First Frost (waverley Family, #2)

The second novel in Sarah Addison Allen's Waverley family series, set in Bascom, North Carolina, follows a family of women who each possess unexplained magical gifts during a turbulent autumn leading up to the year's first frost.

Fifteen-year-old Bay Waverley-Hopkins possesses the gift of knowing where things belong. Every afternoon, she runs to the Waverley house on Pendland Street, where her aunt Claire Waverley makes hard candy in a commercial kitchen. Claire once ran a successful catering business using edible flowers from the enchanted Waverley garden to create dishes that altered people's moods. After discovering a candy recipe in her late grandmother Mary's kitchen journal, she launched Waverley's Candies, which became wildly popular following a Southern Living feature. Demand has grown so large that Claire now purchases commercial flower essences instead of harvesting them from the garden. No one has noticed the difference, which torments Claire and makes her question whether her gift was ever real.

In the Waverley backyard stands an apple tree older than the house itself. It blooms all winter, produces small pink apples through summer, then goes dormant until the first frost startles it awake. The almanac predicts first frost will fall on Halloween, a week and a half away. Before it arrives, the Waverleys grow restless, giving their hearts away too easily and wanting things they cannot have.

Bay is secretly in love with Josh Matteson, a popular senior. She wrote him a note explaining she belongs with him and has waited on the school steps every afternoon, but he has never come. Meanwhile, a mysterious elderly man in a gray suit appears on the downtown green. That night, Claire spots the same figure across the street from the Waverley house, but when she goes outside, he is gone, leaving behind a familiar scent she cannot place.

The stranger is Russell Zahler, an elderly con man who once performed as the Great Banditi, a carnival magician. After reading about Claire's candy business, he travels to Bascom and charms Anne Ainsley, the bored, thrice-divorced sister of the Pendland Street Inn's owner, into giving him a room without payment in exchange for his stories.

Bay's mother, Sydney Waverley-Hopkins, runs a hair salon called the White Door. Her gift is her uncanny skill with hair: A cut from her can turn a client's entire day around. She privately yearns for another child with her husband Henry Hopkins, a dairy farmer who adopted Bay. Sydney left Bascom at 18 after Josh's father, Hunter John Matteson, ended their three-year relationship on graduation day by telling her Matteson sons marry girls from the right families, not Waverleys. She ended up in Seattle in an abusive relationship with Bay's biological father before returning to Bascom when Bay was five.

When Bay learns students have bet on whether she will attend the Halloween dance to pursue Josh, she impulsively tells her friend Phineus Young he is taking her. Phin, a lanky boy from a family known as the strongest men in town, seems an unlikely candidate; he has confided to Bay that he likes a classmate named Riva Alexander. At the Waverley house, Bay finds a teal-green 1920s dress matching one Grandmother Mary wore in old photos, and Sydney styles Bay's hair with flowers. Among the photos, the family discovers a kitchen journal labeled "Karl," a name no one recognizes, with every page blacked out.

At the dance, a fight breaks out between Josh and a rival school player. A blur resembling someone in a bedsheet knocks the attacker away. Bay helps the injured Josh escape, and he drives her home. Sydney sees Josh's car and grounds Bay, recognizing the start of a pattern she lived through herself.

Sydney also contends with Violet Turnbull, her 18-year-old receptionist and a single mother, who grows increasingly unreliable. Sydney recognizes her own younger self in Violet and tries to offer alternatives, but Violet is determined to leave Bascom.

On Monday, Josh finally approaches Bay on the school steps, returning her phone and staying to talk. He confides his dread of working at Matteson Enterprises, his family's business. On Wednesday evening, Bay sneaks out to meet him on the downtown green. Their faces draw close until Josh's phone rings: Sydney has discovered Bay missing. The whole family converges, including Claire; her husband, Tyler; and their nine-year-old daughter, Mariah. Across the green, Claire notices lights on at Sydney's locked salon. They discover that Violet broke in with her key, emptied the safe, and fled town. That night, Sydney reveals her full history with Hunter John to Bay and warns her that Mattesons do not marry Waverleys. Bay listens but insists Josh belongs in her life.

Thursday morning, Russell arrives at Claire's door. He shows her a photo of himself with Lorelei, Claire and Sydney's long-absent mother, and a dark-haired couple with a toddler, claiming Lorelei stole Claire from the couple as a baby. He demands her entire summer profit. Devastated, Claire calls Sydney for help for the first time in her adult life. Sydney arrives with Bay and their elderly relative Evanelle Franklin, whose gift compels her to give people objects they will later need. Sydney identifies Russell as a con man who exploited Claire's deepest fear of not being a real Waverley, assuring her that the magic resides in Claire herself, not the garden. Evanelle recognizes Karl in the old photos as Mary's unfaithful husband and the sisters' grandfather, whose betrayal turned Mary into a recluse. Claire announces she is quitting the candy business to return to catering.

Friday morning, Claire bakes fig and pepper bread, reconnecting with her passion. When Russell returns for payment, she offers him a slice and dares him to eat it. He refuses, revealing his fear of her gift. Russell concedes defeat. His thoughts reveal the truth: The photo was a coincidence. Lorelei was Claire's real mother; Russell briefly dated her before she stole from him and vanished. He remembers her touching an apple and covering it in frost, her genuine Waverley gift.

Anne proposes driving Russell to Florida in exchange for his stories. Russell initially refuses but gets in her car at the last moment. Bay, having deduced where Russell was staying, catches them before they leave. Russell confirms that Claire is Lorelei's real daughter and reveals that Lorelei's gift was frost, the ability to turn things cold with a touch.

Sydney confesses to Henry that she has been trying to conceive because she feels she owes him a son. Henry tells her that she and Bay are his world. Sydney then visits Josh and tells him Bay cannot live in his world, but he can choose to live in hers. She invites him to the first frost party.

On Halloween morning, the first frost arrives and the apple tree bursts into bloom. Claire cooks a feast, and the family gathers in the garden that evening. Mariah reveals that her friend Em is not imaginary but the spirit of Grandmother Mary, who has always been in the house. Mary's message explains that the blacked-out Karl journal contained only declarations of love she crossed out when she stopped loving him. Sydney watches the gate until Josh walks in. Bay rushes to him, overjoyed, and looks up at the falling petals, which resemble the snow flurries she always envisioned when she pictured herself with Josh.

After the party, Violet appears at Sydney and Henry's door with her baby, Charlie, having realized she cannot care for him and pursue her own future at the same time. She hands the baby to Sydney along with his belongings and a custody letter.

On Monday, Bay recognizes from a video that the blur at the dance was Phin in his bedsheet, confirming he truly is the strongest man in town. Phin shows her a note from Riva, still unopened as he savors the possibilities. In a bonus epilogue six months later, Anne has settled at a Florida charity camp after Russell slipped away to resume his wandering. She encounters Violet, now pursuing a cosmetology degree, and walks away feeling transformed.