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3.9 AVERAGE
3.9 AVERAGE
After reading Garden Spells, of course I had to read the follow up, and it did not disappoint! I had heard mixed reviews on First Frost, so my sense of urgency to read it wasn’t as intense as it might have been, but I have to disagree with people who thought it wasn’t as strong as Garden Spells. First Frost builds on the Waverly saga wonderfully. There was still a lot of mystery with the family lore to draw from, and the author did a great job keeping me interested in the Waverly history as well as the new conflicts of this second novel. If you read Garden Spells and are hesitating to read First Frost, stop now and read it!
See Full Review Here: Reading Between Classes
This book makes me want to go back and re-read all of her novels. I love how she blends just a touch of magic and makes it so accepted (for better or worse) by everyone involved. Please keep writing.
This book makes me want to go back and re-read all of her novels. I love how she blends just a touch of magic and makes it so accepted (for better or worse) by everyone involved. Please keep writing.
I won a pre-release copy of this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It was fun, light-hearted, and whimsical. Very enjoyable!
I adored Garden Spells and so was curious find out what the Waverlys had been up to since then. Sadly, this one didn't quite hit all the same/right notes that its predecessor did. I liked the family isn't just blood, sometimes it's found theme and that Claire, always the level headed one was questioning her place with her loved ones, with her life, with everything. My problem was the way Claire's questioning was instigated - Russell and his grey shyster suit and gone in the blink of an eye abilities felt weak and wispy. Like there wasn't anything there but smoke, the non-magical kind. On top of that, Sydney's desperate for another child story felt predictable and repetitive. Haven't made up my mind where Bay and her story is concerned. I liked her magical OCD but the whole note to Josh and then sitting on the school steps every. day. felt, well, a little bit creepy.
Still I there wasn't anything to make me put the book down and walk away for good. I enjoyed the writing and as always Evanelle is a fantastic character (love Fred too).
Still I there wasn't anything to make me put the book down and walk away for good. I enjoyed the writing and as always Evanelle is a fantastic character (love Fred too).
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
emotional
hopeful
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
N/A
The sequel to Garden Spells and I liked it just as much, if not a little bit more. I wasn’t totally thrilled by the subplot of the mysterious man coming to town and got disappointed whenever it cut back to him (especially because he was just there to try to blackmail Claire and it didn’t work, which made the whole thing feel like a shaggy dog plot). I loved Bay though and her story was great. Her gift of knowing the “right place” for things was just the kind of Sarah Addison Allen magic I love. I liked the romance a lot and the beautiful autumn atmosphere. The teenagers in this book felt realistic as well.
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.
Another touch of magic from Sarah Addison Allen. I couldn't wait to read this and I loved it, it's so weird but so beautiful at the same time. It's a quick read but totally absorbing, you really enter the Waverley sisters' world. Loved it!
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.
Another touch of magic from Sarah Addison Allen. I couldn't wait to read this and I loved it, it's so weird but so beautiful at the same time. It's a quick read but totally absorbing, you really enter the Waverley sisters' world. Loved it!
You know that feeling that you get at the end of a really great movie? When the music is just washing over you and you’re comfortable in your chair… And you just kind of want to stay inside of that movie forever? You’re just drifting in the music and it’s like floating… You’re savoring those last few seconds and you wish that you could climb through the screen and just be inside of that world.
That, largely, is how I feel about Sarah Addison Allen’s books.
They’re almost like coming home, except her version of home is a place far more welcoming and kinder and, quite frankly, homier, than any home I’ve ever known. I want to live in the old house with the magical garden and the tempestuous apple tree. And I want her characters to be my sisters/cousins/grandparents/friends.
And I’m pretty sure, after reading her books, that you’ll feel the same way. The only major problem I have with her books is that they end. And I don’t want them to. Her endings, however, are nearly always happy ones, or if not quite happy, then at least they are endings of belonging, with all things in their proper place and everything as it should be, which is nearly as good.
I’m not going to talk much about the plot or characters of First Frost. You can read the inside cover and find a description much more satisfying than any I could write.
As for the characters… They are, with a few exceptions, the same characters from Garden Spells. If you have read that book, you’ll be pleasantly familiar with them. If you haven’t read that book, I highly suggest you stop reading this review and go pick it up.
First Frost works well enough as a stand-alone book – you’ll be able to understand everything that’s going on, certainly. But it loses some of its’ sparkle as a stand-alone. To truly appreciate where these characters are going – to understand the choices they make and their quirks and their fears – you need to understand where they have been. Reading Garden Spells adds depth and color to First Frost and I think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you read one without the other.
If you’re looking for wild, reckless adventures in lands unknown, this book is not for you. But if you are looking for something that assures you, in spite of the old adage, that you really can go home again, this is the place for you.
Welcome home.
That, largely, is how I feel about Sarah Addison Allen’s books.
They’re almost like coming home, except her version of home is a place far more welcoming and kinder and, quite frankly, homier, than any home I’ve ever known. I want to live in the old house with the magical garden and the tempestuous apple tree. And I want her characters to be my sisters/cousins/grandparents/friends.
And I’m pretty sure, after reading her books, that you’ll feel the same way. The only major problem I have with her books is that they end. And I don’t want them to. Her endings, however, are nearly always happy ones, or if not quite happy, then at least they are endings of belonging, with all things in their proper place and everything as it should be, which is nearly as good.
I’m not going to talk much about the plot or characters of First Frost. You can read the inside cover and find a description much more satisfying than any I could write.
As for the characters… They are, with a few exceptions, the same characters from Garden Spells. If you have read that book, you’ll be pleasantly familiar with them. If you haven’t read that book, I highly suggest you stop reading this review and go pick it up.
First Frost works well enough as a stand-alone book – you’ll be able to understand everything that’s going on, certainly. But it loses some of its’ sparkle as a stand-alone. To truly appreciate where these characters are going – to understand the choices they make and their quirks and their fears – you need to understand where they have been. Reading Garden Spells adds depth and color to First Frost and I think you would be doing yourself a disservice if you read one without the other.
If you’re looking for wild, reckless adventures in lands unknown, this book is not for you. But if you are looking for something that assures you, in spite of the old adage, that you really can go home again, this is the place for you.
Welcome home.