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    Sugar Daddy: A Novel
    Sugar Daddy: A Novel
    Sugar Daddy: A Novel
    Audiobook11 hours

    Sugar Daddy: A Novel

    Written by Lisa Kleypas

    Narrated by Brittany Pressley

    4/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    A strong, spirited woman who refuses to be tied down finds her wild heart caught between two very different men in this sweeping novel from legendary bestselling author Lisa Kleypas

    Liberty Jones dreams of the wider world beyond Welcome, Texas, and has the determination to find it. She also has an untamed heart that leads her into trouble . . . and into the arms of Hardy Cates. Liberty is forbidden fruit Hardy knows he shouldn’t taste. He’s got ambitions and Liberty is a complication he doesn’t want. But neither can deny the attraction between them, a fire that’s both magical and dangerous.

    Then Hardy is gone. Raising the young sister who needs her and tending her bruised heart, Liberty is vulnerable to the charms of a billionaire tycoon. Everyone thinks Liberty has found a Sugar Daddy, but the bond they share goes deep, and leads her to discover secrets about her family and the past.

    Two very different men. One spirited woman. True love or heartache. The choice is Liberty’s to make . . .

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperAudio
    Release dateMar 24, 2020
    ISBN9780062992369
    Sugar Daddy: A Novel
    Author

    Lisa Kleypas

    New York Times Lisa Kleypas graduated from Wellesley College with a political science degree. Her historical romance and contemporary women’s fiction novels are published in forty different languages, and are bestsellers all over the world. Currently she lives in Southern California with her husband Gregory.

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    Reviews for Sugar Daddy

    4/5

    479 ratings32 reviews

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    • 5/5
      Wahhh I have to say at first I felt this book was going to be boring but no. I was awake the whole night for me to finish this book and wah wah wah. This book was sooo good

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Previously I had only read historical romances by Lisa Kleypas. This was a bit of a departure for me. It was outstanding! Fantastic storytelling. The performance of the narrator took this one from good to great! I haven’t listened so devotedly to a book for a long time. Thank you.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 5/5
      Anything by Lisa Kleypas is a work if ART! Sugar daddy is such a beautiful heartwarming book.
    • 3/5
      I enjoyed it, but I think I would've cut out a solid 100 pages.

      I guess that's all I've got for now...
    • 5/5
      Just about perfect. Such a rich story! Kleypas clearly knows East Texas and its people.
    • 5/5
      [Monday, September 19, 2011] Every time I pull this book from my collection and start reading, I reach chapter 3 or 4 and I can't go on! And it's very depressing because I usually love Lisa's books... And I read great reviews about it, but I simply can't push my way through it... Maybe I will try for the fourth time later on.

      [Monday, April 16, 2012] So a few days ago I gave this book another chance and now I can't stop thinking about it. I LOVE Lisa's writing. Every chance I get at my job I open the book and read on... I'm so badly in love with the story now, I can't wait to see what will happen next. Some scenes even made me cry.

      [Sunday, April 22, 2012] God!! I LOVED this book!! Though I wanted Liberty to be with Hardy but I have to admit Gage won me over, he is perfect. I totally loved the story. I can't wait to read the second book. I just ordered the third one, I hope there will be more stories about the Travis family.
    • 4/5
      I loved this story of a Texas girl who has to grow up way too soon. Her single mother struggles to rase one daughter then finds herself pregnant with another baby. Their lives get hard but then they get even harder when tragedy strikes. Liberty Jones is a woman I can respect, and I enjoyed her heart wrenching story.
      Liberty has never been allowed to develop normal relationships, her responsibilities would make most adults run for cover. She doesn't, she works her tail off. Sometimes she gets nailed to the wall, but she unhooks herself gets up and moves ahead.
      There are several men in her life, one breaks her heart, one offers her a future and one really loves her. I loved all three wonderful men with their stupid men problems. I do have to say I want my own Gage after meeting him.
      I am already reading the next book.
    • 4/5
      I'm torn on the rating for this book. I loved the story. Born to poverty Liberty Jones fights for everything in her life and has to be responsible for raising her sister. No one deserves happiness more but who can give her that happiness...Hardy her childhood love or newly found Gage? The bad part of this book for me was the rambling writing style but in the end the wonderful story wins out. Highly recommended read.
    • 4/5
      My first Kleypas novel; wonderful characters! The plot was predictable but an enjoyable read anyway.
    • 3/5
      "Love Lisa Kleypas! She has a way with characters and makes them come alive - Make sure and read Sugar Daddy prior to Blue Eyed Devil as sequel - Great writing and superior author! If you are from the south, you will love it!!!! "
    • 5/5
      Going on the shelf with my all-time favorites! This book was very different from your typical romance novel (not that I don't love romances in general), so I was a little thrown off at the start, but Kleypas weaves an engrossing tale with characters so real they leapt off the page. By the end, I was sighing happily with a warm glow all through my chest.

      Highly recommend!
    • 5/5
      I wasn't expecting to love this book, but I absolutely did! This is different from the typical Lisa Kleypas novels, but still brilliantly written. I can't write much without giving something away and I think this book is best read without expectations and without any hints on the story. The plot is excellent. The heroine is outstanding - real, genuine, believable, strong yet vulnerable, likable. The story is touching, and the side characters are excellently portrayed. This is a beautiful story about love and family and the choices we make. I absolutely think this is a must-read.

      Heroine: 5/5
      Hero: 5/5
      Side Characters: 5/5
      Romance: 5/5
      Overall: 5/5
    • 4/5
       I really prefer Lisa KJleypas's contemporary novels to her historical ones, and this was highly enjoyableShe had to choose between two rich men, towards the end.Oh! if only I had that misfortune!
    • 5/5
      4.5 stars.

      For obvious reasons, I have a special place in my heart for books about girls who raise their younger sisters, and this girl also lives in a trailer! And she's southern! It's me! This book is about me!

      And the main character is half Mexican, so some nice racial stuff is addressed.

      Trigger warning: Abuse. It was a little tough to read.
    • 4/5
      Ultimately a good story, although it felt unbalanced...a lot of time was spent on the back story of Liberty and Hardy, which took place when they were teenagers, and a disproportionate amount on the later mature, adult relationships of the story. Given the amount of time that readers invested in the Liberty/Hardy relationship throughout much of the novel, the fact that it's not going to end up being the relationship of the book is a bit of a let down. Don't get me wrong, I completely agree that she belongs with Gage in the end, but I really would have liked to have seen more of them together, and less of a focus on her relationship with Hardy. Or just more Gage. I'd be great with more Gage. ;-) All in all, though, it's a well-written story with characters it's easy to care about and that you'll want to come back to see more of in books two and three.
    • 4/5
      What a great book! I managed to read the last one first so I HAD to read all of them!
    • 4/5
      A pretty good contemporary - it is Lisa Kleypas after all, but it took a long while for it to actually get going with the long and drawn out background of Liberty's childhood and her crush on Hardy. Finally by the time she has a career and meets Gage and the rest of his family, it seemed like the book was winding down and there didn't seem to be much left for their part of the story. The love triangle was hardly touched on and wasn't given enough time to develop. Often I wasn't sure who I was rooting for until the end. I got the feeling this book should have been much longer, but got cut down some where along the way in editing. I still liked it a lot though, but I think the title is a misnomer. Liberty did not have a sugar daddy and never considered it. I love Lisa Kleypas but Sugar Daddy seemed to lack that certain something and strong emotional impact her earlier historicals have, though I recognized Gage's type from her earlier novels. Alpha all the way. Will I read the rest of the series? You bet!
    • 5/5
      When Sugar Daddy was released, it marked Lisa Kleypas' first foray into contemporary romance. I had heard from some fans who thought it leaned more toward women's fiction, and in some ways, I can see why. It is written in the heroine's first-person POV, and the romance, for the most part, is limited to the first third and the last third of the book. In between, is the heroine's struggles to make ends meet and raise her little sister after the death of their mother. Ultimately though, I felt there was enough romance to keep it categorized in that genre. However, the romance is rooted in a serious love triangle which at times, left me feeling like my emotions were being yanked back and forth between two wonderful men. I'm not usually a fan of love triangles which left me with doubts that Lisa Kleypas could make me accept the man that Liberty chose in a relatively short amount of pages, but in the end, she pulled it off beautifully. The story begins when Liberty is a young teenager. I liked that she wasn't exactly the prettiest girl, she wore glasses, was on the shy side, and had her share of fears. As she grows older, she gradually becomes stronger and more self-sufficient. She was a smart girl and very organized. When her mother went into labor, she had everything right down to a birth plan and all the right equipment ready to go on a moments notice and accompanied her mother to the birth center. It might have been unhealthy on some level, but Liberty loving her baby sister like she's her own child was really sweet and ultimately, it was that bond between them that kept them together through thick and thin when their mother died. As a young woman, Liberty was very strong and admirable for taking on the full responsibility of raising her sister, while also working and going to beauty school. She was essentially thrown into the role of a single mother straight out of high school. When Churchill hired her to be his personal assistant and live in his home, Liberty's awestruck wonder of being surrounded by the ostentatious luxury of his home and lifestyle was very realistic and well-done. She may have butted heads with Gage at first, but it was really sweet how she cared for him when he was sick. I think that was the turning point in their relationship, and he was able to give her what she'd been longing for all those years she spent struggling and lonely. When Hardy returned just as Liberty was starting to fall in love with Gage, I completely understood why she would succumb to his kisses and want to spend time with him again. There was never any real closure to their relationship, so she wasn't able to entirely stop loving him. In the end, I believe that Liberty chose the right man, but it wasn't an easy road to get there.I loved how protective Hardy was of Liberty right from the moment he met her when they were just teenagers. I could easily sense the deep conflict within Hardy, between his heart, which was pulling him toward Liberty, and his strong ambition and determination, which was pulling him toward leaving Welcome behind and never looking back. He had a restless soul and needed to prove himself. While he stayed in Welcome, he was always there to lend a hand when Liberty needed it. He had this ruthlessly contained passion for her that he only allowed to surface a few times, because he was afraid if he got too close to her, he wouldn't be able to leave. Hardy was very easy to fall in love with. I liked him almost instantly and my appreciation of him only grew with time. I can see why Liberty pined for him for years. Ms. Kleypas did an excellent job of expressing the deep longing between this pair. If Hardy hadn't left town, I think he and Liberty could have shared the perfect love. A part of me wanted to be upset with him for leaving, especially when Liberty had to struggle so hard to make ends meet. I can't help thinking that if he'd loved Liberty enough, he would have found a way to make it work, but another part of me understood that he was young and restless and just needed to get away. Hardy's life turned out well except for not having Liberty in it, and when he returns, it seems that he still loves her, but in many ways, he is a different man. Unlike Hardy, who was so warm and inviting, Gage initially had an air of hardness and coldness about him. It took a little longer for me to warm up to him, but once he realizes that Liberty isn't his father's mistress and really starts interacting with her and Carrington, I couldn't help but fall for him too. Gage was obviously a great son to come over every morning to help his dad shower and dress when he injured his leg. The way he helped Carrington with her school project and tried to be more helpful to Liberty was sweet. I loved how he was ready to whisk her off to London or Paris in an instant. Gage and Liberty had excellent chemistry, but admittedly, it was a little difficult to become fully invested in their relationship when I knew she was still pining for Hardy on some level. He was also involved with another woman when they first met and didn't break it off until after he first kissed Liberty. This all kind of made the rebound red lights go off in my head. However, Gage won me over pretty quickly with his warmth, tenderness, and passion. The way that Gage gently took control and gave Liberty the elusive pleasure she'd been craving for so long made their first love scene absolutely delicious.Liking both of these men almost equally made for some rather difficult reading. I already mentioned that I've never been a fan of love triangles in romance, and that's especially true with books in which I know a wonderful person with a good heart is going to eventually be left out in the cold. Hardy and Gage are both great guys which made it almost impossible to choose between them. If it weren't for me catching a spoiler, I wouldn't have even known which man to root for. Even knowing who was going to win out in the end didn't really make it much easier, but I felt that Ms. Kleypas drew enough of a distinction between them by the end that I was happy with Liberty's choice.Overall, Sugar Daddy was a beautifully written book that I really enjoyed. I realized while reading it just how good Ms. Kleypas is at the art of metaphor and imagery. Her words really helped to bring the story to life in my mind's eye. In addition to her three wonderful main characters, she also created some great secondary characters. Churchill initially seemed like a temperamental old codger, but he eventually became the kind of man anyone would be proud to have as a father. Liberty's little sister, Carrington, is cute and precocious. We're also introduced to Gage's brother, Jack, who becomes the hero of book #3 in the Travis series, Smooth Talking Stranger. For anyone who hasn't read Sugar Daddy yet, I won't ruin it by giving away who, but the guy who comes out the loser in this story becomes the hero of the next one, Blue-Eyed Devil. Sugar Daddy was, without a doubt, another wonderful read from Lisa Kleypas, and I can't wait to continue with the series.
    • 2/5
      I bought this book last night thinking I would enjoy it as much as I did Smooth talking stranger, but I was wrong. Don't get me wrong there are some parts in the book that were really good, but I felt this is suppose to be a story about the Travis family, but you don't get anything about the Travis family until maybe half way through the book. Majority of the book is all about Liberty as a teenager and everything she went through growing up. I found some parts to be really boring and felt some parts really did not need to be in the book. Now I am going to give the second book Blue Eyed Devil a chance because I did enjoy Smooth talking stranger a lot.
    • 4/5
      This was my first Lisa Kleypas book, and I enjoyed it. The Texas influence was what I liked most - the cocky quips about "Texas men" and the strong alpha male stereotype are always fun.Liberty Jones is a woman who goes through a lot, and like a Texas woman, makes do with what she's dealt without complaint. A good portion of the book details her teenage years and crush on Hardy Cates. It's not a fast moving story, but you get to know Liberty inside and out.Hardy Cates is more of a mystery. Because the book is written from Liberty's point of view, everything about him is colored through her eyes. He's not as well-developed as I might have liked, especially when he makes his reappearance in the book (I'm not giving anything away, it's on the book jacket).The other love in Liberty's life is just as alpha, just as Texas, and in many ways the same as Hardy. The choice for Liberty isn't as hard as she thinks. Once he's introduced, I really started turning the pages. The story took off for me at that point.Like I said, I enjoyed it, though the book started slow for me. There's fluff and sex and hardship, and the few mysteries in the story aren't really hidden. The ending, though a little rushed was well done. I'll probably pick up another of Kleypas' books, given the chance.
    • 5/5
      Can I rate a book as higher than 5 stars?!?!? I LOVED this book!! I would have read it in one sitting, except nature played a very cruel trick on me by making my body need sleep!! It was finished the very next day, however.I LOVED Liberty. I have heard a lot of discussion about wether or not so much of her back story should have been included. I was glad it was. It made it easier for me to understand her decisions, and I truly felt for her throughout the whole book.I have also heard discussion about the "love triangle" in the book. I use quotations, because I didn't really see it. There was never any doubt in my mind who she would choose, and I was glad for the way the book ended.I do have to say that when I read this, I had no idea it was part of a series. That being said, I'm not sure how much I'm looking forward to the next book. I hope I'm not spoiling anything here, but by the end of this book, I'm not sure if I like Hardy enough to want to read his story. However, I love Lisa Kleypas, so I will give it a shot for that alone.I really enjoyed this book and will be loaning it to my friends now that I have finished it. While I'm not sure how much it's "romance" versus just "women's fiction" I would still recommend it to romance readers. And if you are a fan of Lisa Kelypas, by all means, don't hesitate to read this book!!
    • 4/5
      Felt a little piecemeal sometimes, but her writing rocked, and overall, I loved it.
    • 2/5
      I decided to read this book because I recently had read Smooth Talking stranger by Lisa Kleypas and realized that it was a series on the Travis family. So I got the first two and this book was definitely not my favorite. If I would have started the series from book 1 I probably would have not read the rest of the books in the series. This book just took way to long to get to the good stuff. Lisa spent way to much time explaining Liberty's past and her relationship with Hardy and the Travis family. I actually found myself skipping some parts of the book like "Okay already!" Once you did get to the good stuff though it was a page turner from there! I did continue to read the Blue Eyed devil and that book was just amazing! So for those who read this book first and did not like it, do not let it ruin the series for you. The next two books are really good! :-)
    • 5/5
      Lisa Kleypas writes wonderful historical romances so when I heard about her newest release a chill went down my spine. Was another wonderful romance author moving away from romance into the realm of women's fiction or historical fiction or mystery? Visions of Candice Proctor (now writing as C. S. Harris) sprung to my mind. So I waited for the reviews to roll in but unfortunately they were a bit mixed and no one was answering the question foremost on my mind.... did it have a HEA? I had no choice, no choice people, but to find out for myself. So when I finally got my copy, the first thing I did was read the last chapter.The good news is .... yes, it has a HEA, so it didn't feel exactly like women's fiction... more like a like a hybrid cross with a contemporary romance. But it is written in first person like most women's fiction. The bad news is ... there is a love triangle and I'm not especially fond of them. But I still greatly enjoyed this book.Liberty Jones is an interesting and complex character and I admired her strength and determination to make a better life for herself and her baby sister. The story, as told by Liberty, begins when she is 11 years old and moves into a trailer park with her mother, Diana, in Welcome, Texas. She meets a boy named Hardy Cates and develops a serious crush on him. But Hardy has ambitions and burns to get out town as soon as he graduates. When he leaves town to make his fortune on an oil rig, Liberty is crushed and I started to have doubts about finishing the book. Hardy was a huge disappointment and I wanted to kick and scream at him. I had to remind myself that this was not a 'true' romance and I knew how it ended so I bravely continued on. :)When Diana becomes pregnant, she tosses her lazy boyfriend out on his ear. She has a baby girl that Liberty names Carrington and Liberty is completely devoted to her. In fact, she's more of a mother to Carrington than Diana. Life is not easy for them. Diana struggles to keep food on the table and a roof over their heads and clothes on their backs, but occasionally some extra money will 'luckily' land in their laps. But life becomes even harder when Diana is killed in a car accident and Liberty, who has just graduated from high school, is given custody of her baby sister.Liberty moves to Houston and gets a scholarship to a beauty school. After she graduates she gets a job at a ritzy beauty salon. There she meets a wealthy tycoon, Churchill Travis, who takes a fatherly interest in her and eventually offers her a job as his personal assistant. But she and her sister must move into his mansion. It's not what you think...there is no intimacy between Churchill and Liberty, they become very close friends, almost like father and daughter. But Churchill's son, Gage, doesn't believe that and he is angry and suspicious. But he eventually figures things out and they fall in love.Then lo and behold in walks Hardy back into Liberty's life and now she must make a decision. I won't spoil the ending but some secrets are revealed and Liberty ends up with the right person.I'm not sure I can recommend this book to everyone. Some reviews I read really didn't like the book or were disappointed in it. I can see their points but I really enjoyed it. If you don't like love triangles or first person POV (or kids), stay away. It's not a 'true' romance, but more of a life saga with a romantic ending. Of course, if you are a huge LK fan and read everything she writes then you'll probably enjoy this one. Her characterization is excellent and the story moves quickly. It took me a while to come up with a grade. But the characters and story are still fresh in my mind even though I finished it months ago. So must be a keeper for me. GRADE: A-
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable read, but without what I'd consider the traditional romance book structure. Normally, a romance will start with the female protagonist meeting the guy she's eventually going to have the happy ending with, while it this case it starts with Liberty's childhood. In the end, it almost felt like two separate books - a coming of age novel and then a romance tacked on. That's not to say I didn't like the book - I loved Liberty's voice and character and her interactions with the others. I've read the lastest in this series - Smooth Talking Stranger - and that's what influenced me to read this book. On the whole, the other is much more polished and traditionally "romance-y".
    • 3/5
      Liberty Jones grew up in a trailer, with her beloved mother, who did not always love wisely. there's a lot of time and detail spent on the years 14-18, and a lot of attention given to Hardy Cates as a romantic figure. And then in the last 70 pages or so, Liberty is suddenly 24, her sister is 8, and she moves into a millionares home to be his personal assistant. It's told in the first person and I guess that's why the second romance with Gage didn't work as well for me. He may have been very aware of her, but we only get her perceptions and she only notices him 50 pages towards the end. I liked this book, it was by no means a wall banger, but it felt oddly rushed towards the end. I think it was weighted too heavily towards her early years and there should have been more time and attention given to the later ones, to make this a really outstanding book. That being said, Liberty has a very clear voice and I enjoyed spending time with her.
    • 4/5
      Liberty Jones grows up in a Texan trailer park with her single mom and her mom's many (useless) boyfriends. When her mother dies, she has to raise her sister Carrington on her own. Life is hard with no money and hardly any education, but there seems to be an anonymous benefactor who helps Liberty when she really needs it...then there's Hardy Cates, whom she fell in love with when she was a teenager and whom she meets again when she's grown up. But she also has a budding relationship with mega-rich Gage Travis. Now she has to choose between two lovers.Liberty's story is easily readable and very entertaining, but also a bit shallow. Liberty is hardly ever really desperate, which she should be, considering her circumstances. At the end of the story, she's in a loving relationship and incredibly wealthy, but all of this happened without her contributing very much to her success. Still, Liberty is a likable protagonist who cares for her young sister and doesn't forget her friends from the trailer park, even when all her new friends are millionaires. There was something I wondered about though: there are no really mean characters in the book. It is fiction, of course, but even in fiction, the protagonists usually have to defeat a villain before they can have their happy end.
    • 3/5
      It took me a while to get into this book. I have always enjoyed Kleypas' historicals, so I was a little nervous about her move to contemporary romance. Also, not being a fan of reading about Sugar Daddy relationships I was a bit nervous about the relationship between Liberty and Churchill. There was a LOT of time spent on her youth and I feel that some of it was necessary to explain Liberty's character, however more time could have been spent on other things, such as the development of the relationship between LIberty & Gage. One other comment is that I found a lot of the generalizations about Texans, Texan men and Houstonians to be somewhat annoying. Many of them were perpetuating stereotypes that don't necessarily apply & some of the references completely confused me which, as a native Houstonian, I felt shouldn't be the case. This is relatively harmless, just a bit annoying to somebody familiar with the area.
    • 2/5
      "Sugar Daddy" by Lisa Kleypas is not a favorite of mine. First off, its in first person and while I don't mind that while reading YA books, I don't really care for it in contemporary romance. That was my first turn off. Secondly, too much time was spent on the main character "Liberty" being a child/teen. Chapter after chapter it was Liberty Jones as a kid and her crush/love for Hardy a kind and sexy guy who lived in the same trailer park that Liberty did with her Mom. Liberty was poor and growing up with a single Mother who seemed to be a bum-magnet and picked all the wrong guys. Liberty's own father had died years ago, leaving Liberty and her Mom to fend for themselves. There is an instant attraction felt by Liberty for Hardy, while Hardy's attraction to Liberty doesn't come till a few years later when Liberty grows up some. The age and timing were really off for me in this book. Liberty was supposed to be a sophomore in high school yet reading her thoughts, words and actions I kept thinking of her being about ten! It just didn't fit for me at all. Even when she was older, she still seemed like a kid to me. The first person thing just wasn't working for me in this book like it did in say "Twilight" by Stephenie Meyer. Kleypas just didn't pull it off for me at all. The other problem I had was Hardy. At first his character was kind, good ol' boy you can always depend on me to be your rock, then it abruptly changed to selfish, ambitious don't-ask-me-for-anything-I'm-busy-making-$$ kind of character. What's with that? It didn't fit and Hardy in the first several chapters was totally different from Hardy in the rest of the book with no explanation for the change other than he was ambitious. Getting back to the story, Hardy seemed to always be there for Liberty when she or anyone in the trailer park needed help. But Hardy had no plans to stay, he wanted to go make his way in the world and be someone. He was ambitious. OK, I get that. He refuses to start something with Liberty because he feared (or so he said) he wouldn't be able to leave her and he knew he couldn't take her with him, so instead he screwed every other girl in town. Liberty couldn't handle this, so she had meaningless bad painful sex with her boyfriend. She would repeat this as an adult, never having good sex or even close to good sex because no one she was with was Hardy. She held every guy up to Hardy and found them all lacking. Just before she gets out of high school her mother ends up pregnant and has a daughter, Carrington. Soon after Liberty's mother is killed in an accident leaving Liberty with a child to raise, no money and no work experience- and no Hardy to help her - he's left town by now. Liberty steps up to the challenge and becomes a parent to Carrington whom she adores like her own child. She goes to cosmetology school and becomes a beauty technician, moves to Houston and gets a job at Salon One where she meets Churchill Travis, wealthy business man who seeks out her company (we find out at the end of the book that Churchill had loved Liberty's mother years ago). A co-worker explains what a "sugar daddy" is and Liberty doesn't want one, but she doesn't refuse Churchill's company. They become friends of sorts over the years and when he suffers an accident she goes to him and agrees to become his assistant and move into his mansion. Churchill's other adult children aren't thrilled with Liberty moving in, but only one speaks up. Gage. Gage tells her to get lost and threatens to toss her out on her butt. Liberty doesn't bother to tell Gage she's not sleeping with his father or after his money, she lets Gage figure that all out on his own, which he does. Gage is a cold hard man with people outside his family, but when he's sick Liberty cares for him during his illness and things change rather quickly. Now he wants Liberty for himself and he pursues her- with the rest of the family's blessing. They get together and finally after all these years of bad sex, Liberty has good sex with Gage and doesn't even think of Hardy when she's in bed with him. Great. Then well to do Hardy shows up claiming he still wants Liberty. Gage isn't willing to give her up. Liberty has to decide between Hardy and Gage and she takes her time to do. I don't get this at all. YEARS have gone by, she only shared a kiss with Hardy years ago, he never wrote or called or kept in contact with her even when he knew she was struggling to raise her sister (he knew because of mutual friends from the trailer park) and still she carried this 'love' for Hardy around. I didn't like that as she should have grown up more especially considering her situation, but she was still acting and feeling like a teen. It didn't work for me. I was a total Gage fan from the moment he entered the story. It wasn't believable to me that anyone woman would do what Liberty did comparing men to Hardy whom she only kissed I think twice when she was a teen. The poverty and raising a toddler situation would have (in my opinion) caused Liberty to mature more and get over Hardy whom she never had anything more with than a friendship and lust. I just couldn't buy what Kleypas was selling in this romance story with Hardy. I did however, love Gage. He is what saved this book from being a disaster.
    • 4/5
      Romance novels follow a certain formula that we come to expect: a girl, a boy, insurmountable obstacles, and a happy ending. Sugar Daddy had all that but the balance was different. It is told in the first person narrative of Liberty Jones starting with her childhood and focusing quite a bit on her teenage years with her mother. The boy doesn't make an appearance until half way through. I was pleasantly surprised by this book and am looking forward to more contemporary works from Lisa Kleypas.