She believes in love, and that’s her magic: She conjures a garden of moon vine and angel’s trumpet, fills it with characters who need each other, and writes so well you’ll never forget any of them.”-Luanne Rice I fell in love with Sarah Addison Allen’s writing, and her world.

“ Garden Spells is so tender and enchanting, it drew me in on page one, and held me captivated-without letting me go for even a minute-until the end. Just buy it, read it, and recommend it to others.”- Library Journal, starred review “It’s refreshing to find a Southern novel that doesn’t depend on folksy humor or stereotypes but instead on the imaginative use of magical realism. And soon the sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy-if they are ever to feel at home in Bascom-or with each other.Įnchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own. Together again in the house they grew up in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire struggles to heal the wounds of the past. When Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down-along with the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed around her heart. They are the last of the Waverleys-except for Claire’s rebellious sister, Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning Claire, as their own mother had years before. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. But so were their futures.Ī successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made with her mystical plants-from the nasturtiums that aid in keeping secrets and the pansies that make children thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the attentions of her amorous neighbor. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers.

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it. In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit.

Garden spells review