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lilly_reads98's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
3.75
Can we please have a sequel? The ending was so good and everything came together so well but I wasn’t expecting it to end so fast. I need more! Seeing what the characters do next would probably be even more enjoyable than this one and I really want a sequel. It took until about page 90 for me to really enjoy the story but after that I did not want to put it down for the rest of the entire book.
I love the premise of this! I too have a strong desire to travel the world. I really feel for characters that don’t feel like the town they are in because of their parents is the town they’re meant to stay in. “As Saint Augustine of Hippo said: The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page. Well, I’m going to read every page I can. One of those pages is going to tell me the answer to where I belong.” This book feels very much like a young adult book.
Mason and Willow are both dealing with sadness/grief in their pov’s for a lot of the beginning. It also gets really emotional nearing the end, there is so much crying.
It’s extremely annoying how Mason refers to Kate/Kaitlyn like 50 times in a chapter. I considered dnfing this and trying again later because I normally don’t dislike a book so much in just the first 30-50 pages. I did like the first 20ish pages but it’s just really heavy on the characters being anxious. “Adults go through some state of amnesia that makes them forget what it’s like to be a teenager. otherwise, why would they come up with such horrible suggestions?” So true. The writing is extremely long winded and repetitive in the beginning but it gets better later. Mason is constantly thinking about his mom on every page, and Willow is constantly asking her mom questions on every page. I just don’t really care about the drama surrounding the parents and we’re having to read about the drama and mystery about two parents, I really had a hard time getting through this until around page 100 I finally started enjoying it more and it gets really good after that.
When Willow goes to the house and finds the book of spells that Sage & Rosemary wrote, I really liked that part. Masons pov is my least favorite. He sees Willow for the first time, and he thinks, that’s the mermaid. Like what??? Oh my god. Then he’s like ok she was a person not a mermaid…but then he thinks of her as the mermaid anytime he thinks of her after that. I read a good amount of reviews for this book and most of them prefer Mason’s pov but I completely disagree. I was so annoyed by how much he mentions his mom. Like yes I understand he misses her, but for the sake of writing a good book I don’t think she should be mentioned on almost every page of his pov. I just don’t like when one thing is mentioned so much in a story, and I don’t really like how the parents are focused on so much in this. It’s a teen book where the main characters are teens, so why is so much of the focus on the parents too? I did start enjoying the book a lot more and ended up reading pages 97-302 in one day. Once Willow is finally alone and her mom isn’t in the scene, I enjoyed it so much more.
I just wish the author wouldn’t write such repetitive thoughts, how is that supposed to be an enjoyable read? Maybe it’s supposed to show his personality but like I read for enjoyment so.. I also have just learned through reading other books that I don’t like being in a guys pov in a ya book. I also thought I preferred first person so I can know the characters thoughts but in the last few books I’ve read I’ve been more annoyed by it because the characters thoughts are so repetitive. When Mason and Willow see each other again at the coffee shop, I was so interested I didn’t want to put the book down, which I love when that happens. I wish we didn’t have to wait so long for Willow and Mason to be alone together. And that we didn’t have to wait until the middle of the book for them to meet. I want Willow to be able to talk to Mason about why she’s there and maybe he could help her stay. I just feel like the pacing of this is so weird, I like when they finally get to be alone together but it feels like that’s not the main point of this book. They scheduled to meet up but it takes so many chapters for us to finally get there, and I thought they would be talking about what’s going on currently with Willow like the fact that she doesn’t want the house to sell because she loves it. That’s what’s going on right now but she literally doesn’t even tell Mason that. It’s so weird. Even when they start opening up to each other more, she still doesn’t tell him that. They mostly focus on the mystery of the family curse. It’s really frustrating to me that Mason tells her so many personal details about him but she doesn’t tell him her details. I wanted her to be able to talk to him about the house and how it feels like home to her and even when they get to spend more time together I realize there’s not that much off the book left, I thought the main part of the story would be them figuring out things together and helping each other and falling in love along the way. (Which that does happen) but I read for an hour waiting for them to talk about those things and even after 100 pages of waiting she still doesn’t tell Mason these details she just barely tells him anything. The author does do a good job of making you interested in mystery and romance aspects of the plot, that’s how I felt when reading Love & Gelato. But in this book I feel like those aspects didn’t start until halfway through the book so I wish we had met Mason sooner in the book so we would have gotten more time with him. It’s nice that he’s helping Willow find the letters and piece everything together but I still just want them to be able to have more time, they’re constantly interrupted by checking in with the parents.
I ended up reading for two hours straight when I had only intended to read for 30 minutes, because I really wanted to see Mason and Willow connecting and figuring out her family secrets. I didn’t even realize that much time had passed. Even by page 300, they have connected more and I love seeing them together. But she still doesn’t tell him anything about how she doesn’t want the house to be sold. Like I don’t know if the author meant to have her say that or if she just forgot, but it’s just extremely weird to me that Mason would tell her everything that’s going on in his life but she wouldn’t tell him that?? They spend time in the house together a lot looking for the letters, which I enjoyed, so I can’t see why she wouldn’t tell him add it just bothers me. He even says he hates that the house is up for sale and she doesn’t even respond. Whenever Mason and Willow kiss nearing the end of the book and Willow gets told they have to leave tomororw morning, we don’t even get to see them say goodbye. I hate that that scene just gets cut out, willows mom says to say good bye and then it just skips them saying good bye?? Why?? Even if we get to see them again why would that just be cut out? We don’t get to see them together again until the last few pages. I loved their happy ending, I really wanted Willow to be able to stay there for the summer and was happy she said her mom was considering keeping the house and staying there for her senior year. I love that and really hope there’s a sequel so we can actually see that. I just wish the timeline of this book were different, if we had been given another chapter of seeing them be together longer at the end, seeing Willow stay in Salem with him, seeing everything after that. The ending is so good and everything comes together so well and then the book just ends. Once everything is so good we don’t get to see it anymore. I would love a sequel to this because I think it would be even better than this one since we would get to see all of the aspects that I love but more.
I love the premise of this! I too have a strong desire to travel the world. I really feel for characters that don’t feel like the town they are in because of their parents is the town they’re meant to stay in. “As Saint Augustine of Hippo said: The world is a book, and those who do not travel only read one page. Well, I’m going to read every page I can. One of those pages is going to tell me the answer to where I belong.” This book feels very much like a young adult book.
Mason and Willow are both dealing with sadness/grief in their pov’s for a lot of the beginning. It also gets really emotional nearing the end, there is so much crying.
It’s extremely annoying how Mason refers to Kate/Kaitlyn like 50 times in a chapter. I considered dnfing this and trying again later because I normally don’t dislike a book so much in just the first 30-50 pages. I did like the first 20ish pages but it’s just really heavy on the characters being anxious. “Adults go through some state of amnesia that makes them forget what it’s like to be a teenager. otherwise, why would they come up with such horrible suggestions?” So true. The writing is extremely long winded and repetitive in the beginning but it gets better later. Mason is constantly thinking about his mom on every page, and Willow is constantly asking her mom questions on every page. I just don’t really care about the drama surrounding the parents and we’re having to read about the drama and mystery about two parents, I really had a hard time getting through this until around page 100 I finally started enjoying it more and it gets really good after that.
When Willow goes to the house and finds the book of spells that Sage & Rosemary wrote, I really liked that part. Masons pov is my least favorite. He sees Willow for the first time, and he thinks, that’s the mermaid. Like what??? Oh my god. Then he’s like ok she was a person not a mermaid…but then he thinks of her as the mermaid anytime he thinks of her after that. I read a good amount of reviews for this book and most of them prefer Mason’s pov but I completely disagree. I was so annoyed by how much he mentions his mom. Like yes I understand he misses her, but for the sake of writing a good book I don’t think she should be mentioned on almost every page of his pov. I just don’t like when one thing is mentioned so much in a story, and I don’t really like how the parents are focused on so much in this. It’s a teen book where the main characters are teens, so why is so much of the focus on the parents too? I did start enjoying the book a lot more and ended up reading pages 97-302 in one day. Once Willow is finally alone and her mom isn’t in the scene, I enjoyed it so much more.
I just wish the author wouldn’t write such repetitive thoughts, how is that supposed to be an enjoyable read? Maybe it’s supposed to show his personality but like I read for enjoyment so.. I also have just learned through reading other books that I don’t like being in a guys pov in a ya book. I also thought I preferred first person so I can know the characters thoughts but in the last few books I’ve read I’ve been more annoyed by it because the characters thoughts are so repetitive. When Mason and Willow see each other again at the coffee shop, I was so interested I didn’t want to put the book down, which I love when that happens. I wish we didn’t have to wait so long for Willow and Mason to be alone together. And that we didn’t have to wait until the middle of the book for them to meet. I want Willow to be able to talk to Mason about why she’s there and maybe he could help her stay. I just feel like the pacing of this is so weird, I like when they finally get to be alone together but it feels like that’s not the main point of this book. They scheduled to meet up but it takes so many chapters for us to finally get there, and I thought they would be talking about what’s going on currently with Willow like the fact that she doesn’t want the house to sell because she loves it. That’s what’s going on right now but she literally doesn’t even tell Mason that. It’s so weird. Even when they start opening up to each other more, she still doesn’t tell him that. They mostly focus on the mystery of the family curse. It’s really frustrating to me that Mason tells her so many personal details about him but she doesn’t tell him her details. I wanted her to be able to talk to him about the house and how it feels like home to her and even when they get to spend more time together I realize there’s not that much off the book left, I thought the main part of the story would be them figuring out things together and helping each other and falling in love along the way. (Which that does happen) but I read for an hour waiting for them to talk about those things and even after 100 pages of waiting she still doesn’t tell Mason these details she just barely tells him anything. The author does do a good job of making you interested in mystery and romance aspects of the plot, that’s how I felt when reading Love & Gelato. But in this book I feel like those aspects didn’t start until halfway through the book so I wish we had met Mason sooner in the book so we would have gotten more time with him. It’s nice that he’s helping Willow find the letters and piece everything together but I still just want them to be able to have more time, they’re constantly interrupted by checking in with the parents.
I ended up reading for two hours straight when I had only intended to read for 30 minutes, because I really wanted to see Mason and Willow connecting and figuring out her family secrets. I didn’t even realize that much time had passed. Even by page 300, they have connected more and I love seeing them together. But she still doesn’t tell him anything about how she doesn’t want the house to be sold. Like I don’t know if the author meant to have her say that or if she just forgot, but it’s just extremely weird to me that Mason would tell her everything that’s going on in his life but she wouldn’t tell him that?? They spend time in the house together a lot looking for the letters, which I enjoyed, so I can’t see why she wouldn’t tell him add it just bothers me. He even says he hates that the house is up for sale and she doesn’t even respond. Whenever Mason and Willow kiss nearing the end of the book and Willow gets told they have to leave tomororw morning, we don’t even get to see them say goodbye. I hate that that scene just gets cut out, willows mom says to say good bye and then it just skips them saying good bye?? Why?? Even if we get to see them again why would that just be cut out? We don’t get to see them together again until the last few pages. I loved their happy ending, I really wanted Willow to be able to stay there for the summer and was happy she said her mom was considering keeping the house and staying there for her senior year. I love that and really hope there’s a sequel so we can actually see that. I just wish the timeline of this book were different, if we had been given another chapter of seeing them be together longer at the end, seeing Willow stay in Salem with him, seeing everything after that. The ending is so good and everything comes together so well and then the book just ends. Once everything is so good we don’t get to see it anymore. I would love a sequel to this because I think it would be even better than this one since we would get to see all of the aspects that I love but more.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief
greenlivingaudioworm's review
adventurous
challenging
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Addiction, Drug use, Drug abuse, Grief, Abandonment, and Terminal illness
amberinpieces's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Grief
Minor: Addiction, Cancer, Car accident, Death, and Vomit
kaitlinlovesbooks's review against another edition
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Addiction, and Grief
Minor: Panic attacks/disorders and Death of parent
The story centers around the loss of one main character's aunt, and the other main character's experience in foster care due to his mother's experience with addiction.theespressoedition's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I wasn't expecting to be so blown away by this book but I'm so glad that's what happened! Spells for Lost Things really took me on the most emotional journey and I actually felt like I was walking in the shoes of both Willow and Mason (and some of the other fantastic characters introduced along the way).
While the story takes place in the summertime, I still found it to be the perfect read for October. It's set in Salem and has all the witchy goodness that I was craving during the Halloween season. It's contemporary, with magical elements that create an air of mystery and wonder.
Speaking of mystery, I was completely HOOKED on that aspect of the plot. There were so many pieces of the puzzle that needed to come together and I couldn't put the book down until I had figured everything out. While parts of it felt slightly predictable, for the most part, I was impressed by the answers to the questions the reader is asking themselves from the beginning.
These characters have phenomenal depth. Quite frankly, they felt a lot older to me than 15-16 years old. While it was very obviously a YA novel (parents planning dates, school discussions, and teenage angst), the way the heavier topics were handled was really mature (though still age-appropriate). As an adult reading YA, I often get annoyed by the characters and their childish behavior (while still realizing that it's totally normal for this age group), but I didn't feel that way with Spells for Lost Things. It was completely enjoyable despite being unable to "relate" to their particular issues.
As I just mentioned, there were some pretty challenging topics discussed in this book. Things like substance abuse, abandonment, grief, and other tough content were navigated throughout the story. I personally felt as though the author navigated them beautifully. It made my eyes well up in the best way and I really connected to the different characters, despite having never gone through any of the struggles they have.
I truly hope that Jenna decides to write more books like this because I am in love.
While the story takes place in the summertime, I still found it to be the perfect read for October. It's set in Salem and has all the witchy goodness that I was craving during the Halloween season. It's contemporary, with magical elements that create an air of mystery and wonder.
Speaking of mystery, I was completely HOOKED on that aspect of the plot. There were so many pieces of the puzzle that needed to come together and I couldn't put the book down until I had figured everything out. While parts of it felt slightly predictable, for the most part, I was impressed by the answers to the questions the reader is asking themselves from the beginning.
These characters have phenomenal depth. Quite frankly, they felt a lot older to me than 15-16 years old. While it was very obviously a YA novel (parents planning dates, school discussions, and teenage angst), the way the heavier topics were handled was really mature (though still age-appropriate). As an adult reading YA, I often get annoyed by the characters and their childish behavior (while still realizing that it's totally normal for this age group), but I didn't feel that way with Spells for Lost Things. It was completely enjoyable despite being unable to "relate" to their particular issues.
As I just mentioned, there were some pretty challenging topics discussed in this book. Things like substance abuse, abandonment, grief, and other tough content were navigated throughout the story. I personally felt as though the author navigated them beautifully. It made my eyes well up in the best way and I really connected to the different characters, despite having never gone through any of the struggles they have.
I truly hope that Jenna decides to write more books like this because I am in love.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Drug use, Abandonment, Addiction, Drug abuse, and Grief
map_to_neverland's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Book Review: Spells for Lost Things
Rating: 3.5 / 4
This book comes out tomorrow 🎉🎉
Book Details:
-Genre: YA romance
-Setting: Salem
-written by the author of the Love & Gelato series
-Publication Date: 9/27/22
-Features Salem witchiness, an exploration of family ties, and a really cool house
Seasonal Read
If you are looking for something seasonal to read, but you aren’t a huge scary/fantasy person, this could be a great option! Since it is set in Salem, it is very atmospheric and has a lot of elements that fit well into spooky season. There is magic, but it’s still predominantly a romance (think romance with magic elements rather than a fantasy romance).
Personal Connection
Personally, one of my favorite things was reading this after having been to Salem recently. There are so many mentions of various locations, and many of them I had been to just weeks ago. Throughout the book I was excitedly texting my friend who went to Salem with me about all the things mentioned in the book that we saw while there!
Family History / Timelines
One of the unique elements of this book is that it heavily focuses on family dynamics and family history. While the story is set in the present, there are ways the past is weaved in as well that I really enjoyed. It balances found families and gaining an understanding of your own family history in a meaningful way.
Overall
This book is a quick read and engaging. It feels magical in a cute way, but also deals with heavy topics. I love how it weaves in family history as well.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Rating: 3.5 / 4
This book comes out tomorrow 🎉🎉
Book Details:
-Genre: YA romance
-Setting: Salem
-written by the author of the Love & Gelato series
-Publication Date: 9/27/22
-Features Salem witchiness, an exploration of family ties, and a really cool house
Seasonal Read
If you are looking for something seasonal to read, but you aren’t a huge scary/fantasy person, this could be a great option! Since it is set in Salem, it is very atmospheric and has a lot of elements that fit well into spooky season. There is magic, but it’s still predominantly a romance (think romance with magic elements rather than a fantasy romance).
Personal Connection
Personally, one of my favorite things was reading this after having been to Salem recently. There are so many mentions of various locations, and many of them I had been to just weeks ago. Throughout the book I was excitedly texting my friend who went to Salem with me about all the things mentioned in the book that we saw while there!
Family History / Timelines
One of the unique elements of this book is that it heavily focuses on family dynamics and family history. While the story is set in the present, there are ways the past is weaved in as well that I really enjoyed. It balances found families and gaining an understanding of your own family history in a meaningful way.
Overall
This book is a quick read and engaging. It feels magical in a cute way, but also deals with heavy topics. I love how it weaves in family history as well.
Thank you to NetGalley for a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment and Addiction
Moderate: Death of parent, Grief, and Classism
Divorce, foster care
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