Flight into Fantasy

Title: The Sugar Queen
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Genre: Contemporary fiction, magic realism
Source: Bookshare
Reason for Reading: I’ve had this book TBR, but was finally inspired to read it by a review from Angie.. (See below.)

Synopsis:

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets–and secret passions–are about to change her life forever. 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 has astonishing 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. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love–and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.

My Thoughts: One of the things I wish I saw more of in the fiction I read is the positive effects of female friendship. It’s irritating to have a female best friend be portrayed as shallow, or merely a vehicle to introducing the heroine to a love interest, or, worse, a complete and total cow. And when I find a book that celebrates the beauty of female friendship, I want to embrace it and crow about it to everyone who’ll listen.

This is just such a book. Josey meets and befriends several interesting women over the course of the story, from Della Lee, the tramp living in her closet, to Chloe, the sandwich shop owner. And it is those friendships that make this story magical, as they set in motion all of the changes that happen in Josey’s life.

Josey herself is the kind of character that, if written badly, can be a real pain to read about. She starts the story a beaten-down woman who dreams of leaving her small North Carolina town, even though she feels guilty about being such a rotten child and therefore thinks she ought to stay home and take care of her unappreciative mother. In the hands of a less skilled author, Josey is the kind of character I’d want to smack upside the head, then feed them a slice of get-over-yourself cake. But the magic of this book was that I sympathized with Josey’s plight. I know what it’s like to feel like you have no other choice but to retreat into a more pleasant world of your own creation, and that is the way that Josey copes. But once Della Lee makes her escape the confines of her comfort zone, Josey finds that her life is much more interesting and rewarding.

The other characters in this book are drawn with just as much depth. Chloe in particular I loved, not least because of her affinity with books–they literally pop up around her whenever she needs them. Josey’s love interest, far from being simply a shallow but good-looking man, has demons of his own. Even Josey’s mother, far from being the one-note villainous character she could have been, is drawn with surprising warmth.

The plot of the novel centers around the self-actualizations of the major characters, and it’s done well. The magic realism touches, far from being a distracting nuissance the way they generally strike me, added an element of wonder to the setting. I found myself wishing for a secret closet like Josey’s, and sighing wistfully over the fact that books do not pop up around me like they do for Chloe. I loved the fairy tale aspect of the story, and I adored the romances, both the one between Josey and Adam, which was very sweet and tentative, and the one between Chloe and her boyfriend, which was very much passionate, but in some ways a bit more realistic, by which I mean that I suspect a few strictly romance readers might have issues with Jake. Ms. Allen drew me into the world she created, and I practically read the book in one sitting, taking only a brief break because I simply didn’t want the story to end. In fact, it is the kind of book that I think I could get a lot out of rereading, which I very much want to do.

Final Thoughts: This book reminded me of another recent read, Like Water for Chocolate. However, I understood Josey far better than I understood Tita, and I was completely drawn into Josey’s world and the lives of her friends.

Final Grade: A

Other Opinions

• Angieville, who made me want to read it.

• Book Addiction
• At Home with Books
• Books on the Brain
• Bookfoolery and Babble