Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Shaking the Sugar Tree
SERIES: Sugar Tree
AUTHOR: Nick Wilgus
PUBLISHER: JMS Books
LENGTH: 80,393 words
RELEASE DATE: March 14, 2020, 2nd edition
BLURB:
Wise-cracking Wiley Cantrell is loud and roaringly outrageous — and he needs to be to keep his deeply religious neighbors and family in the Deep South at bay. A failed writer on food stamps, Wiley works a minimum wage job and barely manages to keep himself and his deaf son, Noah, more than a stone’s throw away from Dumpster-diving.
Noah was a meth baby and has the birth defects to prove it. He sees how lonely his father is and tries to help him find a boyfriend while Wiley struggles to help Noah have a relationship with his incarcerated mother, who believes the best way to feed a child is with a slingshot. No wonder Noah becomes Wiley’s biggest supporter when Boston nurse Jackson Ledbetter walks past Wiley’s cash register and sets his sugar tree on fire.
Jackson falls like a wet mule wearing concrete boots for Wiley’s sense of humor. And while Wiley represents much of the best of the South, Jackson is hiding a secret that could threaten this new family in the making.
When North meets South, the cultural misunderstandings are many, but so are the laughs, and the tears, but, as they say down in Dixie, it’s all good.
REVIEW:
Wiley Cantrell, gay father of a meth addicted prematurely born son, is not your everyday romance protagonist. In fact, I would say he’s probably not like anyone I’d ever met before. He’s got a deaf son, born of an ill-advised short-term affair with a childhood friend who was also a meth addict. But when she cut and run after the baby was born, he stood up and took his rightful place as his son’s father. And he’s pretty much lived his life making sure that Noah is taken care of and has what he needs. Sure they don’t have extras and he’s on assistance and has a part-time job that allows him to care for his son, but it’s the bargain he made when he took him. As Noah is about to turn 10, he meets Jackson Ledbetter, newly transplanted Bostonian gay pediatric nurse. Their lives could not have been more different.
Jackson has moved to Tupelo to start over. We don’t discover this until some way into the story. Wiley and Jackson start dating and things are going pretty well. I mean there is Jackson’s first visit with Wiley’s wildly dysfunctional family that results in some violent behavior. But he quickly becomes attached to both Wiley and Noah. But when Wiley discovers Jackson’s secret, he just cant let things continue.
There are so many heartbreaking moments in this story. Wiley’s love for his son though is the overarching theme. He takes his responsibility as the only parent to his child very seriously. He is truly a bighearted person who gives a lot and doesn’t get a lot of support really – although things do begin to change as Wiley and Noah face more crushing moments. But some people do come through for them in surprising ways when the chips are down. Some things can be compromised on, while others can’t. And in the end, really most are just trying to do their best.
I remember reading this when it originally was published but I forgot just how beautifully poignant this story is about Wiley and his son Noah,. It was so unlike any book I’d read up to that point. So many times I incensed on Wiley’s behalf about what he had gone through. I loved Wiley and admired how fiercely he loved his son. He also had a high tolerance for BS that I’m not sure how I would have handled. Wiley is stubborn and fierce and he knows who he is but he still has a lot to deal with between his going nowhere job, his family, his town, his son. He doesn’t have a lot for himself. When he meets Jackson, things look up, but there are issues there as well. I cannot fathom how Jackson felt moving from Boston to Mississippi. I’m pretty sure I couldn’t do it. There were so many instances where I was amazed at how Wiley dealt with things. His family was so different 🙂 Also for people who don’t think this is real, I’ll never forget what happened when my grandmother passed away in 1999 after living in North Carolina since 1972. She had worked for the local paper in a rural county for years. When she died a local man literally wrote a column on how my grandmother was the first Yankee lady that died that he ever cared about. I highly recommend this book and I’m looking forward to rereading the rest of this series. Emotionally gripping and well worth your time.
RATING: 
BUY LINKS:
[…] Read More » […]