“Twenty-one-year-old Marigold Claude has always preferred the company of the spirits of the meadow to any of the suitors who’ve tried to woo her. So when her grandmother whisks her away to the family cottage on the tiny Isle of Innisfree with an offer to train her as the next Honey Witch, she accepts immediately. But her newfound magic and independence come with a price: No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch.
When Lottie Burke, a notoriously grumpy skeptic who doesn’t believe in magic, shows up on her doorstep, Marigold can’t resist the challenge to prove to her that magic is real. But soon, Marigold begins to care for Lottie in ways she never expected. And when darker magic awakens and threatens to destroy her home, she must fight for much more than her new home—at the risk of losing her magic and her heart.”
I don’t have much to say about this novel. It was… okay? It fits well into the cozy fantasy genre that I’ve come to like. It’s got that low-key, comforting vibe that attracts readers to the genre. It should have been right up my alley. But somehow, it wasn’t.
I think that it was just too bland. Yes, one of the allures of cozy fantasy is a low-stakes plot. Yes, another allure is the cottagecore aspect, where you expect things like jars of honey and cups of tea and warm blankets. But there still needs to be something that happens that readers will be interested in, and it’s here that the novel falters. I won’t say that nothing happens, but what does happen just didn’t hold my attention.
Neither did the characters. They were just kind of… there. They weren’t bad, and they weren’t written badly, but I just didn’t care a lot about them. They were fine, but “fine” doesn’t elevate a story to a point higher than “It was okay”.
I won’t say not to read this book, because it may turn out to be one that you would like. There’s nothing really wrong with it. It’s just not on my list of cozy fantasy that I would recommend.
