Spells for Forgetting
A Novel
-
- $5.99
Publisher Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • “Lush with secrets, magic, and a past that won’t stay where it belongs, this novel is (quite fittingly) spellbinding.”—JODI PICOULT, author of Wish You Were Here
A deeply atmospheric story about ancestral magic, an unsolved murder, and a second chance at true love
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: She Reads
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. 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.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Young's atmospheric adult debut (after the Fable YA duology), "deep magic" runs in the women of Saoirse, a fictional island in Puget Sound. After high school graduation, Emery Blackwood hopes to move away with her boyfriend, August Salt, but when the island's orchard burns to the ground on the same night that Emery's best friend, Lily Morgan, is mysteriously killed, their plans to leave the next morning are aborted. All signs point to August as the culprit behind Lily's death, but there's not enough evidence to charge him, and he and his mother flee Saoirse, leaving Emery to take over her family's tea shop, which dispenses "mystical brews" to help with love and luck. Now, 14 years later, August returns to Saoirse to bury his mother and sell her cottage. August's return raises questions about what actually happened all those years ago, and it appears every islander is hiding a piece of the puzzle. The plot is convoluted, but Young entrances with the island's witchy vibes, and makes palpable the unfinished childhood love story between Emery and August, which comes back to life after his return. Despite the bumps, Young casts a spell that will keep readers turning the pages. Barbara Poelle, Irene Goodman Literary.
Customer Reviews
Remarkable
Spellbinding and unforgettable.
Amazing
I loved this book, it made me cry and I loved all the details, it made the world real. It reminded me a bit of twin peaks meets I know what you did last summer.
So good….
Very intense. I couldn’t put it down!