REVIEW: Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz
A powerful plant witch and a grumpy alchemist must work together to save their quiet town from a magical plague in this debut cozy fantasy romance about starting over, redemption, and what it really means to be a good person.
Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good.
The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life.
Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome Nathaniel Marsh, an alchemist sharing her greenhouse. With a struggling business and his own second chance seemingly out of reach, Nathaniel has no time for flowers or frippery—and certainly none for the intriguing witch next door.
When a mysterious blight endangers every living plant in Dragon’s Rest, Violet and Nathaniel must work together, through their fears, pasts, and growing feelings for one another, to save their community. But with a figure from her previous life knocking at her door and her secrets threatening to uproot everything she’s worked so hard to grow, Violet can’t help but wonder…does a former villain truly deserve a happily-ever-after?
Dear Ms. Krempholtz,
To be honest, I was attracted to the cover, the mildly homicidal houseplant and the fact that the heroine was once genuinely bad. Except that she really wasn’t after all. More on that later. This story is heavy on found family and self discovery with a so-so romance along for the ride.
To keep readers from being as confused as I was, the prologue is told from the POV of a fighter who arrived to help defeat the evil villain Shadowfade. We see Violet sitting in the remains of her garden of poisonous plants as this heroine urges her to be good. Violet takes this advice to heart and travels down to the small town that was kept in Shadowfade’s thrall for ages and sets herself up as a florist in half of the apothecary building owned by twins Nathaniel and Pru Marsh. Pru is one of these uber perky people but Nathaniel is a grump and Not At All Happy about Pru’s decision to rent this space to a stranger.
There was something in her expression, behind the angry, suspicious mask, that looked a lot like wistfulness. Uncertainty. Hope.
Violet is trying to be good and determined not to draw on her endless dark power and magic from now on. She’s past all that. Now she pulls her magic to grow plants from a well of goodness. Nathaniel might think she’s not going to make it as a businesswoman but Violet’s soon doing great while Nathaniel mopes around and scowls at all the customers. He also has sexy dreams about Violet but then scowls harder the next day to make up for that.
“We’ve talked about this,” she said in the exasperated tone of a parent disciplining a child. “No more knives, or I’m going to build you a terrarium and lock you inside.”
The vine around the knife’s hilt unraveled and the blade clattered to the floor.
“Three moons!” Nathaniel cursed. “What is that thing?”
Miss Thistlewaite flapped a hand at him, her attention still on the plant. “That’s just Bartleby. I promise, this won’t be a problem, he’s just not used to the new place and he’s a little skittish around strangers. Even though he promised me no more stabbing.”
Soon though a problem shows up in town in the form of a black, gooey blight that kills any plants it touches. Drawing on his alchemical training – because that’s what he really wanted to do, not make tinctures – Nathaniel tries to find a cure while Violet faces someone from her past who wants to restore the old status quo. Can they save the town and finally work out their feelings for each other?
So yeah. Shadowfade? Not the scariest name for such a horrid villain, I think. And we never see him in action so that’s a disappointment. But I like Violet. She’s trying to put her past (in which, by doing bad things for him, she competed with other mages for the affection of this man who raised her) behind her. No more thorns, no more poisonous plants, no more doing bad things. She tries to keep her head down and refuses to tell anyone about who she was because she doesn’t want to be rejected. Despite never having run a business, she does a darn sight better than Nathaniel.
He’d been such a spectacular idiot.
Nathaniel is a grump. He’s also a whiner. And when things get tough, as of course they do, he sits and mopes and basically wants to do nothing. There are a few times, such as the end when Bad Things might happen, when I wanted to smack him as he whined about trying to, you know, save the town. Whoa is me, whoa is our situation, we’re about to lose our business but I’m just going to sulk and wail about how I can’t possibly do anything. Nathaniel didn’t impress me much.
Nathaniel stood shocked, taking it all in.
Something is revealed at the end before the entire town unites to help save the day that makes sense but also comes across as a deus ex machina. It’s a very handy one so, okay. I like that Violet still has conflicting feelings about Shadowfade since despite being a villain, he’s the only parental figure she remembers and at first she kind of misses being the Badass everyone shrank from. However I’m baffled that she demurs about Nathaniel’s offer to help her see if she has any actual family out there. I think this book counts as a cozy fantasy lite as I never really felt that anyone was in any real danger. I also wish the hero wasn’t such a miserable git and we’d seen more of Bartleby. C
~Jayne
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