Homegrown Magic kept it cute and cozy! I liked this story more than I thought that I would. The author did a great job from the onset of the story establishing the connection between Yael and Margot. In this story, their attraction made sense because of their history, so it felt like an inst-love situation, but it wasn't because of their mutual past. The chemistry between them was well-developed from the beginning and kept a good pace throughout the story. Because this story has a character leaving the expectations of how their life should be lived in pursuit of what makes them the happiest, it reminded me somewhat of the book Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, so anyone who loved that book will probably enjoy this book too.

The novel is set in a world where magic runs in families, and its influence is seen in everyday life. The protagonist, a young girl, has grown up in a family where magic is a source of pride, but also a heavy responsibility. As she faces the challenges of fitting into her family’s magical legacy, she must also figure out who she truly is and where she belongs in a world filled with expectations.

One of the book’s strengths is how it handles the theme of family dynamics. The protagonist’s relationship with her family is both loving and complex, and the authors capture the struggles of balancing familial expectations with the desire to forge one’s own path. This is especially powerful for middle-grade readers, who may find themselves grappling with similar issues of identity and belonging.

The magical system is another standout feature of Homegrown Magic. It’s woven into the characters’ lives in a way that feels grounded and connected to the themes of the story. The magic feels organic, deeply tied to nature and family heritage, which makes it an integral part of the characters’ identities and struggles.

Pacing in Homegrown Magic is well-balanced, as the plot develops alongside the protagonist’s personal journey. There are plenty of moments of wonder and discovery, but there’s also space for quieter, introspective scenes that allow readers to connect with the characters on a deeper level.
Homegrown Magic is a wonderful and thoughtful middle-grade read that will appeal to fans of magical realism and stories about family and growing up. It combines a magical world with relatable emotional depth, making it an enchanting and meaningful read for young readers, as well as older readers who appreciate stories about personal growth, relationships, and the power of magic in everyday life.

Homegrown Magic is a cute, cozy romance that takes place in a fantasy world — a world inspired by D&D. Margot possesses nature magic and works in a greenhouse, taking over her grandmother’s business. (She also makes magic strawberry jam!) Yael grew up in a wealthy family, with strict parents who want them to take a company job. In the town of Bloomfield, Yael and Margot become reacquainted friends to lovers, and unravel a mystery of grudges and debts between their families.

This is a very cute, lighthearted romance and I found myself enjoying their flirty dialogue. The authors do a great job setting the scene and atmosphere in the town of Bloomfield. Warning there are a few smut scenes in the book!

I think the only issue I had was that the pacing was a bit slow sometimes. I also didn’t care much about Margot’s parents or the folk living in Bloomfield. Story-wise, it’s predictable for the most part, but I think the enjoyability is mostly from the vibes and main character interactions.

Thank you to NetGalley and the authors for allowing me an advanced reader copy!

I loooved this book! I’m not sure why I took me longer than usual to read, but whatever it was, it was not the books fault. This was another cozy read of mine, and the vibes were immaculate. Cozy, whimsical, strawberry jelly and cats, it was such a good read. It feels like a combination of The Spellshop and of Legends and Lattes. The characters were believable and relatable, and I WILL be getting a physical copy when it’s available!

What a delightful fantasy full of queer joy! Loved all the plants and strawberries and growth happening!

I really wanted to enjoy this book based on the premise alone, but this writing made it very hard to do so.

For starters, the character's name does not need to appear as a chapter header if the book is written in the third person. It is completely unnecessary, and it makes me think the authors think I'm an idiot for not understanding whose pov it is.

These authors do not know how to properly allocate page space. The first kiss between the main couple was given just a few lines and was interrupted by a chapter break. There were also no details. They kissed, and that was that. The romance in general was relegated as a subplot despite it being the supposed main plot. I was not rooting for the main characters to end up together purely because they had so few scenes together.

Alternatively, the description for a single dress was given a whole paragraph. Twice as much page space was dedicated to a dress rather than the main couple's first kiss. There were so many other unnecessarily long descriptions for tiny things; it was infuriating. I do not want multiple paragraphs detailing the decoration of a market stall, ESPECIALLY when actually important things are skipped over. There were so many scenes I would have loved to see that I did not because the authors had to spend time listing potion ingredients and their purposes rather than showing the main characters becoming friends and coworkers after their first meeting in a decade. Absolutely ridiculous.

The epilogue was cute, but it was very rushed. There were multiple plot points resolved in the epilogue, and by resolved, I mean they were summarized. The resolution of multiple plot points were given less time than the side characters' romantic exploits.

Overall, this is a cute, cottagecore romance, but it was an absolute slog to get through thanks to an inability to pace a plot or dedicate appropriate page space to plot points and descriptions.

Thank you to the publisher for the e-copy. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

This book was an interesting read. It claims to be a YA read, but the two MCs were 23 and 24 years old. There were also plot holes that I thought would have been explained, but they weren't.

Margot is a plant witch, she was born with magic. When her parents irresponsibly blew through her grandmother's fortune, they made a deal with the rich Clauneck family that indebted Margot to them without her knowledge. Now she needs to develop the one remedy that her grandmother started before she died to save her cottage, her plants, and the town.

Yael Clauneck is the heir to the banking family, one born without magic. They've lived a charmed, spoiled life never worrying about the consequences. But after they graduate school, their reality is very clear. Working in a job they will forever hate. During the party, they take off on a horse for an adventure anywhere but home. They never expected to end up in the small town of their old childhood best friend.

Margot doesn't tell Yael that her parents bound her to his family right away. And soon the friends start to develop feelings for each other. But reality arrives four months later in the mail from his family.

When they return to the city, what will Yael do? Go back and act like a Clauneck or try to help break Margot from his family's clutches for good?

*I received a complimentary copy of this ARC via NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Homegrown Magic is a cozy, small-town romance with the right touch of magic. This book follows Flora, a kitchen witch trying to save her family's struggling café, and Eli, a journalist who falls into her world while chasing a story. Their chemistry is sweet, the setting is warm and inviting, and the magic adds a fun, whimsical layer without overpowering the romance. It’s a feel-good read perfect for anyone who loves charming love stories, found family, and a bit of everyday enchantment. I really enjoyed this book and think everyone should pick it up!

Homegrown Magic is every bit as sweet and cosy as the cover implies – I’d actually rank it above most of the cosy fantasy I’ve tried in a lot of ways. It’s soft, and sugary, and pretty delightful, and wonderfully easy to read.

That’s probably the book’s best quality: how fluffy it is for the brain. When I wasn’t up to handling anything complicated, I could pick up Homegrown Magic – and still enjoy myself. The prose is a level or two above what I’m used to from cosy fantasy; a little more descriptive, a little less simplistic, and I thought it elevated the book nicely. The worldbuilding reminded me a bit of Spellshop, not because the settings are similar (they’re not) but in aesthetic and vibe: pixies being chased by swallows, rainbow bees, enchanted pocket mirrors for talking to friends long-distance. It’s all very candy-flossy, but with enough depth to stop it from hurting your teeth: details like the gender-neutral term of address ‘sir’am’ delighted me, but also made the setting feel simultaneously more real and more unique, like a place with its own culture and history – and we have the Clauneks and their cut-throat business empire, and enough fantasy capitalism, to make it clear that not everything is pastel-perfect.

The biggest fly in the ointment is poor Margot’s business worries. Her parents left her with a ton of debts, one of which means that if she can’t create an impossible potion by year’s end, the village-slash-commune created by her grandmother will be repossessed. This is, of course, something Margot has (inexplicably) kept to herself, rather than inform the villagers of the threat to their homes and give them the opportunity to help, and the fear and worry and dread form a strong undercurrent throughout most of the book. It doesn’t stop Homegrown Magic from being wonderful wish-fulfilment, but it does make it feel a bit more relatable, a bit less fairy-tale-perfect – and I thought that was a good thing! It adds a dash of – realism doesn’t seem like the right word? – that I haven’t seen in anything cosy before.

Yael is a cinnamon roll who doesn’t know what to do with themself, and through pure luck ends up on Margot’s doorstep, which turns out to be the best thing for them. Learning to be less of a brat, and how to use their connections to benefit others, allowed them a fair bit of growth, but they did still feel a little one-note to me: pure sunshine, most of the time, which fit the book’s vibe but did make them feel a bit less developed. That being said, I’m not sure that wasn’t on purpose: Yael runs away from their family because they don’t know who the hell they are underneath the role of heir, and their arc in Homegrown Magic is as much about figuring that out as it is anything else. So their feeling like an under-developed person may have been on purpose – they definitely felt more fleshed-out by the end of the book.

I liked the romance between Margot and Yale, and I appreciated that it took more than a week for the characters to get together – the story takes place over at least six months, and although that does necessitate a few time-skips, I didn’t find them jarring (high praise, given how much I typically hate time-skips!) The romance actually stood out a bit for me, because Homegrown Magic is the first cosy fantasy I’ve come across that isn’t fade-to-black: the sex scenes are on-page and explicit, and Margot and Yael are both allowed to be sexual beings who feel desire and enjoy having sex. It’s refreshing! (Although I remain surprised and kind of appalled that they repeatedly ruin incredibly expensive-and-beautiful dresses in the process!)

Unfortunately, Pacton and Podos utilise some of my most-hated romance tropes towards the climax of the story – namely View Spoiler » – which were not just stupid and unpleasant to read, but were also wildly unnecessary (things were already complicated and tragic enough, the extra drama added nothing). I’m also not really a fan of keeping dumb secrets, and eventually Margot’s refusal to explain about the debts and mortgages started to annoy me. View Spoiler » Pretty much the entire last quarter (or maybe fifth?) of the book drove me up the wall – I almost DNFed, but was genuinely curious about how The Debts and Family Responsibilities (Margot and Yael’s issues, respectively) were going to be resolved, and knew I could finish the rest in about an hour.

Well, it was a wasted hour: the resolution was rushed, easy, and all-too-simple for me. I was hoping for something clever, or for Margot and Yael to work out a brilliant compromise, or something; but no, it was practically hand-waved – and down to luck, basically, at that. It was such a let-down!

The sub-plots of the potion Margot was trying to create, and Yael’s relationship to the Claunek’s source of magic, also ended up being really underwhelming: I genuinely don’t know why we had either one, because they didn’t end up adding anything to the story. But mostly, it was the terrible romance tropes that ruined Homegrown Magic for me – all that nonsense felt incredibly out of character, wasn’t necessary, and was just lazy writing. Up until that, it was almost a five-star read, but wow did that leave a bad taste in my mouth. And then the extremely lame ending, like a souffle that failed to rise. Because someone put in MAYONNAISE instead of egg whites…!

Which leaves me…really unsure as to whether or not to recommend this. Or who to recommend it to. Most of the book was wonderful! I really, REALLY liked it! But the last chunk was a kick in the teeth, and why would you want to read that kind of disappointment?

If you don’t mind completely manufactured relationship drama, and convenient magic-wand endings, then Homegrown Magic is genuinely lovely! But if you do mind those things, then this is probably not the book for you.

The cover is cute, and I love the premise, but I can't read third person present tense. That POV just doesn't agree with my brain, so I DNF at 2%.

I won't be leaving reviews on Goodreads or Amazon for this book since I DNF so quickly.

A Whimsical story full of whimsy, laughter, and fun.

I thought it was a sweet friends to lovers, and some ways second chance romance. The detail into the world was so specific, it was as if I was there in the story.

It’s the Queer cozy fantasy you’ve been waiting for even if you didn’t know that you needed it.

DNF @ 10%

I tried starting this book three times and failed three times. I think the present tense really threw me off, which is definitely a me problem rather than a book problem. That, coupled with trying to wrap my head around the world building was just not doing me any favors, so unfortunately this became a DNF.

I think this will really appeal to a lot of people -- cozy fantasy is really popular right now, and this book promises all the right vibes. I love the queer-normative society, and think others will too.

3.5 stars. A story with so much potential and a delightful world.

Yael Clauneck is the heir of the wealthiest banking family in the realm. They flee their own graduation party because they want to escape their life. Margot Greenwillow is desperately trying to keep her family's magic remedies business afloat. Yael crashes her life, but maybe it'll turn out to be a good thing. But Yael's parents have other plans...

First off, the premise of this story is amazing and I absolutely love the world that the authors built. It's whimsical, but also interesting and makes you want to figure it out. I want to lose myself in Margot's greenhouses and try out mechanical horses.

The pacing was a bit of a struggle for me. I think that Yael is very unlikable at the beginning and that persists further into the book than I would like, and then I felt like the end was a bit rushed. While I understand why they are that way, I wish that we could see them grow a bit sooner. Margot also mostly has her character growth right at the end. I think that would also allow for Yael and Margot's relationship to grow a bit more.

Overall, if you like cozy fantasy and whimsical worlds, I definitely suggest giving this one a try. It's a fun read that will immerse you in this world.

Thank you to NetGalley and Del Rey for providing an advanced copy of this book for review. All opinions are my own.

3.75 ⭐️ This was such a cozy, feel-good read! If you’re into witchy cottagecore vibes, slow-burn romance, and small-town charm, this one’s for you. The plant magic was super creative, and the chemistry between Margot and Yael was great from the start. That said, the pacing dragged a bit, and I wish we got more of their romance instead of skipping big chunks of time. Also, Margot keeping secrets for so long was frustrating. Still, it was a warm, whimsical read, and I’m definitely curious about the next book—especially if it follows those intriguing side characters!

This was very sweet — like reading a novelization of a queer TTRPG or RPG. I was pleased to learn from the dedication and the acknowledgements that this story did indeed begin in a virtual D&D group populated by authors. The world of this book doesn’t seem to be inhabited by as wide a variety of monsters and sapient species as might be expected from RPGs/TTRPGs — but the story is really just focused on what is relevant to the narratives of protagonists Yael and Margot, so there are only hints of the world and the magic beyond them (giant spiders, bags of holding, mechanical steeds, for example). Because of that focus, I would have loved to see more of the minutiae of their lives as they begin to grow back together. There are semi-frequent time jumps that often seem to skip over this type of development between the two, but more of that minutiae could have really bolstered the 'coziness' of this story (which I think did have quite high stakes for a cozy fantasy).

Thrilled to learn that there will be a sequel novel in 2026 — though I will say I’m a bit sad that my uncorrected proof did not have the preview (but did have a placeholder page for it). Not actually an issue at all, to be clear, I just wanted to read it, lol. This is also, presumably, the reason for several (non-major) narrative threads being left unresolved, so I look forward to seeing what the next novel entails!

Also — PERPETUAL STEW MENTION!!! And more than once! I love soup so much and thought this was such a silly, fun inclusion.

Let's start with the positives.

This is a simple sapphic romantasy in a cozy, queernormative fantasy setting. Truly, it's sweet as heartbreak strawberry jam. But sweetness is not all that is needed to execute a recipe to perfection, and this book just needed more.

The instalove is cringeworthy. The plot is too convenient. The book just doesn't set itself apart from other romantasies. One thing that made the story unique was the introduction of mechanical horses - which are completely underutilized throughout the story.

Maybe I'm just not the right audience for this book - maybe it would appeal more to avid players of D&D. While perhaps it wasn't my cup of ginger hibiscus tea, I recognize that it may very well be someone else's. I'll grant 2.75 stars for strawberry-y, sugary sweetness.

A cozy romantic fantasy where long time childhood friends reconnect and find love alone the way. For fans of cottagecore vibes and queer romance you won’t be disappointed. Loved the cozy elements of greenhouses and tea and plant witch life.

Thank you to Random House Publishing - Ballantine & Net Galley for an arc of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Home Grown Magic was such a delightful and cozy novel that almost felt like a very chill D&D campaign. Set largely in a greenhouse with childhood friends turned to lovers, it was giving cottage-core vibes, for sure!

This book had trans and queer main characters, but their trans/queerness was just casually mentioned and there was never any plot point struggles with those identities, nor coming out. Queer joy prevails!

I also loved the way that food, plants, and clothing were described. It made me feel like I was watching a movie (and wishing that one actually existed of this!). This was an all around lovely book that somehow managed to delicately roast capitalism, and I was here for it.

4.25⭐️

3.5 stars, probably. A cozy romantasy featuring a queer couple that was pretty good, but I suspect the book was just not for me.

Yael Clauneck is the heir to their parent’s fortune and business, but they feel suffocated by the life their parents plan for them. During a party, they escape on a mechanical horse to Bloomfield, a quaint little town and run into Margot Greenwillow, their childhood friend. Margot is a plant witch whose beloved cottages and greenhouses and town is at risk of getting possessed by the Clauneck company, unbeknownst to Yael, unless she can brew a special potion. She’s had a crush on Yael since they were kids, but Margot wonders if she can use this reunion to their advantage. Unfortunately, their feelings for each other complicate things.

You feel the cozy fantasy vibes here with the focus on gardening, whimsical potions/ingredients, lots of food and tea, low stakes overall, and kind but slightly one-dimensional side characters. This is first and foremost a romance, so that was built out more than the magic and worldbuilding (I didn’t get the patron magic, and Yael was pretty mediocre at it that them losing it didn’t feel like a big deal. Also it feels like this takes place when nobility was still prominent with the way they talk and the wardrobe choices, but it’s not? There are carriages and mechanical horses? Tbh I have no idea). And this was cozy, but the low-stakes kind of cozy where a lot of the book was focused on slice-of-life slow life type of actions, so there were a lot of dragging parts without things feeling as important as they could be.

Yael and Margot were fine as characters. I did find Margot more compelling at the beginning, and Yael kind of came across as a poor little rich person, which recently I just have trouble sympathizing with. Idk, I could understand their internal struggles but it felt like they got off relatively easy for leaving their very privileged life that their arc wasn’t as satisfying as I needed to come to really like them. The ending was also a bit abrupt and wrapped up a bit more neatly than I expected.

I think basically this just wasn’t to my taste overall. It’s written well and flows smoothly, especially considering two authors wrote this. If you like gardening, warmth, low-stakes, and a cozy queer romantasy with spice, then you’ll probably like this.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the eARC!

This is a cute and cozy read, the perfect book if you don't want high stakes. The setting and characters kept me intrigued the entire time. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author in the future.