(Review) Spellbook of the Lost and Found

Spellbook of the Lost and Found by Moira Fowley-Doyle

Publication Date: June 1, 2017 (August 8, 2017)

Pages: 368 (hardover)

Genre: Young Adult

My Goodreads Rating: 5 Stars

Goodreads Synopsis:

The highly anticipated new book from the acclaimed author of The Accident Season is a gorgeous, twisty story about things gone missing, things returned from the past, and a group of teenagers, connected in ways they could never have imagined.

One stormy Irish summer night, Olive and her best friend, Rose, begin to lose things. It starts with simple items like hairclips and jewelry, but soon it's clear that Rose has lost something much bigger, something she won't talk about, and Olive thinks her best friend is slipping away.

Then seductive diary pages written by a girl named Laurel begin to appear all over town. And Olive meets three mysterious strangers: Ivy, Hazel, and her twin brother, Rowan, secretly squatting in an abandoned housing estate. The trio are wild and alluring, but they seem lost too—and like Rose, they're holding tight to painful secrets.

When they discover the spellbook, it changes everything. Damp, tattered and ancient, it's full of hand-inked charms to conjure back things that have been lost. And it just might be their chance to find what they each need to set everything back to rights.

Unless it's leading them toward things that were never meant to be found...

My Review: 
This book actually cast a spell on me.

Too much?

Well, it did. I've read a few magical realism books this summer and have been quite surprised at how much I loved them. This one was no different.

The story is told from the perspective of three different girls whose stories converge in way that I both expected and did not expect.

Olive is a normal girl with a normal best friend, Rose, who goes to a party and starts to lose things.

Hazel is a runaway living in an abandoned house with her twin brother and their friend.

Laurel has cast a spell with her friends to find their diaries that have been stolen.

When Olive and Hazel start to find pages of Laurel's diary, they begin to think that what she's writing about is real. They are desperate to find out who Laurel is and, though they live in a small town, they can't seem to find her anywhere.

What I loved most about this book was how the author wove these three girls' stories together so well. It's magic and friendship and love, but each of the girls learn something along the way. Each character plays an important part to the story and each page kept me guessing about what was going to happen and how it was all happening.

I also enjoyed the innocence of first loves and the beauty of these characters' friendships. They loved each other so much that they were willing to cast spells and take huge risks for each other.

The way everything came together in the end felt natural and even though I had a feeling that's the way it would happen, I still enjoyed it.

This book was actually enchanting. Check it out.