Sugar, Baby

(Hardback, Main)

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SEEN IN ELLE'S BEST SUMMER 2023 READS
ONE OF GAL-DEM'S UNMISSABLE BOOKS OF 2023

From the high-rises of Canary Wharf to the turquoise pools of Miami, Sugar, Baby is an intoxicating, darkly funny debut novel about beauty and greed, desire and delusion, from an extraordinary new voice in fiction.

Agnes Green is turning 21 and her life is heading nowhere. Still living at home with her devoutly religious mother in a lifeless suburb, she works as a cleaner by day and spends her nights secretly going to clubs and dating Toby - who loves arthouse film, getting stoned, and ignoring her texts.

That is until she meets Emily, the daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model - and a sugar baby. Emily's lifestyle is the escape Agnes has been longing for: tasting menus, private flights to Paris and Miami, rich older men who shower her with compliments and designer gifts. But it comes at a cost.

Agnes' new life is beyond her wildest dreams, but it comes at a cost. As she begins to stray further from her mother's holy teachings, she must decide how far she is willing to go to be adored...

Reviews

[Sugar, Baby] interrogates clout, desirability and pleasure. It's the perfect beach read: chaotic, darkly funny and keeps you on your toes. -- Liv Little, author of Rosewater * ELLE UK *
A bold, daring take on a conventional romance novel, Sugar Baby takes a look at the wild and controversial world of sugar babies and sugar daddies. It asks probing questions about love and lifestyle, belonging and yearning and what we are prepared to sacrifice for what we want... * Harper's Bazaar *

Sugar baby lifestyles, complex family relationships, and coming-of-age epiphanies are explored with page-turning aplomb in this devastatingly gripping debut.

Absolutely addictive, Celine Saintclare's Sugar Baby debut is shot-through with top-notch characterisation and subtle commentary on everything from hypersexualisation and the ethics of sex work, to religious upbringings, imbalances of power, and the need to feel needed. It's a triumph of a page-turner.

Emotionally engaging, and 100% absorbing, after this slam dunk of a debut, I can't wait to read what Celine Saintclare writes next.

I'm going to be recommending this brilliant book to EVERYBODY. A pygmalion-esque exploration of sex work, our obsession with beauty and youth, family, religion, female friendship and SO MUCH MORE. Glamorous, and dark, and hopeful all at once.

Author Bio

Celine Saintclare is a Buckinghamshire based writer of Caribbean and English descent, born in 1996. She has a degree in Social Anthropology. Sugar, Baby is her first novel.