The Rowan family is special. Each of the Rowan children have a gift: Philippa, the oldest has a talent for winning people over; Victoria the middle child, an empath who can feel everyone’s emotions clearly; and Liam, the youngest, who can uncover the story of objects.

Victoria Rowan hasn’t been home to Grimsby since she left for the city. She spent years trying to get away from the abuse of her mother. She had no intention of ever coming back, except her narcissist mother, Rachel Rowan has died, leaving her the family home. Now she’s back and having to face not just her past, but also the past of her siblings and he high school boyfriend.

This is such a unique blend of family drama, mystery, with just a touch of magic. The magic aspect is very light and more a supporting characteristic of the family rather than being the central plot of the story. Instead, our plot is focused more around the Rowan family dynamic and the lingering effects of their child abuse at the hands of their mother.

I thought that Byrd did a great job of developing our main characters throughout the story, and felt that each of our main characters were fully flushed out and brought plenty of personality to the story. I felt completely invested in our character’s lives and would actually love to read an additional story about the Rowan siblings.

This was just an interesting and unique story. It does have a few topics that could be triggering for some people, but overall Byrd does a great job of portraying the events without being overly graphic. Highly recommend for anyone looks for a good fall mystery.

TRIGGER WARNINGS: CHILD ABUSE, DROWNING, SUICIDE.

AMAZON | GOODREADS | ★★★★

A Spell of Rowan’s comes out October 26, 2021. Huge thank you to Rook & Castle Press and Netgalley for my advanced copy in exchange for my honest review. If you liked this review please let me know either by commenting below or by visiting my Instagram @speakingof_books.