romance

The Enchanted Greenhouse Review

Book: The Enchanted Greenhouse
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Publisher: Bramble
Year: 2025
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Terlu Perna was lonely, so she broke the law. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away in an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssum. And that was the end of her story. Until…
Terry wakes in the cold of winter on a nearly deserted island full of hundreds of magical greenhouses. She’s starving and freezing and the only other human on the island is a grumpy gardener. To her surprise, he offers Terlu a place to sleep, clean clothes, and freshly baked honey cakes – at least until she’s ready to sail home.
But Terlu can’t return home and doesn’t want to – the greenhouses are a dream come true, each more wondrous than the next. When she learns that the magic that sustains them is failing – causing the death of everything within them – Terlu knows she must help. Even if that means breaking the law again.
This time, though, she isn’t alone. Assisted by a gardener and a sentient rose, Trull must unravel the secrets of a long-dead sorcerer if she wants to save the island – and have a fresh chance at happiness and love.”

Review : I’ll be the first to admit that the concept of anything talking that wouldn’t normally talk is one of my least favorite fantasy tropes – I find talking animals to be disconnected from my expectations and there’s rarely a time when I feel differently. So the concept of a book in which most of the characters are talking plants was immediately something I entered into with trepidation. I love a fun new world of fantasy novels, but for some reason, I just cannot generally get on board with talking creatures. I’m happy to report, however, that The Enchanted Greenhouse is the exception. Durst has successfully created a fantasy world with this novel that needs very little extra work – the entirety of the novel takes place in a massive series of enchanted and magical greenhouses, on an island with just one other inhabitant beyond our protagonist (Terlu Perna, purple skin, purple eyes…human). The plants we encounter in the greenhouses, while some seem to be otherworldly, largely reflect what we might find in our own world, and while there is a flying cat and several magical creatures spelled to do some work in the greenhouses, there’s little beyond the inherent magical quality of the book that wouldn’t be found in our own world.

I realized about a chapter into The Enchanted Greenhouse that this is in fact a sequel to a previous book that I haven’t read, but the mark of a great book is that it can stand alone without much explanation needed, and Durst certainly achieved that feat. Had I not read the letter from the author, I would never have known this wasn’t a stand alone novel, the recap at the beginning of the book felt less like a recap and more like the necessary introduction to Terlu Perna and the magical world she resides within. And though the world she lives in is magical, it’s also filled with rules about who can and can’t do magic – for good reason, as magic can be dangerous – only trained sorcerers are allowed to even attempt to perform spells. However, Terlu casts a spell to create sentience in a plant friend of hers, and in doing so finds herself made an example of and is turned to wood. During her years as a statue, though, the Empire falls and the rules of what magic is and isn’t allowed are changed. To save Terlu from the fires of the resistance, Terlu’s old boss ships the statue formerly known as the living Terlu (along with the spell to awaken her from her statue slumber) to a remote island of greenhouses run by a lone gardener named Yarrow. Having sent letters to the government begging for help with his magically failing greenhouses, Yarrow believes Terlu is a sorcerer sent to help him. When Terlu awakens and Yarrow realizes she’s just a girl who cast a spell one time, he becomes sullen and grouchy. But the greenhouses continue to fail, and Terlu is determined to help.

I’ve read several books over the last few years that have billed themselves as being similar to Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, and while some have come close to the cozy fantasy he’s crafted in his series, none have really been what I would compare to his works. While The Enchanted Greenhouse wasn’t labeled as such, had it been, it would have been the first book I’ve read since Legends and Lattes that made me feel the same way Baldree did. Durst has created a cozy, low-stakes fantasy with the most wonderful cast of characters. It did have a slow start, hence the 4.5 stars, but once I got into it, things really picked up in a sweet, cozy, romantic sort of way. And it’s worth saying that even though this book was published by Bramble, it is definitively not a romance novel – it’s a love story. And who would have though I’d have spent an entire novel crying my eyes out over a lovable rag-tag crew of talking plants? Not me, that’s for sure. But cry I did. Durst has created something truly magical with this work, weaving the concept of empathy into her tale in such a way that I can’t imagine anyone who read this book could walk away unchanged. Not only is it a beautiful tale of found family, it’s also a deeply political tale as well, and perfectly timed, at that. I won’t spoil it for you, but know that it doesn’t read as political, it’s just that you cannot come away from this book on the side of the oppressor. You simply can’t.

Advice : If you enjoy quiet, cozy, low-stakes fantasy novels with flying cats and miniature dragons and honey cakes…well, do I have news for you. Add this one to your list, pre-order it now before it’s release in June. Trust me.

Speedy Reviews

In an effort to continue reviewing every single ARC I receive (for the second year in a row) while simultaneously not burning out from the effort, I’ve decided to implement what I’m calling Speedy Reviews. Here I will briefly review more than one advanced copy received recently – largely books that I don’t feel necessitate a long-winded review. Without further ado, I give you : Speedy Reviews.

Book: All the Men I’ve Loved Again
Author: Christine Pride
Publisher: Atria Books
Year: 2025
Rating: 3 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “It’s 1999 and Cora Belle has arrived at college ready to change her life. She’s determined to grow out of the shy, sheltered daddy’s girl who attended an all-white prep school in her all-white suburb. What she’s totally unprepared for is Lincoln, with his dark skin, charming southern drawl, and smile. Because how can you ever prepare yourself for the roller coaster of first love?
Just when Cora thinks she’s got everything figured out, a series of surprises, secrets, and a devastating tragedy sends her into a tailspin. In this wake of this tumult, a new man enters her life. Cora is once again thrown by the strength of her feelings, this time for Aaron, the enigmatic photographer who seems to understand her like no one else. With her whole heart at stake, Cora is pulled between two loves : one that’s comfortable and one that’s true.
Twenty years later, Cora is all grown up and has made it a point to avoid any serious relationships. Being alone can’t break your heart. But then an unexpected reconnection and a chance encounter put her right back where she started. The same two men the same agonizing decision. Finding herself in this position – again – will test everything Cora thought she knew about fate, love, and, most importantly, herself.”

Review : All the Men I’ve Loved Again is a well written read about the ups and downs of first love, particularly first love when one is so, so young and so, so naive about the world, like Cora, a first year college student (when we meet her). And while it was well written, I found it to be an incredibly slow read. I had a hard time connecting with the characters, perhaps because so much of the book is taken up by Cora’s relationship with Lincoln. There was a small attempt made at creating backstory and friendships with Cora’s roommates, but the vast majority of the plot is Cora’s relationship with Lincoln. And while you might think, based on the synopsis, that this story would bounce between Lincoln and Aaron…it really doesn’t. There are whole relationships formed, strange friendships made, hints dropped, and storylines that simply don’t play out, the synopsis tells us more about Cora’s background than the actual book does, and the time we spend between Cora and Aaron is minuscule. All the Men I’ve Loved Again feels disjointed and disconnected from the reader, but beyond that, by the time I’d finished I was left with the glaring question of whether this story needed to be told. And to answer that question, the best I can say is, I don’t think it did. It felt like a story that had nearly nowhere to go and I don’t feel like it ultimately ended up being worth my time. It was well written, I’ll say that. But it wasn’t something that kept me turning the pages.

Finally, if you choose to read All the Men I’ve Loved Again, know that there are mentions of abortion, miscarriage, stroke, hospitalization, loss of a parent, and cheating.

Book: Zom Rom Com
Author: Olivia Dade
Publisher: Berkley Romance
Year: 2025
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her seemingly harmless neighbor from the first major zombie breach in years, she’s stunned to be saved by him – and his ridiculously large sword – instead. As it turns out, Gaston “Max” Boucher is actually a super-old, super-surly vampire, and he’s unexpectedly protective.
The pair soon unravels a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), and despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save humanity. As she and Max battle their foes side by side, Edie must decide whether having a love worth living for also meaning having a love you’d die for – and, in a world that grows deadlier by the minute, whether that’s a risk she’s willing to take.”

Review : Zom Rom Com is a surprise of a book, weighing in at just shy of 400 pages, with complex world-building and a cast of characters it’s hard not to love. As someone who isn’t the world’s biggest fan of zombie storylines, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this creative and exciting rom-com from Olivia Dade. In a world where humans, superhuman, and supernaturals coexist together, it’s perhaps not the biggest surprise that there might be zombies existing in this plane of existence, yet I found the concept of zombies to be funny and inventive within the world Dade’s created. Every aspect of this book could have taken a gristly or even bleak turn, but Dade managed to keep things light and fun all the way to the final page. The banter between Edie and her super hot vampire neighbor Max is enough to keep the pages turning, but the complex and well thought out plot behind a zombie outbreak, and even the reasoning behind why zombies exist in the first place, is really what kept me turning pages. There’s a good build up of will-they / won’t-they that lasts for at least the first 100 pages that adds to the building enjoyment, and while this is a romance novel, there’s an incredibly amount of plot creation and fantasy work involved in this novel, from start to finish. I did feel there were a few plot holes and inconsistencies, but nothing that detracted from how much I genuinely enjoyed this book. Without giving any spoilers away, the ending more than leaves room for at least one additional novel, though I suspect there could be more!

Before reading this book, if you choose, this novel discusses the loss of family members, romantic betrayal, and chronic illness. And – yay! – this book included plus-size inclusion!

Wooing the Witch Queen Review

Book: Wooing the Witch Queen
Author: Stephanie Burgis
Publisher: Bramble
Year: 2024
Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars

Synopsis : “Queen Saskia is the wicked sorceress everyone fears. After successfully wrestling the throne from her evil uncle, she only wants one thing : to keep her people safe from the empire next door. For that, she needs to spend more time in her laboratory experimenting with her spells. She definitely doesn’t have time to bring order to her chaotic library of magic.
When a mysterious dark wizard arrives at her castle, Saskia hires him as her new librarian on the spot. “Fabian” is sweet and a little nerdy, and his requests seem a bit strange – what in the name of Divine Elva is a fountain pen? – but he’s getting the job done. And if he writes her flirtatious poetry and his innocent touch makes her skin burn, well…
Little does Saskia know that the “wizard” she’s falling for is actually an Imperial archduke in disguise, with no magical training whatsoever. On the run, with perilous secrets on his trail and a fast-growing yearning for the wicked sorceress, he’s in danger from her enemies and her newfound allies, too. When his identity is finally revealed, will their love save or doom each other?”

Review : Wooing the Witch Queen was a cute, quick romantasy-ish book about two people who are ultimately misunderstood by those around them. I call it romatasy-ish because while it is a fantasy and it’s being published under Bramble, a romance novel imprint of Tor Books, the actual romance aspect of this book was…light. I think if this were a movie it might be rated PG-13 for implied nudity; the romance aspect of the book was mild, took the entire book to develop, and was about as closed-door as it gets without actually being a closed-door romance, take that how you will!

Outside the actual romance of the novel, which the synopsis seems to more than imply is the majority of the book, the actual plot of Wooing the Witch Queen centers around Saskia’s immediate threat to the throne she stole from her uncle – largely from her neighbors, seemingly under the order of the Archduke Felix.

** Warning, spoilers ahead! **

Being as quick as this read was, there’s very little I could say here that wouldn’t be a fairly immediate spoiler, so let’s just dive into it. What Saskia, or the rest of the surrounding kingdoms for that matter, doesn’t know is that Felix is simply a figure-head, someone who has been held prisoner, who has no formal diplomatic training, and who has no say in what his kingdom does or doesn’t do. On the night his traitorous family is poised to murder him and turn him into a martyr, Felix makes an escape to the only Imperial who has been able to hold off his in-laws : Saskia. Wearing what he doesn’t realize is the cloak of a dark wizard, Felix escapes while donning a swooping hooded cape. When he arrives at Saskia’s court, she assumes he’s a dark wizard answering her call for a temporary laborer to arrange her magical library. Without allowing Felix to get a word in edgewise, Saskia hires him and permits him to wear a mask – something that is, apparently, typical for dark wizards.

The remainder of the book follows this path : Felix bumbles his way through his task, only capable of organizing a magical library because he’s only ever been allowed to participate in the arts, Saskia falls for his gentle personality, and no one seems to be any wiser until he finally reveals himself to her at the end of the book. Ultimately, I found this story to be mildly cute but of no great importance or need to be told, the romance was more actually romantic than what you might expect out of a romance novel, and Felix’s character is written like the reversal of every female protagonist written by a man – deeply hard to believe, full of strange character traits that sound more like a woman who didn’t have any diversity in her beta readers, and not all that interesting when it’s all said and done.

Finally, I found the plot to be thin and weak, Felix’s background was never fleshed out, and I found myself with questions I didn’t ultimately find answers to. I think the trouble with writing a fantasy novel is you have to create a story that’s compelling enough that the reader finds themselves willingly reading about the politics of a world that is wholly made up – if you create a world the reader isn’t invested in, there’s then no incentive for them to involve themselves with the minutiae. Sadly, Burgis did not succeed in compelling me to care about the politics of the world she crafted and so during moments of political discourse (which comprised a good deal of the book), I found myself bored and uninterested. I was never given the chance to become invested in the world when the book moved so quickly and never fully explained the main characters backgrounds in a way that felt satisfactory. Overall, this book was fine.

Advice : If you pick up any romantasy you can get your hands on, maybe this will be for you! If you prefer more romance, more fantasy, more everything…well, maybe this isn’t going to be the one. It might be worth checking out from your local library.