Book Review: The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

Release Date: May 20, 2008

Publisher: Bantam

Age Group: Adult

Pages: 288

Source: My local library.

Summary:
Josey Cirinni is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and her passion for the man she loves is best kept a secret, even from him. Josey has grudgingly settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, but her one consolation is the secret stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she keeps in her closet. One morning, she opens her closet for a sweet, but finds Della Lee Baker hiding there instead. Della Lee is a local waitress on the run who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. Under Della Lee's guidance, Josey is soon living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion is so real it can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters. (From sarahaddisonallen.com)
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Why I picked it up:

Two of my favorite writers/bloggers (Laini Taylor and Stephanie Perkins) recommend Sarah Addison Allen's books, and I just read Allen's Garden Spells and loved it. I wanted more.

The Good:

The Sugar Queen is delightful. I liked Josey, the main character, from the first page, and I fell right into Sarah Addison Allen's beautiful prose and deliciously cozy description of winter in North Carolina. The initial premise of the book is comical and pleasantly puzzling: Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini lives with and cares for her crotchety mother and wakes up one day to find a strange woman in her closet. The woman introduces herself as Della Lee. She's rough, sarcastic, and determined to stay put in Josey's closet. Della Lee's antics throughout the novel are amusing, but more importantly, Della Lee pushes Josey out of her comfort zone, out from under her mother's thumb, and into life.

Josey stands up to her mother, makes friends, and falls in love.  Josey's closest new friend is Chloe, a woman who is followed around by books and struggling with a failing romantic relationship.

The Sugar Queen explores friendship, family, and romantic relationships through three different couples, and comes up with some genuine truths and a satisfying story.

The Bad:

Parts of the plot felt scattered, and I lost interest in the book at several points, put it down, and came back because I liked the characters. Also, the magic realism of The Sugar Queen doesn't feel as integrated into the world of The Sugar Queen as it does in Addison's Garden Spells, but I got over it. The Sugar Queen was fun once I stopped carping and rolled with the action.

The Recommendation:

If you like quirky, cozy stories, put The Sugar Queen on the top of your reading list ASAP. I enjoyed it.