This is one of my least favorite types of books: essentially a boilerplate romance dressed up as literature. The conceit is a good one: Two sisters living in their family home in a small North Carolina town caretake a garden where the plants all have special properties and cater meals to achieve magical results. But the author never really makes me believe in the powers of the garden or the charms of the sisters. The romances are predictable and unfold too easily, the conflict is negligible, the ending flat and contrived. Allen really needs to try harder.

I really enjoyed this book. I thought of the movie, Practical Magic while reading this book. It’s similar in the fact that they are stories of two adult sisters, raised by women that were not their mothers and have gifts and talents that the average person does not. There’s also a bad guy which is the story’s antagonist, but I’m glad the author didn’t focus on that too much. Overall, it’s a light-hearted book and while pretty much predictable, it was enjoyable. It even involves a tree that has human-like mannerisms and feelings!