Very atmospheric, but I feel like I went into this one expecting a lot more magic and mystery than I ended up getting. Still a solid read that I think enjoyers of second chance romances with a dash of mystery would highly enjoy!

I loved the premise of this book, set on an island and filled with magic, but for some reason the premise the actual plot didn't quite tie up for me.
This essentially a love story between Emery Blackwood and August Salt. On the evening of their graduation something terrible happens on the island and their plans for running away are scuppered. When August returns some fourteen years later to bury his mother's ashes on the island, he is met with anger and hatred from the islanders who had driven him away. Even Emery with whom he'd been so passionate about and who had loved him beyond all else is unable to believe he is back and that he is innocent of the things he stands accused of. Slowly and eventually together they begin to unravel the secrets the islands have made and kept over the years and they are at last able to be together.
The book has a slow start and is told from multiple points of view in very short chapters which I found rather distracting. I really liked the setting with the tea shop and the orchard and the town that wraps itself up for the winter when the tourists disappear. I also like the foretelling with the sudden onset of winter and the starling strike - in fact I would have liked to read far more of this.
A couple of points jarred a bit. Given how damp and rainy the island was I found it hard to believe that the Salt cottage had survived fourteen years with no work done on it and no one going inside. I would have thought it would have been hideously mouldy and somewhat tumbledown. And secondly, given how much of a loser Dutch was I found it surprising he was given control of the orchard given how important it was to the island.
I liked the characters and the personality of Lily was revealed carefully and well, creating just the right amount of mystery.
All in all, an interesting read, but something of a slow burn. I would be happy to try another book from this author.
With thanks to Netgalley and Quercus Books for an arc in return for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley & Quercus books for this arc in exchange for a review. I always enjoy this authors writing and this book was no exception. Set on a fictional island of the coast of Washington state, it follows multiple POVs and centres around a murder years before the book is set with flashbacks throughout. I thoroughly enjoyed this and didn’t find the mystery to be too predictable! Loved the setting and premise behind this book. I love a sentient island! Can’t wait to see what the author comes out with next.

Spells For Forgetting by Adrienne Young
I give this book 4.5 stars

Emery Blackwood's life was forever changed on the eve of her high school graduation, when the love of her life, August Salt, was accused of murdering her best friend, Lily..
August returns after fourteen years to bury his mother's ashes, Emery must confront her first love and the reason he left so abruptly. As the island begins to show signs of strange happenings, the emergence of deep betrayals and hidden promises threatens to reveal the truth behind Lily's death once and for all.

This is the authors first adult fiction and l was excited to read it.
Magic is only a small element in this story so it feels like a great choice if you’re interested in trying out fantasy.Told from multiple pov’s and flashbacks,the author weaves an incredible tale full of a small island community that is seated in secrets, betrayal, an unsolved murder and young love.The imagery is beautifully vivid and Saiorse felt so real. l loved the slow burn it felt needed in this storyline and allowed me to connect with Emery and August as their lives crossed paths again.
This is the perfect read with Autumn just round the corner…. Grab your copy and enjoy!
With thanks to Netgalley.Adrienne Young and Quercus Books for my chance to read and review this book

What a beautiful, magical book. I could not put this down. It's perfect for a rainy, autumn day.
I loved how magic was woven into the story, it made it more authentic and mysterious. The writing was beautiful, and I enjoyed all the different POVs. I'm not rating it 5 stars because I found it very slow in the beginning and rushed at the end and although I loved it overall, things still seemed unsolved and the emotional reunion I was expecting was kind of disappointing.

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC.

I am utterly speechless. This book had me on the edge of my seat the entire time. This was 100% NOT what I was expecting from my current favourite author, Adrienne Young, but I was NOT disappointed!! This was so different to all her other works but I loved it just as much if not more.

I absolutely love the plot twists that are scattered everywhere. Who do you trust when everyone you thought you knew has betrayed you? This is a gripping thriller full of lies, deception, betrayal, ancestral magic, an island of no escape, and ultimately love and loyalty.

I am in awe of AY’s talent yet again.

This was a delight of a book. Some books need a slow pace, and this was one of them. It was deliciously slow and I savoured every moment of it. I did find the ending a tad rushed. I would have loved to see it dragged out a little more. But other than that, I absolutely loved this and I can highly recommend it.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this book.

August and Emery were destined to be together and planned to run away to the mainland after graduation. But following the mysterious death of the friend Lily, a crime for which everyone blamed August, he was forced to leave with his mother, without a word to anyone. August returns to the island of Saoirse after 14 years, following the death of his mother, to bury her ashes their at his mothers request. Many old feelings resurface, along with questions about what really happens that night.

This book had the perfect fall atmosphere with a mix of magic. I loved the relationship between Emery and August and the glimpses into their past together. It was such a sweet relationship between the two before August had to leave; More importantly, though, I wanted to know if they still had that spark to reignite everything. I liked that the book switched between Emery and August’s POV’s with the reader occasionally getting a glimpse at another town members POV. I think this strengthened the sense of mystery and deception, you can’t trust anyone fully because they are all keeping their own secrets.

My only problem with this books was that because the majority of the book focused on the characters and their history there wasn’t much development of the mystery until about the 70% mark. This made the ending feel a little rushed, which was why I gave it 4 stars rather than 5 but overall I did really enjoy this book.

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review. Spells for Forgetting sounds on paper like exactly my kind of book, a slow atmospheric story with mystery and magic set in a small town. However unfortunately it really didn't work for me in execution. However reading other reviews I definitely seem to be in the minority here so if the pitch sounds like something you would enjoy then I would recommend checking it out still.

Pros:
What I thought this book actually did best was the exploration of secrets and the impact those can have on a community.

The characters were fine and Emery in particular was compelling and the one with the drive to uncover the mysteries of the island.

The mystery elements were enjoyable and how the mystery unfolded and the reveal was satisfying.

Cons:
None of the characters had a particularly had a very distinctive voice which is hard when the book is multi perspective first person POV as I constantly had to flick back and check who I was reading from.

For me the biggest let down were the lack of atmosphere and vibes. This felt like any small town and found nothing haunting or magical about the island. In fact most of the time I totally forgot we were even on an island.

The pacing seemed a bit all over the place, for most of the book nothing really happened, I think this was an attempt to be slow moving and atmospheric but just for me did work.

Overall interesting concept loved the idea but ultimately did not deliver.

Interesting mix of mystery and magic realism.

Lily, Emery, August and Dutch were inseparable as children until the night of the orchard fire when Lily was killed. Accused of this crime, August fled the island, breaking Emery's heart. Now he has returned to bury his mother's ashes, and thus awakened the magic of the island, but also the mysteries that had piled up over the years. Who really killed Lily, and what secrets are Emery, August, Dutch and the rest of the island hiding?

The magic part of this story went well with the suspense. The whole mystery was very much related to the magic of the island. Yet there was something very human about it too. Together it created a really amazing atmosphere. In general, if you are a fan of stories where the atmosphere of the place is important, this is the book for you. We never really know if the magic of the island is good or bad or what it really is. But it can be a pretty good metaphor for its inhabitants.

I don't like flashbacks in my stories and here too, sometimes there were a bit too many for me. Even without this number of chapters about the past, I understood quite well the dynamics of the whole group and the feelings between August and Emery. But it wasn't much of a problem. I admit that some mess might have been avoided if August and Emery had really talked to each other. But I understand well the reasons why they were unable to do so. Overall, I liked the story a lot. How the various mysteries of the island and its inhabitants intertwined was truly fascinating.

I rarely read magic realism and this book was rather on the verge of what I normally read, but I liked how solid the mystery part was. This is a really good story and the world created by the author is fascinating.

This was my forst foray into Adrienne Young’s books, I had relatively high expectations due to the popularity of Fable and Namesake, and I was quite happy with how the book turned out to be! I expected a murder-mystery set in a mysterious island, with lots of intricate relationships, and I was pleasantly surprised with how everything turned out. The atmosphere was incredible!! Super haunting and compelling, this is definitely an Autumn read, and it felt as though I was on a small island with a lot of history and folklore.

Spells for Forgetting is written from multiple PoVs, goes back and forth between what happened 18 years ago and what’s currently happening, and also switched from third person to first person at one point – this may sound like a lot, but it worked so well and I was never confused! Each different time or PoV was clearly marked, and it made the story flow really nicely so that I felt like I was slowly uncovering the truth of what happened. The pacing was really good for the most part, the story drew me in and I felt as though I was slowly getting lost in the book, but unfortunately towards the end the pacing felt a bit more off! Everything was so well done up until the grand reveal, but then I felt like things just sort of stopped in a way? Like, everything that happened after that pivotal moment felt a bit more rushed and vastly different from the careful, slow and captivaging writing I had gotten used to.

Our main characters here are childhood lovers Emery and August, who both grew up on the island of Saoirse alongside their friends Lily and Dutch. One night fourteen years ago, huge fires raged over August’s family orchard and Lily was found dead in the woods, August was blamed, but there was never any proof he did it. August and his mother left everyone behind, and fourteen years later August has returned. I thought the main two characters were quite compelling, we didn’t learn tooo much about them from memory, but I enjoyed looking at things from their perspectives and I felt so many of their conflicting emotions! There’s a lot of other side characters here that I didn’t care for, and a few times I did get mixed up between them since it felt like not a lot of them had proper roles to play.

I think overall though, I did quite enjoy the book at the time of reading, but the ending left me feeling unsatisfied so I quickly moved onto another book. I would recommend this book, especially for those in the Northern Hemisphere with Autumn and Winter coming up! If you’ve read it, please let me know what you thought!

I received a review copy from the publisher via NetGalley, this does not change nor affect my opinion in anyway.

Very interesting mystery / magic combination. Loved the setting, you really felt you were on the island of Saoirse with its beauty but also its insularity. A little slow to start however but an engaging story

Spells for forgetting is a complex web of secrets, romance, and a haunting atmosphere that lingers long after you’ve put the book down.
Saoirse is an island rooted in folklore, tradition, and superstition with a tight-knit community stuck in the ways of the past.
The plot follows August as he returns to the island where he was accused of murder. Thrown back into the past he has to face shadows that haunt him including Emery the girl he loves but had to leave.

Intense, dark whodunnit mystery with twists and turns that you don’t see coming and a romance that captivates from the beginning and leaves you unable to put the book down until it’s over.

I absolutely loved this read and would highly recommend it!

Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review

The writing in this one was really stunning - beautiful descriptions and extremely immersive. This is definitely where Adrienne’s strengths as a writer really shine through.

Unfortunately, I found the book to be too lacking of magic from the impression it’s name gave and extremely slow in its pace. I’m not sure for example we needed a whole chapter of a character visiting the post office.

For those who don’t mind a very slow burn book, this is an enjoyable read. But for me it wasn’t what I believed was being sold to me based on the name of the book.

I'm not sure how I want to rate this... 3.5 stars out of 5 perhaps?
I've read most of Adrienne Young's books so far (Fable still being my favourite) and this is her first Adult book.
However it read just like her other books and I think YA readers will like this just as much.

It was a bit slow paced. The setting and feel of the book were great.
But one thing that I also found with some of her other books is that sometimes it takes a while and then the ending is suddenly rushed. Also, some characters deserve more backstory, or more from their point of view or something.

It is, however, a nice read and the story itself I really liked!

Thank you Netgalley for the ARC, really appreciated it :)

A young man returns to the island of Saoirse in the Puget Sound to bury his mother’s ashes in the place that was their home before they were forced to flee, leaving behind the girl he loved. He was accused of killing a young woman after their high school graduation and now that he is back the tight knit community want him gone before there is any more trouble. He is also keen to leave as soon as possible and get back to the life he has forged for himself on the mainland, but Saoirse’s ancient deep-rooted magic holds him back.

This is a dark and atmospheric tale of secrets, treachery and wrongs that need to be righted. The ominous island is very much a character in its own right with its power felt through the hold it has on the community, their superstitions and the magical abilities of the women. The plot develops slowly, but suspensefully with alternating points of view and flashbacks to the time leading up to the death of the young woman. The writing is both evocative and lovely with a love story at its heart and a satisfying ending that pulls all the pieces together to put right what has been troubling the island.

I really really wanted to love this book; the synopsis sounded to intriguing and I couldn't wait to read it after hearing so many good things about the author's other books.

But at almost 40% it was almost a DNF for me because it was so slow and nothing at all had happened by that point. The plot didn't really start picking up until about halfway through but it wasn't until around 85% that anything of actual interest happened and then all of the plot seemed to have been saved for that final chunk. I felt really disappointed by this because it's as if the whole story relied solely on the ending and there wasn't enough of a plot to pull it forward through the rest of the book.

I did like the ending but it also didn't leave me very surprised as all the pieces had already fell into place, so it was a bit anticlimactic.

2/5 ⭐

Thank you to Netgalley, Quercus Books and the author for the review copy, provided in exchange for an honest opinion.

I couldn't wait to read the first adult book by Adrienne Young, who is now a favourite author of mine.
Spells for Forgetting conveys a very great spooky and claustrophobic atmosphere right from the beginning. I could feel Saoirse, smell it; it really felt real. The family dynamics but also the "small town" element were really well written. It is a rather slow book and this aspect really serves the atmospheric aspect of it...Sadly, the pace isn't as well managed regarding the mystery. The back and forth between past and present should create some urgency and tension as we get closer to "that night"...but it is just anticlimactic as we don't get much more information each time we visit the past. There are so many repetitions in this book! At first I didn't even mind, but it is evident that it lessens the impact of each statement, sentiment or feeling. It kept going in circles and neither the story nor the characters were evolving and it was truly boring at times.
Some revelations were satisfying, even surprising. Some others were kind of easy/ clichés and honestly so very unsurprising that they should happen earlier in the book.
The ending was rushed. Some things remain unsaid. And I can't say I liked what was supposed to be the climax.
It seems to me that the book needed more editing, some things are missing, some things needed to be cut out, It could have been so much better. I didn't really dislike it but I can't say I loved it either. I will definitely keep reading Adrienne Young's books because i love the worlds she imagines, but this book needed to be perfected.

I've read all of AY's work, and I've enjoyed them all, and this is no exception.

If I told you this gave me sort of Veroinca Mars vibes only adult and mystical, would that make sense? Maybe it's just because there's a dead best friend named Lily, I don't know.

So this was really atmospheric. I loved the idea of the Island of Saorise. The spooky, witchy vibes were really on point. This is a perfect autumn book. I could really picture the Island in my head.

I also became invested in the characters because they were treated so unfairly. The thing that gripped me most though was trying to figure out what happened to Lily and who was involved. You're given small tidbits throughout the story that make you question everything.

There were one or two things that I wanted to tweak though. Firstly, this really isn't that much different from the author's ya books apart from the ages of the characters. I think this is just because of it being her first adult book though, but I do think it could have been cemented a little bit more. As it is I think older teens could read this with no problem at all.

ENDING SPOILERS:

The other thing is I think there were certain characters who's motivations could have been explained even further. By this I mean [ Dutch and Lily (hide spoiler)]. We started to get something really interesting there, but it ended up being sort of surface level because you don't get much of their pov. I wanted to compare it to 'Faithful place' by Tana French, one of the best mysteries that covers similar themes to this story. In that story [ The death/mystery occurs because of circumstance. Because of the fear of being left behind. Because the killer had given up so much, it was his turn to get out of that life. This is sort of what Young was going for here with Dutch and with Lily (though Dutch wasn't a killer) but it just never had room to breathe and go in depth. I would have felt sympathy for them except they ended up being cartoon villains, especially Dutch. It's a shame because if this had just been explored a little bit more it would have really been amazing. (hide spoiler)]

All in all I really enjoyed this though. You can tell the author put a lot of love and effort into the descriptions and the magic. I would definitely recommend if you want an autumn book to sink into. [ I would also like to formally submit a request for a sequel about that epilogue

I had such high hopes for this book, i have read all of Adrienne’s books and loved them all. As this was her first Adult novel, i was intrigued. Unfortunately it felt like a YA book as they kept referring to there past a lot and i understand that this was the basis of the story, i felt that the adult characters hadn’t grown up and were stuck in their teenage personalities even though they’d gone through so much. The ending also really let me down, i felt like i missed a chapter as it just ended so abruptly before the epilogue.
I feel like this could of been an amazing book with a little more added.