Savannah, Relient K
An irrepressible smiley-face of a song about the most beautiful city in Georgia, which is the setting for A SPELL FOR SAINTS AND SINNERS. Savannah is the town where Ingrid White was born and raised, the only place she’s ever lived, and a place she clings to. It’s interchangeable with her grandmother who has passed away and given left Ingrid her psychic shop. Ingrid loves the sultry weather, sea winds, and the Georgia sun all around her, but even as she revels in these things, she worries that things are changing in her home city.
The Prophecy, Taylor Swift
Ingrid believes in what all the signs of the universe seem to be pointing to - that she’s destined to rise from her financial struggles to be a part of the Loeffler family, best friends with Sailor and true love of Cas. But she also fights the feeling that she is destined to be an outcast, like she was as a young girl, and like her grandmother seemed to be. But Ingrid holds on to the hope that she will finally be respected and loved, accepted by the family she’s always wanted.
Sunshine on My Shoulders, John Denver
An oldie but goodie, this was Ingrid’s grandmother Edie White’s favorite song. It’s all about how the simple light of the sun brings all the aspects of life’s emotions - happiness, sadness, and delight. When Ingrid was young, Edie took her in and taught her the ways of her homespun magic, all based on the sun and how it shines its light. Whenever Ingrid hears this song, she remembers her love for her grandmother and the magic she handed down to her.
Sunset of Your Love, Toni Cornell
Losing her grandmother, losing the love of her friend Sailor and her secret crush Cas, feels like the loss of sunlight to Ingrid. Carrying the sunlight metaphor to her relationships is natural to Ingrid, who bases her magic practice on the light, and the melancholy feel to this song embodies the devastation Ingrid feels when the most important people turn their backs on her.
Abracadabra, Lady Gaga
A banger of a song, this one embodies every moment Ingrid is in her element - in her altar room in her grandmother’s Victorian townhouse, working her practice, casting spells, totally in alignment with the universe, with her own desires, and with the sunlight around her. Ingrid has to rise above her own insecurities, doubts, and fear to walk in the light, and I love the way the song speaks to those issues and how you keep moving no matter what, trusting your own magic.
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.
In front of an elegantly shabby townhouse on a Savannah side street sits a hand-painted sign: 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 just how far some people, including herself, will go to keep the life they’ve always wanted . . .
Thriller Domestic | Women's Fiction Southern [ Kensington Books, On Sale: March 31, 2026, Trade Paperback / e-Book, ISBN: 9781496750587 / eISBN: 9781496750594 ]
Emily Carpenter is a bestselling author of novels of suspense. Her previous novels include Gothictown (A Southern Living Best Book of 2025...so far), Burying the Honeysuckle Girls, The Weight of Lies,Every Single Secret, Until the Day I Die, and Reviving the Hawthorn Sisters, which Publishers Weekly called a “refreshingly modern gothic tale” and Kirkus called “an exciting, gothic-tinged quest.”
After graduating from Auburn University in Alabama with a Bachelor of Arts in Speech Communication, Emily moved to New York City. She’s worked as an actor, producer, screenwriter, and behind-the-scenes soap opera assistant for the CBS shows, As the World Turns and Guiding Light.
Emily is a member of International Thriller Writers and Mystery Writers of America. Born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama, she now lives in Atlanta, Georgia with her family. Savannah is the city she dreams about moving to one day.
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