Enchanting New Book by Sarah Addison Allen

Featuring characters from her first novel, Garden Spells, Sarah Addison Allen's new novel First Frost picks up ten years after that eventful summer when Claire Waverly's wild half-sister Sydney returned to Bascom and Claire met her now-husband Tyler. Things have settled down and Claire finds she has slipped back into a place of tightly sequestered sameness. It's comfortable. She likes it. But when her father Russell shows up he brings with him information that Claire doesn't want to hear and that will challenge everything she thought she knew about herself.

New to Sarah Addison Allen? Allen's heart-warming fiction centers around southern gals and their families with a touch of magic thrown in. Fans of Alice Hoffman, Rebecca Wells and Jane Smiley may also enjoy Allen's books. Other books by Sarah Addison Allen include:

Garden Spells (2007):

A successful caterer in Bascomb, North Carolina, Claire has always remained tied to the legacy of the Waverly family, until her peaceful life is transformed by Tyler Hughes, an art teacher and new next-door neighbor, and by the return of her prodigal sister, Sydney.

The Sugar Queen (2008):

Quiet, awkward Josey Cirrini's peaceful life (caring for her elderly mother, enjoying romance novels, and indulging in her secret passion for sweets) is turned upside down when Della Lee Baker, a sassy, confident, and bold waitress fleeing an abusive boyfriend, decides to hide out in Josey's home. As Josey dares to step outside herself, she discovers a world where the color red has astonishing power, passion can make eggs fry in their cartons, and romance can blossom at any time - even for her. 

The Girl Who Chased the Moon (2009):

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother's life. 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.

The Peach Keeper (2011):

Willa Jackson of Walls of Water, North Carolina, has lately learned that an old classmate--socialite do-gooder Paxton Osgood--of the very prominent Osgood family, has restored her family's Blue Ridge Madam home to its former glory, with plans to open a top-flight inn. But when a skeleton, found buried beneath the lone peach tree on the property is found, Willa and Paxton must confront the dangerous passions and tragic betrayals that once bound their families.

Lost Lake (2014):

Seeking solace in a Georgia lakeside cottage with her eccentric 8-year-old daughter, recently widowed Kate wonders if the area's almost-magical ability for sparking romances has been imagined before experiencing a poignant renewal.

Powerful Story Not to Be Missed

What She Left Behind by Ellen Marie Wiseman is an emotional psychological journey and I recommend setting aside a day to read.

Ten years ago, Izzy Stone's mother fatally shot her father while he slept. Devastated by her mother's apparent insanity, Izzy, now seventeen, refuses to visit her in prison. But her new foster parents, employees at the local museum, have enlisted Izzy's help in cataloguing items at a long-shuttered state asylum. There, amid piles of abandoned belongings, Izzy discovers a stack of unopened letters, a decades-old journal, and a window into her own past. 

Clara Cartwright, eighteen years old in 1929, is caught between her overbearing parents and her love for an Italian immigrant. Furious when she rejects an arranged marriage, Clara's father sends her to a genteel home for nervous invalids. But when his fortune is lost in the stock market crash, he can no longer afford her care - and Clara is committed to the public asylum. 

Even as Izzy deals with the challenges of yet another new beginning, Clara's story keeps drawing her into the past. If Clara was never really mentally ill, could something else explain her own mother's violent act? Piecing together Clara's fate compels Izzy to re-examine her own choices - with shocking and unexpected results.

"Captivating in its complexity, this novel brings together the strengths and suffering of two young women born more than 60 years apart. Told in alternating perspectives, the story reaches a place of immense emotional depth and psychological turmoil, culminating in an unexpected, heartrending ending."--RT Book Review 

A Mother's Love

Looking for books featuring mothers? Stop by our book display on the Lower Level of the library for a few novels including:

The Chocolate Money 

by Ashley Prentice Norton:

The story of the daughter of a glamorous chocolate heiress who must navigate a complex landscape of wealth, sex, and decadence through a privileged childhood in Chicago and an East Coast prep school, with only her narcissistic mother to guide her. As funny as it is scandalous, The Chocolate Money is Mommie Dearest, Prep, and 50 Shades of Gray all rolled into one compulsively readable book. 

Secret Daughter 

by Shilpi Somaya Gowda

Interweaving the stories of a Kavita, an orphan; Somer, the American doctor who adopted her; and Asha, the Indian mother who gave her up in favor of a son, a debut novel moves between two families--one struggling to survive in the slums of Mumbai, the other grappling to forge a cohesive family despite their diverging cultural identities.

Confession of Super Mom 

by Melanie Lynne Hauser

Endowed with extraordinary powers in a bizarre cleaning accident, middle-aged single mother Birdie Lee becomes her town's unwitting champion against a sinister force, an adventure that is challenged by Birdie's smug ex-husband, her teenagers, and a string of PTA meetings. "Like its title character, this debut novel has a secret identity: while it appears too adorable at first, and too typical, it's unexpectedly poignant and packs an emotional punch despite the cheery veneer." (Publishers Weekly Reviews)

Beautiful Day 

by Elin Hilderbrand

The Carmichaels and the Grahams have gathered on Nantucket for a wedding. Plans are being made according to the wishes of the bride's late mother, who left behind The Notebook: specific instructions for every detail of her youngest daughter's future nuptials. Everything should be falling into place for the beautiful event--but in reality, things are far from perfect. While the couple-to-be are quite happy, their loved ones find their own lives crumbling. In the days leading up to the wedding, love will be questioned, scandals will arise, and hearts will be broken and healed.

The Hand that First Held Mine 

by Maggie O'Farrel

Fifty years after an unconventional reporter of genteel origins becomes a single mother, present-day London painter Elina navigates the first weeks of motherhood upon surviving a dangerous labor and learns that her life is disconcertingly linked to the woman from the past.

Mirth, Magic and Inspiration

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.

Lost Lake by Sarah Addison Allen received a starred review from Booklist: "A surefire star of feel-good fiction, Allen always manages to nimbly mask her potent messages of inspiration and romance beneath her trademark touches of mirth and magic, but this endearing tale of surprising second chances may just be her wisest work yet."(Booklist Reviews)

Mystery and Secrets Abound

A woman must uncover the secrets of the past before she can face her future in Margit Liesch new novel Triptych.

In 1940, Edit Palmay left Hungary for China to meet her missionary husband. After World War II, they made their way to Chicago, where they raised their family, including their youngest child, Ildiko. Born in America, Ildiko never really listened when her mother told her tales of the old country or recounted what happened when Edit went back to Budapest to try to discover what became of her vanished sister, who may have been either a hero of the 1956 Hungarian Revolution or a spy for the hated secret police force AVO. Not until Edit is killed when she falls, or is pushed, under a train does Ildiko resolve to discover what really happened. Her romance with a married man has ended badly, but her mother's Hungarian friends introduce her to Gustav, a talented photographer who was involved in the revolution before escaping from Hungary. It's Gustav who points out some unsettling features in an uncompleted triptych that Edit made for her in needlework, which apparently tells the story of one of Ildiko's favorite fairy tales. Traveling to Hungary to visit her relatives and retrace her mother's footsteps, Ildiko finds the country still in the grip of communism and her relatives afraid of revealing too much. Gustav has also made the trip to see his dying uncle, whose past is interwoven with Edit's. In a shocking turn, Ildiko discovers that her mother's killer had a motive that goes all the way back to the revolution.

Triptych author Margit Liesch, the daughter of Hungarian refugees, cleverly weaves her family's history into a fine mystery that is an even finer tale about finding one's roots (Kirkus Reviews)