Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for my digital copy in exchange for an honest review...I chose this one because I have read the author before and really liked what I read. Now I'm not gonna lie, when I first started reading this one, I could NOT get into it at all...and the number counting down the pages on my kindle never seemed to get any smaller...I was like, this book is too damn long for starters...but then I suddenly got into the story...of which there are two basically...kind of even three. Once I was able to get into it, I was able to read much faster and I stayed into it...especially the parts of the story that led up to who she was out and how she got there...ultimately I ended up loving it.

This book is full of every emotion imaginable! And the characters are the best! I have been a fan of this author forever and she has done it again with this one! Don’t miss this!

I really enjoyed Sugar and Salt! This book had some heavier moments, but I feel like there was a good balance of lighter, happier events to balance it out - kind of like sugar and salt. I'm definitely looking forward to reading more stories in this series.

Sugar and Salt by Susan Wings is a great story. Enjoyed all the characters and their adventures. Happy reading!

**I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions expressed in this review are my own and given freely**

Margot opens a barbecue place called Salt in San Francisco next to a bakery called Sugar. She is trying to escape her past. ARC from NetGalley.

I received an arc of this title from NetGalley for an honest review. This book was not at all what I expected from author Susan Wiggs. At times I was so anxious about what the main character was going through that I had to stop reading it. Sometimes, I couldn't put the book down until I knew what would happen. There needs to be a few trigger warnings to start the book, and some scenes may bother people.

Susan Wiggs is a prolific writer. My favorite, but maybe least known, are the Bella Vista Chronicles. The Apple Orchard and The Beekeeper’s Ball are directly related, it helps to read them, in sequence. The Lost And Found Bookshop is what I refer to as ‘series adjacent’. It’s a stand alone book but there’s quite a few Easter Eggs and shout outs to the previous two books that readers will recognize and appreciate. This is also the case with the latest in the series, Sugar and Salt. I loved the first three, have featured them here previously feeling they don’t get nearly the love they deserve, so was absolutely thrilled to receive an early digital ARC from @netgalley , an early review copy from @librarything , and an early copy from the publisher @harpercollins .

When I read a book prior to publication I avoid other reviews trying to keep a clean slate and avoid being influenced by other opinions. I’ve read the publishers synopsis but little else. Very rarely this can backfire on me when my expectations don’t match the book I read. I’ve waited to write this review because I wanted some time and space to figure out what the disconnect was. Suffice to say…it’s complicated.

Sugar and Salt is a very good book by an author I deeply admire. I have read and reread her books, recommend and gift them often. I think the marketing, the coverart, the publisher synopsis, skip a major aspect (I’m leaving out here to avoid spoilers) and tone of the book. When I landed on it I was surprised. It seemed way out of context with a book marketed about a bake shop, second chances, starting over. We know the owner has a past she’s running from, but the leap was just too much for me without warning. Had I been looking at this after publication I very likely would have found out about this element from online reviews and chosen to wait to read. When I did I would have been prepared.

I recommend with the strong suggestion of due diligence prior for content. For those that haven’t read Susan Wiggs before I highly recommend starting with The Apple Orchard followed by The Beekeeper’s Ball, two of my personal favorites! The Apple Orchard just debuted last night as a Hallmark movie, The Secrets of Bella Vista!

The story was more in depth then I originally anticipated. I was looking for an escape read, but got so much more. Many more layers then her other books. Margot is looking for a fresh start. and is a barbeque master with a past. Jerome is a baker. They share a kitchen and attraction for each other. Just as she starts to settle in, will her past come back to haunt her?

While I was excited to read this latest title from Susan Wiggs, I ended up abandoning it after a few chapters. The cover suggests a light and frothy women's fiction story, but the text itself is fraught with heavy issues. The writing is engaging, and the characters are memorable, but the levity that causes me to seek out Wiggs's books was glaringly absent , at least in the section I managed to read. I will hesitate before trying a new Susan Wiggs title in the future.

3.5 stars

This story is intense. It really wasn’t what I expected and, although I do not have issues with book and movie content triggering me, I still wish I would have been prepared for certain aspects of this story. While I can guarantee it will be something a lot of people cannot read, for me, it just weighed me down and gave me a hopeless feeling at times. Content warning (and spoiler warning): If you think you can read a very insightful story about rape and forced birth, I’ll let you know now that there is a happy ending for Margot. She has a very long road to get there, but she does find peace and happiness in the end.

This story skips back and forth in time and gives storylines for different characters. There was a point where I thought this story would be dealing with racism more than what it actually ended up focusing on so I was a bit uneasy about a white author delving into this subject. From what I could tell, being a white cis woman myself, she did a decent job. But that’s not something I can know having never been in the shoes of Ida or her son. While I found Ida’s story interesting, once Margot’s story ramped up I felt it was pushed aside. Which made me wonder why the author decided to tell these women’s stories in the same book. I thought there would be more of a connection and friendship between Margot and Ida and that wasn’t the case. They got along well, but they didn’t interact a lot.

So let me get to the meat of this story, which is Margot’s past. It takes up a good half of this book which is smack dab in the middle of this book. It’s heavy, it’s scary, and it’s a very important story. With the other jumping around in time of this book, I felt the weight of this section even more since there were no breaks out of this terrible series of events. It was so well done, though. At first, I had a lot of mixed feelings about the path Margot eventually takes (is forced to take?). This story was written before the recent overturning of reproductive rights in the United States but published just after. I could not help but note that there is a realism in what the ultimate path was. There was definitely realism in the roadblocks and shaming that was thrown at Margot along the way.

Overall, I think this book has a lot of important things to say. I believe the author did her due diligence to try to get it right from all aspects; racism, forced birth, and experience with the justice system. Yet there were some gaps in how things fit together. None of the important things, but it still messed with the flow and the overall chemistry of the characters. And that’s another thing. I love Jerome and I love Margot and they probably should be together, but I just didn’t feel the chemistry I wanted to feel. I didn’t need fire and sparks, but at least a few warm fuzzies would have been nice. It was a lot of telling and not a lot of showing when it came to these two. Their connection deserved more.

It’s very hard for me to come to a final decision when it comes to the rating. There is so much depth to certain parts of this story, but other parts are just phoning it in. Yet I would still recommend the book as long as I felt the person I was recommending it to would not be hurt by Margot’s back story. I cannot stress this enough, please proceed with caution.

A wonderful story of the healing power of love. Great, well developed characters and a lovely setting.

Something about the manner in which this started just left me unsure where the story was being directed. It just didn’t grab me. The heroine Has secrets, she’s rebuilt her life and then boom flashback in time.

DNF

SUGAR AND SALT by Susan Wiggs (The Lost and Found Bookshop) is a LibraryReads selection for July 2022. Wiggs, an international best-selling and award-winning author, relates the story of Margot Salton who is striving to start her own barbeque restaurant in San Francisco after fleeing a past (when she was called Margie Salinas) in Texas. Margot shares the commercial kitchen with the bakery next door and some sparks fly with the head baker, Jerome Sugar. His mother, Miss Ida, is a key support for both of them and Wiggs includes flashbacks to the 1970s protest era to develop interest in Miss Ida's own romantic past. There are references to social justice, sexual assault, and judicial system reform so this story has its heavier moments, but much of the emphasis is on resilience and optimistic dreams – both in terms of the efforts associated with retail food businesses and blossoming romantic feelings. Margot is a strong character who "wanted people everywhere to know they had a right to tell their stories, and to keep telling them until someone finally listened." Although the novel starts slowly, the pace and intensity increase and Wiggs' many, many readers will certainly be captivated by SUGAR AND SALT which is based in part on actual events.

I received an arc from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

This book deals with some heavy details that might affect some. Two stories are intertwined, one and old story with a relationship rekindled, and a new story with one having a difficult past.

Both are great storylines however I found myself skipping through parts just wanting to get to the end of the story.

Okay, so the cover on this one was a little misleading, and the synopsis did not do this book justice.

All I can say is, WOW!!

This excellently written book handled many dark and emotional issues. It was not a light read. I do have to warn that this book included many topics that could be possible triggers for some. The author touched on complex issues that many people face in our society. Racial discrimination, economic inequality, social bias, justice system corruption and abuse of power, rape, self-defense, murder, abortion, and adoption are just a few. The world that was created was, unfortunately, a very realistic one. There are so many stories about actual events that closely mirror Margie/Margot's life. I loved this story of grit and determination. It was a story of not losing yourself to your circumstances but rising, fighting, and making something of yourself. While the romance that bloomed between Margot and Jerome was not the central theme of this book, it added a sweet softness to the story. Every woman deserves to find her Jerome. The second-chance romance side story of Ida and Frank was also an uplifting addition. I felt an emotional connection with these characters and found myself rooting for them in my mind. This is the perfect book if you prefer a rich, dramatic story with romantic tones! I really enjoyed reading Margot's story of redemption. It was a 5-star read for me. I highly recommend this book!

Thank you to William Morrow and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I was lucky to receive an advance copy of Sugar and Salt by Susan Wiggs from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for my honest review and opinion. This is the 4th book in the series however you are able to read this as a stand alone and understand what is going on. Loved the cover and thought it was going to be a "fluffy" book but there is lots of emotional drama that will tug at your heart strings. I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading many more by this wonderful author.

3 1/2

In Susan Wiggs’ latest novel, Sugar and Salt, Margot Salton is on the verge of realizing her dream, opening a barbecue restaurant despite a past that keeps rearing its ugly head. As part of this realization, Margot meets Ida and Jerome Sugar, the mother/son team behind the bakery adjacent to her new restaurant who will both impact her life in very different ways.

Sugar and Salt can be divided into three stories, which may be the reason why I came away feeling a bit more “meh” about the book than I might otherwise have felt. First we have modern Margot who’s looking for a place to open her restaurant and then the inevitable anxiety attached to the opening of her restaurant and all of the pitfalls that naturally come along. Then we have young Ida during the turbulent late 60s/early 70s, caught up in the civil rights movement and the Vietnam war, falling in love with a White man. And then we have young Margot, Margie Salinas, fighting for her life in more ways than one.

While I whole-heartedly believe that Sugar and Salt is timely, well-intentioned, and necessary in the ability of artists to encourage open-mindedness and open-heartedness, to be front and center in social change or acceptance, I ultimately felt that it spread itself a bit thin. I didn’t feel the same passion and emotion in the first two sections that I felt in the one about young Margie Salinas. For me, as painful as it frequently was and as angering as it frequently was, it was the heart of this novel, which I’m not certain it was supposed to be or why else have the Ida section? In fact, as much as I liked young Ida and her pursuit of freedom and love, I’d rather she was given more time than allotted here. Wiggs’ really raised the emotional bar in the Margie Salinas section that wasn’t met in the others. The romantic relationships felt uninspired but that’s only because they weren’t allowed to flourish.

While I would love to tell you more about the Margie Salinas section, I feel like I might be delving into spoilers because the book is told in a non-linear fashion with a past being hinted at until it becomes major. Frankly, I wished Wiggs had written a more linear story because the deliciousness of Margie/Margot’s success would have tasted sweeter, perhaps her romance with Jerome would have felt more passionate. Maybe we all could have delighted in the saltiness and the sweetness. As it is, a flavor felt missing to me, the flavor that would have given it more depth and not just padding.

I do believe that this has become the thing lately–mesh a historical situation with a present one for meaning or depth or to draw commonalities or associations. However, if the writer doesn’t create enough depth in both sections, one or the other feels anemic and drags down the other. Which leads me to wonder, why have two stories if you’re not going to do well by both and by that I mean, fully flesh out the stories?

And, perhaps I’m wanting/needing more than I should from this book, but I felt like the possibility was there.

Lastly, gosh, I wish there had been more time spent in the kitchen. For all of you foodie readers out there, don’t you love chefs stirring the pot (metaphorically and literally)? All of that deliciousness of food being created? I was expecting more of that. There are recipes at the end. That helps a little.

Have you read it? What did you think?

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.5 Stars

Thanks #NetGalley @HarperCollins @WilliamMorrowBooks @WmMorrowBooks for a complimentary e ARC of #SugarAndSalt upon my request. All opinions are my own.

Margot, a BBQ master from Texas, desperately needs a fresh start and ends up in San Francisco where she opens her own BBQ restaurant. Located right across from The Lost and Found Bookshop, the restaurant shares a commercial kitchen with Jerome, a handsome baker. She names her restaurant Salt and the bakery next door is called Sugar. The right combination of salt and sugar is also the secret to her award-winning BBQ sauce, As Margot and Jerome become friends, Margot’s traumatic past in Texas comes back to haunt her.

***Because of needed content warnings, this review may contain spoilers.

Do you choose a book by its cover?

First, I must address the cover. To me, it doesn’t match the story and might mislead readers. 1. The main character is not a baker….she’s a BBQ master. Jerome is the baker. 2. Although the title is multilayered in its meaning, at first glance the title references two baking ingredients (especially sugar) and the image of a pink and white cake might suggest chick lit (and a cute bakery romance) and I would not categorize this story as chick lit. 3. If you have read the author’s last book, The Lost and Found Bookshop (as referenced on the cover), you might expect a lighter read….a romance…since Sugar and Salt is set in the same neighborhood across from the bookshop.

Based on the above facts and a quick glance at the cover, I expected a lighter read and a sweet romance between a baker and a restauranteur. Although well-written and compelling, I was not prepared for the heavy and traumatic content. The publisher’s summary suggests that the main character has a past that catches up to her but doesn’t allude to the trauma involved. In fact, my expectation was that the romance would be the heart of the story whereas, in fact, the past is the major part of the story. Readers need to be aware of violent rape. Did I mention that the cover is misleading?!

Once I adjusted my expectations, I found Sugar and Salt compelling, well-written, and page-turning. Margot is brave and has no quit in her. The author addresses many issues such as racism, assault, self-defense, the justice system, access to abortion, adoption, prison, privilege, interracial relationships, and includes LGBTQ representation.

Most of the story takes place in the past as we become aware of Margot’s past trauma and the circumstances that cause her to make a new start in life. We also hear the backstories of other primary characters.

Themes include justice, unwanted pregnancy, legal representation, access to abortion, adoption, healthy relationships, friendship, women supporting women, mentorship, reconciliation, interracial relationships, second chances, starting over, finding your voice, and racism.

I did enjoy/appreciate Sugar and Salt but it’s not an easy read and I’m recommending it with the mention that it contains heavy and perhaps triggering content. There is a side of lovely romance but it takes a back seat to the trauma. I would not categorize this as romance or friendship fiction as some on Goodreads have done as it suggests a much lighter read.

Trigger Warnings and Content Consideration: violent rape, gun violence, murder, prison

This is a very emotional read. Margot and Jerome are working hard to get on with their lives. Margot is starting fresh after escaping from a brutal rape and the criminal justice system that completely failed her. She's chasing her dream of opening her own restaurant. Jerome is taking over his grandmother's bakery, which happens to share a kitchen with Margot's new restaurant. Neither is looking for a relationship but the attraction is hard to resist. I really appreciated the slow build-up of the relationship and the going back and forth in time to get the back stories, but there were times when I thought "Enough already! What other horrible thing can happen to Margot?" It is a redemptive ending that made the journey worthwhile.

I have read many books by Susan Wiggs. In my opinion, this title is different from others, including the Lakeshore Chronicles, that I have read.

This book begins in an engaging way and I was drawn right in. Readers get to know many who live or work on Perdita Street, the location of the author’s book of last year. One of these characters, Margot, is a largely self-made woman who owns her own restaurant. She has carefully chosen its location and is eager for this barbecue restaurant to be a success.

Margot’s restaurant shares a kitchen with a bakery. She therefore gets to know Ida B (yes, like Wells) and her son Jerome. Readers will like both of them.

Readers learn about each of these character’s early years. Margot was very close to her mother but was left on her own too soon. A couple who own a restaurant gave her a start and she ran with it.

Ida B had a love affair when she was a teen. This relationship led to Jerome’s birth. Her backstory will, I think, be a part of the book that will draw readers in. Jerome, is an adult as the story opens. He is a divorced single dad. Will he and Margot get together?

In this novel, I think that Ms. Wiggs had a kind of Jodi Picoult moment as she chose to address some very difficult issues. Some of these have to do with race while one big part of the plot has to do with what happened to Margot, then Margie, at an earlier stage in her life.
A warning and spoiler:

This story was moving along and then a section comes that is about what happened to Margie/Margot when she got involved with a young man in her town. This relationship sours. In this part of the novel, there is graphic sexual and physical violence. Margie’s effort to protect herself with its ramifications and her subsequent experiences in prison may be hard for some to read.
Trigger warning ended.

I found myself engaged with the characters and wanting the best for them. I was hoping for that happy ending as I turned the pages.

Fans of Susan Wiggs will most likely want to read this book. Those who like women’s fiction and are willing to look at hard issues may also enjoy this one.

Many thanks to NetGalley and William Morrow for this title. All opinions are my own.