Review: Sugar Daddy by Sawyer Bennett

Sugar Daddy
(Sugar Bowl #1)
Author: Sawyer Bennett
Publisher: Loveswept
Published: May 24, 2016
Genre: New Adult, Adult, Contemporary, Romance
My Rating:

Seduction has never been so sweet! The New York Timesbestselling 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!

What a book!

I’m incredibly impressed. And I’m in shock that I have not read a Sawyer Bennett book. Clearly I was missing out because this book is written so well. It left me on the edge and kept me on my toes.

I wasn’t expecting what I got when I started Sugar Daddy. I knew it was a dark read and yet I was stunned by all the surprising elements that I found here.

Sugar Daddy follows the main character Sela Halstead. She was 16 years old when she was drugged and gang-raped by the men she could not identify. All she could remember when it comes to the people responsible for the rape was a guy who has a phoenix tattoo on his body. All throughout the years after she recovered, she bowed to herself that she would take revenge and destroy that guy. One day she learned that the guy was Jonathon Townsend, the owner of the dating app sensation known as Sugar Bowl. Seeing a great opportunity for her plan, she took the risk of getting involved with his business by pretending to be a sugar baby. But there is a huge conflict and that is Beck North, Jonathon’s co-founder of Sugar Bowl who happened to make his way through her heart.

What specifically made me feel drawn to the book was the pacing. Sugar Daddy is a quick and fast moving read and it was so hard for me to put it down. There was an intensity in its plot that made it all the more gripping and edgy.

And for someone like me who easily gets attached to the characters with enough depth, it wasn’t that difficult for me to be enthralled by both the male and female leads. I loved Sela’s character. I knew she lacked a little bit of development in her character and she has some flaws… like lying to Beck all the time in order to keep her secrets and plans hidden, but despite her imperfections, she felt real to me and I totally connected with her. She was’t anything annoying and I loved her strength and how she was able to overcome her traumatic experience. Beck, on the other hand, quickly wormed his way under my skin. I loved that he always gives his everything to the woman he loves and even though he didn’t say the three magic words to Sela, his actions tell everything a woman needs to know. To put it simply, he is a perfect male lead. Not to mention hot.

There were of course, a lot of steamy scenes thrown here and there and by steamy I mean really, really HOT. Those scenes were delivered so nicely that you can’t help but swoon and root for the two characters to be together until the very end. Another thing that I loved most about this book was the conflict which had a great impact to me. It was so nerve-racking!

If you read the synopsis of this book, you will have an impression that it’s dark and yes, it was truly dark but not to the extreme. I could say that the book very much focuses more on the romance rather than its dark theme.

All in all, it was a spectacular contemporary read. The romance was all-consuming and too good to be true and the author’s writing style was a win. I’m happy to say that Sawyer Bennett made it successfully to my new favorite authors in this genre. I will surely read the sequels of this series as well as her previous and upcoming books!

Note: This book ends with a cliffy. Prepare the second book before you start this one if you don’t want to freak yourself out. 🙂

Rating:

Buy this book at:

READ ALL MY REVIEWS HERE