I so badly wanted to read this one and I know some of my friends on Instagram loved it but it just wasn't for me!

I am happy to say the authors writing style is lovely and it was more the story wasn't for me!

I would struggle to be able to review this book due to issues with the file/download. The issues stopped the flow of the book. The issues are:
- Missing words in the middle of sentences
- Stop/start sentences on different lines
- No clear definition of chapters.

I’m not sure if it was a file/download issue but there were lots of gaps and stops/starts which really ruined the flow. I would love the chance to read a better version as the description of the book appeals to me. I would be more than happy to re-read the book with a better file or as a physical book as the book topic and genre are of interest to me. If you would like me to re-review please feel free to contact me at thesecretbookreview@gmail.com or via social media The_secret_bookreview (Instagram) or Secret_bookblog (Twitter). Thank you.

In This Bitter Earth, Sugar Lacey is on her way out of Bigelow, Arkansas, where she'd come to break with the past. With her worn leopard-print suitcase and her head held high, she walks past the prying eyes of its small-minded, cruel-hearted townsfolk, praying for the strength to keep going. She doesn't stop until she arrives at her childhood home in Short Junction. Here she learns the truth about her parentage: a terrible tale of unrequited love, of one man's enduring hatred. ⭐️⭐️⭐️

I enjoyed reading Sugar, so I was quite keen to get my hands on this next instalment which was almost as amazing as the first. I found some of the chapters distressing to read though. It however, brings home some of the prejudice, disrespect and discrimination experienced by ethnic men and women living in the South in that era… which wasn’t really that long ago!! It saddens me that there are still certain areas where those degrading, dehumanising racist beliefs still exist.

I found the book to be a really compelling read. If you haven’t read Sugar, I feel that This Bitter Earth can be read as a stand-alone book.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers Random House UK, Vintage and Vintage Classics for the opportunity to read and review an advance copy of this masterful read.

Bernice L. McFadden's Sugar was a book I loved, this is the sequel, returning us to many of the characters we got to know, and which sees pieces of Sugar's raw and painful personal history revealed as she leaves Bigelow. I must admit to a certain disappointment for it doesn't quite have the coherence I had hoped for and some of the characters do not stand up up to close scrutiny, and I did not comprehend the relationship between Sugar and Pearl here after the first novel. We learn of her family, the reality behind her parents, addictions, relationships, loss, secrets, abuse, murder, neglect, black magic, justice, personal growth and friendship. It proved to be a dark, challenging and heartbreaking read, yet threaded through with hope and really needs the reader to have read Sugar first in my view, as it ties together a number of threads from it. Even if it did not meet my expectations, I am still glad that I read it. Many thanks to the publisher for an ARC.

I enjoyed the first outing for sugar but didn’t love it but I was interested to see where the books would go. I don’t really like this one, it was tough harrowing read I felt I could not get into. It’s a good sequel but not for me.
Thank for the ARC