The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender by Leslye Walton, Candlewick Press, 2014.
The Roux family has struggled with love for generations always putting barriers around their hearts to avoid getting hurt. Ava and her brother are the latest members of this extraordinary family that deals with pain, love, and lose in unique ways. Ava retells her family saga beginning with her great grandma and the Roux clan that moved from their French home to a new continent looking for fortune and love. Ava's grandmother Emile will move across the continent trying to avoid love just to end giving birth to a daughter, Vivien after losing her husband. Vivien grows up surrounded by magic remedies in the house at the end of Pinnacle Lane and like her ancestors love will find a way into her heart just to leave her mourning that lose for years to come while raising unique twins Ava and Henry. Ava had born resembling an angel with wings that embrace those around her and Henry with a gift for predicting the future. Their past, present, and future is surrounded by magical realism that only them can interpret and change.
This fast read will have the reader hooked into the next page to find what happens to Ava and her family. It reminded me of Isabel Allende's The House of the Spirits with its mix of magic, legend, passion, love, and mystical beliefs. Walton's descriptions create a vivid landscape of characters and locations.
