Spells for Lost Things
JENNA EVANS WELCH
Synopsis:
Willow has never felt like she belonged anywhere and is convinced that the only way to find a true home is to travel the world. But her plans to act on her dream are put on hold when her aloof and often absent mother drags Willow to Salem, Massachusetts, to wrap up the affairs of an aunt Willow didn’t even know she had. An aunt who may or may not have been a witch.
There, she meets Mason, a loner who’s always felt out of place and has been in and out of foster homes his entire life. He’s been classified as one of the runaways, constantly searching for ways to make it back to his mom; even if she can’t take care of him, it’s his job to try and take care of her. Isn’t it?
Naturally pulled to one another, Willow and Mason set out across Salem to discover the secret past of Willow’s mother, her aunt, and the ambiguous history of her family. During all of this, the two can’t help but act on their natural connection. But with the amount of baggage between them—and Willow’s growing conviction her family might be cursed—can they manage to hold onto each other?
My rating: ★★
Categories: YA, romance, magical realism, witchcraft, other (no, I do not consider this a fantasy at all)
Content:
Language: A few uses of "s", some minor swear words, "g-d," and one allusion to "f" (cut off). Most of the swearing happens in the first half of the book.
Violence: No on-page violence. A brief mention of two men attempting to kidnap a young boy (he escaped easily though, and it is only mentioned once), and substance abuse, as well as child neglection.
Sex: A few kisses and romantic pining. Lots of brief touching and "butterflies," etc. There are mentions of boyfriends and past loves, and one instance of a woman becoming pregnant outside of marriage, and that man abandoning her for another woman.
LGBTQ: A female character is meant to have an on-and-off relationship with another girl.
My Review (the short version): I was given a free digital ARC in exchange for my review, so the large block of text below is for that. If you want to short version of my review, here it is. I really loved the synopsis and wanted to love this story since I enjoyed Welch's other words (Love & Gelato, Love & Olives), but it was impossible. I didn't find either of the characters endearing and the pacing was awful.
My Review:
Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a digital ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Spells for Lost Things follows Willow and Mason, two teens struggling to find their place in their lives, as they search for information on Willow's family curse and Mason searches for his mother. And of course, they end up falling for each other too.
Coming into this book, I was so excited. I wanted to love it will all my heart, especially after enjoying Love & Gelato and Love & Olives so much. But the more I read, I just—couldn't. There was nothing special or endearing about Willow and Mason. I felt bad for them at times, but I just couldn't really get myself to care for them. I understand that each of them are going through things far harder than I ever have, but that did nothing to make me like them. I had HUGE issues with the pacing of the romance too. I was 50% into the book when they started talking to each other, and their relationship was so insta-lovey. I was really upset because Jenna Evans Welch had always written solid romances before.
Without any spoilers, the curse didn't make much sense to me and all the reveals were very anti-climatic. I also didn't understand the witchcraft going on in the book. Not only did I internally groan every time the witch-aunts came into the scene (and whenever they were referred to as the aunties every other page), but I didn't understand them. Welch might have been going for a more loose, interpret-this-how-you-will conclusion with their magic, but it didn't feel like that to me. Instead, it felt like Welch wanted to break away from her normal realistic fiction, but just couldn't. Because I read an ARC (thanks, Netgalley!), there were multiple grammar and formatting errors that made it a bit confusing to read, but other than the writing was fine, the style similar to that of her other works.
Another thing I also wasn't a fan of was the huge info-dumps that the author dropped on you in the first few chapters. I found it extremely annoying that Welch didn't trust us to read into all the other hints and clues she dropped in the book to flesh out the story of Mason and Willow's lives. Besides that, the pacing was all off and the romance completely rushed (along with the other relationships in the book). It did get better near the end, but not enough to redeem the beginning in my mind, so I rounded 2.5 down to 2.
I could go on, but I don't want to dissect it much more. As a last side note, I would also like to point out for anyone curious that this book has nothing to do with the Salem Witch Trials. I was interested to see if Welch would tie it in because she chose that specific setting, but in the end she didn't.
I'll give any more books Jenna Evans Welch writes a try, but this just was not it for me.