What do you call a bee that’s been put under a spell? Bee-witched! Be kind, you can’t expect a magical talking rose who just woke up from a long enchanted sleep to be instantly ready for a comedy special.
In which we get to meet Caz’s mom! Once upon a time a lonely little librarian named Terlu Perna cast a forbidden magic spell to create a friend (Caz the spider plant whose story was told in The Spellshop). Her punishment was to be permanently transformed into a statue and displayed in the Great Library as a cautionary tale against unsanctioned magic. And that should have been that, except Terlu is suddenly awake in the snow on the island of Belde outside of an enchanted greenhouse. She is offered a safe place to rest and recover by the resident gardener. But the greenhouses are failing and it’s up to Terlu to figure out why.
As far as we knew from The Spellshop, the library had burned down and Terlu possibly with it. It’s nice to find that that wasn’t the case. This is a very sweet story about second chances for all the characters. The stakes are personally high, not world endingly high. And the descriptions! I didn’t know if I was hungry for the delicious sounding food or if I wanted to try eating a delicious sounding plant. I don’t even like honey that much but oh do I want a honey cake. I believe with the third book being released next year we’ll go island hopping and I cannot wait. Durst has built a really beautiful world here.
One last joke before we go- why do bees hum? Because they can’t remember the words!
