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*I got this book for review*

I think this book if the marketing and pitching was right I would have went in with clear expections. I think it is a very good spooky small town read with second chance romance. The witchy elemetns was super small and not a big part of the story. This story gave me massive veronica mars vibes. I thought the story was fun but not nothing unique. It did not wow me, but it was okay!! ( )

*I got this book for review*

I think this book if the marketing and pitching was right I would have went in with clear expections. I think it is a very good spooky small town read with second chance romance. The witchy elemetns was super small and not a big part of the story. This story gave me massive veronica mars vibes. I thought the story was fun but not nothing unique. It did not wow me, but it was okay!! ( )

Took me a while to read it because it was such a slow, intriguing burn but I didn’t want it to end. The action picked up at the end causing me to stay up late to finish reading it. Looking forward to other books by this author. Thanks to NetGalley for the review copy. ( )

I came into this book expecting magic, second chance romance, and mystery. I was really excited and had it on my TBR list months before it actually came out. But ultimately I was disappointed. I got all of those in very small doses, never enough to fully pull me into the story.

This tells the tale of August Salt and Emery Blackwood, childhood friends turned high school sweethearts, who are caught in the middle of a murder mystery involving their mutual friend, Lily. August is accused of killing her and leaves the island without Emery, and comes back fourteen years later to bury his mother’s ashes. Except the island and it’s dwellers want him gone, and everyone has a secret they would do anything to keep hidden. This takes place on a magical island off the coast of the Pacific Northwest.

This is told mostly in Emery and August’s POV, with about 5? 6? I lost count…other POVs sprinkled in to flesh out the murder mystery. They are all written in first person. It time jumps between their final year in high school and the present, with the ending jumping into the future.

So first, what I liked. The book did deliver on one promise, and that it was atmospheric. I really did feel like I was there. And I really enjoyed the setting. I lived in Seattle for two years and this brought me back. I also enjoyed Ms. Young’s prose, even if it was purple-y at times.

What I didn’t like…where do I start? The characterization was poor, IMO. I never got a good sense of who Emery or August really were as people. Felt like I didn’t know anything about them, and couldn’t connect or relate to either of them. Because of that, I felt zero chemistry between them. I always enjoy reading the scene when the love interests finally get together, but this time, I skimmed over it, as I skimmed over many parts of the book. I got confused which secondary character was which, there were so many names and they weren’t very distinctive as characters. I was getting confused who was who. All the characters felt very one-dimensional.

Also, this book was billed as adult but it felt very YA in the writing and characterization. The main characters were in their 30s, yet acted like teenagers, or people in their very early 20s, and that they were just stuck in their teenage selves. I saw very little difference between their past and present selves, though fourteen years had passed. I found their endless pining and yearning eye roll-inducing and unbelievable. Nothing really happens when they’re adults…all the plot and action happens during the flashbacks to the past. Emery and August just…do nothing most of the time and they seemed very passive.

Also, the motive behind the murder and when the perpetrator is revealed, it left a bad taste in my mouth. Come on, it’s 2022, we can do better than this.

This could have been a YA contemporary / murder mystery and I feel like that would have been a more accurate description.

Don’t get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with YA and I enjoy a good YA story from time to time. I just don’t like feeling like I’m readying YA when I’m in the mood for an adult book, and vice versa.

There was so little magic that I think to call this fantasy does the genre a disservice…perhaps magical realism is the proper term? There are undercurrents of witches and spells but it’s never fully explored, only hints of it here and there and then it was used at the end as a cop-out to explain the murder. I forgot magic existed at some points in the book.

I understand Ms. Young was a YA writer previously, so I understand it’s tough to switch age groups. I may check out her YA books if the urge strikes, but I don’t think I’ll be reading another of her adult novels again. ( )