Garden Spells

Garden Spells

By Sarah Addison Allen

320 pages

Grade B+

This book was similar to Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman. There is a family named the Waverlys and they have what would seem as magical powers. The older sister Claire lives in the family home as an owner of a catering company. However, her catering company is not like regular ones, because she cooks with the flowers from her garden, and special things happen when she cooks certain flowers with certain foods and when she pairs them up with each other. Honestly, some of the foods that she makes in the book sound completely and utterly delish and all I wanted to do was eat.

The younger sister Sydney, has flown the coup and lived a crazy life, leaving her in a terribly abusive relationship and a 6 year old daughter. When things get tough, Sydney comes home to Claire, however their relationship is really rocky.

Their cousin Evanelle, was by far my most favorite character in the book. She had the talent of knowing that people needed something, whether it was batteries for your smoke detector because there would be a fire that night, or a blanket because your heat would go out that night and you would be extra cold. I just loved everything about her character.

What I liked most about this book was that it was light. It wasn't terribly deep, but it was lifting. Sadly the two books that I read following this book were anything but. However, this book was just a feel good book, all around. I finished it in probably 2 days, I really couldn't put it down. And even though I was sure I knew what was going to happen, and I was right, I was just blown away by it.

I really really really enjoyed this book. The only reason why I am not giving it an A+ is because I was able to predict some of what was going to happen, but it was a good book. I say give it a chance if you need something light. A huge thanks to my friend Mandi in my book club that hosted this book in February. It was wonderful!