Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

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Summary:

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.

My Review:

I picked up GARDEN SPELLS because, after reading THE SUGAR QUEEN and THE GIRL WHO CHASED THE MOON by Sarah Addison Allen … how could I not read the book that started it all?

This is a book about a town with people of tradition. There’s the Waverly’s who have special gifts; gifts that are.. extraordinary in nature. There’s a family known for its men marrying older women and another family known for its women being.. well… being able to fully please their men in bed.

And then there’s my favorite character – Evanelle. Evanelle’s gift makes me feel so warm and fuzzy inside, imagining the possibilities of the gift and envying the brilliant thought process that brought this gift to live on the page. It was like Sarah Allen looked deep into the mind of a gal like me and found that magical spot … that place where she could press and, in the pages of a book, give me exactly what I was looking for.

On the surface this is a love story; it deals with heavier issues such as abuse and abandonment – but with such a light and gentle touch that I never felt as if the book used those issues as a crutch to keep the reader reading. It’s a story of family and friendship, of forgiveness – of each other and yourself, and a story of coming home that was completely and totally delightful and a pleasure to read.

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