Sugar, Baby: Unmissable and intoxicating, the Tiktok sensation

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THE TIKTOK SENSATION'The perfect beach read: chaotic, darkly funny and keeps you on your toes' Liv Little for Elle UK'A bold, daring take on the wild, unconventional world of sugar babies' Harper's BazaarAS SEEN IN...-ELLE: Hottest summer reads of 2023-HARPER'S BAZAAR: Best unconventional romances of 2023-GAL-DEM: Best novels of 2023From the high-rises of Canary Wharf to the turquoise pools of Miami, Sugar, Baby is an intoxicating, darkly funny and shocking debut 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 Caribbean 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. 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...Everyone's talking about Sugar, Baby . . .'Absolutely addictive, devastatingly gripping, a triumph' LoveReading'Beautiful writing, fully fleshed out characters, and darkly funny. Obsessed.' Netgalley review'Superb . . . an intimate deep-dive into the sugaring lifestyle' Netgalley review'A rollercoaster of a read! Celine Saintclare is an author to watch out for' Netgalley review'Glamorous, sexy and fun... I was totally addicted to it!' Netgalley review

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 *
Smart and thought-provoking... Touching on topics ranging from sex work to race and privilege, Sugar, Baby is entrancing from start to finish * Shondaland *
This is a propulsive read that tackles myriad attitudes toward sex work, from condemnation to celebration, through a distinctly feminist lens. Accompanying the partying with perceptive social commentary, Saintclare refuses to romanticize the gritty details of sugaring - inviting the reader into a whirlwind of champagne, sex, and money that is at times claustrophobic, scary, and toxic. Saintclare modernizes outdated sex-work narratives, honoring the bonds formed between women instead. * Kirkus Reviews *

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.

* Katie Bishop, author of The Girls of Summer *
Saintclare debuts with a provocative tale of a 21-year-old cleaner drawn into sex work ... This powerful story makes [her] one to watch. * Publishers Weekly *
Celine Saintclare's captivating debut, Sugar, Baby, is, on its surface, about the limitless power of beauty, but underneath that narrative lurks a second, darker one, in which Saintclare shows us in heartbreaking detail that there are indeed limits to what that power can buy. Sugar, Baby is an elegantly crafted bait-and-switch, where a story about the ease and glamour of sex work cracks open to reveal a deeper and more delicious secret: that the true sweetness of life lies not in the comfort of being kept, but in the autonomy we are able to maintain for ourselves. And the beauty of that kind of living-hand-made and hard-won-is priceless. -- Destiny O. Birdsong, author of NOBODY'S MAGIC
A witty, propulsive and intimate examination of sexual commerce, the painful pleasures of self-objectification, and the liberatory power of art-making featuring a tenderhearted heroine I never stopped caring about. Sugar, Baby is everything. -- Chantal V. Johnson, author of POST-TRAUMATIC
Saintclare's writing sizzles - she has a knack for the sensual, making even the mundane feel like a revelation. I was absolutely sucked into Agnes' world, she took me by the hand and didn't let me go until the final pages, wondering what becomes of all the characters we come to know and love. -- Tembe Denton-Hurst, author of HOMEBODIES
A rich, provocative and layered pastry, a decadent dessert, take a bite and become intoxicated. Sugar, Baby details the pursuit of female pleasure, capturing the bold exploits of a group of young women in London who are 'sugar babies'. Darkly funny and likeable. With sharp commentary on the female body and the intersection of shame and pleasure, Saintclare's debut is smart, sexy and peppered with wit. Both entertaining and deeply thought provoking, Sugar, Baby is potent with the essence of desire and sexuality. -- Alice Hawthorne * nb. Magazine *

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.

* LoveReading *
Sugar, Baby is a daring novel that explores the commodification of desire and the body and the trappings of respectability politics in a world that profits off our shame. With Agnes, Saintclare has created an unforgettable narrator who is full of bravery, vulnerability, and heart. -- Claire Jimenez, author of WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ
A must-read * PureWow *

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.