The Sugar Queen - Sarah Addison Allen

After finishing the most recent draft of Mercy's book, I took some time off to read. The Sugar Queen was one of the books I picked up.

Here's the blurb from the author's website.

Josey, at 27, doesn't go out except to do chores for her mother, she doesn't wear clothes that her mother says don't suit her, and she eats, secretly, as a substitute for the life she's not living. One morning, when she goes to her closet to raid her secret stash of sweets, she finds a woman sitting there. Della Lee, on the run from something in her own life, has decided to take up residence in Josey's closet. Thus begins Josey's quest to get this madwoman out of her closet, and along the way she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom any time -- even for her.

I really enjoyed Sarah Addison Allen's debut, Garden Spells, so I was looking forward to this one. And I'm happy to say I wasn't disappointed. It's a different story from Garden Spells, but has that same unique sense of magic and romance. Totally recommended :)

What books are you all reading? Any recommendations?

Sarah Addison Allen - Garden Spells

First, the blurb:

Welcome to Bascom, North Carolina, where everyone has a story to tell about the Waverley women. The old house that’s been in the family for generations, the walled garden that mysteriously blooms year round, the rumors and innuendoes of dangerous loves and tragic passions. Eccentric, reclusive, or renegade, there’s not one that wasn’t somehow touched by magic.

As the town’s successful caterer, Claire has always clung closely to the Waverleys’ roots in their enchanted soil, tending the family garden from which she makes her much sought-after delicacies. She has everything she thinks she needs – until one day she finds a vine of ivy creeping into her garden and knows that everything is about to change.

Then her prodigal sister Sydney arrives with her five-year-old daughter and a dark secret she hopes to keep well hidden. And suddenly Claire’s carefully tended life is about to run gloriously out of control …

From Sarah Addison Allen's Website

This is such a lovely book - with a beautiful sense of magic. I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked it up, but I couldn't put it down. At heart, it's about two sisters, but there's a wonderful romance (or two) woven into the story, and everything's dusted with that shimmering element of magic and enchantment. It's almost like a fairytale, but one grounded in the real world.

Have any of you read it? Thoughts? How about recommendations for other books with that same sense of magic and wonder?