This is a very imaginative and cozy tale. Terlu was a librarian sentenced to being turned into a statue for attempting sorcery. Luckily for her, she is brought back to flesh and set the task of saving several enchanted greenhouses. Only problem is she doesn't know much about magic and the grumpy remaining gardener doesn't seem to want much to do with her. Of course, a grumpy sunshine romance blossoms and we meet several fun characters, including a flying cat and a talking rose.

*Received as a free ARC*
Delightful! I enjoyed the first book greatly. I'm still mulling over which I liked more. But Terlu and Yarrow were excellent. I also loved all the distinct personalities of the plants. Every little detail was well thought out. My only complaint is that I weirdly want to know more about the political intrigue of the revolution in the capital! Maybe a book 3?

A librarian turned statue is freed from her spell by a grumpy gardener only to find herself hundreds of years into the present and no idea why she's been freed or where she is... and why she's falling for him. Terlu broke the law by casting a spell that created a sentient spider plant because she was lonely. She was then turned into a statue and tucked away... and forgotten until now. She's been awoken in a nearly deserted island full of magical greenhouses, talking plants, and a grumpy gardener who broke her spell thinking she would be the magical wizard to help him rescue the failing greenhouses... and when she explains she isn't he's disappointed and offers her a place to stay. Yet Terlu is determined to help him and finds herself falling for the charming gardener named Yarrow and making friends with all the sentient plants... and then they find themselves trying to solve mysteries to save their new friends and home. This definitely had similar vibes to the first book and if you enjoy extremely slow cozy fantasy with low stakes, low romance, then this is for you. I thought I would like this one better than the first one but somehow I just didn't like it as much. I couldn't find myself loving the story or the characters and despite being a lover of cozy fantasy and plant related magic stories... this one just was a miss for me unfortunately.

Release Date: July 15,2025

Publication/Blog: Ash and Books (ash-and-books.tumblr.com)

*Thanks Netgalley and Tor Publishing Group | Bramble for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

If you loved The Spellshop like I did, you have to pick this one up. Sarah Beth Durst knows how to write the kind of cozy fantasy that feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket.
I really enjoyed the whimsical world building and of course talking plants! It’s about second chances, growing (literally and emotionally) and finding magic in unexpected places. If you just want to feel good, cozy, comforting and magical, pick this one up!

This was such a beautiful and tender story of second chances, healing, friendship, and love. Sarah has a way of crafting characters and worlds that pull you in and make you want to stay forever. There is a gentleness to this story that feels like the delicate hug from a friend who is offering comfort in a time when you didn’t know you needed it. Readers of both cozy and fantasy genres will appreciate the delicate touch of magic and healing between the characters. The sentient plants and creatures make a marvelous addition to the cast and ambiance. The romance is subtle and a slow build as the main characters adjust to the new purpose they are pursuing with spells and fresh bread as currency between them. Their gentle friendship creates the foundation for their romance to bloom. If I ever get to be so lucky to have a talking plant as a friend, I would love to get into some mischief with Lotti.

The Enchanted Greenhouse is the cozy fantasy readers of The Spellshop have been waiting for! A cozy, hopeful tale of second chances, sweet romance, humour and heart.

Welcome back to Alyssium, and Terlu, a librarian who just wants to do what is right. As punishment for her crimes in The Spellshop, she has been banished as a wooden statue to the North Reading Room of the Great Library of Alyssium. That should be at the end of the story, you would think, how do you become something more than a wooden statue? Someone how Terlu is sent to an island full of amazing, beautiful greenhouses, and we are off into another adventure where Terlu is caught between a rock and a hard place. It’s forbidden for her to do spellwork, but she has been sent to this island to fix the failing greenhouses. Terlu will encounter a grouchy gardener, a winged cat, and amazing flowers and greenhouses beyond description. Enchanted Greenhouse shines with its vivid imagery and rich details, from the wonder of singing flowers to the comfort of freshly baked honey cakes. The greenhouses are magical spaces filled with surprises, and the interactions between the characters are warm and heartfelt. Durst masterfully weaves themes of forgiveness, redemption, and belonging into a story that feels as comforting as it is adventurous. Sarah Beth Durst shines through every page, and the audiobook narration is perfection.

3.5⭐️

These books are the epitome of cozy! The Enchanted Greenhouse is an interconnected standalone in the same world as The Spellshop. In this installment, we have our purple FMC, who was previously cursed to become a statue for using magic to create Caz when she was not a sorcerer and is brought back to life years later by a broody gardener in an enchanted greenhouse. This story is full of talking plants, second chances, magic spells, and mending family relationships as our FMC and MMC team up to save the greenhouses from a spell gone wrong. The callbacks to The Spellshop were a lot of fun and as always, the talking plants are my favorite character.

The biggest drawbacks for me - I wish there was more world building in this series as some aspects just don’t make sense to me. Additionally, I think I would like these books better without the romance, as there seems to be very little chemistry between the main characters, they’re just both lonely and help each other and then fall in love.

Thank you so much to Tor and Macmillan Audio for an ARC & ALC in exchange for my honest review!

Turns out, Cozy Romantasy is my thing.

I loved the characters (grumpy sunshine 4evah!) the island/greenhouse setting, and the fight to save the – you guessed it – Enchanted Greenhouse.

This book was a stand alone, but I’m definitely looking to track down the first in the series.

This was another cozy fantasy book! I enjoyed this one so much. I received an advanced copy of this book as both an ebook and an audiobook and both were great experiences. The greenhouse was so magical and I loved how it just went on forever. Terlu was such a great main character and o am so glad we got to know what happened to her!

I absolutely adored this cozy little book. I was drawn in from page one. Sarah Beth Durst did a fantastic job of weaving a beautiful world. The greenhouses were incredible, unique and so detailed that I could clearly picture them. I loved the slow burn romance of Yarrow and Terlu, it was just enough without being focused on the relationship to the point of missing other parts of the world. Each character was so well crafted, I loved them all especially Lottie. The mystery aspect kept me fully interested throughout and I really loved the ending. I liked this so much that I immediately went out and purchased The Spellshop so that I could be immersed back into the world. This may be my new favorite cozy fantasy.

If you enjoy cozy stories set in fantasy worlds, The Enchanted Greenhouse is for you! While it features the same female main character from The Spellshop and takes place in the same world, there is not much storyline that directly connects the two, so you can definitely read this as a standalone. This was a cute, cozy, low or no stakes story. If you’re in the mood for something that feels like a warm hug in book form, pick this one up!

I enjoyed this novel very much in the aspect that it is lighthearted, whimsical, and overall a fun read. I like the world the author has created as well. I know this is a "sequel," but I don't feel you need to read the first one to understand this story or gain important context. There are tie-ins to it, but you will still enjoy this story very much. The side characters of talking plants are so much fun! My main issue is that some things can get repetitive in the story. My main issue of repetiveness is with the main character repeating the same thoughts regarding her fears.

I received an advance copy of this book via NetGalley.

This perfectly cozy and charming romantasy is a standalone, indirect sequel to Durst's likewise wonderful The Spellshop. This one picks up on a plot thread of the other book: what happened to the librarian who illegally employed magic to bring to life the spider plant, Caz.

Terlu Perna's sentence was extreme is proportion to her crime. She's forced to become a wooden statue on the library grounds. She spends six years in that stasis, only to abruptly awaken in a strange, snowy place. She finds nearby a huge, sprawling complex of enchanted greenhouses, all of them overseen by a surly young gardener who is profoundly disappointed she's not a sanctioned wizard. The greenhouses are starting to fail, one by one, and he needs help to stop the devastation. Terlu begins to fall in love with the place--and the man--as she delves deeper into the mysteries of the greenhouses and their dead creator.

While you know from the get-go this will have a happily ever after, the journey there is an absolute delight, with plenty of other surprises along the way.

I really wanted to love this book, but I could not connect with the narrative voice and found myself disinterested sixty-ish pages in. This book is probably great for romantasy readers who aren't me.

4.5 stars and my thanks to Netgalley and the Publisher for the eARC!

I think I might have liked this better than Spellshop???

The Plot: 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.

"You don't let anything dim your light," Yarrow said. "You were sentenced to a fate worse than death - don't tell me it wasn't. You lost everything. Unfairly punished. You're terrified it will happen again. And yet you still open your arms to everyone. How?"
"I..." She'd never been asked that or ever even considered the question. "What's the alternative?"


The kindness of Terlu despite everything that happened to her will stick with me for a long time. I loved that she treated everything as a new experience and even when she was so scared of being tracked down and turned back into a statue, that fear didn't stop her from doing what was right. I love that Yarrow was absolutely gone for her from the jump, even if the only proof was in the loafs of honey cake he made.

Sometimes, you need a book that is low-stakes, low-heat, but massive feelings.

This was delightful. My new dream is to live somewhere with an enchanted greenhouse. I'd been hoping Caz and Terlu might meet, but the fact she at least got closure that he's doing well made up for it somewhat. I won't lie, though -- I'm definitely hopeful for a third book in which Kiela, Terlu, and Caz meet up!

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.

The second in the Spellshop series delivers what it promises. Terlu is a relatable character. She's worried about getting in trouble again and getting others in trouble with her this time, but still wants to help the greenhouses. It is not surprising that Yarrow, the grumpy gardener warms up to her. And his backstory makes his standoffishness understandable.
A very good edition to the series.

This was a fun, sweeping read! What a clever concept - enchanted green houses! Loved the descriptions of the foliage and all the chatter around food! Add tiny dragons and lots of talking plants and you’ve got a whimsical light-hearted read.

If you’ve never read cozy fantasy before this would be a great introduction. To enjoy this book you don’t have to have read the first book in the series. Big thanks to NetGalley for an early copy.

I didn’t think it was possible, but I loved The Enchanted Greenhouse even more than its predecessor, The Spellshop. It’s essentially the scene from Beauty & the Beast where Belle first sees the enormous library, on repeat, mixed with simmering romance, heaps of magical creatures and flowers, and infinitely more talking plants. I felt wonder with each new piece of the story, excited for what waited through each new door. Sarah Beth Durst was able to create a universe on a tiny island in a forgotten corner of her world and it’s truly a wonder to read and experience. At the end of the day, any book with tiny honey-obsessed dragons is a win by my standards.

The Best Bits

The greenhouse scenes - each one is unique, beautiful and thrilling to imagine
The tiny dragons - so perfect they deserve at least two mentions
The love story - more forward than The Spellshop and just as sweet

A Statue Come to Life
We first heard Terlu’s story in The Spellshop, the long lost creator of Caz, the beloved talking spider plant, who had been sentenced to an eternity as a statue. The Enchanted Greenhouse is the story of her rebirth into the land of the living, and she dives right into a strange world filled with wondrous things. I loved getting to know this character, watching as she returned to her social ways and engaged with everything around her in a sensitive and caring manner. She completely makes sense as the creator of a talking spider plant, and she fits perfectly alongside the grumpy sole gardener who is trying to keep dozens of greenhouses from falling into disrepair. She helps the gardener to open himself back up to the world and falls in love along the way. The progression is perfect and I applaud Durst on how perfectly she captures the cozy fantasy aesthetic mixing just enough seriousness with fluffy calm.

So Many Talking Plants
I was obsessed with Caz in The Spellshop. Just imagining this ball of dirt and leaves swinging around was fascinating to me and such an original creation. In this second book, Durst outdoes herself with a dozen talking plants, all of them with unique personalities. While the rose is the real star of the talking plant show, I found myself obsessed with Dendy, the slow talking, wise Rhododendron who steals all of his scenes. I never would have imagined being thrilled at the prospect of talking plants, but here we are and it’s magical.

The Food
So much of this book followed the lines of Studio Ghibli - the wonder, the magic, the characters with things to learn who just want to better the world. In true Ghibli fashion, food was front and center and Durst’s descriptions are mouthwatering. The grumpy gardener has chef-level talents in the kitchen and imagining his baked goods made me want to put down the book and start baking. I’ve never tasted a dish that embodied an entire season, and now I’m inspired.

Breathtaking Greenhouses
Clearly I expected there to be greenhouses aplenty, but that descriptor doesn’t do the book justice. I knew I’d be seeing magical plants, maybe even a couple of creatures, but Durst has created dozens of magical worlds, bringing together so many ideas into one space. I found myself pausing to reread descriptions, just so I could imagine them fully. From the sunflower maze populated by tiny dragons (a third mention!) to the galaxy of starlight flowers to a room housing flowers whose scents create beautiful dreams - it was all breathtaking to behold.