Seressia Glass’s romance novel Sugar follows Siobhan “Sugar” Malloy, a 35-year-old cafe owner and part-time burlesque dancer who has never felt she has the time or energy for love. But when she goes into business with Charlie O'Halloran, a much younger man, his flirtations are impossible for Siobhan to ignore. Siobhan throws herself into a passionate romance, until Charlie admits he wants a relationship, and Siobhan has to deal with the ghosts of her past—including an estranged daughter, who appears to remind Siobhan of the family she left behind. Siobhan has worked hard to rebuild her life. Thirty-five years old, she has recently opened a successful cafe called Sugar and Spice with one of her best friends. In her spare time, Siobhan has found ways to express and explore her sexuality through burlesque dancing, which she does in the area around the small town where she lives. Siobhan has a “found family” of four career women, all of whom love her and support her with open arms. But the beauty of her life on the outside hides a difficult past. At the beginning of the novel, Siobhan meets Charlie, a 20-something, charming local who runs a courier business in town. Charlie is delivering flowers to Siobhan's business partner when he first catches sight of her and realizes that he has to get to know her better. For a while, Charlie spends a lot of time coming into the cafe to chat, but Siobhan is skeptical—she believes that love is a product of foolishness and youth; after the pain she has experienced, she knows she is no longer young or naive. Seeing Siobhan's distance, Charlie decides that the best way to get close to her is through a business partnership. He suggests they work together, combining courier services with the cafe's coffee and confections. She agrees, and they finally spend enough time together to confirm they have strong chemistry. Soon, Siobhan surprises herself by diving, a bit impulsively, into a sexual relationship with Charlie. She realizes how much she has missed being in love and the joy of finding so much pleasure, physical and emotional, in another person. Though Siobhan didn't think she wanted anyone around, Charlie is easy-going, and their chemistry is strong. Though he is younger, he owns a successful business and has no problems with Siobhan's burlesque dancing. It seems like a match made in heaven. The ease of the early relationship soon becomes complicated when Charlie tells Siobhan that he wants more than just a casual romance. Falling for her, he wants a committed relationship. Nevertheless, Siobhan is hesitant. Getting closer to Charlie means revealing her past—and the life she ran away from to find herself again. As Siobhan struggles about what to do with Charlie, her estranged daughter comes into town. After years of alcoholic behavior, Siobhan is estranged from her family—her husband divorced her, and she was left on her own, without her children or anything to fall back on. She recalls the pain of the early days of sobriety and the damage she did to her family; she also thinks about the stigma of addiction, and what Charlie will think of her once he learns that she is living in recovery. Siobhan's daughter brings more surprising plot twists, and Siobhan finds the love she has been waiting for all her life with Charlie, challenged by the presence and pull of her old, comfortable life with her family. A romance and fantasy novelist, whose genres range from urban fantasy to paranormal romance, Seressia Glass has won a number of awards for her work, including a number of nominations for the RITA Award for Erotic Romance. Sugar is the first novel in a four-book series, which includes Spice, Naughty, and Nice. Her books have been translated into other languages, including German. She has written more than a dozen novels and novellas. She lives in Atlanta.

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