Magic wallpaper & a ghost in the yard

More sweet sugar from Sarah Addison Allen. I really liked The Girl Who Chased the Moon — there’s a couple of mysteries to solve, a lovely young lady as a main character (not to mention her gentle giant of a grandfather), and some magical cake-making. Definitely one of her better novels.

“Living down your own past was hard enough. You shouldn’t have to live down someone else’s.”

The Girl Who Chased the Moon follows two main characters. First, there’s teenage Emily Benedict, who has come to North Carolina to live with her (eight foot tall) grandfather after the death of her activist, good-deed-doing mother. Emily knows next to nothing about her mother, Dulcie, or why she left the town of Mullaby and never looked back. It turns out that Dulcie did something terrible in town when she was a teenager, and many of the residents still harbor a grudge. Then there’s Julia, who lives in the apartment next door. She returned to Mullaby after her dad died to take care of his affairs, but she doesn’t want to stay. She has a two year to turn around her father’s failing restaurant and get the hell out. In the meantime, she makes cakes — and tries to avoid the affections of Sawyer, with whom she has a troubled history.

There’s lots of mystery floating around Mullaby (oh, and a ghost, too), but I don’t want to spoil anything. It’s a fun little book and a quick read, like most of what I’ve devoured by Sarah Addison Allen. If you like any of her magic-infused novels, you’ll like this one.