First Book of the Year: First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

Title: First Frost
Author: Sarah Addison Allen
Source: NetGalley

Goodreads Summary:

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 begin.

My thoughts:

I was waiting this year, for a book I really wanted to read to be my first read of the year. My patience paid off because NetGalley approved me for First Frost, which is probably the book I most wanted to read of them all! I was a little book starved by the time I read it, and I devoured it. I probably would have anyway, as this book was amazing!!

The time before the first frost is a time of wild restlessness for the Waverley family, a time where anything can happen. The apple tree is dormant, and there is a sense of tension, of waiting, of what is waiting around the corner. It's ten year later, and when we meet up with Claire, she has gone into the commercial candy making business; Bay is her after school assistant, Sydney is running her beauty parlor, and her hair is getting redder on its own by the day. All three are experiencing the unsettledness of the time before first frost, which has been forecast for Halloween, much later than normal. To make things even more uneasy, there is a lurking stranger in town who seems to be overly interested in the Waverleys.

I enjoyed reading about the issues plaguing the family in this book, and how they found their way out of them. It is a book about family, forgiveness and acceptance, about trust and love.  I loved every word and moment in this book, the magic and the history, the wonder and the normal everyday simple moments, such as a home cooked family dinner. Definitely a five star reading experience for me! I sincerely hope there is another book planned for this family!