Emily Carpenter's "A Spell for Saints and Sinners"

 

In front of an elegantly shabby townhouse on a Savannah side street sits a hand-painted Miss Edie, Psychic. Ingrid White inherited the house and business from her beloved grandmother, a local celebrity in town. But unless Ingrid can find a way to pay for crushing property taxes and mounting repairs, she’s going to lose them both.

Ingrid has faith in the homespun witchcraft Edie passed down to her, yet hope and clients are dwindling. . . . Until Sailor Loeffler’s bachelorette party changes everything. Sailor is local royalty—part of the vast “Savannah Sauce” empire, beautiful and wealthy beyond imagining—and Ingrid’s reading is so accurate that she becomes the bride-to-be’s confidante. To keep that access and all the privileges it brings, Ingrid relies more and more on hexes and dark spells—using the baneful magic Edie always warned her against.

As Ingrid works even riskier spells, she is drawn further into the Loefflers’ inner circle and the obstacles in her path melt away. But is it witchcraft or other, more earthbound forces? Ingrid can feel the lines blurring even as her powers seem to grow, until she must confront the truth about people, including herself, will go to keep the life they’ve always wanted . . .

Like a gender-flipped You but dripping with Southern Gothic atmosphere, a young psychic on the verge of losing everything becomes obsessed with a wealthy, beautiful heiress in this clever, darkly atmospheric novel of psychological suspense set amid the lush, moss-draped beauty of Savannah. ~taken from Goodreads

I love Emily Carpenter as an author. I have read several of her books and was excited to read her latest. This also had me intrigued because of the southern gothic aspect. Set in Savannah, Georgia with the main character being both a physic and a witch I thought for sure I would love this novel just as much as the others. 

This starts out rather slow, which is fine since there is a large cast of important characters to get to know and remember. The stark difference between the Savannah rich and the Savannah working class are well showcased. I loved imagining Ingrid's family home, rich with history yet falling into disrepair, and Sailor's mansion, grand and unnecessarily huge for a family of just four. 

Not a single character did I like. While I really wanted to feel for Ingrid and the troubles she was going through, her erratic behavior and desperation as the story went along became annoying and unbelievable. Even her friends, who seem like they care deeply for her and her wellbeing, enable her to the point they cripple her both in work and life. 

This started out at a slow pace and then seemed to come to an even slower crawl. I thought it would get interesting and then it seemed to flutter off into a whole other plotline, where it underwhelmingly ended. 

I wish I had better things to say but this didn't even seem like a phycological thriller to me but more like a mystery at best. 

"A Spell for Saints and Sinners" is out now so is you're looking for a gothic mystery this may be for you! 

Thanks to Netgalley and Kensington Publishing for allowing me an advanced copy to read and give my honest review. It was a 3 star read for me. 

Happy Reading! 

*Side note, this was supposed to be read and reviewed as an ARC but I had a house emergency (my kitchen & basement flooded) so I was set back a few weeks, preoccupied with that. Apologies to the author and publisher.