Garden Spells

I really enjoyed this book, which I listened to on audio narrated by Susan Ericksen. It is the story of two sisters leading very different lives until one comes home to western North Carolina seeking safety. Allen incorporates magical realism into her stories beautifully, so that it adds to the story but doesn't overpower it. I can only describe her books as "gentle" - when I picture them in my head, it's always in soft focus. But her characterizations are strong and the quirks and oddities of both her main characters and secondary ones are always charming and never seem forced. I think I am down to only one of her books unread at this point - she needs to write some more!

Claire is the Waverly sister who stayed home in Bascom, NC and started a catering business using her backyard's magical flowers and herbs. Sidney left as soon as she could but returns now with her small daughter Bay, escaping an abusive relationship. Evanelle, Tyler, and Emma are extraordinary characters with their own place in this remarkable story. Above all, there's the otherworldly apple tree that resides in the garden, which is an important character in its own right.
Ms. Allen reminds me of a Southern Alice Hoffman; her writing is whimsical and charming in describing Bascom and its residents, just as Hoffman does when writing about New England. Garden Spells kept me spellbound, and I'm delighted to add a new author (to me) to my show more list of favorites. show less

Sarah Addison Allen is a new to me author but I don’t foresee that being the case for very long. Her style is lyrical, almost poetic, and her characters are amazing creatures of habit that make you love their ways.

Claire Waverly enjoys her quiet life in her family’s old Victorian house in North Carolina, she loves even more the garden out back which produces flowers and herbs and when incorporated into family recipes, can bring about certain feelings in people. A caterer in town, she’s happy to live her quiet life but when her long lost sister Sydney shows up with her five year old daughter, Bay, her life is thrown into a new orbit. She’s no longer the sole keeper of the house, her sister is keeping some secret she won’t show more share, and Bay shows budding family traits of the Waverly women --- magical powers of a sort with flowers and an ability to know where everything and everyone belongs. Sydney keeps fighting her Waverly roots but soon starts to realize that she’s going to need to embrace who she is.

I don’t want to gush all over this book but I’m going to. Claire and Sydney are sisters who don’t act like it but there is a love between them and when it grows it’s almost as lovely as the garden. Next door, a new neighbor, Tyler, brings love to Claire and she’s a woman whose life is sorely in need of human contact, even if he is a little bit too pushy for my taste. Sydney is a woman hurting from an abusive relationship and she doesn’t want to share anything for fear that she and her daughter might be found. It’s a story of family, love, strength, and learning to embrace life and who you are. It doesn’t feel odd even for all of its magical elements. Addison Allen infuses just enough to make it work but she doesn’t make it overbearing or the focus of the story. It all works. Magical realism can sometimes over compensate for other story elements but here is all feels right; just life with a little extra.

This is one I highly recommend. If Sarah Addison Allen is a new to you author, read this one. show less

What can I say?
This book made me tingle. That's not easy to achieve for a 6'4", 250 pound man. I can be such a softy.
I loved every character in this book, even the not-so-nice ones... because Sarah has such an unbelievable talent for description that I felt like I personally knew them, like they were at some point actually a part of my life! Not that David though... I don't like him very much. In fact, not at all, but I guess that's what I'm supposed to feel.
This book is so lush with vision and scope. The sparkle-face, the papers flapping in the wind, Evanelle and her need to give people things... and that apple tree!!! I loved every minute of it! I really didn't think I would, being that it was pretty gushy in some parts, but it all show more worked! Sarah Addison Allen is one amazing writer, and I will definitely be reading the second book of the Waverley Family!
Highly recommended!!! show less

What I learned from this book is if an apple tree throws its apples at you, for goodness sake, pay attention.

This book is lovely, magical, enchanting. I sat down to read just one chapter and I finished the whole darn thing. Couldn't stop myself. I floated in a state of suspended reality, where time had no meaning.

The basic idea of the book: two sisters experienced their childhoods very differently. Now, as adults, they must come to terms with choices, past and present, and with the unique abilities each woman inherited. In Bascom, North Carolina, townsfolk know Claire's garden grows produce with mystical properties, like the honeysuckle wine she makes that lets you see in the dark. Sydney has a gift for revealing a person's inner self show more through a haircut. Bay always knows where things belong. And whatever Evanelle gives you, no matter how strange, you'll be certain to need before too long.

Very worthwhile couple of hours entertainment. show less

Sarah Addison Allen’s books are a seduction of place. Lovely, quirky characters, with their own peculiar, magics, that somehow seem rather ordinary in the dream of a small southern town that Allen presents. I appreciate that her characters have real struggles, even as they drift into a romantic summer.

Garden Spells
by Sarah Addison Allen

Mass Market Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: Bantam Discovery (April 29, 2008)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0553590324
ISBN-13: 978-0553590326
The Waverly's of Bascom, North Carolina, have a reputation for being a bit eccentric. In addition to their beauty, the women of the clan have uncanny abilities. Some embrace their gifts, but others, like Sydney, run as far as they can. Like her mother before her, Sydney escaped to New York and a life away from the small town that has defined the family for years. Her sister Claire, however, has remained in the family home, and has embraced her destiny, creating a successful catering business with otherworldly charms. While everyone comes to her for the perfect show more romantic dish, her own love life is paltry at best. Her quiet life suits her perfectly, however, and she believes she is content until her long-lost sister returns to the nest with her young daughter, Bay. Suddenly, everything is changing as Sydney searches for footing in her old home and Claire learns to live outside of herself. But the past is never far behind and the girls must come together to protect their fragile family from a bigger threat than either of them has ever known.

I really do not know where to begin. Bascom is a quaint and familiar small southern town filled with the usual suspects. What makes everything about this book special is the Waverlys. Oh how I would love to be a Waverly. Amid their stunning gardens, cozy home-place, and magnificent trees, each member of the family is a vision of womanhood explored. Shy yet sensual, Claire is the quintessential girl-next-door while Sydney is more carefree and modern and not just a little bit spicy. Claire's relationship to nature is so beautifully written that even a city girl will melt with the desire to start a garden. Bay is precocious and unnaturally worldly while serving as a bridge between the two sisters. Equal parts Like Water For Chocolate and Practical Magic, Garden Spells is pure literary confection. show less