“Garden Spells”, ISBN 978-0-553-80548-2, was written by Sarah Addison Allen and published in hardback by Bantam Dell in 2007. Allen has also published “The Sugar Queen” and has at least one other book due out soon. “Garden Spells” is a light, fascinating story. As with most novels published in the current culture, there are some out-of-wedlock relationships and explicit intimacy portrayed. While rare and done tastefully, some Christians might find these offensive. If you are able to overlook that, though, this book could prove to be a satisfying break from day-to-day reality.

         “Garden Spells” is a sweet magical realism story set in the small fictitious town of Bascom, NC. Many of Bascom’s residents have unique quirks (every generation of Youngs has a Phineas who is the strongest man in town, Clark women were great lovers and always married well, or all Hopkins men married older women). The Waverly family, though, was the oddest of the town. Or so it seems for Claire and Sydney, sisters who had drastically different reactions to life in the Waverly house and garden.

         Claire and her mother returned to Bascom when her mother was pregnant with Sydney. Claire relished the safety and security of life under one roof and immersed herself in the life of a Waverly. The house and garden was magical, with flowers blooming without regard to normal seasons and an apple tree that threw apples at you. If you ate one, you saw the most momentous occasion of your life. Claire, and most of the Waverly women, did not like apples as a result. In Claire’s words,

“If it’s good, you’ll suddenly know that everything else you do will never make you as happy. And if it’s bad, you’ll have to live the rest of your life knowing something bad is going to happen. It’s something no one should know.”

         Claire grows up and starts a catering business that capitalizes on the Waverly tradition of the magical garden, using the different edible flowers to impart various magical effects. Sydney, however, cannot get away from Bascom fast enough. She leaves town soon after graduation and does not return for ten years. When she does return, she is running, with her six-year-old daughter, from an abusive relationship. The book explores the tragic and sometimes humorous history and new life as the two women learn to forgive each other and forge a new, more satisfying relationship. In the end, both women find peace with themselves, their history and their new loves.