The sugar queen

BONUS: This edition contains excerpts from Sarah Addison Allen's The Peach Keeper and The Girl Who Chased the Moon.

In this irresistible follow-up to her New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen tells the tale of a young woman whose family secretsand secret passionsare about to change her life forever.Twenty-seven-year-old Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter in her North Carolina hometown is her favorite season, she's a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her hidden closet.

For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother's house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night.

Until she finds it harboring none other than local waitress Della Lee Baker, a tough-talking, tenderhearted woman who is one part nemesisand two parts fairy godmotherFleeing a life of bad luck and big mistakes, Della Lee has decided Josey's clandestine closet is the safest place to crash.

In return she's going to change Josey's lifebecause, clearly, it is not the closet of a happy woman.

With Della Lee's tough love, Josey is soon forgoing pecan rolls and caramels, tapping into her startlingly keen feminine instincts, and finding her narrow existence quickly expanding.Before long, Josey bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who makes the best sandwiches in town, is hounded by books that inexplicably appear whenever she needs them, andmost amazing of allhas a close connection to Josey's longtime crush.

As little by little Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any timeeven for her.

It seems that Della Lee's work is done, and it's time for her to move on.

But the truth about where she's going, why she showed up in the first placeand what Chloe has to do with it allis about to add one more unexpected chapter to Josey' s fast-changing life.Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, loveand the enchanting possibilities of every new day.