"As seasons change a family must also evolve"
Reviewed by Susan Dyer
Posted January 11, 2015
Fiction
The Waverly women from Garden Spells return in Sarah
Addison Allen's
latest, FIRST FROST. You do not have to read
Garden Spells before reading this book though. I hadn't
and I wasn't lost at
all.
As the days grow shorter in FIRST FROST and crispness is
in the
air the Waverly women start to feel restless. If they can
just make it to the
first frost everything will be alright. But making it to
the first frost can be
trying. Bay is trying to navigate high school and her love
for Josh. Bay has
the gift for knowing where things belong is determined
that she is meant to
be a part of Josh's life. But how can she get him to see
it? He is a senior
and the coolest guy in school.
Her mother, Sydney is desperately trying to have another
baby meanwhile
her hair just keeps getting redder. Her sister Claire is
suddenly a candy
sensation but is that what she really wants to do? On top
of all that, an
elderly con man is trying to blackmail his way into a bit
of money to live on
over the winter. We can't forget Violet the kooky
receptionist who works at
Sydney's hair salon. She is a lost soul that Sydney
thinks she can save.
When family is at stake the Waverly women pull together
and support each
other through these trying times.
FIRST FROST is a wonderful book about family, who we are
and who we
think we are. Add a little magic, an apple tree with its
own agenda, a house
that has its own ideas, and FIRST FROST is wonderful. The
townspeople look
doubtfully at the family whose backyard apple tree grows a
strange fruit
that, if eaten will show the eaters the moment of their
death. It's a
mischievous tree that even throws its apples at the
Waverley's to get their
attention. This adds to the legend of the family.
Sarah Addison Allen has created characters who I would
love to call my
friends. How can Sarah Addison Allen write such
sensational stories? FIRST FROST is the first
novel of hers that I have read but she truly warmed my
heart like melted
butter. I absolutely loved FIRST FROST and I loved the
magical touches
to it, and the way that each sister and daughter come into
their own,
embracing their differences and accepting each other as
they are. A brilliant
story that is sure to be a favorite for Sarah Addison
Allen fans, and a great
book for people who haven't read a novel of hers.
FIRST FROST is a heartwarming read -- and I hope the
author revisits
these characters in the future. I want to see what happens
to them next!!
SUMMARY
From the New York Times bestselling author of GARDEN
SPELLS
comes a story of the Waverley family, in a novel as
sparkling as the first dusting of frost on new-fallen
leaves... It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will
not
go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to
turn,
the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their
mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls
around it. But this year, first frost has much more in
store. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture,
Waverley’s Candies. Though her handcrafted confections—
rose
to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and
lemon
verbena to soothe throats and minds—are singularly
effective, the business of selling them is costing her the
everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own
precious gifts. Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each
passing day she longs more for a baby— a namesake for her
wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her
desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the
pleasure
out of the life she already has. Sydney’s daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she
knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. But how
can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he
appears
to her as little more than a puff of smoke? When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the
very
heart of their family, each of them must make choices they
have never confronted before. And through it all, the
Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their
family
together through their troublesome season of change,
waiting
for that extraordinary event that is First Frost. Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen's enchanting world
and
fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story
that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real
ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins.
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