I look forward to reading Addison’s recently released sequel titled First Frost set a few years after Garden Spells. This book is a great for a bit of light and easy reading. I find the book’s humor and homey feel very endearing, and its lesson on self-acceptance quite relevant.

I picked up this book during a booksale two years ago and only found time to read it when I brought it with me on a trip. Like Like Water for Chocolate by Laura Esquivel, on the other hand, it features the effects of food on people susceptible to magical ingredients. With Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman, it shares the plot element of two very different sisters reuniting and finding love in their small town after years apart. The book’s style and structure bear similarities to other works in women’s literature that feature magical realism. Together with their elderly cousin, Evanelle, their love interests, their supportive neighbors, their town rivals, and with the help of the enchanted apple tree that their family has been tending for centuries, the sisters discover their innate powers and their place in their small town. She ran away and lived a life on the road until she returns with her daughter trying to escape an abusive relationship.

Sidney, on the other hand was seemingly blessed with beauty but without magical talent.

Brought back to their ancestral house in Bascom, North Carolina by their mother after a life on the road, they grew up feeling isolated from their neighbors.Ĭlaire, the older and “plainer” sister, took comfort in her magical talent with plants and cooking and builds a successful career as a caterer. In Sarah Addison Allen’s debut novel Garden Spells, magical realism, heartwarming romance and small-town sensibility combine to bring to life the warm and engaging story of sisters Claire and Sidney Waverly. After years apart, they reunite, discover and appreciate their true selves while coming to terms with their past and win true love in the process. Two sisters grappling about their magical heritage, seeking acceptance from the other inhabitants of their small town.

Garden spells series