cover image Magic Spells

Magic Spells

Christy Yorke. Bantam Books, $5.99 (368pp) ISBN 978-0-553-57842-3

Seven years after Jane Gregory's fianc , Ned Payton, the town heartthrob and daredevil, was killed in an accident, she returns to her hometown of Pendleton, Vt., with her six-year-old mute son, Alex, and her grandmother, Esther, to fix up and sell her recently deceased mother's house. The family's once-famed but now-fading magic takes hold of Jane as soon as they arrive together in town: grass turns green beneath her feet, a half-dead rosebush suddenly blooms and her love advice proves successful. Ned's brother, Graham, the local doctor, has been in love with Jane since they were children and finds himself still unable to resist her. When long-haired mountain biker and petty thief Devon Zeke blows into town, Alex latches on to him as the father he never had, and Graham, who sees in Devon the brother he despised, becomes increasingly jealous. Jane, whose first concern is learning why her son won't speak, must choose between Graham and Devon. Yorke's debut romance is peopled with sympathetic characters, adding to the charm of this often ethereal exploration of the complications of love. (Nov.)