Sugar Street by M.J. Pullen
Book #1: Sugar Street Series
Source: Netgalley
My Rating: 4/5 stars

The ladies of Sugar Mills are no joke and when they set their minds towards a course of action, there isn’t going to be any stopping them. Jess, Delia, Carras, and Maizy are a force to be reckoned with, especially when their collective backs are up against the wall and their happyish lives are being threatened.

In the beginning, the plan was simple. All four women, involved in long-term, committed relationships were simply looking to reignite the flame of passion in their partners by inspiring just the tiniest bit of jealousy. If their husbands could see another man interested in their wives, maybe the heat, the passion, the recklessness, the spontaneity of days long would past, would find their way back into the women’s lives. None of the Sugar Mills women want to see their marriages come to an end, but each sure would like to have back a little of what made their relationships so damn hot so long ago.

With the help of a well-placed friend, Jess, Delia, Carras, and Maizy agree to split the fees for a short-term “relationship” with one very hot tennis pro. Parker is young, strong, talented, tremendously hot, and fully aware of his place in the ladies’ lives. Parker is to be friendly arm candy, to be conveniently in the same places as the women, and to be utterly attentive to their presence. With his youth and good looks, and just a bit of luck, each woman’s respective husband will see Parker as competition and work to reclaim what is theirs; that is, work a bit harder to keep their wives’ attention.

As the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions . . . .

As the days go by, each woman does, in fact have her time with Parker and he certainly lives up to his billing. He has all the right words, knows just when and how to boost a woman’s ego, and is the perfect listener. To a fault, Parker is the perfect companion! Unfortunately, Parker is also in way over his head and though he puts up a great front, his own personal life is in a shambles, and is going to have serious consequences for the Sugar Mills ladies. If the fantastic four can’t figure out how the plan went so badly, so quickly each is going to risk losing everything they set out to preserve and improve.

The Bottom Line: WOW and welcome to Sugar Mills!! Sugar Street isn’t so much a romantic comedy as it is the story of four women who are trying to make sense of lives and marriages that haven’t gone exactly as the fairly tales promised. Jess, Delia, Carras, and Maizy may be friends (mostly!) and a group, but they are also individuals with cares, concerns, and secrets they just aren’t willing to share with the group. On the surface, the goal of each woman is the same, to reignite the passion in their marriage. However, there’s a great deal of depth beneath the surface and as the plot unfolds, the reader gets four individual stories and four individual sets of circumstances. Through their struggles, each woman reveals more to the group about her personal situation, her circumstances, and her real reasons for contracting with Parker. What no one expected is how events unfold, how each woman rises to the occasion, and how the group comes together to protect themselves and their lives. Overall, no matter how misguided these women were in the beginning, they came together to help one another rather than throwing one another under the bus to protect their individual interests. In general, I liked the group dynamic, but I liked the woman as individuals even more, especially in the end when each was forced to face the consequences of her actions. I can’t say I loved this book, but I did like it quite a bit and found the premise and plot intriguing. By the end of the read, many things were resolved, but not all and there is quite clearly going to be a return to Sugar Mills and the lives of these four terribly interesting women. I can’t wait to see what these four get into next time around.

Engaging and entertaining! The overall story (why did these ladies end up in a jail cell and how will they get out??!!??) and each individual woman’s story were all fun to read, and the way they all interlocked made for a great read. MJ Pullen has insight into the feelings, motivations, vulnerabilities and insecurities of adults, including the need to feel like one belongs. As relayed in this book, this goes beyond the teenager/young adult years of our lives. I liked that each narrator has her own clear, distinct voice and her own separate situation, and I liked that the author included heart-warming expressions of how the husbands felt as well. This was the first of Pullen’s books that I’ve read but it won’t be my last!!

I thank M.J. Pullen, Freshwater Ink and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Sugar Street to read and review..

Overall, this book is well written. The characters in this book, while a bit quirky are yet complicated, and fully developed, with different view points throughout the story, While the plot was well thought out, the whole thing just didn’t quite absorb me like I wanted it to, but probably because not a genre I am usually attracted to. The description" of the book really sounded good!
So, if you're in the mood to read something a little racy, romantic, and sweet this short read should be one you will love! I will give it a 3 star.
First of sequel.....

A hilarious novel about four suburban wives who scheme to risk it all to keep the status quo. For any woman who lives a suburban existence one of the four main characters will resonate with you. When they set out to save their marriages they just may save themselves. This will be the book in every mini-van and suv!

Friends and neighbors find themselves involved in a Ponzi scheme and work their way out of it. Interesting concept.

Thank you to #Netgalley and #Freshwater Ink for giving me opportunity to discover M.J. Pullen. I'm so glad I requested it.

This is the story of four friends who think that their husbands do not see them. It is the story of what can go wrong and ends up right. There is romance and mystery.

I enjoyed reading this well written book. I loved the characters and related to them. I laughed, cried, held my breath and cheered them on.

I am looking forward to the next books in the series. M.J. Pullen is a new favorite. I highly recommend this book.

Sugar Street is one of those rare books you won't forget. Onice you start reading, you're hooked and will not be able to put it down until the last page. Thoroughly entertaining, fun, and flirty from beginning to end. Looking forward to the author's next book! Sugar Street deserves ten stars!

This novel about women willing and doing anything to save their marriages is a great summer read. This is just the type of heartwarming book that I enjoy on a hot summer day sitting on the porch!

As someone who is a sucker for a Southern book - I adore all of MJ Pullen's books and am super geeked up for her latest series, Sugar Street.. Its light, fluffy,

While the plot is a little out there (who has time to play tennis???), I was drawn to characters of Jess (who reminds me most of myself) and Delia (who seems like a skinny Susanna Sugarbaker). Carras - she's a little distant and cool right now - I'm hoping to get to know her more in future books. Maizy - I'm not 100% sure about her yet. She has a heart of gold but doesn't seem to love herself enough. I think she needs to dump the Swede (Or Finn/Norwegian/ Scandinavian Soul Wretcher) and embrace who she is - I think she would be pleasantly surprised.

The only think that could have made this better would have been some recipes for Maizy's baked goods, but luckily I'm not a fan of cherry chocolate chip cookies!

This is the first book in this series and the first time I’ve read a book by this author. This book was definitely a good read and filled with insane ideas, ridiculous, behavior, and humor. What I loved about this book is that the issues were commonly addressed (and even sometimes not addressed) issues in real marriages and how people overcome these obstacles.

The characters in this book, while a bit quirky, were believable and kept you intrested in reading the story. The story lagged a little in the beginning but it picked up and kept you interested throughout. I think anyone interested in sweet romances with a twist of suspense and mystery will enjoy this book. Can’t wait for the next book in the series to come out in 2019.

* I received a free sample of this book by NetGalley in return for a fair and honest review..*

My review is 3.8 stars.

This is my first book by MJ Pullen and I would there is something to read in the books. There is a lot of emotions that runs in the book. Well, I will say my review in stars for the following points:

Language: 4 stars: I liked the language, appropriate with the story and the plot.

Words and Phrases: 3.6 stars: As far as the words and phrases are concerned they go with the sentences and the dialogues, just there were few senteneces where I not felt the connection and found some errors.

Characters: 3.8 stars: The characters are good but I clearly saw that there was room to develop the characters more. I wanted more for all four of them.

POV: 4 stars: I didn’t find any problem with the POV, it was bang on the target. I never felt the confusion of a single time and the flow of the story never get in the problem area just a free flowing liquid.

Plot: 3.6 stars: The plot for the book was feels like under-developed. I would really appreciated more on the plot basis and there was the really room for the improvement.

Story & Scenes: 4 stars: I liked the story, developed around the plot, just that if the plot was more developed then the story was more astonishing. The scenes and the description is good and I don’t felt the problems in the scenes.

Dialogues: 3.6 stars: I liked the dialogues section but there were few hiccups I caught in the dialogues part, rest I think was okay.

All-n-all, I wanna say that you should try this book.

I'm still thinking about all the craziness in this book. First off, this is a story every married woman with kids should read. I can relate to each of the four women, their thoughts about husbands, friends and even kids are not foreign to me. We get stuck in a bubble of reality and schedules and whatever we think our normal should be. Second, I respect what these women did to gain the attention of their husbands. Although a bit pricey and risky it was successful. Thirdly, I hope there will be at least one more book because there were a few loose ends that need closure. Great read and definitely an author I want to read more. I received an early copy through Netgalley; wrote my review voluntarily.

Sugar Street is my first M.J. Pullen novel and i have to say i loved this one!!!!!!!!! All the suburbia drama is right up my soap opera loving alley!!!! Definitely looking forward to the next installment in this deliciously written series!!!! This is the story of four suburban wives who feel the spark has gone out of their marriage and the totally wrong but with good intentions way that they try to bring it back. They hire a tennis instructor/male escort to make their husband's jealous and they all get alot more than they bargained for . I will definitely recommend this book to everyone I know. Thank you to Netgalley and Freshwater Ink for the oppurtunity to read this book.

Sexy summer read that will have all the neighbors talking! M.J. has done it again with a hot read about 4 women trying to keep their marriages together.


Jess wants to liven up her marriage, Delia has an open marriage with options, Carras doesn't know who will want to be with her and Maizy is part of the PTA and wants nothing more than to be accepted.


Throw into the mix Belinda and Orson (they seem to have all the money all the others could ever want) and things getting a little spicy. Did I mention Belinda having "private" lessons with a tennis pro names Parker? Not sure how much tennis technique is being taught if you know what I mean?


I don't want to giveaway too much of the sauciness. You will have to read it for yourself.


This book has it all - sexiness, desire, and the quest for love.

An entertaining tale in to the lives of four different women in the same neighborhood. While not a perfect novel, I enjoyed this read. It was a little slow in the beginning and it took awhile for me to really get into it, but by the end I was very much invested in the women. I feel readers will be able to relate the emotions and feelings of the various women. I definitely liked Jess and Mauzy's stories the most. I felt like Carras needed more development and Delia is a little obnoxious in the beginning, but you start liking her as the novel progresses. The ending of the book is somewhat open-ended as this appears to be the first in a series and I would continue on with the series. This is a good summer, beach read.

It took me a chapter or two to really get into it, but after that I powered through. These ladies are something else.. I liked them a lot! Well written and entertaining. Enjoyed it a lot. I voluntarily read an advanced Netgally copy of this book.

Linda Zagon's review Jul 26, 2018 · edit
really liked it

My Review of “Sugar Street” by M.J. Pullen Freshwater Ink Publishing Aug. 2018

Can you imagine the havoc a handsome tennis teacher/ male escort for hire can do to a group of friends with problems in their marriages? Of course there is a discount for friends to utilize his services. M.J. Pullen, Author of “Sugar Street” has written a unique, satirical, enthralling novel with this premise. The Genres for this novel are Fiction and Women’s Fiction. The story takes place in the present , and only goes to the past when it pertains to the characters or events in the story. The setting for this story centers around an affluent town, and club. The author discusses the institution of marriage, marriage crisis, friendship, jealousy, betrayals, and unrealistic expectations and hopes.

The author describes her characters as complicated, and complicated. This novel is about four women in troubled marriages, each with their problems, and an extremely handsome tennis pro , who is also a male escort. The women are friends and frenemies and agree that the idea is to make their husbands pay attention, and get jealous. No one can envision the consequences , the danger and risk that happens. I recommend this novel to those readers who appreciate dark humor and women’s fiction. I received an ARC from NetGalley for my review.

I enjoyed this book! There were some laugh out loud moments, there are some crazy cringing moments, and there are some realistic moments. There was a bit of unevenness in the middle.. the book was chugging along and then the tone kind of changes abruptly. I look forward to the next book in the series, because there's a few plotlines that the author definitely needs to follow through with!

Solid 3.5.

This book is begging to be turned into a movie script. While reading it I found myself picturing the action and dialogue on a screen. Even though I’m not much of a movie goer, I couldn’t help assigning actors to the characters. And what great characters there are. While the world seems to like to lump suburban housewives, especially southern ones, into a stereotype, each of the women in this book is interesting and multidimensional. While their spouses are not quite as sharply drawn, they are equally intriguing.

The book centers around a group of women in the same neighborhood who love their spouses but are worried that the spark and passion has left their marriages. All of them have done the usual things we think of to fix that, to no avail. When they decide to take a drastic step, because their marriages are that important to them, things go south in an unexpected way.

After the women's plan backfires spectacularly, it is tempting to think it all could have been avoided if they simply communicated their feelings to their spouses, and to judge them accordingly. But the author also makes us see that each had tried in subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) ways to let thir partners know they needed to feel desirable, valued and interesting. And the plan they set in motion seemed simple, wasn’t immoral, and didn’t have any downside - until it did. No less important than the women's relationship to their husbands is their relationship to each other, and the mores of their suburban community.

This is a book I’ll read again since I flew through it the first time to find out what happened! I usually just want a good story. But in this book, as in her others, the nuances of the characters' relationships are as intriguing as the plot. I can’t wait to see the movie.

I really enjoyed the book. It had the right balance of love. Wonderful beach read! I look forward to reading more by the author.

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.