A cozy fantasy about grief and found family, and the first book I’ve read from the relatively new publishing experiment, Bindery Books.
I would read further books from this author for sure, but I also think this one was pretty flawed. I actually think it needed at least one more round of edits, if not two. I have no idea how Bindery’s editing process works in comparison to traditional publishers, but this needed to be worked over for clarity, both in the writing itself (some sentences didn’t make sense, and there were lots of grammatical errors) and in the story and worldbuilding. But the bones of this were promising!
Our main character is Saika, a witch who has been grieving the loss of her sister Fiona for two years. She’s been wandering the world avoiding her grief, but now it’s time to fulfill her sister’s dying wish to be buried in this magical arboretum where a tree will be grown from her ashes. Arriving at Ash Gardens is the catalyst for her to finally let go, and to find new people to care about in her life.
All the characters in this book are in various stages of grief, and they’ve all ended up at Ash Gardens with its beast proprietor, Frank, like some sort of morbid Island of Misfit Toys. And it turns out, something is very wrong with the house, and with Frank. It’s falling apart, Saika is falling apart, how will this resolve.
Aside from the smaller issues I had with this, I’m only giving this three stars because while it was a nice little story, I never connected to it emotionally the way that I should have. This story could have had me upside down and sideways, and instead, it won’t stick with me. For a story about grief, something that should hit hard, that’s a pretty big flaw.
Anyway, this might work better for you, but I will be watching this author and hoping she gets a little more guidance next time.