Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House | Hay House LLC for the Audio ARC. It hasn’t affected the contents of my review.
This is a promising debut by Bita Behzadi, and I will be reading further books from her, but this one had some issues that mean I can’t give it a full four stars. Mostly, I had a really hard time both getting in to the story, and caring about the characters. It took about 33% for the first, and about 60% for the second, which is way too late in the story. If it wasn’t such a fast listen, I might have considered DNFing. Also, even once I cared about them, one of them annoyed the shit out of me.
This is a rough You’ve Got Mail retelling that I’m still not sure actually needed that element of the story at all. I think it might not have been needed at all, or could have been reworked. I think the story started in the wrong place. I also thought the worldbuilding was a bit vague and confusing. Could have used some tightening up.
Our MCs are Josie and Reid, who are both practitioners of magic, and very interested in the practice of apothecaryship, and they have been corresponding for months when they accidentally meet unknowingly when Josie is hired at Reid’s apothecary shop. They do not get along, etc. There’s lots of other elements here with Josie’s family, Reid’s chosen family and foster family, a thing with the local university where both want to attend. There is also a mystery to solve halfway through! It was a lot of elements and I’m not quite sure it completely gelled for me, but it wasn’t bad.
The audiobook is a bit of a frustrating experience. The male narrator mispronounced at least four common words, and he wasn’t that compelling of a narrator to begin with. I really liked the female narrator, though!
If you really really like cozy romantic fantasy, this might hit a little better for you than it did for me.
[3.5 stars]
