Lisa Van Allen

Format: ARC e-book

How I got the book: I received this book as an Advanced Readers Copy from NetGalley and the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Favorite Quote: "Oh, I read all kinds of books," she told him. But I guess I like the soft kind the best. The ones that, when you close them, leave your heart feeling like your stomach of you just ate a big meal."

That is probably a good description of how I felt after reading The Wishing Thread.

What I liked:

The best summary of what I liked show more about this book is probably the blurb from Meg Waite Clayton, author of The Wednesday Sisters:

“With deft needlework, a dash of folklore, and some good old-fashioned family angst, Lisa Van Allen knits together the threads of second chances, the pleasure of giving, the complications of sisterhood, and love. There’s a bit of magic in The Wishing Thread, in the words and the story as well as in the yarn.”

This book is a wonderful chance to escape into a place so like our own but subtly magical. First, I am totally into a book that uses knitting as an integral part of the plot development. It just makes me yearn to pick up those needles, even though I am not nearly as good as my mother or my great-aunt, who both patiently taught the "leftie" how to knit. The idea that someone could have the capability to knit spells into the garment seemed natural to me, right along with love, compassion and happy thoughts for the recipient.

The sisters themselves seemed very real and fleshed out. I really enjoyed the intertwined, complex pattern of the relationships and growth of each sister, independently and together. The impact of decisions on the family and the community were well done. I felt that all three sisters were real and relate-able.. I expected this to be about Aubrey but found myself caring and cheering for each sister. I especially liked the development of Nessa, Aubrey's niece and Bitty's adolescent daughter.

And, finally, I loved how the story kept weaving and changing.. There was no clear pattern until the story was complete and blocked into a satisfying ending. I loved the interplay of the of Tarrytown and its history and folklore played against very modern and real questions of urban renewal and gentrification This was a good book for escape from our daily lives for a few hours and to want to visit The Stitchery and Tarrytown again.

What I didn't like: I felt the story was a little tough to get into. Rather than falling I felt I was fighting the language. It felt like the writer was stuck in a creative writing class with a thesaurus. However, I stuck with it, and by the third chapter or so, the pretension fell away and the story got legs. So stick with it for about 10 minutes or so and feel the book.

The Chapter Titles are commonly used knitting instructions. I kept looking for a pattern there but I could never find it.

Additional thoughts: I LOVED The Great Book in the Hall and all the wisdom it had to offer.

This book is an escape and I do like to escape into "Happily Ever After."

I would compare this to books by Debbie Macomber or Sarah Addison Allen. In fact, my copy had an conversation of Sarah asking Lisa questions about the book and her writing process.That was an unexpected treat. show less

I find that as I read more I'm looking for a little more in my reads. This tale of family, knitting, wishing and hoping provided that "more" that I want from my novels. From the very first page I was drawn into the world of Aubrey, Bitty and Meggie and I didn't want to leave. Their family had been living in a house known as "The Stitchery" for generations where knitted items were sold to people who needed a wish fulfilled. They had to part with something meaningful for the magic to work. I show more do not have Ms. van Allen's skill with words but trust me, she makes it work.

The plot was very engaging and the characters well developed. I found myself most involved with Aubrey's tale though, she is the one who really led the story for me. It's a book I won't soon forget. show less

Faux-Sarah Addison Allen. Magical realism requires a tiny dab of magic--not a bucketload full of giant poison ivy and irritant-skinned women. Save yourself the time and read Garden Spells instead.

“To visit the Pennywort farm was to be reminded of everything in the world that was beautiful and bountiful…luxurious and endlessly good.”

In upstate New York, Olivia Pennywort tends the family farm and the remarkable garden maze that she has created as a haven at its heart. It is said that the maze offers its visitors the answers to their most difficult questions, but it affords no such benefit to its caretaker who harbours a secret that forces her to keep everyone at arm’s length. show more Over the years, Olivia has schooled herself to accept that there is no solution to her problem, but when Olivia’s childhood best friend and sweetheart, Sam Van Winkle, returns to town, her fiercest desires are rekindled and she is compelled to ask herself if the garden she has created is her protector, or her prison.

Van Allen’s prose is often lyrical, with vivid imagery of the garden and its surrounds. I could easily visualise the bordered up house, the stone walled garden of poisonous plants and the ramshackle cottage where Olivia’s father made his home, though I wish I had a better knowledge of horticulture to fully appreciate the individual design of the maze.

” As she approached the garden maze, she saw that it too had gone wild with the joy of the rains. The smell of flowers was so thick it crossed the line from pleasant into nearly repulsive. Inside, Olivia wound through the twists and turns, admiring how rambunctious and joyful her maze seemed, as if it were spring instead of late summer. Morning glories the size of dinner plates stayed open all day long, and thickened beds of coreopsis gave off a mustardly glow. There was a slight breeze that carried the faintest scent of autumn, and far beneath the sweetness, the mineral scent of winter.”

Though billed as magical realism, the magic wasn’t grounded in the way I would expect from the genre, and instead I feel the story had more in common with a modern reinterpretation of a fairytale like Sleeping Beauty. Olivia, beautiful and beloved by all, lives alone at a top of a tower, is essentially trapped in stasis, and is eventually rescued by her Prince Charming, who has to hack through wild overgrowth to save her.

The romance between Olivia and Sam, which began when they were childhood sweethearts, and is reignited on his return, is touching and soulful. I sympathised with their hopes and fears for their relationship, I believed in their yearning to be together and I could feel their frustration at not being able to have skin contact.

” And then he was threading his fingers into the mass, twisting and untwisting it in his hands. She didn’t even try to make conversation while he touched her; the sensation was too exquisite, too painful and pleasurable at the same time. He combed his fingers through her hair from top to bottom, and each time he caught a tangle it was like a little bite, a small and precise blast of desire like the spark from flint and steel.”

In terms of plot, however, the neighborly conflict seems forced and fizzles out, and though we are told the garden can offer help to those seeking answers, Van Allen never really shows this. The overall conclusion too is unrealized, almost as if Van Allen couldn’t figure out how to solve the conundrum herself, and so just hoped the reader would would accept vague assurances of ‘love conquers all’.

A tale of loss, grief, desire, love and hope, I enjoyed the story of The Night Garden. show less