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!!
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,
Waverleyβs Candies. Though her handcrafted confectionsβ
rose
to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and
lemon
verbena to soothe throats and mindsβare 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 babyβ 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.
Sydneyβs daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she
knows it belongs toβ¦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. Itβs where the real story begins.
No excerpt available.
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