Season of the Dragonflies by Sarah Creech

Season of the Dragonflies is the debut novel by Sarah Creech that takes place in the Blue Ridge Mountains. It has magical elements and is a story of sisters, family, and how even those with special gifts don’t always foresee things happening in their own lives.

Book Description

“As beguiling as the novels of Alice Hoffman, Adriana Trigiani, Aimee Bender, and Sarah Addison Allen,Season of the Dragonflies is a story of flowers, sisters, practical magic, old secrets, and new love, set in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

For generations, the Lenore women have manufactured a perfume unlike any other, and guarded the unique and mysterious ingredients. Their perfumery, hidden in the quiet rolling hills of the Blue Ridge Mountains, creates one special elixir that secretly sells for millions of dollars to the world’s most powerful—movie stars, politicians, artists, and CEOs. The Lenore’s signature perfume is actually the key to their success.

Willow, the coolly elegant Lenore family matriarch, is the brains behind the company. Her gorgeous, golden-haired daughter Mya is its heart. Like her foremothers, she can “read” scents and envision their power. Willow’s younger daughter, dark-haired, soulful Lucia, claims no magical touch, nor does she want any part of the family business. She left the mountains years ago to make her own way. But trouble is brewing. Willow is experiencing strange spells of forgetfulness. Mya is plotting a coup. A client is threatening blackmail. And most ominously, the unique flowers used in their perfume are dying.

Whoever can save the company will inherit it. Though Mya is the obvious choice, Lucia has begun showing signs of her own special abilities. And her return to the mountains—heralded by a swarm of blue dragonflies—may be the answer they all need.” – Season of the Dragonflies

My Thoughts

Season of the Dragonflies is a good read. It offers a rather interesting storyline and the characters are fitting for the story. However, I didn’t exactly like any of them, which makes it hard as a reader to care much about the outcome of the story. The Lenore women all seemed a bit boring to me, and only Lucia really stood out to me at all, and it wasn’t that much.

I didn’t hate the book by any means. I just didn’t love it, and I really wanted to because it seemed like such a cool idea for a book! Maybe I came in with too high of expectations, because after I read it, my Mom read it, and absolutely loved it. So, don’t just go off of my review on it.

Overall, this is a good debut novel. It offers the reader a fun escape as a good travel or vacation book. It offers a magical realism that I enjoyed, but it was not quite on par with other similar books I have read. I think that as the author grows as a writer, her works will reach that level, so she is definitely one I’d like to read more from in the future.

* Thank you to the publisher of Season of the Dragonflies, William Morrow, for providing me with a copy of this book for review. All opinions expressed are my own.