Garden Spells: A Novel (Waverly Family)

I'm sad I gave it away. I'm going to have to get it again to re-read in a few years. Great story.

This is absolutely the most beautiful writing. This book is so magical and powerful you can clearly see the actions as you are reading the words. Leaves you wanting more and more.

One of my favorite books out of her collection. I have read all her books. They are great stories with a little magic. Love it!!

I loved the magical bits that were interspersed throughout this tale. What I disliked? It should have been three times as long! I was so sad to have this family story end. The characters were so likeable, their family life so realistic yet so filled with magic. It was so believable even though one knows it's not real, it's magic. If you love good characters and a story woven together in an irresistible way, you will love it. Do read it. Her other book First Frost is also very good.

Just how much magic can a garden have? Claire Waverly lives in Bascom, North Carolina, where she has made a life for herself, along with a very successful catering career. The Waverly family is known for their oddities, and Claire's gift is with plants and gardening. She always knows just the right dishes to create a desired ambiance. Her cousin, Evanelle, provides people with the most unexpected, and usually quite odd, gifts- gifts that are needed soon afterwards. Claire is comfortable in her world, but now her sister, Sydney, has returned. Sydney has her daughter, Bay, with her. What changes will occur with Sydney's arrival? And can these two sisters mend the wounds of the past? What an absolutely charming book! Sara Addison Allen creates a magical environment in which the idea of a sentient tree is completely believable. Who can't help but love an apple tree that throws temper tantrums? In fact, even the town of Bascom is almost a character in that the atmosphere of the town is paramount to the overall storyline. The eccentricities of the residents are part of the overall charm of this tale. Sydney and Claire provide very different viewpoints on what it was like to grow up in a small town. Sydney couldn't get out of Bascom fast enough while Claire relaxed and made herself a home in an environment she felt safe in. Both sisters still have some growing up to do, and Sarah Addison Allen does a good job at showing those changes. Sydney has to learn to feel comfortable with herself and with the fact that she is a Waverly, while Claire needs to be pushed a bit outside of her comfort zone. GARDEN SPELLS is a delightful tale! The narrator adds just the right touch of charm to make this story really work on audio. In fact, GARDEN SPELLS is so well done that I kept making excuses to drive places in my car simply so I could listen to just a little bit more of the story. GARDEN SPELLS is highly recommended! COURTESY OF CK2S KWIPS AND KRITIQUES

In 46 years of reading a plethora of genres, I have come to love "magic realism." Sarah Addison Allen has a gift for delivering it. The Waverley girls of Bascom, N.C. all have been blessed/cursed with special abilities; Claire has a pruned a garden that grows year round and quite rapidly. Each flower is used to enhance dishes for her catering business. Subtle spells can be gained with a pinch of marigold, a dab of crystallized pansies or an apple from a very temperamental tree. Bay Waverly, 6 years old, has a talent to know exactly where everything goes in any home she enters as well as in any life she enters. Her mother Sydney, who has fought being a Waverley for 10 years, finally embraces her ability to style and cut hair with a magic that spells her customers into feeling self confident and flirty. Their cousin, Evanelle, gifts people items they don't know they need until something happens later. This charmed family is so endearing, so lovely, one can't help but embrace them heartily. I am nearly jealous of those who have not read it yet. It is a vibrant experience to live between the pages even if they turn so quickly. As a first time novelist, Allen bewitches with savory prose and keen insight, leaving this reader to want more. Think of the very best fairy tale you were ever told; now pick up "Garden Spells" and read one of the best magical stories for adults this reader has enjoyed in a long, long time.

"Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade." So begins "Garden Spells." I love books with wonderful beginnings, but sometimes the rest of the book doesn't live up to the beginning. That was not the case with Gardens Spells. It has a delightful beginning and remains delightful through the rest of the book. This is the story of 2 sisters who each find a different way to cope with a mother who was wild and abandoned them when they were young. Clare creates a very careful, cautious life for herself. Sydney, the younger sister, lives wildly trying to copy a mother she never knew. For a long time they have no contact until circumstances force them together. In the setting of a magical garden, the sisters need to confront their past in order to move forward. This is the kind of book I like to read on a day when the world seems dark and depressing. It was light, yet still thoughtful. Magic permeates the story. It's full of delightful quirky characters and a romance which could be formulaic if the writer were not so skilled. Highly recommend.

In a lifetime of reading, there are a few novels that are especially precious and unforgettable. Garcia Marquez' ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Byatt's POSSESSION. Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY. This first novel by Sarah Addison Allen is to be added to that short list. Her prose is magical, even when dealing with the mundane ugliness of spousal abuse. Her plot is droll, pleasantly complex, and ultimately satisfying in a most soul-saving Southern graciousness. Her characters, even the most minor of them, are deliciously quirky and lovingly strange, in the most outré of ways. There are echoes of such mistresses of the magical as Alice Hoffman, Anne Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, and Joanne Harris, but Allen quite successfully finds her own voice here and provides a coloratura, if not indeed, a bravura performance. Readers of the above-mentioned litteratureuses will find enjoyment with Garden Spells, as will anyone who loves an intriguing tale well told.

This book brings to mind the beginning of another favorite: "In a hole, in the ground..." Like "The Hobbit" I can feel the wonderful magic of the Waverly garden, and when I reached the end began to miss it immediately. The easy writing style creates a kind of peaceful feeling much like that garden has upon Bay, the child destined to be blessed and grow up in it as her aunt Claire did. For all the nice guys out there, this is a most enjoyable read that places value upon the things so overlooked these days. I only hope that it is start of a long and successful series.