Review: “Spells for Forgetting” by Adrienne Young

Neither thumbs up nor thumbs down for Spells for Forgetting by Adrienne Young. Romantic contemporary fantasy.

A woman who owns an herb shop on a magical island outside Seattle has to unravel the true story of what happened when she was a teen–did the man she was in love with (who’s now returned to the island) really kill her friend? Although it’s not quite my usual thing, I did enjoy this book. The mystery was intriguing and it has a nice sense of atmosphere. However – could the author have gotten someone who was from Seattle to read it? I kept getting kicked out of the story by errors, some minor (for example: reading “Seattle Police” made me snort-laugh; they are the “SPD”) and some that made my brain itch (“witches have lived on this magical island for generations” just doesn’t sit right; where are the indigenous people?; also you will be overrun by hippies and witches twelve months a year). If it had been set elsewhere, it could have been a four-star book.

The giant evergreens that filled the woods stood impossibly taller than I remembered, and the thought made my throat feel tight. I’d never loved it here the way everyone else seemed to. To me, the island had always been a stone tied around my ankles, and everything that could have been was no more than the puddle of light on the surface as I sank. The only hope I’d had here was in the thought of leaving and I’d gotten my wish, even if it had looked different than I thought it would.