First Frost

Ten years after the events in her novel Garden Spells, author Sarah Addison Allen returns to the world of the Waverley families with First Frost. In the weeks leading up to the year’s first cold snap, the women of the Waverley family behave unusually. Everyone is restless, wanting things, unable to focus, making mistakes. Everything will be better after the first frost of the year, but Claire, Sydney, and Bay aren’t sure they’re going to make it! Sydney is struggling with her thwarted dreams of more children, while Bay finds herself drawn to a boy her family disapproves of. Meanwhile, Claire is targeted by a con man who just might have found a way to get right to her heart.

Readers will benefit from having read Garden Spells, but a prior knowledge of the Waverley sisters is not necessary to enjoy First Frost. Claire and Sydney are both happily married and closer than ever, while their own daughters are growing up. Their world is a curious blend of mundane and magic, and readers will quickly find themselves sucked into Allen’s writing. The story is fun and fanciful, and it is easy to find oneself getting carried away and spending half the night absorbed in these pages!