A Good Read

Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen is a little book I recently read – again. I first bought it three years ago and have returned to it several times. Something about this little book is enchanted. It is a book of magic, charms, spells and bits of tranditional and historical lore. I like the magical descriptions of flowers and the spells they cast on the cast of characters in this small North Carolina town.

Bantam Discovery (2008) - Paperback - 320 pages

I think you will find the Evanelle character to be charming! You will love the descriptions of the dishes Claire prepares to alter certain behaviors. The book has a modern story line of two sisters trying to come to grips with their pasts and preserving their heritage. And the apple tree! The strangest tree every known.

I highly recommend the book. If you should read it, let me know what you think.

Here’s a description from the publisher:

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. In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary people who tend it.

The Waverleys have always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom, North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and its edible flowers, imbued with special powers. Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history was in the soil. But so were their futures.

A 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. Meanwhile, her elderly cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. 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.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.

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. 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. Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own.

The book is available from several on-line sellers for about $7.