Brie's Corner

Originally posted at Romance Around the CornerA couple of weeks ago while on vacation I got a couple of books so I could spend the days reading because there’s no better way to spend your free time right? (Yes, I know this reflects poorly on my social life so there’s no need to mention it). One of the books I got was The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen and I liked it so much that I bought the author’s entire backlist and read them back to back. The Sugar Queen was my favorite of them all but it was also the one I had the most problems with.Josey Cirrini lives her life devoted to two things: her mother and candies. Her mother is quite old and needs her for everything, or so she says. In reality she is a controlling and bitter woman who can’t stand her daughter’s happiness, so she controls every aspect of her life and emotionally blackmails her into doing what she says. Josey’s indulgencies are candies which she secretly storages in her closet, she know she shouldn’t eat them, especially because she is a bit overweight but she can’t stop.One day a woman shows up in her closet, she is wet and a bit crazy, and she isn’t going anywhere. Della Lee is a bit of a free-spirit and she forces Josey to come out of her shell and start living, she makes her do everything, from getting the nerve to confess her love for the mailman to go buy her some sandwiches. When she goes to buy the sandwich she meets Chloe who just broke up with her cheating boyfriend, and they instantly click and become friends. Thus begins a story about self-discovery, friendship, love, family secrets and magic.The reason I first got these books was because everyone labeled them as magic realism, so I was expecting something similar to Gabriel Garcia Marquez or Isabel Allende. What I got was the watered-down romantic novel version of that, where the magic realism gives it a charming and sweet tone instead of the grittier feel that the Latin writers give to their books. But it was equally effective and I loved it, especially because the books are set in the South and everything seem more magical there.I loved Josey, she was a bit naïve but she was daring. I felt related to her because she had insecurities, she wanted to find her place in life, she was desperate to escape home and she wanted to be loved. I think we all have felt that way at least once in our lives. Once you see her develop a relationship with Della Lee, Chloe and Adam (the mailman) you realize that behind the insecure and shy girl hides a strong and valiant woman.My favorite character was Chloe, and my favorite part about the story -and here is where the magic aspects comes into play- was that all of her life books were there for her, and I don’t just mean that books helped her through difficult times, I mean that books actually magically popped up when she least expected and when she needed them the most. When she was a kid and got bored a book about magic tricks appeared, when her grandparents questioned her about the immense amount of books she had, a book about how to hide things appeared, and now that her boyfriend cheated on her a book about forgiveness keeps showing up in front of her.Just as my favorite character was Chloe, my least favorite part of the book involved her as well. This is a spoiler so please stop reading if you don’t want to know. Through the entire book we see snippets about her relationship with her boyfriend, about how passionately they loved each other, about how hurt she was when he cheated and how sorry he felt. These memories and scenes between them tried to show us that he wasn’t a bad guy and that he made a mistake but it didn’t work for me, he was an idiot, plain and simple. Chloe’s journey is not just about trying to move on, but also about discovering herself. She realizes that she was living her boyfriend’s life even to the point of not having her belongings in their home. I was happy to see that she changes all that. By the end of the book I was sure that she was going to really move on but no, she forgives him and I honestly couldn’t understand why. She loved the guy but what he did was wrong, not to mention stupid. There’s a crazy explanation for the cheating that apparently makes it ok (basically it was a pity-fuck) and that was mindboggling to me. Why would you cheat on someone you love so much? Maybe I’m naïve but cheating is a pet-peeve of mine in romance novels and I hate seeing great heroines doing stupid things like going back to their cheating boyfriends. She was 25 years old, she had her life ahead of her and she could have found another guy, someone more deserving. This almost ruined the book for me, the only reason it didn’t was because it truly is a charming book.Overall I think this is a book worth reading, it has a huge flaw but if you can see past trough it or maybe you are not as bothered by it as I am, then read it because at the core of the book is a wonderful and magic story that you don’t want to miss.