Title: Sugar Daddy Series: Travis Family #1
Author: Lisa Kleypas
Published: March 6, 2007
Genre(s): Romance: Contemporary
Page Count: 371
Rating:
Summary from Goodreads:Liberty Jones has dreams and determination that will take her far away from Welcome, Texas—if she can keep her wild heart from ruling her mind. Hardy Cates sees Liberty as completely off-limits. His own ambitions are bigger than Welcome, and Liberty Jones is a complication he doesn't need. But something magical and potent draws them to each other, in a dangerous attraction that is stronger than both of them.
When Hardy leaves town to pursue his plans, Liberty finds herself alone with a young sister to raise. Soon Liberty finds herself under the spell of a billionaire tycoon—a Sugar Daddy, one might say. But the relationship goes deeper than people think, and Liberty begins to discover secrets about her own family's past.
Two men. One woman. A choice that can make her or break her. A woman you'll root for every step of the way. A love story you'll never forget.
At this moment, I am angry. Hand-shakingly, stomach-achingly furious. I am appalled by this. Absolutely appalled. This is my first Lisa Kleypas novel, and right now I’m having a hard time imagining a circumstance that would compel me to touch anything she’s written in the future. I am enraged, horrified, and really just saddened by Sugar Daddy.
Before I get to the really nasty part of the review, I’ll touch on the story and characters, etc. Our main character is Liberty Jones, a girl from the trailer park who’s been sole guardian of her half-sister since she was 18. She harbors feelings for her childhood crush, Hardy, but he disappeared from her life years ago. She falls in with the well-to-do Travis family, and things happen, particularly concerning Gage Travis.
So, the first thing I didn’t like about Sugar Daddy was the way Kleypas approached Texas/Texans. Basically, every action done by a character was because they were Texan. If the author fleshed out a character’s personality, those elements were because they were Texan. The book is full of stereotypes and generalizations. “All Texans behave this way” and “Because s/he was a Texan, s/he did this…” and the like. Now, I’m not from Texas, but I think it’s safe to say that Texans aren’t all the same, that they don’t all behave in the same way or hold the same belief system. You can’t just say “Texan men are like this and Texan woman are like this” and expect it to be true of every person. And it happened so often. In case you ever thought you were going to forget that the book takes place in Texas, Kleypas would be shoving her characters’ apparent “Texan” characteristics in readers’ faces. I don’t know if the author is from Texas, but it doesn’t matter. If anyone were to write about me and just chalk up all my behavior to being from a certain place, I would be extremely offended. People in the United States are kind of, you know…DIVERSE. We’re not all the same, not even close. Suggesting that all 26 million Texans behave uniformly is just ridiculous.
So there’s that. But the meat of my complaints has to do with the romance. There is a love triangle, and it was ultimately pointless because it was introduced in like the last few chapters and resolved surprisingly quickly.
Love interest #1: Hardy Cates. He’s pretty much your run-of-the-mill asshole. Self-centered, ambitious to the point of alienating everyone, selfish, arrogant, blah blah blah. I didn’t like him at any point in the story, and imagining Liberty with him was a painful thought.
Love interest #2: Gage Travis, AKA the guy about whom I have many castration-centered fantasies Like, I literally cannot express how enraged this man and his behavior made me. He’s pretty much a textbook alpha male type. Wealthy, possessive, dominant, controlling, over-confident, used to getting what he wants. I hate him already. Add in the fact that he is a RAPIST and a STALKER and we have a recipe for the most Righteously Horrified Renae the reading world has seen (to date). Seriously, Gage made me so mad I was shaking and sick to my stomach.
Consensual sex IS A WONDERFUL THING. This is a concept Gage seems to have not grasped. Of course, the situation could potentially be waved aside as “sex with dubious consent,” something that’s generally accepted by romance readers in Ye Olden Times, but the bottom line is: Gage forced Liberty to have sex with him in a situation where she did not want it and had made it clear that she didn’t want it. That she liked it and he apologized after the fact does not change the fact that IT WAS RAPE. And if there’s a relationship where rape is the romantic ideal, it’s not a good relationship.
Here’s the scenario: Gage sees Liberty with Hardy and his alpha-male jealousy is ruffled. They leave and start arguing in the limo, then Gage just decides to pin her down on the seat and just go at it. Even though two seconds before Liberty said she needed to take a break from their relationship.
…you don’t even want to know how hard it is for me to be coherent right now.
THIS SITUATION is perpetuating modern rape culture. Kleypas pretty much says that it’s okay to force a woman to have sex with you, because she’ll probably end up liking it in the end. Anyway, girls don’t really know what they want, so you have to show them—and preferably the showing will be rough and cause bruises. NO. NO NO NO. No to the ten billionth power. Absolutely freaking unacceptable behavior. Gage, right there, needed to get sent to the butcher for a little gelding operation.
But of course he apologizes and does this touching scene where he’s so sorry and needy and just wants to love Liberty the way she deserves and blah blah. Classic behavior from an abuser, right?
And then there is the stalking. Oh boy. The dubious consent I could deal with (not really), but the stalking is just…there is no excuse for that. Basically, Gage hires some surveillance team to follow Liberty while she’s on a date with Hardy, to make sure she doesn’t have sex with him. Um, NO. Personal boundaries, Gage? Do you know about those? I mean, the guy is a rapist, so it’s hard to know where exactly his morals lie. But, let’s just say that if you don’t trust the woman you love to be faithful to you, and instead hire people to enforce fidelity instead, SOMETHING IS DEEPLY WRONG WITH YOUR RELATIONSHIP.
Oh, and Gage’s response/excuse for this little stalking adventure? “Sorry Liberty…will you just hold me for a little while?”
(At this point, imagine me having some sort of explosively angry outburst with many expletives and much fist-shaking.)
So, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but here it is: RAPE IS WRONG and STALKING IS NOT ACCEPTABLE. Sugar Daddy favorably portrays a relationship where those things happen. In this book, Lisa Kleypas perpetuates harmful ideas about what is acceptable in a relationship, and it just so far from okay. Rape culture is a real thing, and here’s proof. I am beyond disgusted by this book. I’m appalled by this novel, and just sad that this kind of relationship is being held up as the ideal for women everywhere.
Liberty could have done so much better than Gage, and so can every woman in the world. We shouldn’t have to settle for men who don’t trust us to keep our promises or make our own decisions.
