My latest read is The Enchanted Greenhouse, by Sarah Beth Durst. It’s a cozy fantasy, a genre that is quickly becoming my go-to haven from the times we live in. It’s also a sequel to her award-nominated The Spellshop. which I read and enjoyed in 2025.

The Enchanted Greenhouse follows Terlu Perna, a character mentioned briefly in The Spellshop. In the Crescent Islands Empire, sorcery is strictly controlled. Only fully accredited sorcerers are permitted to cast magical spells, even though it’s widely known that anyone with the knowledge and materials is able to do so. Terlu, lonely in her position as a librarian in the very back of the Great Library, broke the law by casting a spell to bring a spider plant to life as a fully sentient being. When her crime was discovered, she was sentenced to be transformed into a wooden statue and placed in one of the main halls as a warning to other venturesome librarians.

This somewhat overlaps with The Spellshop, since one of the major characters was this exact spider plant, named Caz.

The unfortunate Terlu spends six years as a statue before awakening suddenly in a snowy wood. Freezing and frightened, she finds her way into a magical greenhouse. Actually, it’s a sprawling complex of greenhouses, each one magically spelled to create a specific biosphere with its own flora (and a few smaller fauna). After wandering for a while, she encounters Yarrow, the gardener who’s taking care of all this. He’s been the island’s sole inhabitant after the sorcerer who created the greenhouses became paranoid and sent the rest of Yarrow’s family away. Later he died, leaving Yarrow alone and in charge.

It turns out Yarrow had sent to the Great Library for help, and one of Terlu’s friends there shipped her to this remote island with precise instructions for how to restore her. Despite having asked for aid, Yarrow is freaked out by having company. It takes them a while to even talk to each other. When they do start talking, Terlu learns that some of the greenhouses are starting to collapse. Yarrow begs her to use her sorcery and save them. Terlu is terrified of being caught breaking the law and returned to being a statue. The author does a good job of showing how they each are traumatized. Yet, these are basically good people, so they start to poke at the old sorcerer’s notes looking for solutions.

The great thing about this book is how colorful and magical it all is. People come in all colors, shapes and sizes. Magical creatures abound and people are used to seeing them. The greenhouse itself is full of fantastic vistas and so many fun touches. There’s a whole other set of sentient plants with their own ideas about it all.

Not-so-great is how these two lovely people can circle around and convince themselves that they aren’t falling in love. A few plot turns were not well developed, and others were fairly obvious if you had read The Spellshop. For instance, that the empire has fallen and no lawgivers are going to come after Terlu for her illegal casting.

This is a fun, light read. It is very, very cozy. The conflicts are all family related rather than swords-and-thunder. If that sounds nice, The Enchanted Greenhouse will be a good read for you.

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