Publisher: Clarion Books

The Rosemary Spell by Virginia Zimmerman
Series: Stand-Alone
Published by Clarion Books on December 1st 2015
Genres: Magical Realism
Pages: 280
Format: Hardcover
Source: Publisher
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I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Part mystery, part literary puzzle, part life-and-death quest, and chillingly magical, this novel has plenty of suspense for adventure fans and is a treat for readers who love books, words, and clues. Best friends Rosie and Adam find an old book with blank pages that fill with handwriting before their eyes. Something about this magical book has the power to make people vanish, even from memory. The power lies in a poem—a spell. When Adam's older sister, Shelby, disappears, they struggle to retain their memories of her as they race against time to bring her back from the void, risking their own lives in the process.

A cute coming of age story about a group of friends that discover a very old book behind a secret door and the events that follow flip their world around.

Rosie, Adam and Shelby are all good friends and pretty much grew up together. Shelby seems to be a year older and is growing out of stuff that Rosie and Adam like to do, their taste and interest change and it is obviously hard for Rosie. Shelby hangs out with other people, and gets excited about boys and not about things that she used to find fun. So when Rosie and Adam discover an old book that ends up being magical and sends Shelby into the void, they must keep repeating a chant in order to bring her out of the void and briefly remember her. Time is running out though, they must dive into Shakespeare work and unravel clues that will lead them to a spell to bring Shelby back before it’s too late.

I liked the book, it was a cute, entertaining middle grade book about friendship, set in magical realism. The writing is simple and great for appropriate age kids who like a bit of fantasy and puzzle thrown into their books.

I did find it a little confusing at times, some parts had left me scratching my head. I was confused how the book seemed to have made them forget everything, including the fact that it was ‘magical’ so it took them a while to figure out that they must repeat a verse in order to remember Shelby. Especially since they found out that the book might be magic, before sending Shelby into the void.

I wish I got through it faster than I did, the book was actually a pretty quick read and overall I did not find it boring, but I did find it a bit repetitive. Maybe the whole forgetting thing didn’t completely work for me. I sort of liked the relationship between Rosie and her mother, but I did not like the way Adam’s parents, especially his father had come across.

Overall, this was my first step into Zimmerman, and I found it pretty enjoyable