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A review by obsidian_blue
First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen
4.0
This is the second book in the Waverley Family series by Sarah Addison Allen. I suggest you read Garden Spells before starting this book since many events from Garden Spells are referenced in this book.
Look at the cover. I seriously fell in love with that that before I cracked a page open on the book. I told myself to wait to start and finish this book but I needed a nice happy book after Dark Places and Cold Cold Heart. Little did I know there was going to be some dark subject matter in this book as well.
So I loved Garden Spells. I thought it was wonderfully written and it made me want to go out and investigate a tons of plants and flowers to see how I could include them in my cooking. This sequel I found though was pretty jumbled. There seemed to be a lot of things going on which were not really tied together like they were in Garden Spells.
We still touch about Claire and Sydney, but not enough for me.
Claire still has the ability to grow and cook things using the flowers in her garden. She has now changed careers from a caterer to making homemade candies though she feels lost now since she is no longer able to use the plants and flowers from her garden most.
Sydney is devastated that she can't get pregnant and wants to give Henry a child. Sydney is still able to style a woman or man's hair that seems to bring out something from inside them.
Bay is Sydney's 15 year old daughter who always know where things should go and is proud to embrace her Waverley heritage unlike her mother.
Things that I liked in this book.
One, the character of Bay. Two, the fact that we get to see how close Sydney and Claire have gotten in 10 years. And three, the introduction to other strange people in the town of Bascom.
I think if the book had just been focused on Bay that would have worked better. Bay and her entire plot really did work for me. Ms. Allen is able to write Bay very well and I wish she had more teenagers featured in her books. I really loved The Girl Who Chased the Moon and thought that she wrote the characters of Emily and Win. There were some shades of "Twilight" in there with those two characters, but thank goodness the other characters and plots in that book saved it from falling too deeply into that writing and storyline.
Instead we get a very weird side plot with a mysterious man that comes to town focused on Claire. That plot didn't work and it made the whole book feel off to me. I actually found myself getting annoyed by this guy and wish that he had not taken up so much room in this book. I really wish that Ms. Allen had left him mysterious instead of getting into his past. That's the part of the book that is pretty dark. It is never outright said but you find out this man was abused as a small boy.
Sydney's plot and ultimate resolution was so obvious it was almost painful.
We also don't get enough of the men in the Waverly women's lives at all. There are little asides to Henry and Tyler, but compared to the last book I wish we had got to see more into these characters' heads this time.
Look at the cover. I seriously fell in love with that that before I cracked a page open on the book. I told myself to wait to start and finish this book but I needed a nice happy book after Dark Places and Cold Cold Heart. Little did I know there was going to be some dark subject matter in this book as well.
So I loved Garden Spells. I thought it was wonderfully written and it made me want to go out and investigate a tons of plants and flowers to see how I could include them in my cooking. This sequel I found though was pretty jumbled. There seemed to be a lot of things going on which were not really tied together like they were in Garden Spells.
We still touch about Claire and Sydney, but not enough for me.
Claire still has the ability to grow and cook things using the flowers in her garden. She has now changed careers from a caterer to making homemade candies though she feels lost now since she is no longer able to use the plants and flowers from her garden most.
Sydney is devastated that she can't get pregnant and wants to give Henry a child. Sydney is still able to style a woman or man's hair that seems to bring out something from inside them.
Bay is Sydney's 15 year old daughter who always know where things should go and is proud to embrace her Waverley heritage unlike her mother.
Things that I liked in this book.
One, the character of Bay. Two, the fact that we get to see how close Sydney and Claire have gotten in 10 years. And three, the introduction to other strange people in the town of Bascom.
I think if the book had just been focused on Bay that would have worked better. Bay and her entire plot really did work for me. Ms. Allen is able to write Bay very well and I wish she had more teenagers featured in her books. I really loved The Girl Who Chased the Moon and thought that she wrote the characters of Emily and Win. There were some shades of "Twilight" in there with those two characters, but thank goodness the other characters and plots in that book saved it from falling too deeply into that writing and storyline.
Instead we get a very weird side plot with a mysterious man that comes to town focused on Claire. That plot didn't work and it made the whole book feel off to me. I actually found myself getting annoyed by this guy and wish that he had not taken up so much room in this book. I really wish that Ms. Allen had left him mysterious instead of getting into his past. That's the part of the book that is pretty dark. It is never outright said but you find out this man was abused as a small boy.
Sydney's plot and ultimate resolution was so obvious it was almost painful.
We also don't get enough of the men in the Waverly women's lives at all. There are little asides to Henry and Tyler, but compared to the last book I wish we had got to see more into these characters' heads this time.