This review contains affiliate links, which earn me a small commission when you click and purchase, at no extra cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business and allowing me to continue providing you a reliable resource for clean book ratings.
August hasn’t been back to Saoirse Island for 14 years — ever since his grandfather’s orchard burned and one of his friends was found dead in the woods the night of their high school graduation. And nearly everyone on their small and insular island became convinced August was guilty of murder.
Now he’s back to bury his mother’s ashes, though he’s planning to leave as quickly as possible. People’s opinions about him haven’t changed. And while he’s missed the girl he loved for years, she isn’t welcoming him back.
Emery, for her part, is still hurting after August and his mother just disappeared without a trace soon after the fire and Lily’s death. The two teens had planned to escape their tight-knit, suffocating community, but then August left without a goodbye. She’s been stuck on Saoirse ever since, living a life she hadn’t wanted to live, running her late mother’s tea shop and halfheartedly dating Dutch, the other member of their group growing up.
August’s arrival opens old wounds and starts unearthing secrets that people want to stay buried. The culprit behind Lily’s death was never caught, the mystery unsolved. And there’s more to the reason August is unwelcome among the older leaders of the island, though neither he nor Emery knows about it.
Saoirse has always been home to magic; Emery grew up being taught out of a family book of spells. Now, as August arrives, the island itself feels unsettled. The truth will come out, but it will bring danger with it.
Spells for Forgetting is an atmospheric magical realism book with elements of romance, mystery and danger. I was interested in finding out what had happened in the past and in seeing how the love story of August and Emery would conclude. At the same time, I wasn’t as completely absorbed as I might have expected. It may be that the main characters were so guarded for so much of the book that I didn’t feel as invested in them as I may have been otherwise. I’m not sure. The novel is a more than passably good mystery and romance, but not one that will stick with me.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 25 uses of strong language, about 35 instances of moderate profanity, around 25 uses of mild language, and about a dozen instances of the name of Deity in vain. Sexual content includes mentions that characters were having sex without any scenes or details; characters stripping down to underwear or less to swim; and two sex scenes, one with a little bit of detail and another a little longer with somewhat more detail. Neither is lengthy. Violence includes some fights, a number of references to domestic abuse, and attempted murder as well as a murder. A teen girl drowns.
*I received an ARC in exchange for my honest review.
