by Sarah Addison Allen
I've loved SAA from the first time I read one of her books. I don't know why this one has gone unread for so long, it may be because I didn't buy it right away. I found it at an outlet mall a month or so ago and realized it was time. Past time. Way overdue!
First Frost takes us back to Bascom, North Carolina and the people who we met in the book, Garden Spells. It's ten years later when we meet up with them again. Magic is still part of the every day lives of the Waverly women, which is much of what I love about Sarah's stories.
Both Claire and Sydney are married to men that love them deeply, but that is not enough to quiet the niggly little fears that live inside their heads. Sydney's daughter Bay is coming of age, which is to say that no one on earth could possibly understand her less than her mother. Oh, my heart - been there done that! And just who is that mysteriously strange older gentleman who lurks nearby? In short, can the Waverly women learn that the people they can depend on the most have always been right there in front of them?
This is not a book with a big suspenseful climax, nor huge mystery or big reveal. It's a book about feelings and the need and want to belong or know that you are in your right place. SAA works us through their stories and *spoiler alert* wraps it all up with a pretty bow. This is a feel good novel and I don't mind in the least that it works out well for everyone.
That is not to say that the bow couldn't come loose or untied... I'm almost inspired to write some fan fiction starting with the next "Ten years later..."
I give this book a five shots of five just because it's the perfect book to read on a stormy day like to today to lift me out of the gray sky doldrums.
