Synopsis
A dark academia contemporary fantasy featuring witches, found family and yearning. From TikTok sensation Isa Agajanian, Quiet Spells is perfect for fans of A Discovery of Witches and Divine Rivals.
Ghosts passed through the cottage sitting on the peak of Townsend Hill like passengers in a train station. Some, Teddy Ingram knew, stayed longer than others.
More than half a year has passed since the disappearance of Gemma Eakley, and Teddy Ingram still has no clue as to whether she is alive, dead or something worse. With Gemma’s young daughter left in his care, Teddy haunts the rural haven of Townsend like one of its many spirits.
But then Aurelia – his beloved ex-rival – returns with the news that her own mother is dead – and a ghost forms from the pages of her farewell to give the would-be lovers a message: They won’t let me rest.
One coven’s efforts to reverse the looming extinction of witches involves resurrecting the dead. Her mother’s old coven wants to know what secrets she took with her to the funeral pyre; did she have the key to fixing their botched attempts at necromancy?
From the acclaimed author of Modern Divination comes the dark and magical concluding part of the Spells for Life and Death duology.
Review
Quiet Spells managed to be both quiet and loud in the best of ways.
This is a dark academia urban fantasy set in and around Cambridge.
My rival. My torment. My lover.
In book one we had rivals to lovers done right. In Quiet Spells, we had two characters with dark pasts who fit together so well that they are scared to get too close in case they break it.
Add into that Teddy being a caregiver to the cutest little girl and the past rushing up to haunt them (literally).
If you liked the beautiful, bawl-you-over-with-love prose of book one, you will be fed with this.
He knew there was love you could die for and love you could kill for, and both would lead him, sword in hand, to his knees in a plea of devotion.
We have everything to make this an emotionally charged duology: letters, emails, yearning and longing and belonging. Both characters are made to spiral, to self-destruct. Can they find the quiet with each other?
I loved little Lou. She doesn’t play a big role except to bring everyone together. She needs the support and love of those around her. They have to put away their own grief, anxiety, misgivings in order to make the world seem okay for a child.
Also, as someone who had growing pains, especially with shortened calf muscles, I appreciated the inclusion.
One part that did catch my eye again and again was the switching of names our two main characters call each other. From Teddy, to Theo, to Ingram. From Rory, to Aurelia, to Schwartz. Even at the end when you’d think they would settle on a loving nickname.
I had another minor quibble with a reveal that felt underutilised and too convenient and accepting for the character involved. Of course, this is a no spoiler review, so I can’t expand on that here. This book was quite long as it was. I wonder if more had to be cut.
The ending also felt very sudden compared to the slow-build of the rest of the book. I know a climax is supposed to go out with a bang, but I felt slightly whiplashed and thus, didn’t feel the emotional connection to the fallout as I had to the rest of the duology.
The epilogue was lovely.
All in all, I would recommend this duology as the characters and emotional writing were brilliant(ly dark and depressing and loving).
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