Willow used to feel at home in her family’s Brooklyn apartment. That was before her parents divorced and Willow moved to California with her mom; before her dad remarried and his new wife had twins. Now Willow is counting down the days until graduation when she can start traveling the world. Surely, when nowhere feels like home anymore, the answer is to keep moving.
Willow’s plan to test this theory with a summer abroad are dashed when her mom drops a bombshell. Instead of summering in Europe with her best friend, Willow is traveling to Salem, Massachusetts so her mom can take care of things in the wake of her sister’s death. A sister Willow never knew her mom had–an aunt Willow never knew about who may or may not have been a witch.
Mason is even less excited to be in Salem than Willow. After a series of increasingly bad foster placements Mason has earned a reputation as a runaway and landed with family friends. It should be a good thing. But all Mason wants to do is get back to his mom. They’ve always depended on each other and Mason knows it’s his job to find his mom again while she struggles with her addiction.
Magic isn’t real but it’s hard to ignore the way circumstances keep bringing Willow and Mason into each others’ lives. As the two work together to heal past hurts and recover what they’ve lost, the real magic will be holding onto each other in Spells for Lost Things (2022) by Jenna Evans Welch.
Spells for Lost Things is a standalone contemporary. Chapters alternate between Willow and Mason’s first person narrations. Willow and Mason are white with more diversity in the supporting cast.
Readers familiar with Welch’s travel-driven novels (starting with Love and Gelato) will appreciate Willow’s wanderlust as well as the evocative descriptions that bring Salem to life with both its small town charm and its kitschy tourist attractions capitalizing on the city’s famous (or infamous) historical connections to witchcraft. The story balances on the knife edge between a light contemporary romance and heavier issue novel.
Willow is crumpling under the weight of her own loneliness and the feeling that she is an afterthought to both of her parents. Mason, meanwhile, is collateral damage from his mother’s drug addiction leaving him emotionally scarred and unwilling to trust after being removed from his mom’s care and also being bounced to different foster homes. After discovering astronomy, Mason uses that hobby to ground himself and imagine a connection to his mother even when he has no idea where to find her.
Bad copy editing and numerous typos in the finished text (hardcover) detract from some of the novel’s breezy charm but readers invested in the characters will be willing to overlook these cosmetic issues. Willow’s search for details about her family history–as shared in a scavenger hunt of letters hidden by he aunt–propel this high concept story as both Willow and Mason hesitantly break down the walls they’ve built around their hearts.
Spells for Lost Things is a gently told witchy romance as much about learning how to trust as it is about learning how to put down roots. Recommended.
Possible Pairings: When You Wish Upon a Lantern by Gloria Chao, The Revolution of Birdie Randolph by Brandy Colbert, Saint Anything by Sarah Dessen, Some Mistakes Were Made by Kristin Dwyer, What I Thought Was True by Huntley Fitzpatrick, My Week With Him by Joya Goffney, 13 Little Blue Envelopes by Maureen Johnson, Everything All at Once by Katrina Leno, Fixing Delilah by Sarah Ockler
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