Special Guest Post: Book Review by Jessica Sinn - The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen

Book Review by Jessica Sinn, Chick Lit Café

The Girl Who Chased the Moon is the literary equivalent of a gorgeous pink-frosted cupcake – rainbow sprinkles and all! It’s light and sweet and so much fun to gobble up in one sitting. The only hitch with cupcakes is that they leave me wanting more. That’s how I felt after I devoured the last chapter of this book.

The story begins when Emily sets foot in Mullaby, a wooded patch of a sparsely populated southern hamlet that her mother left behind. Left in the care of her eccentric 8-foot-tall grandfather, the orphaned teen is lost and alone in a town that seems to resent her. As Emily struggles to adjust to her new – and very peculiar – surroundings, she uncovers some startling secrets about her mother’s past.

Things really get strange when Emily spots the elusive “Mullaby lights” floating in the woods outside her bedroom balcony. And when she falls for a boy who can only be seen during daylight hours, she begins to wonder what kind of world she’s living in.

Just what did her mother do to upset the entire town? And why does her grandfather forbid her to chase after the Mullaby lights? Emily is determined to find out.

Enter Julia Winterson, a free-spirited pastry artist who’s back in town to make a profit off of her deceased father’s barbecue joint, sell it to the highest bidder and get the heck out of dodge. When she discovers the new girl in town is the daughter of Mullaby’s resident mean girl, she vows to keep her distance. But when she senses Emily’s sadness and isolation, she can’t help but take the fragile teen under her wing. While protecting Emily from the pitiless townsfolk, Julia learns to open her heart to an old flame and realize that perhaps she can come home again.

From magical wallpaper to mysterious lights to a reclusive giant, the world Sarah Addison creates in this book drew me inexorably in and made me feel like I was in the center of a fairytale. A wonderful novel of love, forgiveness and family, it’s imbued with the author’s enchanting prose and a vitality that reminds me how good it is to be loved and in love.

5 STARS

A big Thank You to Jessica Sinn for sharing her book views and reviews with us at Lip Gloss and Literature this week. For more reading and writing with Jessica Sinn, please visit her at the Chick Lit Cafe at http://loonachicklit.wordpress.com/