Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
Garden Spells is a wonderful, enchanting tale of sisters - two very different women, each rooted in the past - who discover that the apple doesn't fall far from the tree when family ties cast their spell. The Waverleys have always been a curious family to their neighbors in Bascom, North Carolina. Living in the old Waverley home, Claire Waverley chases folks away from her backyard apple tree, and its unusual fruit, while she runs a successful catering company using ingredients from the magical family garden first tended by her grandmother. Claire keeps to herself, happy to spend time with her eccentric aunt, Evanelle. Claire never left Bascom or her grandmother's home after her mother's death, never made peace with the magical culinary gifts inherited from her grandmother - or with that unique and stubborn apple tree. But, when her sister Sydney returns to Bascom ten years after abandoning the family she was once so ashamed of, with a young daughter in tow and a recent past she won't speak of, Claire's quiet world is turned upside down. Healing the wounds of the past will take more than Claire's potent hyacinth wine, but the two sisters soon realize that their bond is deeper than their scarsand that they are more alike than either could have imagined.