PLOT
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. There, an apple tree bearing fruit of magical properties looms over a garden filled with herbs and edible flowers that possess the power to affect in curious ways anyone who eats them.
For nearly a decade, 34-year-old Claire Waverley, at peace with her family inheritance, has lived in the house alone, embracing the spirit of the grandmother who raised her, ruing her mother's unfortunate destiny and seemingly unconcerned about the fate of her rebellious sister, Sydney, who freed herself long ago from their small town's constraints. Using her grandmother's mystical culinary traditions, Claire has built a successful catering business -- and a carefully controlled, utterly predictable life -- upon the family's peculiar gift for making life-altering delicacies: lilac jelly to engender humility, for instance, or rose geranium wine to call up fond memories. Garden Spells reveals what happens when Sydney returns to Bascom with her young daughter, turning Claire's routine existence upside down. With Sydney's homecoming, the magic that the quiet caterer has measured into recipes to shape the thoughts and moods of others begins to influence Claire's own emotions in terrifying and delightful ways.
As the sisters reconnect and learn to support one another, each finds romance where she least expects it, while Sydney's child, Bay, discovers both the safe home she has longed for and her own surprising gifts. With the help of their elderly cousin Evanelle, endowed with her own uncanny skills, the Waverley women redeem the past, embrace the present, and take a joyful leap into the future.
THOUGHTS
Magical Realism is a fiction genre in which magical elements blend to create a realistic atmosphere that accesses a deeper understanding of reality.
Magical Realism is my favorite genre. With these types of books we are given clever ways on how magic (and things that the world of science tells us shouldn't exist) exists in our world. It's amazing! Garden Spells gives us not only a family of women but a whole town, who are convinced they all have their own "family given gifts". The strongest men in one family, the seductress women in another, and the Waverleys who were a family of strangely gifted women. The entire novel is magic! There's romance, enchanting recipes, and sister bonding. This is literally everything I could ever want in a book! (If I seem overly excited with all my exclamation points I'm sorry. I just love this book!)
The characters may have magical talents, but they are still so relatable. Think Practical Magic, with a family of Witches, a lovable aunt, a handsome stranger, and two sisters who have their differences, but also love each other.
If you know me you'd know that I have a twin sister who means the world to me. We may only be 26 but we've had our fair share of petty differences and had to find our way back to each other on numerous occasions. So any book about sisters has always held a soft place in my heart.
Please read this, each page is magic.
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR SARAH ADDISON ALLEN
BUY THE BOOK AMAZON / BARNES & NOBLE / BOOK DEPOSITORY
Magical Realism is my favorite genre. With these types of books we are given clever ways on how magic (and things that the world of science tells us shouldn't exist) exists in our world. It's amazing! Garden Spells gives us not only a family of women but a whole town, who are convinced they all have their own "family given gifts". The strongest men in one family, the seductress women in another, and the Waverleys who were a family of strangely gifted women. The entire novel is magic! There's romance, enchanting recipes, and sister bonding. This is literally everything I could ever want in a book! (If I seem overly excited with all my exclamation points I'm sorry. I just love this book!)
The characters may have magical talents, but they are still so relatable. Think Practical Magic, with a family of Witches, a lovable aunt, a handsome stranger, and two sisters who have their differences, but also love each other.
If you know me you'd know that I have a twin sister who means the world to me. We may only be 26 but we've had our fair share of petty differences and had to find our way back to each other on numerous occasions. So any book about sisters has always held a soft place in my heart.
Please read this, each page is magic.
FOLLOW THE AUTHOR SARAH ADDISON ALLEN
BUY THE BOOK AMAZON / BARNES & NOBLE / BOOK DEPOSITORY
I've been curious about this book after reading a novella by the same author (Waking Kate) and really enjoyed it. I'll definitely bump it up on my TBR now though, great review! <3
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