GARDEN SPELLS

Synopsis:

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.

Review:

This book is wonderful from beginning to end. It is a very easy and fast reading, because we can't stop reading the book even for a minute.

Claire is a seemingly ordinary girl who works at a catering service. So far nothing special, was it not for the fact that she has a magic apple tree in her yard and an elderly aunt with an eccentric personality.

However, the solitary life and routine Claire will undergo a 360 degree turn as her sister Sydney, whom she hadn't seen for ten years, returns and her daughter, Bay. From this moment the novel gains a greater tension and mystery which involves Sydneys' motivation to escape and return with her little daughter.

The whole book is full of magic and excitement from start to finish. All the characters are very well built and some of them are lovely and poignant as Evanelle and Bay.

My favorite is undoubtedly Evanelle, the old aunt of the two elderly sisters, who is considered mad by half of the population and all through her life offers all these strange and mysterious things whose utility is understood only in the future; and the mysterious apple tree that comes to life making pranks to the characters of the story.

As a bonus, at the beginning of the book cooking and recipes are present in an intense way that reminds us a little book called Chocolate.