Abandoned by Booklikes

I was shocked when I finished this last night. I mean I read fast, but not that fast, and than I saw that the ebook was only 278 pages. I think the shortness of the book actually impacted some of the story-lines. I feel of two minds about how one of the story-lines ended (sorry, I am never rooting for a cheater) but loved all of the magical realism/supernatural aspects in this book. Sarah Addison Allen is always a good read for the most part, so this book was very quirky and cute.

"The Sugar Queen" is about three women (Josey, Della Lee, and Chloe) living in a North Carolina town called, Bald Slope. The name of the town threw me the entire time I was reading this by the way. I wanted to keep calling it Bad Slope. 

One day Josey is surprised to find Della Lee hiding in her closet and refusing to go. Josey is the daughter of a man who ended up bringing Bald Slope back to life. Having a lot of money doesn't make her happy though. She's a slave to her mother's whims and lives to wait for the mail to be delivered everyday by a man named Adam. Della Lee ends up pushing Josey to go to Chloe's cafe at the courthouse to get her food and the two women (Josey and Chloe) end up becoming friends. 

I have to say that I loved how the friendship between Josey and Chloe developed. Heck, I even loved how Della Lee pushes Josey to get out more and stand up to her mother and not be cowed by what other people think. 

Chloe is dealing with breaking up with her longtime boyfriend Jake after he tells her he cheated on her, but loves her, he really does. Sorry, I didn't care for Jake and hated the entire resolution to this story. It was such crap. I really wish that Allen had went a different way with this plot line. I actually thought she was at one point, but she veered to everyone must have a HEA even if one of the character's kind of sucks. I hated how everyone acted as if Chloe just needed time to get over what Jake did, and also why was he dumb enough to tell her about it. Bah. 

The writing was lyrical at times and seriously the entire book made me hungry. There is a lot of descriptions about cookies, snack cakes, chocolate, fried egg sandwiches, grilled cheese with tomato, etc. I was starving and eventually got up out of bed and made myself a small cheese and crackers plate. 

The flow works throughout the book, but as I already said, I wish this had been longer. I thought the resolution to all of the story-lines came just a bit too quickly. I felt like I was missing some key chapters or something. Maybe one day Allen will revisit Bald Slope.