Garden Spells

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I just didn’t expect scenes to include domestic violence, abuse, and intense emotional manipulation.

This is one of those books whose story haunts me, even though it’s been a long time since I read the last page and set this book down. Garden Spells is the second novel I’ve read this year that emphasizes cooking and creative recipes in its story. It has a touch of magic and a sweet story centered around family, forgiveness, and how to move past your past. When she was done, Evanelle followed her outside to her white minivan with Waverley's Catering written on the side. Evanelle has the gift of giving people exactly what they need before they need it—a flashlight before a power outage, or a jar of cherries before they decide to have ice cream sundaes.

Her journey to dismantle the walls she built to protect herself is interesting and she fights it almost all the way.

Lorelei held Sydney and ran to the Waverley home in Bascom, and the only reason Claire was able to go with them was because she was holding tight to her mother's leg and wouldn't let go. Even the apple tree, a character in and of itself, adds to (maybe even drives) the charm and the magic of the plot. Sydney’s daughter Bay has a gift of sensing people’s thoughts and emotions and adjusting herself to any situation. Bascom, North Carolina is a town where everyone is known for their family's characteristics, passed down through generations. There is no happily ever after on that front, but there is a small shift in one of the characters, Emma, which feels consistent with Emma’s history with Sydney.

Addison’s talent, at least in my opinion, is not necessarily in plots or characters, but in lush, memorable descriptions of small-town South, with a magical twist. The party is sitting down to eat when Sydney’s ex David arrives, carrying a gun, and shoots Henry in the hand. This is the first Sarah Addison Allen book I read, and I have visited this book many times since I first read it, and never fails to enchant me each time (as well as increase my desire to visit the south of Allens books). Claire and Sydney are two sisters, complete opposites, with a big age gap which meant that growing up they had not been close to each other. They arrive out of the blue and shock Claire, who hasn't seen Sydney in ten years and has no idea she has a daughter.

Allen was born and raised in North Carolina, and the character of her home terrain is recognizable even in the magical precincts of Bascom, the fictional community in which her novel unfolds. Much of the novel's power comes in the form of the very human story of two sisters who, as grown women, find their way into each other's hearts for the first time. But when Claire’s older sister Sydney reappears with a daughter and shadows nipping at her heels, their quiet routines are turned upside down.Claire has never let go of her connection to family and lives alone in the old Waverley home, running a successful catering company and using ingredients from her magical garden. Everything changes one summer when two things happen almost at once: First, Tyler Hughes, a new art professor at the local college, moves into the house next door and immediately develops a passionate crush on Claire. A friend of mine recommended this book to me about a month ago, giving the author and the story high praise. Claire stuck to her like static, needing to feel a connection to family after Sydney took off when she was eighteen and their grandmother died the same year. Eventually, Claire discovers she can no longer deny the chemistry building between her and Tyler and the two of them have sex in her garden.

Sisters Sydney and Claire Waverly haven’t ever been close, but when Sydney arrives on Claire’s doorstep with her daughter, Bay, they get the chance to start again.If you need a summer escape from the real world, just open this delightful book by Sarah Addison Allen. The book ends with Bay lying beneath the apple tree, recreating a dream she had about being in the garden. At the close of the novel, Bay sits under the apple tree as she did in a dream she once had, long before ever having seen the garden. The women of the Waverley family -- whether they like it or not -- are heirs to an unusual legacy, one that grows in a fenced plot behind their Queen Anne home on Pendland Street in Bascom, North Carolina.