THE SUGAR QUEEN

Author: Sarah Addison Allen ISBN: 9780553805499 5/2008 FICTION Publisher: BANTAM

Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother… Fleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey’s clandestine closet is the safest place to crash. In return she’s going to change Josey’s life—because, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding. Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, and—most amazing of all—has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red hasastonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time—even for her. It seems that Della Lee’s work is done, and it’s time for her to move on. But the truth about where she’s going, why she showed up in the first place—and what Chloe has to do with it all—is about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey’s fast-changing life.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

THE SUGAR QUEEN by Sarah Addison Allen is spellbinding. A story about finding yourself and pulling together the pieces of your life, even if you've got to search all the nooks, crannies and hidden corners to decide who you really are and just exactly what you want from life.
 
Josey is twenty-seven, still living in her mother's house and although she doesn't feel anything is missing from her life, the hoard of candy she's got hidden in her closet must be filling some sort of emptiness. When she finds a local waitress, Della Lee, hiding in her closet, her life begins to take on a whole new twist. Finding Della Lee is the impetus that brings Josey to learning things about herself, and her past, that have either been neglected or hidden. She learns that Della Lee and her mother followed Josey and her father on Sunday afternoons, that buying—or not buying—a house doesn't guarantee a home and that friends, even those that come and go quickly from lives, can have something to teach us. Josey learns, too, that life and the joy of living is perhaps the most delicious treat of all.
 
I loved this book mostly because the author's writing style brings the reader in close contact with the main character. I felt Josey's emotions, saw predicaments that contradicted her old way of thinking, and felt her growth as she readjusted her horizons. This is one woman's journey, and the reader is invited along to see every step, feel each emotion. The secondary characters are all unique and serve a purpose, something that I think gave an added dimension to Josey's life. No one was arbitrary; each had a role to play and did it well.
 
Sarah Addison Allen's THE SUGAR QUEEN is a real charmer.

Kay James