His Sugar Baby by Sarah Roberts
Siren Publishing
Contemporary
ISBN: 1-61034-825-7
Reviewed by Vanessa




Divorcee, single mother, Catherine Winter Somerset, is at her wit’s end.  She has a very ill child that she is trying to support and take care of all on her own.  The bills keep piling up, her job isn’t covering all the expenses, the insurance has capped out, and the ex-hubby refuses any sort of help even if it comes down to life and death!  Online after another hard day, Catherine sees an ad for a Sugar Baby which could be the answer to her prayers.  Seeing that she has so few other choices and still wants to maintain a little of her pride, Catherine contacts the man behind the ad and agrees to a meeting.  However, she soon realizes that what he is proposing may just go against all her moral beliefs and she may not be able to follow through with his agreement.

Michael Lambert is searching only for “companionship”.  Hurt from putting his trust into the wrong person, he seeks to withhold that necessary part of himself and only satisfy his physical needs.  It would appear that the only way for the creator of a lucrative software program to gain access to the “FWB” aspect he longs for is to hire someone to fulfill this role.  Michael meets with Winter and lays out his terms.  Michael has to convince Winter to accept his bargain because he has decided that he wants her for this part in his life.  Of course, he figured that eventually emotions could/would get involved, but he never counted on himself being the one to fall victim to them.

His Sugar Baby was a wonderfully romantic tale that was not perfect, but still rates a recommended read for me!  I truly adored the fact that Catherine aka Winter was so adept at compartmentalizing things that occurred in her life.  She could keep her relationship separate from her real identity and never the twain shall meet . . . for the most part.

I liked Michael and I liked Catherine/Winter in His Sugar Baby.  I believed that she felt that she had truly run out of options if she wanted to continue to maintain contact with her child.  Michael really did want to have a no-strings relationship, but he starts getting involved emotionally.  He fought it then and he even gets angry when he discovers her other life, but he knows that he was the one who set out the rules in His Sugar Baby.    Michael and Catherine/Winter both used each other in His Sugar Baby, but they also found that when all was said and done, they still had love for one another.

Michael pushed Catherine/Winter in some parts of the relationship and this scares her because she is afraid of what she may discover about herself.  However, she is still drawn to him because she can forget her real life as she takes on the persona of Winter and forgets her need to be strong for others while in Michael’s arms.  His Sugar Baby showed that even though Michael had a hard shell under the surface, he is really a caring individual as he does realize when he pushes too far, and he apologizes for those instances.

His Sugar Baby is an amazingly emotional read as I was drawn into Catherine/Winter’s life and the situations she is forced to deal with and how she discovers that she is capable of doing them if only to support her child.  Michael learned that material objects weren’t all that important in life, and he grew over the course of His Sugar Baby.  He still had his flaws, but he truly meant well and he seems to open himself up to her in the end.  He let himself become vulnerable to her, opening himself up to some hurt, and she did hurt him a bit in the end and she knew it as she quickly apologized.

Catherine/Winter does have her moral line though, and Michael crosses it, thereby severing their relationship in the most final way that he could.  He is distraught and tries to win her back at that point, even trying some manipulation just to get her to speak to him.  In the end, the actions that he took knowing that it wouldn’t completely give him the HEA that he longed for, the way he opened up to her and his vulnerability towards her, won me over, but then I do like my glasses!