Sweetly

Book: Sweetly
Author: Jackson Pearce
Publisher: Hodder
Covetability: Get. It. Now!

I love fairy tale retellings. Love them. I even enjoyed the movie version of Beastly, for which my friends deemed me a massive loser and refused to go to the cinema with me ever again. Well, for about a week anyway. Where am I going with this? Sweetly, my friends, Sweetly.

Hands up who loves Jackson Pearce? Lots of you? Good. She is all kinds of awesome. I have had her upcoming contemporary novel Purity in my Amazon wishlist forever. I also adored Sisters Red, but you know what? I think I love Sweetly more.

That said, if you have read Sisters Red you have a bit of a leg up, because though it’s not a straight sequel, Sweetly is a companion novel and uses the same mythology. Not that you can’t completely love Sweetly on its own merits because it is just fantastic.

The central character, Gretchen, hasn’t had it easy. Her twin sister disappeared when both girls were little, after they were chased in the woods by something very unseen and very creepy. Now, twelve years later, Gretchen and her brother Ansel have been thrown out by their nasty stepmother and are forced to hit the road. When their truck breaks down in a tiny, one-horse town they are taken in by the mysterious Sophia Kelly, who the townspeople are all terrified of. Sophia runs a chocolate shop, but nobody ever seems to visit it. Then Gretchen meets this mysterious local called Samuel, who warns her to get away from Sophia while she and Ansel still can.

Can you see where this is going? Can you guess what fairy tale it’s based on? Doesn’t matter if you can-I’ll bet the ending while surprise you anyway. I loved, loved, loved this book. It may well have been one of my fave picks of 2011, and I loved everything I read last year, by and large. It’s Lola good, and I don’t say that lightly.

Rating: 10/10