Quick Synopsis – Saika is ready to face her grief and bury her sister’s ashes at Ash Gardens. When she arrives at Ash Gardens, she finds she isn’t ready to let go just yet and decides to start working at Ash Gardens. All isn’t what it seems, can Saika save Ash Gardens?

Song This Reminds Me Of – Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now – The Smiths

Publication Date – Oct. 15, 2024

Content Notes – This book’s central theme is dealing with the death of loved ones. There are several mentions and descriptions of death including off page suicide and death of a child. There is some vomiting, blood, and descriptions of being exiled by family.

Rating – ⭐⭐⭐out of 5

Review – This is a lovely story that really focuses on how all-consuming grief can be. I found this to be a fairly cozy fantasy. I thought the topic was heavy, but well done. However, I thought the ending was a little unsatisfying and I thought there should have been more character building for both Saika and Frank’s wife Kye. It felt like there should have been like 50 pages more of exposition for this to have been a truly satisfying read for me.

Saika is a witch whose sister died two years ago. Her last promise to her sister was to bury her ashes at Ash Gardens. When Saika arrives at Ash Gardens, she discovers she isn’t quite ready to part with her sister. Instead, she opts to stay and work at Ash Gardens. Only she isn’t a full-powered witch; she has to rely on the energy of a dying star to fuel her enchantments. As Saika works to hide her secret, she discovers that everyone in Ash Gardens is grieving someone, and that Ash Gardens is falling apart. The magic holding the house together is failing, and Frank, the enigmatic owner, is becoming more and more forgetful.

Saika works with the motley crew of Ash Gardens to hold ceremonies for other families and hold together Ash Gardens. There is found family and a little romance at the heart of the story. As cute and heartwarming as this was, I felt like there was a real lack of character growth for Saika. She does find a way to deal with her grief and find joy, but ultimately, I thought she was a little selfish and had too much of an “I know best” attitude. I also thought for how much Frank had built a sanctuary for people to honor their loved ones, he was pretty careless with the people who lived with him. Frank kept huge secrets and used Saika almost like a scapegoat to fix his problems.

Even though I had some issues with this book, I still thought it was lovely and would recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bindery Books – Ezeekat Press for the advanced copy; all opinions are my own.