Sugarland

by Martha Conway

[readingwithwrin]

"She knew what it would be like out on the circuit: some places they love the music and some places they don't. You get into a groove, then a waiter drops a tray and you lose it. Can't get your dresses cleaned properly, the man stiffs you on your pay, you take a break to eat lunch and can't find a restaurant that will serve you. She knew what the life was like, but she was going to do it anyway. She had to, and she wanted to."

See reviews first on my blog

Eve riser is a young piano player that goes on a circuit across the country with other musicians playing Jazz. One night when out with a guy she witnesses something awful and because of that, he sends her back to Chicago with something to give to a man named Rudy.
Once she is back in Chicago and meets up with her sister Chickie who has her own problems that play a pretty big part in the second half of the story. But once these two sisters start working together and becoming a team again everything seems like it will lookup. That is until Rudy and his sister Lena get added into the picture and more tragedy happens.

"She thought wearing men's clothes would make her feel free, but instead, she was just wondering at every turn what she should do with her hands, her feet."

Lena is a young woman who has lost everyone close to her in her family, and because of this, she is willing to do what it takes to try and find out what exactly happened, why it happened, and who did it. She gets help from Eve and a cast of other characters that help her in a bunch of different ways.

Overall I really liked this story. I found it to be a really quick read and I loved the friendship that happened between Eve and Lena despite the racial differences. This story is told in the perspective of both Eve and Lena (Chickie had a small part too) so we got to see how things were different for both of them, and how they both felt towards each other and how/why they wanted to help each other figure out what was going on. I also really enjoyed the musical parts and how they were explained in a simple way that still made sense (I took piano classes for 3 years, but sadly wasn’t ever really good at it) and helped the story go along. I did occasionally get a few of the male characters confused because they had similar names, but I think that was just me not paying close enough attention at times.
If you want a quick, 1920’s story that involves music and friendship then please read this book.

"This was all she wanted sometimes. To play her music and forget about everything else."

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.