Synopsis

A deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true love.

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 Saiorse, 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.

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

I had an interesting reading experience reading Spells for Forgetting because my enjoyment of the book varied so widely throughout. I went from feeling like this book wasn’t for me, to being invested in the town’s problems, to feeling detached again. So I’m rating this one in the middle overall.
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I think the main issue I had while reading this book was that the characters sometimes felt juvenile for their age. This is due in part from them tying up loose ends from their teens, but that being said, I do think that this would make a good recommendation for someone looking to explore outside of YA, especially because the author often writes YA.
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I really liked the ominous feel to the island, and the way that it’s almost personified at times. Although this is a fantasy novel it really does feel more like a mystery/thriller, so I think there’d be a lot of crossover interest with mystery fans.
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That being said, we do have the magic element to this story, which I’m usually a fan of, but I didn’t like it as much here. It’s surprisingly often absent throughout the story, so much so that when it does appear, it felt like it was being used more as a plot device more than anything. I felt like the fact that there was magic involved in this book was easily forgettable, despite the title – making it stand out a little too much when it’s actually used.
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What I was most invested in throughout were the character’s relationships and histories with one another, which I think was done well. But overall, I found this book to be just okay. It’s definitely one I’ll still recommend, but I do think it will fare better for a younger adult demographic.