Garden Spells by Sarah Addison Allen

The Waverley family. The sisters Claire & Sydney. Sydney's daughter Bay and Evanelle Franklin their distant relation (cousin). I also can't forget to mention the Apple Tree because it was just as much it's story too.

I don't quite know what genre to label Garden Spells under. All I know is that I loved it. The writing was as magical as the story.  The writing of Sarah Addison Allen is almost poetic. It is simply beautiful.  She is truly a gifted writer.

I am not such a fan of magic in stories so I loved how slowly the magical aspect of the story was introduced. If anyone had mentioned that the Waverley sisters were witches while explaining the book to me, I'd have headed for the hills and avoided. The Waverley's are a family that have been gifted/cursed with special talents.

I loved all the relationships that occured in Garden Spells. I love reading how they emotionally mended after being fractured for so long.
The writing is what grabbed me about this story. I can't help but think that if it wasn't written as beautifully as it was, that I may not have appreciated the residents of Bascom North Carolina.

"It smelled strongly of lavender and peppermint, like walking into a Christmas memory that didn't belong to her."

"The tree was situated toward the back of the lot. It wasn't very tall, but it grew long and sideways. Its limbs stretched out like a dancer's arms and the apples grew at the very ends, as if holding the fruit in its palms."


"Sometime people who had been together for a long time got to imagining that things used to be better, even when they weren't. Memories, even hard memories, grew soft like peaches as they got older."

"She was so Southern that she cried tears that came straight from the Mississippi, and she always smelled faintly of cottonwood and peaches."

"I'll give you one day at a time, Claire. But remember, I'm thousands of days ahead already."

"When you're happy for yourself, it fills you. When you're happy for someone else, it pours over.