Synopsis:
New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst invites you to her new standalone novel nestled on a far-away island brimming with singing flowers, honey cakes, and honeyed love. The hardcover edition features beautiful sprayed edges.
Terlu Perna broke the law because she was lonely. She cast a spell and created a magically sentient spider plant. As punishment, she was turned into a wooden statue and tucked away into an alcove in the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium.
This should have been the end of her story . . . Yet one day, Terlu 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 the gardener and a sentient rose, Terlu 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.
Funny, kind, and forgiving, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about giving second chances—to others and to yourself.
Review:
I was sent an early copy by Tor in exchange for an honest review.
For me a 3-stars is a good rating, it means I enjoyed it and would recommend it, but it didn’t stand out, or had some issues to me
This was an enjoyable read, but I had a few things that didn’t quite make it a 4/5-star read. I haven’t read The Spellshop, but this isn’t a direct sequel and while it is set in the same universe you can read this as a standalone. I went in expecting a romantasy, but I somehow never quite connected with the romance.
He’s a grumpy gardener used to spending all of time alone. She got turned into a statue for years as a punishment for using magic when she wasn’t allowed to. She gets sent to his greenhouse-filled island so she can try and help stop the enchanted greenhouses’ from failing. Overall it’s a good story, with the various enchanted greenhouses providing wonder and interesting backdrops. It’s set in Winter, an odd choice for a Summer release, so I’d argue that you should hold off reading this until the colder months arrive!
I wanted to be invested in the romance but I just… wasn’t. With this genre of books you know who going to be the couple, and yet I still didn’t really see the romance blossoming, and when it was I just wasn’t all that sold? The middle dragged a bit and I think this is when the romance should’ve been in full bloom, but somehow it didn’t do it for me.
I enjoyed the storyline of the long-dead sorcerer, the exploration of the island, the theme of family and forgiveness. It all comes together to make a good story that just dragged on a tiiiiny bit too long. As the cover suggests there is indeed a flying cat, but Emeral stops being a bit part of the story fairly early on, which was quite the shame!
A good story with a romance that just didn’t quite capture me. This is a book for cosying up with in the winter months and for dreaming of your own enchanted greenhouse.
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