Homegrown Magic has all of the beats of a cozy fantasy-romance with some additional twists and turns. (Some which work better than others.) Our Protagonist is Yael Clauneck, the young heir of a prestigious (and very rich) family of warlocks, who also own a bank. (The most important bank in the kingdom, which is also the kingdom’s mint and money exchange.) Yael, who is overwhelmed with the knowledge they are just another cog in the wheel of the family machine opts to run away from home on the night of their graduation party.
They steal a mechanical horse and head off for Bloomfield, the home of Yael’s childhood friend Margot.
On Margot’s end of the plot, Our Heroine is struggling to keep her business afloat. She’s a plant witch with a grandmother whose remedies are famous. Thanks to some really bad financial decisions and recklessness on the part of her parents, her home and the town she lives in is in danger of being foreclosed if she can’t create a potion that her grandmother had been working on before her death. When her childhood friend Yael Clauneck turns up, she is stressed and desperate enough to view Yael as mostly a business opportunity. Her feelings become more complicated when she takes Yael in as an assistant.
Yael meanwhile stumbles into this situation without any knowledge of what Margot has been going through. Despite this, they and Margot quickly renew their friendship, though Margot spends a lot of time holding back on her feelings because of Yael’s family, and the problems she’s been having with her research. Yael in turn finds a lot of enjoyment in working for Margot and living in a place that makes them feel less stressed and feeling like they have to perform. As Yael and Margot become closer, and become more open with each other, they enter a more intimate romantic and sexual relationship.
The plot went in a lot of directions I didn’t expect, or found frustrating. As an example, Yael is written as being emotionally abused by members of the family, including the family’s patron. (The family are Dungeons & Dragons-style warlocks. Which means they get their power from an eldritch patron of some variety.) We don’t get a resolution on this situation, and I think it could have been handled better. We’re told that Yael doesn’t fit in, and they’ve ruined their potential according to their parents–but we aren’t shown what potential the family thinks they see in Yael, when Yael’s predestined job is a middle management desk job they have no interest in.
With Margot, Yael seems to have some innate skill at marketing and making deals–which should have met with family (or at least patron) approval–but for some reason, it doesn’t. Yael’s family are presented as stock villains (except for one cousin who seems too nice to have had an abusive toxic upbringing Yael’s feelings toward their family imply). I really would have liked to see Yael sitting Margot down and working with her on front end sales and marketing. It would have been a bonding experience, and brought some more depth to their partnership (on the business side) and their relationship (on the romantic side).
We also have the usual romantic “misunderstandings that could be easily resolved if the characters would just talk to each other.” The characters tend to talk past each other, or aren’t completely honest about the situations they’re in, so the misunderstandings are at least valid–if still exasperating in the face of their otherwise good dynamic. Margot and Yael rapidly become a team, so it’s a little frustrating when Yael rushes ahead before checking with Margot, or Margot holds back on the bad situation she’s in with Yael’s family.
Homegrown Magic is a cute, cozy fantasy romance that turns more serious toward the the end, with higher stakes. It’s a very fast, light read despite the darker dip toward the end. Yael makes some tough, though still reckless decisions. The characters are engaging, but I would have liked more depth concerning Yael’s relationship with their family. It leaned more toward tell than show. Granted it would have made the novel less light and cozy, but complicated family dynamics are my jam.)
This review is based on a galley received from NetGalley.
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