A powerful plant witch and a grumpy alchemist must work together to save their quiet town from a magical plague in this debut cozy fantasy romance about starting over, redemption, and what it really means to be a good person.
2.5/5 stars – cute ideas, a great setting, and fun side characters, but too much angst at times detracted from the overall story.
——— 📖 ———
It started out fairly slow, but I was invested to find out how Violet would start over in a new town while also keeping her identity hidden (I love that trope). The idea of a reformed evil plant witch trying to open a floral shop is fun and I enjoyed learning more about how her powers worked.
The author did a great job with building a cozy setting/town with charming side characters. I especially loved Violet’s “pet” Bartleby – he is hilarious & somewhat reminded me of a more angry Turnip head from Howl’s Moving Castle. I also liked the running joke about good vs. bad “Guy” and everything about the Rock Goblins. Though I would say all of the side characters – especially Nathaniel’s sister, Pru – deserved a bit more ‘screen’ time and I overall would have liked more character development here and less of a focus on Violet/Nathaniel constant “woe is me” vibes.
That said, my only major gripe was that the book has a lot of internal monologues between the two characters which got annoying fast. I also felt that the relationship between Violet and Nathaniel could have had more development before it progressed- some of Nate’s thoughts really gave me the ICK. Around this point I started to lose interest.
Last 20% of the book did get me back into it & the author added some nice twists that truly surprised me. I also liked how the book ended and the epilogue was a nice touch.