(This review is of the eARC of this book. Thank you to Algonquin Books for providing me with a copy to review.)

The story focused on the main character recovering from burnout as a broadcast journalist and the connections she built with the people at the pottery workshop. The characters felt flat and weren't that memorable. Also, the characters' thoughts and feelings were all stated directly, which slowed down the reading for me. Overall, it was an okay read.

To begin - thank you so much to the publisher for the gifted e-ARC of this title!

I loved the cozy environment of the story. The Soyo pottery studio is definitely a place I wish I could visit myself! There was a vast cast of characters, each having their own personality traits and struggles that brought some diversity to the storyline.

The main reason why this book was not *quite* what I’d expected was mostly due to the writing. Given that this is a rather short book, so I did expect the bit of “rush-y-ness” it has, I still felt like the plot was lacking in some areas. Either the storyline was moving too quickly, jumping from one backstory to another, or that there wasn’t enough attention given to a certain element of the FMC’s character. For example, the introduction to the FMC’s traumatic past with her childhood friend felt a bit rushed to me. As I kept reading, it did resurface and this was an issue that eventually was solved, but it still felt a bit “patchy.” I wish there had been a bit more development to events like this one that were such an important element of the FMC’s character development.

There were times where the writing would capture my attention fully, before it would abruptly release me from its grip, and so I would start losing interest.

Even though the whole book was not for me, I still enjoyed certain moments in the story (especially the ending scene by the sea!)

I would recommend The Healing Season of Pottery to a reader going through a rough patch looking for a cozy, self-healing journey to follow along. The book is simple, cliché, and predictable: very vanilla, like Jungmin's favorite ice cream flavor. Finding meaning in a hobby after a period of burnout is a pretty common trope (pottery especially), so I needed something more to hook me into the story. About halfway through the book, the plot started straying into the backstories of secondary characters, which took away from Jungmin's story, which was not fully developed. I also think that if you do not have a basic understanding of Korean culture, some of the references may be harder to follow and could benefit from footnotes.

Thank you NetGalley, Algonquin Books, and Yeon (translated by Richards) for the ARC of this book.

This book started out really cozy. It told the story of Jungmin who had a mental breakdown and left her job that was giving her severe burnout. On her first outing out of the apartment, she comes across a pottery study, and we have lots of scenic moments where she is touching the clay and becoming one with it, and letting the scent of the clay and the smell of coffee and ceramic cups bring her a peace she hasn’t had before.

The problem was that halfway through the book, the story started to wander. Instead of following Jungmin across her journey, all of a sudden, we’re in other character shoes. And while I have nothing against the book showing us different characters’ points of view, it was really jarring to have a style shift halfway through. I really liked that this was a story of Jungmin finding friends and hobbies for herself, but then she developed a love interest, and I felt that took away from her personal growth.