First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Sarah Addison Allen
Published, expected January 20th, 2015 (Pre-Order HERE)
Publisher, St. Martin's Press
Kindle edition, 304 pages
Series, Waverley Family #2

BOOK TRAILER:

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS: From the New York Times bestselling author of Garden Spells comes a story of the Waverley family, in a novel as sparkling as the first dusting of frost on new-fallen leaves... It's October in Bascom, North Carolina, and autumn will not go quietly. As temperatures drop and leaves begin to turn, the Waverley women are made restless by the whims of their mischievous apple tree... and all the magic that swirls around it. But this year, first frost has much more in store. Claire Waverley has started a successful new venture, Waverley’s Candies. Though her handcrafted confections—rose to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds—are singularly effective, the business of selling them is costing her the everyday joys of her family, and her belief in her own precious gifts. Sydney Waverley, too, is losing her balance. With each passing day she longs more for a baby— a namesake for her wonderful Henry. Yet the longer she tries, the more her desire becomes an unquenchable thirst, stealing the pleasure out of the life she already has. Sydney’s daughter, Bay, has lost her heart to the boy she knows it belongs to…if only he could see it, too. But how can he, when he is so far outside her grasp that he appears to her as little more than a puff of smoke? When a mysterious stranger shows up and challenges the very heart of their family, each of them must make choices they have never confronted before. And through it all, the Waverley sisters must search for a way to hold their family together through their troublesome season of change, waiting for that extraordinary event that is First Frost. Lose yourself in Sarah Addison Allen's enchanting world and fall for her charmed characters in this captivating story that proves that a happily-ever-after is never the real ending to a story. It’s where the real story begins. 

MY THOUGHTS: This book was great!  Sarah Addison Allen has quickly become one of my favorite authors.  If you are not reading her due to the "magical" element of her books, you should.  I steer away from those novels most of the time and have to admit that I came upon The Peach Keeper by accident.  But, Allen has a wonderful way of adding just enough magic that it enhances the mystery of the story without overtaking it. If you have read Garden Spells, you will be in luck since this is the second novel in that series.  If you haven't (like myself, but I will now) that is fine too.  This story can stand alone but if you like to keep books in order, there is plenty of time to read Garden Spells before First Frost is available. The dynamic of the sister and mother/daughter relationship is very honest and believable.  The story is about, Bay, a teenage girl trying to deal with growing up and being from "that" family in town.  Sisters Sydney and Clair are dealing with all the built up craziness that comes with the first frost of the season.  Throw in a mysterious stranger in town and you have a recipe for success.

I received this book from NetGalley in exchange for a honest review.  All thoughts and opinions are mine.

The Girl Who Chased the Moon | Sarah Addison Allen

STATS:
Author, Sarah Addison Allen
Published, March 16, 2010
Publisher, Bantam
Hardcover, 269 pages

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:
In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.
Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.
Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?
Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

MY THOUGHTS:

I loved this book!  I have read two Sarah Addison Allen novels so far. - The Peach Keeper and Lost Lake.  Both had hints of magic and the unexplained but this book was completely magical.  The people, the town, everything.  And in a good way.

You see - I am not big on fantasy books or science fiction.  As far as I go is the Twilight series.  And I enjoyed it in movie form much more than reading it.  But Sarah is able to put things in a novel that are completely beyond your imagination and make it seem charming and magical.  I want to move Mullaby, NC.  I want to see these people and be friends with them.  Seriously.

The story is mainly about Emily and Julia.  Emily comes to live with the grandfather that she didn't know she had after the death of her mother.  Julia went to high school with Emily's mother and is only in town to get her father's restaurant sold before returning to her life away from Mullaby. 

The two end up being important and life changing to each other.

The story is truly wonderful and full of Southern charm, interesting characters and and makes me want to go out and get other Sarah Addison Allen as soon as possible.

Lost Lake | Book Review

STATS:
Author, Sarah Addison AllenPublished, January 21, 2014
Publisher, St. Martin's Press
eBook, 304 pages

BOOK TRAILER

DESCRIPTION FROM GOODREADS:

Suley, Georgia, is home to Lost Lake Cottages and not much else. Which is why it's the perfect place for newly-widowed Kate and her eccentric eight-year-old daughter Devin to heal. Kate spent one memorable childhood summer at Lost Lake, had her first almost-kiss at Lost Lake, and met a boy named Wes at Lost Lake. It was a place for dreaming. But Kate doesn't believe in dreams anymore, and her Aunt Eby, Lost Lake's owner, wants to sell the place and move on. Lost Lake's magic is gone. As Kate discovers that time has a way of standing still at Lost Lake can she bring the cottages—and her heart—back to life? Because sometimes the things you love have a funny way of turning up again. And sometimes you never even know they were lost . . . until they are found.

MY THOUGHTS:

I loved this book. It was one of those that I had trouble putting down. I couldn't wait to see what happened next. In fact, I read it all in one day.

The characters are wonderful. They are all very well formed and enjoyable. I loved the fact that back stories were given on the characters to explain why they ended up they way they are. It also helped to understand where Kate comes from a little better.

Kate comes from a long line of grieving, money hungry women. And now that she is a widow, her mother in law is taking charge of her and her daughter. Kate finds a postcard from her great aunt. A postcard that she never received as a child because her mother and her aunt were not getting along. She decides it is the perfect time to get away. She has great memories of Lost Lake being a happy place and the best summer of her life. It was also the summer of her first young romance.

Her aunt, Eby, is still at Lost Lake but is getting ready to sell. The longtime summer guests start to arrive and Kate remembers them also. Lost Lake is special to so many people. And it doesn't take long for Kate to see that it is something bigger than she ever knew.

I also was able to get the short story that goes along with this book. It is offered for free on Amazon, Waking Kate. It was also very enjoyable.

Be sure to get it also. I think you will like it.  

MORE ABOUT THE AUTHOR

New York Times Bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen brings the full flavor of her southern upbringing to bear on her fiction -- a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town sensibility. Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Allen grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature -- because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate." After graduation, Allen began writing seriously. Her big break occurred in 2007 with the publication of her first mainstream novel, Garden Spells, a modern-day fairy tale about an enchanted apple tree and the family of North Carolina women who tend it. Booklist called Allen's accomplished debut "spellbindingly charming." The novel became a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection, and then a New York Times Bestseller. Allen continues to serve heaping helpings of the fantastic and the familiar in fiction she describes as "Southern-fried magic realism." Clearly, it's a recipe readers are happy to eat up as fast as she can dish it out. Her published books to date are: Garden Spells (2007), The Sugar Queen (2008), The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2010), The Peach Keeper (2011) and the upcoming Lost Lake, to be published January 21, 2014. It is important to note that I received this book through NetGalley in return for a honest review. All thoughts and opinions are mine.

Book Club Friday

This week I read:

Here is the description from Goodreads:
The New York Times bestselling author of The Girl Who Chased the Moon welcomes you to her newest locale: Walls of Water, North Carolina, where the secrets are thicker than the fog from the town’s famous waterfalls, and the stuff of superstition is just as real as you want it to be.
It’s the dubious distinction of thirty-year-old Willa Jackson to hail from a fine old Southern family of means that met with financial ruin generations ago. The Blue Ridge Madam—built by Willa’s great-great-grandfather during Walls of Water’s heyday, and once the town’s grandest home—has stood for years as a lonely monument to misfortune and scandal. And Willa herself has long strived to build a life beyond the brooding Jackson family shadow. No easy task in a town shaped by years of tradition and the well-marked boundaries of the haves and have-nots. 
But Willa has lately learned that an old classmate—socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood—of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored the Blue Ridge Madam to her former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. Maybe, at last, the troubled past can be laid to rest while something new and wonderful rises from its ashes. But what rises instead is a skeleton, found buried beneath the property’s lone peach tree, and certain to drag up dire consequences along with it. 
For the bones—those of charismatic traveling salesman Tucker Devlin, who worked his dark charms on Walls of Water seventy-five years ago—are not all that lay hidden out of sight and mind. Long-kept secrets surrounding the troubling remains have also come to light, seemingly heralded by a spate of sudden strange occurrences throughout the town.
Now, thrust together in an unlikely friendship, united by a full-blooded mystery, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families—and uncover truths of the long-dead that have transcended time and defied the grave to touch the hearts and souls of the living.
Resonant with insight into the deep and lasting power of friendship, love, and tradition, The Peach Keeper is a portrait of the unshakable bonds that—in good times and bad, from one generation to the next—endure forever.
What I thought:

I loved this book.  Once I started I could not put it down.  The characters are great, the story is great, and I love that it even got some history in there for my love of Historical Fiction.

I haven't been as happy with a books ending in awhile.  It is on my "to recommend" list.

I also read:

Here is the description from Goodreads:

When U.S. Marine Logan Thibault finds a photograph of a smiling young woman half-buried in the dirt during his third tour of duty in Iraq, his first instinct is to toss it aside. Instead, he brings it back to the base for someone to claim, but when no one does, he finds himself always carrying the photo in his pocket. Soon Thibault experiences a sudden streak of luck—winning poker games and even surviving deadly combat that kills two of his closest buddies. Only his best friend, Victor, seems to have an explanation for his good fortune: the photograph—his lucky charm.
Back home in Colorado, Thibault can’t seem to get the photo—and the woman in it—out of his mind. Believing that she somehow holds the key to his destiny, he sets out on a journey across the country to find her, never expecting the strong but vulnerable woman he encounters in Hampton, North Carolina—Elizabeth, a divorced mother with a young son—to be the girl he’s been waiting his whole life to meet. Caught off guard by the attraction he feels, Thibault keeps the story of the photo, and his luck, a secret. As he and Elizabeth embark upon a passionate and all-consuming love affair, the secret he is keeping will soon threaten to tear them apart—destroying not only their love, but also their lives.
Filled with tender romance and terrific suspense, The Lucky One is Nicholas Sparks at his best—an unforgettable story about the surprising paths our lives often take and the power of fate to guide us to true and everlasting love.

What I thought:

I saw that the movie was coming out and I had to read the book first.  I love Nicholas Sparks and I have always loved the way they have converted his books to movies.  Of course - this time I am able to see who is playing each person before I started reading the book.  I love Zac Efron and Blythe Danner, and from the still photos and clips, things look pretty much like I would imagine.
I really loved the book.  It was hard to put down and was pretty much classic Nicholas Sparks.

I am linking up with Blonde, Undercover Blonde for Book Club Friday!