Title: Shaking The Sugar Tree Main Characters: Wiley Cantrell & Jackson Ledbetter Author: Nick Wilgus Genre: Contemporary Romance Length: 304 pages Publisher: Dreamspinner Press Date of Publication: January 31st 2014 Story: 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. Me and this book: I have worked in the hospital with children like Noah and can I just say that their actions can really break your heart. Most of these children blame themselves for what they have done which was really nothing, it wasn’t their fault they’re like that, it’s the irresponsible parents. So it really touched my heart reading this, it made me feel. Review: This was more of a life story than a love story. The story solely revolved around the world of Wiley Cantrell together with his deaf son Noah. Wiley was not in a good position to be a father at that time as he made a living out of working the cashier at a local convenience store. Despite living with tight money, Wiley never regretted the decision to fully take care of his son Noah while the mother served time in jail. Noah wasn’t your typical kid either, he was a meth baby which resulted in his hearing loss and apparently also having an extra finger in one hand. Though being physically like that, Noah was like every other child at that age, innocent and carefree. In the first half of the book, we will get to experience what it’s like taking care of Noah. Doing sign language and all that was easy for Wiley, but seeing his son get judged and misunderstood by others was harder to bare. Seeing Noah cry and question why people don’t treat him the same way like with the other kids will break your heart. Even Wiley’s family was not any better in treating Noah, at least in my opinion. Everything just seemed so unfair. And when the mom came back into the picture, it gets even worse. Despite all that, Wiley met Jackson, a pediatric nurse, at the convenience store. It might have been intentional but Jackson was in line at Wiley’s counter wearing blue scrubs and caring two cases of Dos Equis. Eventually with a few sweet talk and flirting here and there, Jackson managed to invite Wiley to his housewarming party since he just recently moved in. Flirting back as always, Wiley accepted it. Of course, with Noah tagging along. As I’ve said before, for me this was more of a life story than a love story. Every nook and cranny of Wiley’s life was told in detail and even though for the most part Jackson wasn’t in some chapters, it was still moving and inspiring to read. Be ready because this book packs a punch with family angst and drama unlike any other book that I’ve read, from the beginning to the very end. This book needs the time and attention from a reader and I hope that you all have that. But being truthfully honest here, I wasn’t expecting much from this book at all when I read the first few pages. This book was sorta in a faster pace than the other books I was used to read. So for the first few pages I thought that I’d just skim through it, but damn was I wrong. This book was definitely filled with hard hitting emotions, especially those moments regarding Noah. Noah was such a sweetheart, I wanted to climb into the book just so I could hug him when he’s sad. This obviously wasn’t your typical MM book but it was still one of the best. Even though this was filled with a whole lot of family angst, the author still managed to pull off a few laughs here and there with his words. It’s really amazing how he pulled it off with that one, in most parts I was emotional and in the brink of crying while in some parts I was just laughing out loud like a fool. Kudos to you, Mr. Nick Wilgus, this was a damn good story. |
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February 2016
"Without a doubt, there was no place, nothing as exotic or rare, as that moment right there with him. Never again could I claim miracles didn't happen." |