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Best Sellers | | |  | |  | | | Garden Spells | | | | | SKU:
1200115656 | | In Stock | | Availability:
Usually ships in 1-2 business days | | Only 1 left in stock, order soon! | | | | | | 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…. | | | |
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| | Product Details | | Author: | Sarah Addison Allen | | Hardcover: | 304 pages | | Publisher: | Bantam | | Publication Date: | August 28, 2007 | | Language: | English | | ISBN: | 0553805487 | | Product Length: | 5.66 inches | | Product Width: | 1.02 inches | | Product Height: | 8.55 inches | | Product Weight: | 0.97 pounds | | Package Length: | 8.1 inches | | Package Width: | 5.7 inches | | Package Height: | 1.0 inches | | Package Weight: | 0.95 pounds | | Average Customer Rating: |  based on 337 reviews |
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| | Customer Reviews | Average Customer Review: ( 337 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
117 of 122 found the following review helpful:
 Spellbound by "Garden Spells" Oct 19, 2007
By Gayla M. Collins
In 46 years of reading a plethora of genres, I have come to love "magic realism." Sarah Addison Allen has a gift for delivering it. The Waverley girls of Bascom, N.C. all have been blessed/cursed with special abilities; Claire has a pruned a garden that grows year round and quite rapidly. Each flower is used to enhance dishes for her catering business. Subtle spells can be gained with a pinch of marigold, a dab of crystallized pansies or an apple from a very temperamental tree. Bay Waverly, 6 years old, has a talent to know exactly where everything goes in any home she enters as well as in any life she enters. Her sister, Sydney, who has fought being a Waverley for 10 years, finally embraces her ability to style and cut hair with a magic that spells her customers into feeling self confident and flirty. Their cousin, Evanelle, gifts people items they don't know they need until something happens later. This charmed family is so endearing, so lovely, one can't help but embrace them heartily.
I am nearly jealous of those who have not read it yet. It is a vibrant experience to live between the pages even if they turn so quickly.
As a first time novelist, Allen bewitches with savory prose and keen insight, leaving this reader to want more. Think of the very best fairy tale you were ever told; now pick up "Garden Spells" and read one of the best magical stories for adults this reader has enjoyed in a long, long time.
72 of 78 found the following review helpful:
From beginning to end, a wonderful read Sep 08, 2007
By Ronna M. Marwil
"Every smiley moon, without fail, Claire dreamed of her childhood. She always tried to stay awake those nights when the stars winked and the moon was just a cresting sliver smiling provocatively down at the world, the way pretty women on vintage billboards used to smile as they sold cigarettes and limeade." So begins "Garden Spells." I love books with wonderful beginnings, but sometimes the rest of the book doesn't live up to the beginning. That was not the case with Gardens Spells. It has a delightful beginning and remains delightful through the rest of the book.
This is the story of 2 sisters who each find a different way to cope with a mother who was wild and abandoned them when they were young. Clare creates a very careful, cautious life for herself. Sydney, the younger sister, lives wildly trying to copy a mother she never knew. For a long time they have no contact until circumstances force them together. In the setting of a magical garden, the sisters need to confront their past in order to move forward.
This is the kind of book I like to read on a day when the world seems dark and depressing. It was light, yet still thoughtful. Magic permeates the story. It's full of delightful quirky characters and a romance which could be formulaic if the writer were not so skilled.
Highly recommend.
97 of 112 found the following review helpful:
Magical realism, North Carolina style Sep 02, 2007
By Stephen Richmond
"Librarian/Teacher/Reader and once again STUDENT"
In a lifetime of reading, there are a few novels that are especially precious and unforgettable. Garcia Marquez' ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF SOLITUDE. Byatt's POSSESSION. Tartt's THE SECRET HISTORY. This first novel by Sarah Addison Allen is to be added to that short list. Her prose is magical, even when dealing with the mundane ugliness of spousal abuse. Her plot is droll, pleasantly complex, and ultimately satisfying in a most soul-saving Southern graciousness. Her characters, even the most minor of them, are deliciously quirky and lovingly strange, in the most outré of ways. There are echoes of such mistresses of the magical as Alice Hoffman, Anne Rice, Joyce Carol Oates, and Joanne Harris, but Allen quite successfully finds her own voice here and provides a coloratura, if not indeed, a bravura performance. Readers of the above-mentioned litteratureuses will find enjoyment with Garden Spells, as will anyone who loves an intriguing tale well told.
23 of 27 found the following review helpful:
 `Life is about experience ..' Mar 31, 2008
By J. Cameron-Smith
"Expect the Unexpected"
This is one of those charming stories that blurs or perhaps even redefines reality by mixing magic and realism in a delightful way. How you define the book very much depends on what you are looking for. I picked up the novel as a light read and thoroughly enjoyed it.
Meet the Waverley women, each with her own special magic. Each of them (Claire, Sydney and Evanelle) can influence the lives of others through the application of their gifts. Each of them has a need which has yet to be recognised and met. In this novel they each learn that meeting their own needs can help them be even more effective in meeting the needs of others. Some wonderfully quirky characters including my own personal favourite: the apple tree.
On her webpage, Ms Addison Allen writes: 'Garden Spells, my mainstream debut, didn't start out as a magical novel. It was supposed to be a simple story about two sisters reconnecting after many years. But then the apple tree started throwing apples and the story took on a life of its own ... and my life hasn't been the same since.'
I can believe it, and I am looking forward to Ms Addison Allen's next novel.
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
6 of 6 found the following review helpful:
Delightful! May 09, 2008
By JJ
"avid reader"
This is an absolutely delightful, adorable book. I love reading about the South & its always quirky characters and this book has some of the best. I would love to know Evanelle and see what she would "just have" to give me. Also the women who just "know" how to please a man and the men who always married older women. But of all the wonderful characters none could compare to the apple tree. I wanted to be a part of this family and have lunch under the branches of the apple tree. I can still see the tree holding the family pictures and not letting them go. I can't wait to read her next book.
See all 337 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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