The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen

              I kept going back and forth about whether or not I wanted to write about this book.  Every time I thought “yes”, one of the characters would tell the main character she was wrong for being who she was and what she looked like.  This bothered me every time it happened.  Yet, here I am, writing about this book.  That’s because, in the end, the story was too good not to.              

                Josey Cirrini has spent most of her life caring for her mother.  As a child she was a terror.  Her behavior was so bad, people in her small hometown are still holding it against her almost twenty years later.  It doesn’t matter to any of them that after her father died, she vowed to make up for her behavior.  Since nine-years-old she has tried to make things up to her mother, but it doesn’t matter.  Everyone still sees her as the poor behaving child.

                The perception isn’t helped with the fact that Josey rarely goes out in the world.  If she did, she may prove all these people who hold such negative opinions of her wrong.  Instead, the only time Josey really leaves the house is to take her mother, Margaret, to her social engagements.  She spends the rest of her time in her room, eating candy and reading romance novels.  Josey doesn’t have any friends.  She certainly doesn’t have a boyfriend.

                All in all, Josey’s secluded life is perfectly fine with her mother.  Margaret doesn’t want Josey to receive attention from anyone.  This desire is to the point that Margaret will tell Josey she looks awful in the color she looks best in.  Josey having confidence in herself is not something Margaret wants.

                Things begin to change, though, when a woman shows up in Josey’s closet.  From this point on, Margaret stops getting such a strong say in how Josey lives her life.  That’s because the woman, Della Lee Baker, encourages Josey to have a life of her own.  Living in the closet because she is escaping her boyfriend, Julian, Della Lee pushes Josey out into the world by having Josey do things for her.  One of the big things Della Lee wants her to do is get a particular sandwich from a sandwich shop at the courthouse.  It is with errands like this that Josey’s life begins to change.

                Chloe Finley is the one that really helps the change move forward.  She is the owner of the sandwich shop, and a young woman who has just found out her boyfriend cheated on her.  Through Josey’s daily stop for a sandwich, Chloe and Josey become friends.  They also each learn how to live a life of their own.

                Part of the reason I stuck with this book, despite the irritating parts, was because I was curious about how Chloe and the books were going to turn out.  You see, books that Chloe needs have a tendency to appear around her.  They appear out of thin air and anywhere.  At home.  At work.  At the bar.  Even if Chloe throws the book away, it reappears because she needs it.  It kind of reminds me of a more extreme version of things that happen in the Magical Bookshop and Magical Bakery series.

                I also kept reading because I found myself really liking the three main women.  Even Della Lee grew on me as it became clear she was trying to help Josey because she cared.  She wasn’t criticizing Josey for her own amusement.  Once that fact became established, the story flew.