I don’t think this is her best book, although part of the problem is that Garden Spells is my favorite of her books and therefore any sequel is going to have to really impress me. This one–felt a little slight. I certainly enjoyed it, and as usual her writing is lovely, but I didn’t find it as deep or touching as her others.

Just in case your TBR pile is not enough, here are some suggestions for this night! :)

This was the second in my mini-binge. Maybe it was reading it on public transit in Chicago, but it didn’t have quite the same magic that either Girl or Garden Spells had. In particular, I figured out a plot point really early and couldn’t see why the main character didn’t. After finishing, I think she was meant to be wilfully blind, but I also wish that thread had been handled a little differently. It’s still a lovely book, but not my favorite.

Earlier this year, I read The Girl Who Chased the Moon, and really liked it. I’d been meaning to read some of Sarah Addison Allen’s other books, and then I went on a little mini-binge. Garden Spells was lovely, from the characters to the description of the edible plants, down to the sheer sentence-level writing.

This is the first book by Sarah Addison Allen I’ve read and I found it very lovely. I think it’s really out and out fantasy, just of a quieter kind than perhaps genre readers are used it. (But then I’ve never really understood what the point of the magical realism label is, other than as a way for authors to claim that they’re ‘literary’.) Anyway, I liked it a lot and will definitely be back for more.