Unpaid, unsolicited yet fabulous review of Sunshine on Sugar Hill

"It was with some trepidation that I began to read Angela Gilltrap's "Sunshine on Sugar Hill" - on loan from a young and beautiful New Yorker called Casey who incidentally appears on and from Page 175 in the book. As a stuffy old Brit far removed from life in the Big A and indeed any big place, what was there for me in these pages?

From early on in the book though you are swept along by the author's enthusiasm for her new adventure as she begins her life in New York. You can't help liking AG. She is engaging, funny and you want her to succeed. Despite the inevitable setbacks on starting a new life she faces each new challenge like a reborn Polyanna with renewed vigour and the eponymous "sunny" disposition.

But for me the biggest plus in this very good read is AG's depiction of life in a Harlem tenement block. You wished you could meet the local characters who became her friends. Eventually Sugar Hill with its perils and its warmth gets right under your skin.

I was so sorry to come to the end of this book. It was like losing a friend."