First Frost

First Frost, Sarah Addison Allen

★ ★ ★1/2

This is a nice sequel to "Garden Spells" and thankfully (because I didn't know that it was the Sequel), I wasn't as invested in liking the book as I thought I might otherwise be, so I wasn't overly disappointed.

Sydney & Claire, sisters who share the Waverley "gift", are now both living in Bascom, NC, married to good men who love and support them.

Sydney runs the local salon & her work does magical things for her clients, while Claire has set aside her popular catering business changing it into a country-wide famous confectionery.

Their daughters, Bay & Mariah both have the infamous Waverley "gifts", but they seem to be less pronounced in Mariah which sets Claire to questioning her place in the family and her own Waverley gifts.

In late autumn, just before first frost & the blooming of the Apple Tree, a mysterious stranger comes in to town sending feelings of foreboding through Bay & Claire...

Sydney is upset as she is trying to give her husband a son; her receptionist at the Salon, Violet, is becoming more of a problem and a thief; and she is worried about her daughter Bay who has fallen for the son of the man that shattered Sydney's world & heart upon graduation.

Cousin Evanelle, is still out & about giving odd "gifts" to those in need of them.....

It is a nice story, but it just didn't have the sense of magick nor did it hold my interest as much as "Garden Spells". The characters could have been more active in their "gifts" and I would like to have had Evanelle, Apple Tree, & Em be more active in the story because their gifts were important to the story as well.