Book #104 Read in 2014 First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen One of my favorite authors, Sarah Addison Allen's soon-to-be-released book First Frost does not disappoint. Claire Waverly returns in this book and is questioning her Waverly gift. Her sister Sydney is dealing with her daughter Bay getting older and having her heart set on a boy...the son of Sydney's high school sweetheart who broke her heart. The family bands together when unity is threatened and the magical realism that this author does so well is throughout the book. The apple tree and Claire's house are characters in their own right and this was the perfect book to read around Halloween, with the weather getting colder. I received a copy of this book from BookBrowse, in exchange for a honest review. http://melissasbookpicks.blogspot.com

The beginning started out strong with descriptions giving me such a cozy and warm feeling. I was hoping for more magic and coziness but didn't get it. I lost interest in all of the characters and the story. I really wanted to love this.

This was a pleasant book to read. I would put it in the category of "summer read". A somewhat predictable story that still kept my attention.

Sarah Addison Allen's books are just like the candy in First Frost. They are sweet, you feel a *little* guilty reading them, and they make you feel things. This was the first of her books that I didn't finish in one sitting, but I still loved it. It started slow, took a while to get into the meat, but halfway through I was finally on the ride and didn't want to get off. The love story centers around teenagers this round, which I'll admit is not as captivating to a grown woman as the love stories in Garden Spells, but I guess I can be enough of a feminist to enjoy a good beach read without the titillating romance plot line :) In short, not my favorite Allen novel but I will still read anything and everything she writes.