She's a whore, plain and simple - and has a hard time seeing herself as anything else.

Torn-up from the inside out, Sugar is lost inside a well of anguish and hard-luck and arriving in a new town, full of people as bla...more Who is Sugar? She's the new woman in town - and she clearly does NOT belong, what with her flashy wig and skin-tight clothes, with wickedness written all over her. The women of Bigelow, Arkansas, in 1955, decide from the start that she is not THEIR kind - and truthfully, she's not. She's a whore, plain and simple - and has a hard time seeing herself as anything else.

Torn-up from the inside out, Sugar is lost inside a well of anguish and hard-luck and arriving in a new town, full of people as black as she is (but who think they're better than her), and it takes a while for her to feel anything but bitterness. Who finally starts chipping away at Sugar's tough shell? Pearl, the woman next door, who's got some anguish of her own. And as the story progresses, these two very unlikely people begin to become friends, not that the town makes it easy for them.

Truthfully, it's hard for me to know how to judge this book. While I recognize that there is a place in literature for stories that are hard to tell - the stories of people who have had a really really hard life thrown at them - this one was harder than most. She's a prostitute, so there's that - and it's as graphic as you'd imagine. I loved when we started seeing the softer side of Sugar - but it was so rare and she fought so much against it that you really got the feeling like she was too far gone to really ever change. That part, as much as it frustrated me, felt very real - this gut feeling that you're getting what you deserve when all you've ever received and all you've ever known is the dregs of what life has to offer.

Because I'd been warned about its graphic nature, that part didn't shock me as much as it could have. Certain characters were endearing - Pearl's husband was someone I'd want to live next door to, and Pearl herself was so much stronger than she knew, willing to stand up for her friend (without ever giving Sugar the impression that her "vocation" was acceptable in any way). I liked those moments when you could tell that Sugar was being a force for change in Pearl's life (in a mostly good way) and both Sugar and Pearl's voices felt authentically conflicted and life-worn.

But I didn't love it. Maybe it's because there is essentially no redemption for any characters in this story and I find that I personally need that to be able to sort through really difficult stories. Maybe it's because the back of my book says that it's about moving to a "place of forgiveness, understanding and ultimately, grace" and I just did not find that place of forgiveness and grace, I found tragedy upon tragedy with very brief moments of less-tragic and an ending that left a sour taste in my mouth.(less)

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Jan 10, 2010 Curvy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Curvy by: Book Club

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Sugar starts with a bang and ends with a heartfelt gasp.

At the beginning of Bernice McFadden's Sugar, we don't meet Sugar. We meet Jude, so to speak. Jude is the ghost in the story, the crux of every emotional scene in the novel. Jude is the murdered child of Pearl, a woman who befriends her next door neighbor that happens to go by the name 'Sugar'.

Sugar is what polite people call a woman of ill repute and what not-so-polite people call a whore or a prostitute, blowing into the town of Bigelow...more

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Jan 30, 2010 Melissa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Pearl has had her heart ripped out after the murder of her daughter; Sugar has had her life ripped apart by choices made for her by others. Neither knows, until Sugar moves next door to Pearl, what life has in store for them both.

In my quest to find the alternative to “The Help” I’m trying to immerse myself in African-American authors, who’s points of view lend more authenticity and credibility to the stories of African-American characters. I hit gold with Bernice L. McFadden’s, Sugar.

Set in the...more Pearl has had her heart ripped out after the murder of her daughter; Sugar has had her life ripped apart by choices made for her by others. Neither knows, until Sugar moves next door to Pearl, what life has in store for them both.

In my quest to find the alternative to “The Help” I’m trying to immerse myself in African-American authors, who’s points of view lend more authenticity and credibility to the stories of African-American characters. I hit gold with Bernice L. McFadden’s, Sugar.

Set in the rural town of Bigelow Arkansas during the early 40’s-50’s, this gut wrenching novel hits you square in the jaw from the opening pages. Pearl’s daughter, Jude, has been found brutally murdered and raped on the side of the road. For the next 15 years, she lives in a vacuum left by Jude’s absence, but in the comfort of her stoic husband, Joe. Sugar, abandoned at birth to be raised by 3 sisters who operate a “whore-house,” is raised to become a commodity in the family business – a life no one should be subjected. When Sugar moves to Bigelow, the town is horrified. They ignore her, gossip about her and ultimately want her gone. Pearl takes Sugar under her wing and tries to give her a friend for the first time in her life and to recreate for herself what it would be like to have a daughter. When they both try to learn each other’s histories, they are surprised at what they find. Ultimately, Sugar’s relationship with Pearl and Joe puts her at risk with one of her “tricks”, and the results are devastating.

This novel is not for the faint of heart. It is brutal, graphic and gruesome. Life as a “whore” is ugly, filthy, and humiliating. Sugar’s life is not her own. She is nothing but a shell. But the love and friendship Pearl offers to Sugar, shows that there is a chance she can turn her life around. Ms. McFadden’s characters are multifaceted and alive, even if their circumstances show otherwise.

In the end, this novel will envelop you and break your heart, if only for the fact that I’m sure these experiences were the necessary evil for some women.

For the sensitive reader: No question, I would avoid this book.

Book source: public library
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Feb 28, 2010 Christine rated it 4 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Mature readers

I mostly picked this book up because I needed a book by a non-white author. In my English teacher's words: "Not pasty white...not like me."

Knowing that Sister McCurdy had read and liked it, I picked it up...Thanks, by the way. Of course, when she finds out that I'm reading it, she tells me it's not for a high school student.

And get it straight, it is for a mature reader. I would not recommend it to anyone else my age, especially the squeamish ones. I don't know if I would have read it had I know...more

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Aug 06, 2010 Karen added it Recommends it for: no one that likes good endings

Recommended to Karen by: no one

I am very disappointed with the ending of such an explosive and interesting story! No real secrets were exposed. No one had any resolve or closing over their sorrows. No happy ending or at least one that made sense. It's as if Ms. McFadden heard the door bell ringing and just stopped writing. Why counldn't Sugar have stood before the church and told them who her grandmother and mother was so that her connection to her biggest basher, Ms. Shirley, being her great-grandmother had been revealed? An...more

1 like · like · see review

Jun 26, 2010 Julie Smith (Knitting and Sundries) rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: any adult

Recommended to Julie by: Karen at Bookin with Bingo

Shelves: reviewed

This review was initially posted on my blog:

http://www.jewelknits.blogspot.com/20...

The publisher's blurb does not do this book any justice. This is truly a must-read book for anyone: male/female, black/white, anyone who's a grownup and loves to read.

The book opens powerfully: to a tragic scene of loss. The very first line: Jude was dead

A mother (Pearl) loses her only daughter in a horrible fashion - before the girl has had a chance to taste what it's like to be a woman. The loss sets her reel...more

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Apr 08, 2010 Kate rated it 4 of 5 stars

In a world where happily-ever-after stories are a dime a dozen, it's nice to be able to pick up a book that portrays a more realistic world that isn't all perfect and doesn't always end syrupy-sweet. Sugar is one of those books. Set in the deep South during the 1950s, it portrays the life of a prostitute as the difficult and scary life that it is. It also portrays the life of her neighbor, a mother who lost her daughter far too soon and has to live with the horror and sorrow of her murder every...more In a world where happily-ever-after stories are a dime a dozen, it's nice to be able to pick up a book that portrays a more realistic world that isn't all perfect and doesn't always end syrupy-sweet. Sugar is one of those books. Set in the deep South during the 1950s, it portrays the life of a prostitute as the difficult and scary life that it is. It also portrays the life of her neighbor, a mother who lost her daughter far too soon and has to live with the horror and sorrow of her murder every day. Both Sugar and Pearl have been deeply scarred by the events of their life, but these two very different women (one a church-going woman, the other a prostitute) begin to find friendship and healing together, despite the disapproving glances and comments of the other women in town.

Sugar is bittersweet. To learn the darkness of Sugar's past (thorough flashbacks) is to have a better idea of the choices she made (and was forced to make) in her life. As a mother, I really empathized with Pearl and the heartbreaking loss of her daughter. And the way the book ends was heart-wrenching too--I don't want to go into too much spoiler-y detail, but I was left wondering whether the healing they had experienced would provide them with more strength in their future journeys. I am glad to see that there is a sequel to this book because I am so very curious to see what is to become of Miss Sugar Lacey. This Bitter Earth continues Sugar's story and I hope to read it sometime this year.

As an aside, if books that contain sex and violence are not your thing, you might want to think twice about this one. It does go into Sugar's experiences as a prostitute and her feelings about it. It also describes violent and disturbing crime done both to Pearl's daughter and done to Sugar herself. I don't think the sex and violence are gratuitous (they fit in with the story and I don't think they are there to be titillating), but every person will have their own comfort levels about it. If you don't mind that this is a brutally honest depiction of two real and imperfect womens' lives, I think you will find Sugar to be a thought-provoking and vivid read.
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May 13, 2011 Bonita Anthony rated it 4 of 5 stars

This was a spellbinding and compelling book. The book started slowly. Reading the first 50 pages, you are fooled into thinking that you have figured out the mystery and that you will be bored for the next 150 pages. However, the pace picks up, the story begins to unfold, and you feel like you are watching a movie on Lifetime. Reading this in one sitting is easy as the parallels of people’s lives memorize you. We have all lived through some kind of hardship, pain, rejection, and abuse. Women, esp...more

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Feb 26, 2013 Alysia rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: mgr-book-of-the-month

I had a hard time getting into this book in the beginning. I think I will blame it all on reader's burn out. All 100% of it. Because once I got into the book I jammed right though it. The story takes place in the Spring of 1940 small town Bigelow, Arkansas and opens with the gruesome murder of a 15 year old girl. I always have a hard time with gruesome and good writing. There are so many great writers out there telling some detailed violent, image burning stories that make you cringe as you read...more

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Jan 01, 2013 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

This is a book that stays with you. The themes of redemption and forgiveness and hope and loss are powerful, and are masterfully handled in this brutal novel by Bernice McFadden. I can't recommend it universally, though, as it is graphic in ways that made me wince, and I don't consider myself a particularly sensitive reader. Also, the ending was so downright sad, it was too much. Sugar pushes through the novel, pushes through so much, and I felt like she just got defeated, after all the fight sh...more

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Apr 04, 2008 Nikki rated it 4 of 5 stars

My friends Tamieka always give me great books to read.

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Mar 11, 2013 Tqwana rated it 5 of 5 stars

I'm not sure I have the words to adequately express the emotions and the tears this book dragged out of me. So vivid and so brutal. I wasn't just reading Sugar's loneliness, the despair, the hopelessness - I felt it. I was left feeling as empty as Pearl. At times I didn't want to put it down, while not wanting to continue reading because I couldn't face what I knew or suspected was to come.

Bernice McFadden has found a true fan in me. Her writing brings to life the tales that parents, grandparen...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Kimberly Hicks rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-on-kindle, african-american-read

What would a southern Christian woman and a Whore have in common? Nothing, one might say, but life has a way of throwing us a curve. That's what this beautiful story was about. When Sugar Lacey strolled through Bigelow, Arkansas, there was a dark cloud that loomed overhead. Sugar was originally from Short Junction, and happened to stumble across, not by accident, upon Bigelow. She viewed herself as a worthless human being having to sell her body to make rent--that is, until Pearl showed her that...more

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Nov 28, 2011 Jennifudy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites

For the past few months I've been reading a lot of dreck. Just poorly constructed things that have wasted good trees and were called "novels" with taglines and plotlines that drew you in, but just tread water from poor execution. I hate to say that some of the books I'm slamming highlighted topics about the Black experience. As a woman of color and an aspiring writer myself, I look to these books for inspiration, for familiar feelings, but dammit to hell do some of these new Black authors vie to...more For the past few months I've been reading a lot of dreck. Just poorly constructed things that have wasted good trees and were called "novels" with taglines and plotlines that drew you in, but just tread water from poor execution. I hate to say that some of the books I'm slamming highlighted topics about the Black experience. As a woman of color and an aspiring writer myself, I look to these books for inspiration, for familiar feelings, but dammit to hell do some of these new Black authors vie to be Toni Morrison, Alice Walker, and Zora Neale Hurston too much. This is what gets me miffed as I want to support my fellow sistas, but man, they get too lost in the whole "this story has GOT to be so seeped in Blackness and has GOT show how much I'm inspired by Toni Morrison" and you know what's lost when you think like this? The damn story. Bernice McFadden is the exception to the new crop of wordsmiths. She can tell a damn story. She can write and she does it exceptionally well as I was literally drawn into 'Sugar' from the first sentence, and she kept the story moving throughout. That I give her a round of applause for. Sure 'Sugar' seems similar to one of my all-time favorite books 'The Color Purple' as it features the struggles of two women in the Jim Crow South, but McFadden doesn't bite off Walker's style---she's got her own.

Character development plays a wonderful part in this book and it's the highlight. I thought Sugar and Pearl's relationship flairs out masterfully well. You root for Sugar, even when she takes two steps back and hangs around that damn Lappy---you're still in her corner. She was a believable character of someone who was just trying to live a better life, but having difficulty pulling through. As someone who has lived in a small town for a time and experienced being "the outsider" I understood Sugar's feelings and could feel the lingering eyes and frowns of Bigelow's self-proclaimed 'higher-than-thou' trouts. Pearl was also a likable character, and you cared about her struggle to come to grips with her daughter's tragic death as well as her own existence. My cynical heart was melted as Sugar brings some light into Pearl and her devoted husband, Joe's life. You remember these characters after the book is closed and that's always a good sign.

'Sugar' has a simple plot line, two women who are polar opposites in manner and lifestyle find friendship and learn to cope with their transgressions even when they are being tested of them. How many books have that plot? Alot. Still the richness of McFadden's prose and her ability to bring in some well-constructed background to each character makes even this simple plot compelling and her own---that's another sign of a good writer. The woman can describe things with vivid intent and she brought me into Pearl and Sugar's world, and I could picture every facial feature, dusty road, and food placed on the table (macaroni pie!). I'm a Southern girl myself so I knew these people, these places, these attitudes. Like other reviewers who enjoyed this book, I had a swirl of emotions while reading. I laughed with the fake friends vibe of Pearl's nosy so-called friends ("...oh, we just came to see YOU Pearl" yeah right!). I got a knot in my throat when Pearl recounted her daughter's death or reading Pearl's life story. I also smiled when Pearl was finally headed on the right track--and was rightly angry towards the end (but I'm not giving that away!).

McFadden nails this as her first book, and I really am embarrassed that it took me this long to read anything by her, especially this book. I found out there is a sequel to this ('This Bitter Earth') and I got it on my Amazon Wishlist ready to purchase it, as well as a few other of McFadden's works that interested me. So yay! to finding a new author to gush about and good books with a beginning, middle, AND end as well as strong character development to where each character grows by book's end.

Can't wait to read about the continuation of Sugar Lacey! (less)

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Jun 08, 2012 Sharon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical-fiction, womens, families, southern-us

A powerful story told in such realistic terms I felt as though I was there. I want to read more books by this author, so that's a big thumbs up from me. The American south in the 1930s to 1950s was not a friendly place for African Americans. And within their own communities, further dangers infiltrated their everyday lives.

This is the story of a societal outcast, a throwaway life, if any part of you believes there is such a thing. Sugar didn't have a chance from the time she was born and yet sh...more

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Jun 18, 2010 Joyce rated it 5 of 5 stars

Sugar was beautifully wrenching. At times it was almost too painful for me to read. I really could not understand why Sugar kept making the choices that she did. Her life is certainly an example of how a woman can be beat down so much that she can't accept good treatment even when it's offered to her numerous times.

I love historical fiction and good story-telling. And the writing was tremendous. I loved the phrasing, settings and descriptions - word choice made them vibrant and substantive; bre...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Athira (Reading on a Rainy Day) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: source-own, 2010, fiction, source-review, cat-series, f-literary, personal-library

I had read the first page of this book, soon as it arrived at my doorstep. Right then I was hooked, and had to resist from reading further. Bernice McFadden's writing is so beautiful, that I just lost myself in it. The very first page was stunning both in its prose and in it's sharp narration.

My opinion
In the Spring of 1940, a little girl, Jude, is found dead in Bigelow, Arkansas, in the most brutal manner possible. Her death sends the whole community into shock and devastates her parents, Pearl...more

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Jul 04, 2010 Vern rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

The book opens with the brutal death of a sweet innocent child, Jude. A death that rocks this small town and nearly kills, Pearl, Jude's mother. Then the book moves forward fifteen years with the arrival of, Sugar, a prostitute. Sugar and Pearl bring a certain balance to each others life. They have an effect on each other that is quite unexplainable but it does help that Sugar looks a lot like Jude. The town is not as welcoming of Sugar as Pearl is. There are several rifts and confrontations tha...more

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Jun 30, 2008 Aaron rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Anbody interested in literary African American fiction

Recommended to Aaron by: Oprah

If you want to know what the book is about, read the synopsis. I stopped doing book reports when I was in grade school. If you want to know what I thought of the book, read on.

"Sugar" was a book I had sitting on my book shelf for awhile that I finally got around to reading.

I thought it was pretty good, I like the way the author told the story and her writing was crisp and clean.

However, I saw the ending coming a mile away and wished she would have done something different.

I understand there is a...more

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May 28, 2010 Cami rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2010, marcch-10, thenook, socialcommentary, south

It was ok, but not quite believable for me to really get into it. Although it is interesting to see how different the lives of small-town people can really be, I felt the characters weren't quite developed enough to run the story--rather, the story ran them. I did appreciate the idea that everyone has something to learn from someone else, but that there are better ways to live than others. And I like the idea that people come into our lives to help us. I just wish it had been more thought-out.

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About Bernice L. McFadden

Welcome,

I am a national bestselling, award winning Brooklyn born and bred author who writes to breathe life back into memory.

Peace & Light,

Bernice L. McFadden

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Quotes from Sugar

“ 'Sugar, aint you ever had no good time?' she said with a bit of sadness in her voice.
'What you mean?' Sugar said,...
'Seems to me that I ain't never see you look up from whatever you were doing and just smile.'
'Just smile? Smile at what? At who?'
'Smile into the air, girl!' she said and waved her arm through the air....you better start, 'cause time is running and a life without good times ain't a life worth having.” — 4 people liked it

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title link	preview: Sugar
avg rating	preview: Sugar Goodreads rating: 4.24 (1823 ratings)
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BBCode	[url=http://discoverreads.com/book/show/495369.Sugar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book][img]http://d.gr-assets.com/books/1309284556l/495369.jpg[/img][/url] [url=http://discoverreads.com/book/show/495369.Sugar?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_book]Sugar by Bernice L. McFadden[/url]

Sugar (Sugar Lacey #1)

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