About Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young: An Island Mystery of Old Love, Ancestral Magic, and Buried Truths
Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young carries readers to Saoirse, a remote island in the Pacific Northwest where mist covers the shore and old stories still guide daily life. Emery Blackwood runs her family tea shop, serving herbal drinks and reading tea leaves for visitors. From the outside, her life looks calm. Inside, she is still living with the pain of one terrible night that changed everything fourteen years ago.
On that night, Emery's best friend, Lily Morgan, was found dead in the woods. A fire also burned at the Salt family orchard, and Emery's first love, August Salt, was blamed for Lily's murder. August left the island with his mother while the people of Saoirse closed around their secrets. The case was never truly solved, but the island chose its answer and never forgot it.
Now August must return to bury his mother's ashes. His arrival brings back old love, anger, fear, and questions that many people hoped would stay hidden. As strange signs appear across the island, Emery and August are pulled toward the past and toward each other. Finding the truth may clear one name, but it could also break the whole community apart.
When a familiar mystery feels too easy to guess
Some murder stories move so quickly that the people and setting feel thin. Some romances feel sweet but offer little danger. This novel gives readers both, while allowing each part of the story to develop with care. Its mystery grows slowly through memory, silence, family secrets, and small changes in the island. Every new clue raises another question about what happened to Lily and why so many people have remained quiet for so long. Its romance carries the weight of fourteen lost years, so every meeting between Emery and August has a reason to matter. Their old feelings return alongside doubt, grief, and the fear that learning the truth may destroy the fragile life they have built.
What is Spells for Forgetting about?
The novel follows Emery Blackwood and August Salt, two people whose young love ended after Lily Morgan's death. August was accused, driven away, and treated as guilty even though the murder remained unsolved. Emery stayed on Saoirse and built a quiet life among people who knew her past but rarely spoke honestly about it.
When August returns, every old bond is tested. He wants to honour his mother's final wish and face the place he had to leave. Emery must decide whether she trusts the boy she once loved, the man he has become, or the island that raised her. Their search brings old promises, family choices, and hidden betrayals into the light.
Emery stayed when part of her wanted to leave
Emery once imagined a future with August. After he was blamed for Lily's death, that future disappeared. She remained on Saoirse and took responsibility for Blackwood's Tea Shoppe, where herbal tonics and tea leaf readings attract islanders and tourists. The shop connects her to the women in her family and to the gentle magic that flows through their lives.
Staying has given Emery a place, but it has also kept her close to every painful memory. Everyone knows who she is. People remember whom she loved and what happened to her friend. Her daily life is shaped by the same community that offers comfort, work, and control.
August's return makes it harder for Emery to accept the story she has been given. Feelings she buried begin to rise, and small facts stop fitting together. She must choose whether safety means leaving the past alone or finally asking questions that could change her home forever.
August returns to the island that rejected him
August was only eighteen when the island decided he was a murderer. He and his mother went to the mainland, changed their name, and tried to begin again. Even after fourteen years, Saoirse remains part of him. His mother's last wish forces him to cross the water and return to the people who turned away.
August also has to face Emery. Their love did not end because their feelings were small. It was broken by blame, distance, and choices made when they were young. Meeting again gives them a second chance, but it also asks whether love can survive after trust has been damaged for so long.
Saoirse Island feels alive
Saoirse is fictional, yet it feels like a place with its own memory. The island depends on the sea, the orchard, local shops, and seasonal visitors. People know one another's families, habits, and mistakes. A ferry can provide a way out, but the water also makes the community feel closed and separate from the wider world.
Nature carries meaning throughout the story. Trees change colour in a single night. Wind, fire, fog, salt water, herbs, and the dark woods shape the mood and move the mystery forward. The island seems to react when August comes home, as if the land knows that an old balance has been disturbed.
Magic is quiet but important
The women of Saoirse carry old knowledge connected to herbs, signs, nature, and family tradition. Their magic is not shown through grand battles or bright displays. It moves gently through the story, making ordinary things feel charged with meaning.
This soft approach keeps the murder mystery close to real human choices. Magic may warn, guide, or reflect what is changing, but it does not remove guilt or solve every problem. People still have to speak, search, remember, and decide whom they are willing to protect.
A cold case opens through many voices
The story uses several points of view and moves between the present and the past. Emery and August stand at its heart, but other islanders also reveal what they saw, feared, wanted, or hid. Each voice adds another piece without giving the full answer too early.
This structure shows how one event can create many different memories. A person may believe they protected a loved one while someone else sees betrayal. A silence that once seemed kind may become harmful after fourteen years. The reader must compare the voices and decide where the truth may be hiding.
Old love returns with unfinished pain
The bond between Emery and August gives the mystery its emotional centre. They were young when they planned a life together, and neither fully escaped what happened after Lily died. Their reunion holds longing, anger, doubt, and the fear of being hurt again.
This is a second-chance romance, but love does not arrive as an easy cure. August cannot erase the years Emery spent alone on the island. Emery cannot undo the way he was judged and sent away. Before they can imagine a future, they must understand what separated them.
The island protects its own version of truth
A small community can offer belonging, help, and shared tradition. It can also punish anyone who threatens the story people have agreed to believe. On Saoirse, old families and close ties make it difficult to ask a hard question without touching many lives.
What makes this novel worth reading
- An unsolved murder gives the story a clear and gripping mystery.
- A second-chance romance adds longing and deep emotional stakes.
- Fictional Saoirse Island creates a misty Pacific Northwest setting.
- Ancestral magic adds wonder without taking over the human story.
- Several viewpoints reveal how secrets spread across a community.
- Past and present timelines slowly bring the hidden truth together.
- The tea shop, orchard, woods, and sea create a rich autumn mood.
- A complete standalone story welcomes readers without earlier books.
Penguin Random House calls the novel a National Bestseller and lists it as one of She Reads' best books of the year. It was also Adrienne Young's first adult novel, bringing her atmospheric storytelling to a mystery about grown lives, old choices, and love that never fully disappeared.
What readers may take from the story
One lasting reward is a hopeful question: can people begin again after losing many years? The novel does not pretend that time can be returned. It suggests that truth may open a future when fear and silence have kept everyone trapped in the past.
Who will enjoy Spells for Forgetting?
Choose this book if you enjoy adult mystery, romantic suspense, magical realism, family secrets, small-town drama, or stories set in isolated places. It is especially suited to readers who love slow-burn tension and a setting that feels as important as any character.
It works well for an autumn reading list, a rainy weekend, a holiday, or a quiet night with tea. Book clubs can discuss whether the island protected its people or harmed them, how memory changes truth, and whether Emery and August receive a fair second chance.
Know the darker parts before you begin
The story is written for adults and includes murder, grief, death, false blame, fire, family conflict, illness, secrets, and emotional harm. A teenager's death remains at the centre of the plot, so the mood can become sad and tense even when the island appears calm.
Magic is present, but this is not a light fantasy romance. It mixes a love story with a cold case and the pressure of a community that remembers every mistake. Readers should expect quiet dread, difficult family choices, and people whose actions may not be simply good or bad.
A comfortable edition for an immersive read
Bookish Wonderland offers a reader-friendly copy made for steady reading and later rereading, featuring premium eye-soothing cream paper, crystal-clear printing, high-quality stitched and glue binding, and a durable finish that helps protect the book in a bag or on a shelf. This edition is ideal for personal reading, a home library, book-club discussions, an autumn gift, or anyone who enjoys romantic mysteries and witchy stories.
Easy ordering from Bookish Wonderland
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Return to the island and uncover what it remembers
August Salt comes home carrying his mother's ashes and fourteen years of blame. Emery Blackwood has spent those same years trying to live beside the questions he left behind. When Saoirse begins to change, the island can no longer keep every secret buried.
Follow Emery and August through misty shores, dark woods, a family tea shop, and an orchard marked by fire. Feel their old love rise beside the danger, and test each memory as the truth about Lily Morgan moves closer.
Order Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young from Bookish Wonderland today. Bring home an atmospheric adult mystery filled with ancestral magic, hidden betrayal, second chances, and an island that refuses to forget.
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| Primary Specification | |
| Author | Adrienne Young |
| Narrator | Emily Rankin, Dan Bittner, Mark Deakins, Kimberly Farr, Ari Fliakos, Dawn Harvey, Carrington MacDuffie, Kirsten Potter, Oliver Wyman |
| Editor | Caroline Cunningham |
| Genre | Magical Realism, Mystery, Suspense/Thriller, Romance, Women’s Fiction |
| ISBN-13/ISSN | 978-0593358535 |
| ISBN-10 | 0593358538 |
| Publisher | Dell |
| Publishing Date | August 8, 2023 |
| Language | English |
| Reading Age | 14+ |
| Format | Printed Book |
| Physical Specification & Quality | |
| Paper Quality | Premium eye-soothing cream paper |
| Binding Quality | High quality stitched and glue binding (for longevity) |
| Print Quality | Crystal-clear print |
| Pages | 368 pages |
| Country | USA |
| Logistics Information | |
| Weight | 391 gm |
| Length | 8.5 inches |
| Width | 5.6 inches |
| Height | 0.79 inch |
