The Girl Who Chased The Moon

I first discovered Sarah Addison Allen with her first novel, Garden Spells.  My favorite authors had nothing new, and I needed to discover some new writers.  My favorite little widget at Amazon is putting in a favorite book and seeing what else people looked at or bought.  It's how I find authors I love, and this is how I found Sarah Addison Allen.  After reading her first two novels, I waited with anticipation at the library for this one to arrive.   

My favorite of hers is Garden Spells, which I'll do a review later.  It makes you want to cook with secret herbs from your garden.  She has this magical quality about her books.  All of them have something supernatural involved, and The Girl Who Chased the Moon is no exception.  In this story, there is a glowing light that runs through the town at night.  Her books are all set in Southern small towns, I think in the Carolinas, as she is from there.  This one involves a teenage girl whose mother left this small town right out of high school.  Her mother dies suddenly and her only relative is her grandfather is who is literally about 8 feet tall.  So off she goes to live with a man she's never met. She soon discovers that her mother as a teenager was not the woman she knew as her mother.  Her mother had quite the reputation, which she must live down, and there is something weird about the rich family who "runs" the town. 

This is what I would classify as "chick lit".  It's a little bit romance, little bit mystery, a girl finding herself after something terrible has happened.  It's a definite page turner as you try to figure out what the mystery of the glowing lights is.  It's a great book to read in a weekend, though, as my husband says, I inhale books at record speeds, so my gauge might not be accurate.  I require reading like eating and breathing,  and I get antsy if I'm not deep into a book.

Also, here is my plug for your local library. GO find it!!  Years ago, I was a main staple at the libraries, but after college and living in a small town with one craptastic library, I just quit going and just bought my books, usually used.  N and I are addicted to bookstores, and usually we go to the local Half Price Book store or Recycled books, but after continually spending $50 a pop last year, we decided to finally find our local library.  Living in a metropolitan area with a good library is wonderful.  You would not believe the money I saved.  We could rent movies and tv shows for free, and I usually have about 4 books going at once, and the kids would play the computer games at the library.  I had forgotten how much I missed it, and how wonderful the library is.

We just moved to a new town, and my first utility bill finally arrived so we can go get library cards here now.  I plan on a field trip to the library with the kidlets next week.  I'm missing me some books, lol.