by Adrienne Young
September 27, 2022
Goodreads Summary:
Emery Blackwood’s life changed forever the night her best friend was found dead and the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her. Years later, she is doing what her teenage self swore she never would: living a quiet existence on the misty, remote shores of Saoirse Island and running the family’s business, Blackwood’s Tea Shoppe Herbal Tonics & Tea Leaf Readings. But when the island, rooted in folklore and magic, begins to show signs of strange happenings, Emery knows that something is coming. The morning she wakes to find that every single tree on Saoirse has turned color in a single night, August returns for the first time in fourteen years and unearths the past that the town has tried desperately to forget.
August knows he is not welcome on Saoirse, not after the night everything changed. As a fire raged on at the Salt family orchard, Lily Morgan was found dead in the dark woods, shaking the bedrock of their tight-knit community and branding August a murderer. When he returns to bury his mother’s ashes, he must confront the people who turned their backs on him and face the one wound from his past that has never healed—Emery. But the town has more than one reason to want August gone, and the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises spanning generations threaten to reveal the truth behind Lily’s mysterious death once and for all.
Review
Spells for Forgetting hooked me with its deeply atmospheric setting. The story was haunting and the characters expertly creepy. This was not my usual type of read but I enjoyed it!
What I Liked:
- captivating writing
- I was wholly absorbed by the island
- multiple POVs that were short and to the point
- intense relationships and friendships
- Emery's strength (in doing what's right)
- August's love for his mother
- Emery and August's connection was undeniable
- seeing how people can have different sides to them
- knowing what the town council was capable of
- evil did not prevail
The Not So Much:
- Dutch felt like a convenient complication
- the truth behind Lily's death was anticlimactic
- the ending felt weak
"I'd been in love with August Salt since before I knew what the words meant. I don't know when it happened- the narrow space between seconds, when a spark like the birth of a hundred stars found a home in my blood. Since then, every day had been colored with the glittering light of it dragging me in its wake, pulling me beneath its surface. And I didn't care. If this was what it was like to drown, then for the rest of my life, I didn't want to take another sip of air." (p. 289)
Ooh nice! I still need to read this one (that's likely to be written on my tombstone, lol!)! I thought it sounded intriguing! Glad to hear it was a mostly enjoyable read! Nice review!
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