The cover is what initially brought me in! This is a perfect plan of cozy fantasy and dark humor. I laughed out loud while reading and that doesn't happen often!

This was a delightful read. I returned to it, stared at the cover multiple times on the Netgalley shelves, and decided to take a shot in the dark. I loved the cover and the title, which is quirky.
I found myself legitimately laughing aloud while reading and being surprised at how loveable this cranky old woman is. It looked like it would be an absolute villain arc for these characters, but this was sincerely a cozy fantasy with a light washing of dark humor. The rest of the humor was plenty of puns, clever jokes, and funny situations. If a person is looking for something reasonably lighthearted and short (with a pleasant amount of lore, mind you), this is the book!
Thank you, Netgalley, for this great read!

What a strange, charming little cozy fantasy! I really enjoyed the story - it felt like a hug. It gives me Emily Wilde vibes, which is one of my favorite books. Well done Oliver Darkshire!

Read this early courtesy of #netgalley ARC.

I loved this book. I laughed out loud and I learned a new word “smaragdine… a word I need to add to my dictionary in iOS so that it stops trying to autocorrect it thinking it’s not a word. It is a word!

This was a quick, delightful read and it was just what I needed to add some levity and happiness in the new year. Folks who enjoy reading stories set in medieval times or quasi-medieval-ish wizard stories will enjoy all of the nods to classic literature featuring these aforementioned wizards. I described this book to a friend today as “clever funny” and I stand by that. I will likely read this again in the future as I enjoyed it that much…which is pretty much the highest praise I can offer.

“Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil” centers around Isabella, a resilient woman living on a farm in a quaint village with her less-than-ideal husband. Her spouse, notorious for his inability to care for himself and constant complaining, makes life challenging. Despite the farm's lack of fruitful harvests, except for the mysterious mandrake leaves growing on a cursed stone, the story takes a captivating turn when the village wizard retires. Isabelle stumbles upon spell books in his abandoned home and becomes intrigued by the possibilities they hold.

This book had me completely enthralled from start to finish. The vivid descriptions of village life, culture, and history were so immersive that I felt transported to that world. Each character was richly developed, allowing me to envision them with ease.

Ultimately, I believe the book is a profound narrative about the power of self-reinvention and the courage to start anew, regardless of societal expectations. It beautifully illustrates how one can embark on a new chapter in life, on one's own terms.

Wish I could have kept reading on Isabella’s next adventures!

Isabella has a rather hard life on a farm that only seems to be able to grow mandrake roots near a cursed stone. There's this spell book with confusing footnotes and annotations that confuse her, but comes with a cat-like thing that might actually like her. Gradually Isabella grows (while causing magical havoc along the way). Funny, smart, Isabella's story is a delight.

Why can't I live on a cursed mandrake farm and study my magical books together with my eldritch cat and my talking plant? Is that truly too much to ask for? But maybe I should be careful with what I wish for, because Mrs. Isabella Nagg has all of the above, but she also has to keep up with a whole lot of annoying stuff. First of all, there is her useless husband who literally can't do anything by himself, and her donkey just keeps wandering off, and at this time of year the goblins crawl out of their holes and try to sell their tempting but lethal goblin fruit to everyone, you know how it is. And then her husband decides to steal the magic book of the town wizard, and of course that's Isabella's problem now too. But well, she might as well try a spell or two, and the wizard is nowhere to be found anyway, so why not take his entire book collection and the not-cat companion that comes along with it? Her first spell results in a sentient donkey and a talking pot of basil, but she has always liked the basil more than her husband, so it surely will be fine. The story unfolds from there, but it's hardly a straightforward plotline. Isabella might be the main character (and she is great), but there are also many other POV characters, and the story is overall more about the vibes than the plot. I personally loved reading about the odd little town of East Grasby where the sun is controlled by a beetle, and where the dead sometimes rise from their graves, and where a woman really does the most to turn the annual goblin market into a profitable business even though it will doom all the villagers. You might have picked up on it from my review, but everything here is a little silly. The narrator is witty and I smiled a lot throughout the book, but that doesn't mean that only light topics are mentioned here. I wouldn't call it exactly cozy, because there is death and the story literally starts out with a beheaded body, but it's also not high stakes and mostly unserious. I actually think that this book kinda nails the tone of these somewhat weird medieval tales, like they are collected in the "Decameron". I know some stories, but I haven't read it in its entirety (it's 100 tales total) and I never heard about the whole pot of basil situation. The reveal related to that was a surprise for me, but I guess it will not be if you already know the original story or the Keats poem. I know that this will not be everyone's cup of tea (or pot of basil, if you will), but I have nothing negative to say about this book. It also comes with some illustrations, footnotes and abstracts from the magic books, and that made for and unique and enjoyable reading experience. I will definitely pick up a physical copy upon release and I will highly anticipate future works by Oliver Darkshire.

Huge thanks to NetGalley and W. W. Norton & Company for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review.