Sarah Addison Allen is one of my favorite authors, I have loved her since her first novel Garden Spells came out. Her writing is so magical, and the story has a fantastic flow. She's very subtle with the magic she includes. Kind of giving a literal turn to certain phrases. The heat of passion in the Sugar Queen means the cook literally can't be near her boyfriend or all her food stock becomes useless.
So, in the highly anticpated - by me - The Girl Who Chased the Moon - we meet Julia and Emily. Emily is a recently orphaned teenager with no choice but to live with the grandfather she didn't even know she had. Julia is an adult woman trying to run from her troubled teenage years. With that understanding, though, Julia takes Emily under her wing. She is also trying to spare Emily the pain of finding out what her mother did before running from the town. Julia is counting down to her own freedom Mullaby. She left sometime during high school to go to a reform school to deal with her issues, and never looked back...until her father died leaving behind terrible debt. So she fashioned a plan to sell off the house and pay off the restuarant in 2 years. Then she would sell the restaurant and buy a bakery in her new hometown. She is a magical baker, and Sawyer - her love interest is magically attracted to her because of it. There's a twist in there as well.
Emily's mother did a terrible wrong to the Mullaby's main family, and the entire town turns that blame on Emily. Her grandfather, the "gentle giant of Mullaby" admits his part, as he spoiled his daughter through his own grief. He does stand up for Emily, though, when it counts. I love that in her room, there is wallpaper that changes based on mood. It was lilacs when Emily showed up, it became butterlies, and goes through even more changes. Vance, her grandfather, says it's been up since his own sister was in the room, and there's no getting rid of it. You can't remove it, and it goes right through the paint if you attempt to paint over it.
It's a good story. I ate it up in a day, and then wanted another slice. :) I have to learn to savor these things. It's not her best work. Garden Spells and Sugar Queen were the best. But The Girl Who Chased the Moon is fully worth getting and reading.
I was not paid for this review - I wasn't even asked to review it - but if you want to buy from Amazon, I will get a commision if you click the box above.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thank you for taking the time to comment. :0)