Garden Spells

by Sarah Allen

• ISBN10: 0553805487
• ISBN13: 9780553805482
• Publish Date: 28 August 2007
• Publish Status: Remaindered
• Out of Print: 28 August 2012
• Publish Country: US
• Publisher: Random House USA Inc
• Imprint: Bantam Dell Publishing Group, Div of Random House, Inc
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 290
• Language: English

Reviews

[Leah]

Sarah Addison Allen has been one of my favourite authors since I read The Girl Who Chased The Moon. Since then I’ve devoured all of her other novels bar The Sugar Queen and her most recent release First Frost (I had to read Garden Spells first, as First Frost is the sequel – woohoo!). She’s AMAZING. There is no other author like Sarah Addison Allen, and she blows me away every time I read one of her novels because I am always amazed at how quickly I can devour them and just how special a writer she is.

I very rarely find books to be “poetic” though I know a lot of people describe books that way, and that’s the only way to describe Sarah Addison Allen because her books just flow so smoothly and so perfectly and her descriptions are mouth-watering. I am in awe of her talent, and I wish I could write even half as well as she can.

In Garden Spells we meet the Waverly sisters, Claire and Sydney. Total opposites of each other, who end up back in the same place. Well, Sydney does, with daughter Bay, because Claire’s been there all along, helping the community with her flower-infused foods. That’s actually my favourite part of any Sarah Addison Allen novel, the magic. The way simple things just as flowers can help someone in different ways. It’s so clever and so imaginative and I love to see how Sarah comes up with new ways to insert the magical bits in to her books. I also think she writes pretty awesome female characters. Claire and Sydney were complete opposites, yes, but they were kind of the same. Both Waverly’s, both eager to help the other out, despite Claire’s sometimes cold shoulder. And young Bay was a delight. I absolutely adored Evanelle, too. I loved that her “thing” was to give people stuff they didn’t even need, until they did need it. Oh, man, what a gift that is!

I adored Garden Spells. I completed it in under three hours, in just one sitting, because I got sucked in so quickly by Claire and Sydney’s stories. I can’t believe it took me so long to read Garden Spells, but I am so glad I did and I can’t wait to dip into the lives of the Waverly women once again, in First Frost. My love affair with Sarah Addison Allen continues, and I doubt it will be slowing down any time soon…

[annieb123]

Sappy. Chaotic. Flat.

I am emphatically not the target audience, so I suspect if you're fond of the genre (light paranormal romance) and/or have low(ish) expectations in terms of grammar, plotting etc, or are in the mood for a very light beach read which you can read one sentence at a time between people watching, this might fill the bill and satisfy.

After reading it, I'm just left with a 'meh' feeling. The characters are one dimensional, the bad guy(s) are only bad... the quirky characters are more creepy than quirky and there's a 'pasted in' gay love interest to up the potential demographic. (/sigh)

The denoument was... ridiculous is the word that springs to mind, but it seems a bit harsh. It felt as though the author had gotten to that point in the book and simply wanted it to end (I did too, at that point).

The was no dramatic tension in this book for me. I found myself being annoyed, but not caring about the plot or characters much.

It's fairly short, and I borrowed it from the library, so I'm not as disappointed as I might otherwise have been. I just find myself wondering how many matchy-matchy everything works out in the end, everyone finds someone after all the drama-dust settles, paranormal, erotica x-tra-lite (gag) books come down the pike before the pump runs dry.

I sound like a curmudgeon and I'm really not one. There are enough people who do like happy happy cute paranormal romances who obviously disagree with me, so YMMV! :)

[sstaley]

I really enjoyed this book. I felt the author did a good job of creating endearing characters that had a way of wiggling into your heart. The growth seen in the characters made for a satisfying conclusion. I will enjoy reading more from Sarah Addison Allen.