The Enchanted Greenhouse is pure enchantment from the first page to the last. Sarah Beth Durst has crafted a warm, whimsical tale that feels like a hug in book form—filled with singing flowers, sentient plants, and honey cakes so vivid you’ll swear you can taste them.
Terlu Perna is one of the most unique protagonists I’ve ever read—lonely, flawed, and utterly lovable. Her journey from magical misstep to redemption is both touching and empowering. The magical greenhouses, each more dazzling than the last, are brought to life with Durst’s signature lyrical prose, and the emotional depth tucked between the whimsy will stay with you long after you finish.
The supporting cast shines just as brightly—from the curmudgeonly yet kind gardener to a charmingly opinionated sentient rose. The themes of forgiveness, self-worth, and second chances are handled with grace and humor, making this more than just a fantasy—it’s a story with soul.
Whether you're a longtime Durst fan or a newcomer, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a radiant, feel-good fantasy you won't want to leave. Highly recommended for anyone who loves cozy magic, quiet courage, and the healing power of friendship.

Simply Magical! ✨🐉🌷🥀🌼🌺🪴🪻🪴🌱

The follow up cozy fantasy to The Spellshop, which gives you all the feels. Terlu Perna wakes up, after being a statue for many years, as a punishment for creating the sentient spider plant, Caz. Terla never expected to be released and finds herself on the deserted Island of Belde with only the grumpy and unhelpful gardener, Yarrow, as company. Plus, many beautiful, enchanted greenhouses. 🏡👨‍🌾

Yarrow reluctantly helps with food and shelter, then as Terlu Perna starts to explore she accidentally wakes up Lotti, a sentient miniature rose. This leads to more exploration and some drama from failing greenhouse magic, before Terlu agrees to try to help with illegal magic to try and save the plant life from dying. 📚 🍰

This book is full of beautiful words, phrasing and description. Two of my favourites:

Circling it were dragonflies with sparkling diamond-like bodies and golden wings. They danced together in pairs and trios in a musicless promenade.

It smelled like a summer forest and was far cooler than the prior room, with fans that rotated overhead instead of a miniature sun. Even the colors were softer and more restful: soft, almost furry green in every direction.

This story is like your favourite chocolate bar, making you feel all warm and gooey inside. We move from singing plants and flowers, to miniature dragons, a winged cat, sentient talking plants and even a ghost. The imagination boggles, but all brings emotions of hope, despite the up and downs as we go along. 🎵

We fall in love with Terlu and start to believe in second chances as she finds her place in the world. As Terlu finds herself she also helps Yarrow move forward from trauma from his past and together they fight for a better future for Belde. ❤️

This lovely novel includes magic, coziness, cuteness, hope, friendship and romance, together with a puzzle and some drama. Such a beautifully worded book, that leaves you wanting more. Well recommended! 😊

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan and Sarah Beth Durst for access to the ARC in exchange for an honest review. Due to be published on 17 July 2025.

The enchanted greenhouse

Thanks to @panmacmillan @netgalley for the beautiful proof of this one, it is truly stunning!

I am a sucker for a cosy fantasy and this was just adorable. I loved the ties to the spellshop and Terlu as a main character was fantastic.
Terlu is a librarian who gets turned into a statue for using magic to create a talking plant to stop her from being lonely.
One day she awakes to find she is no longer a statue and is somewhere she doesn’t recognise with an enormous greenhouse.
Without giving too much of the story away, the sorcerer of the island died and since then the greenhouse has been slowly dying with all its magical plants and creatures inside. Terlu makes it her mission to crack the sorcerers codes and fix the enchanted greenhouse. Throw in a cute gardener, a flying cat, some talking plants and family issues and you have an amazing, cosiest of cosy fantasies that will make you want to ditch the real world and go live on Belde and eat honey bread all day long.

This book was so lovely! It was a comforting journey for a dark and scary time. A reminder that there is always hope. I loved it so much!

The Enchanted Greenhouse is a magical story of love and finding your place in the world that takes place in the midst of a far-away revolution that has far-reaching consequences.
The setting is absolutely magical! The little island away from everything with its very own kind of magic is such a fascinating idea and I loved reading about it. The whimsical, fun tone also really lent itself to the setting and I got absolutely swept into the story.
I also really enjoyed that every character had something to overcome, usually related to being treated badly in the past, and they helped each other heal from that. It was a beautiful aspect of the whole thing. And most characters also had to recognise that they themselves had also done things wrong and that sweeping hurt under the rug is not productive. I love love LOVE how supportive the main characters (whether plant or human) were of each other. Also, Terlu is described as plus size and is described as attractive, even through her self-doubts, which I loved to see.

A cozy fantasy perfect for the adults who loved Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass when they were a child! The talking, flowers were always my favourite so this book felt nostalgic and comforting. As a gardener myself, the scenes with Yarrow and among the greenhouses and with the plants were another favourite aspect and I thoroughly enjoyed and looked forward to seeing what each greenhouse specialised in. It was so fun!

Yarrow was a great grumpy counterpart to Terlu and her sunny optimism, even after being turned into a statue. I liked how their relationship progressed.

I won’t say too much more as I don’t want to spoil the story but I will say that the side characters were all well crafted and a great addition. I need a story about the sailors!

The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst is the magical sequel to The Spellshop, the bestselling wonderfully cosy fantasy.

It had been over a year since I read The Spellshop, so I was a bit confused about the identity of our adorable lavender protagonist. I went back and quickly realised her importance... and I was instantaneously heartbroken for her. Terlu was the librarian that created Caz, the sentient spider plant we all know and loved from The Spellshop. Her illegal use of magical saw her punished in an unbelievably cruel manner; she was turned into a statue and placed in the Great Library, to serve as a warning to all librarians, scholars, and patrons who might be tempted to defy the law. Caz thought she had burned in the great fire, but The Enchanted Greenhouse is a story about second chances.

This book was like a sleepy hug. I felt warm and cosy whilst reading, however I often felt my attention wandering. It's a lovely story, but the stakes are low and the pace is very slow. I loved the ending; however, I was secretly hoping for a reunion. The romance element is very sweet and touching. I wanted nothing but wonderful things for Terlu. She's such a lovely and affectionate character and I often felt like her trauma was overlooked. I wanted nothing but good things for our plucky heroine and in that respect this heartwarming book truly delivers.

This book delivers lovely, cozy fantasy vibes, infused with a confidently whimsical charm and built around a delightfully unique magical concept. The story follows a librarian who’s turned into a statue as punishment for creating a talking spider plant (yes, really)—only to find herself unexpectedly reanimated on a remote island with an enchanted greenhouses … and an intriguing gardener.

A star for the creativity, another for the lyrical writing, and a third for the cozy atmosphere. While I would’ve loved to feel more connected to the characters, it was still an enjoyable and imaginative read.

⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the advance copy.

5-Star Review: The Enchanted Greenhouse by Sarah Beth Durst

Sarah Beth Durst’s The Enchanted Greenhouse is a heartwarming, magical journey that feels like a cozy embrace. Set on a secluded island filled with whimsical greenhouses, sentient plants, and delightful creatures, the story follows Terlu, a librarian seeking redemption and a new purpose. As she collaborates with the gruff gardener Yarrow and a charming sentient rose, Terlu discovers the true meaning of community, love, and second chances.  

Durst masterfully blends fantasy elements with profound emotional depth, creating a narrative that’s both enchanting and relatable. The vivid descriptions transport readers into a world where magic is tangible, and every character, from the talking plants to the winged cat, adds richness to the tale. The themes of healing, belonging, and self-discovery resonate deeply, making this novel not just a fantasy escape but a reflection on the human experience.

For fans of cozy fantasy and stories that touch the soul, The Enchanted Greenhouse is an absolute must-read. It’s a testament to Durst’s storytelling prowess and her ability to craft worlds that linger in the heart long after the final page.

The story of The Enchanted Greenhouse tells us what happened to Caz's 'mother' Terlu, the original librarian who cast magic when she shouldn't have and was sentenced to life as a statue. We read about this tragic story of Caz's origins in the Spell Shop and when we learn the reasons why Terlu created Caz it only gets more heartbreaking.

Terlu finally wakes in the snow on a mysterious island of giant greenhouses run by magic, with only one gardener (Yarrow) left to care for them. Terlu decides the only thing she can do is save what she can, even if that does mean breaking the law again.

Yarrow, Terlu and the plants, (yes, happily there are more talking plants which are my favourite characters across both books) have to solve the mystery of why the greenhouses are failing, they even appeal to the ghost of the sorcerer who created the island to try and save the plants.

Strong themes of loneliness run throughout the book, grief and loss, paranoia and mental health and also the balance that can be found between an introvert and an extrovert. I adored the way Terlu and Yarrow cared for each other and played to their strengths as their relationship bloomed.

I loved the book and have pre-ordered the hardcopy so I can read it again.

I absolutely adored The Spellshop from this author, it was one of my favourite books of last year so I was eagerly anticipating The Enchanted Greenhouse and so excited to read it! I read an eARC of this book on NetGalley so thank you to the author and the publisher.

This is a charming, cosy fantasy novel set in the same world and timeline as The Spellshop and referencing characters from it. It is a different story though, not purely a sequel and it follows a new main character. You can read the two books standalone easily. We meet a librarian who wakes up on a snow covered island after being frozen as a wooden statue for six years for practicing forbidden magic. She fears for her safety but explores this magical island made up of vast numbers of enchanted greenhouses, each one special in its own way as she discovers throughout the book. She also meets Yarrow, the isolated gardener who seeks to protect and maintain the greenhouses, though the magic seems to be failing. Terlu, our main character is torn between her desire to help and her fear of what will happen to her if she practices magic again.

This is an enjoyable read and I would read it again. The greenhouses are magical and imaginative and we see fascinating worlds held within them. I enjoyed the magic and particularly how it related to plants. I enjoyed the growth of the characters and how they brought out the best in each other.

There were a couple of quirks in the language which meant this didn’t land as well for me as The Spellshop (though I still really enjoyed it.) One character has all his words lengthened out using extra letters which was jarring and it didn’t feel like it was adding anything, it felt a bit strange. Terlu also likes to tell quite long stories from her past to make a point, which was fine other than the frequency with which it occurred, this felt noticeably repetitive. However these are small issues and overall the book is whimsical and enchanting. I loved the food and cooking descriptions and the joy Yarrow finds in this. He was a wonderful romantic interest, for all that he starts out a bit prickly.

I eagerly await more books set in this universe!

This is such a wonderful story! Terlu is changed into a wooden statue for creating Caz, the sentient spiderplant we first meet in The Spellshop. After being on display in the Great Library for many years she suddenly wakes up in the snow somewhere, with the spell keeping her as a statue, broken. She discovers an enormous greenhouse, filled with different rooms, each containing different types of plants, and also comes across a winged cat (I really need one of those!). She also eventually finds the gardener, Yarrow. But there's a problem, the greenhouse rooms are slowly dying, the enchantments wearing off. It's up to Terlu and Yarrow to try and stop it from happening and, if possible, to restore those rooms. This is a beautiful story about believing in oneself but also knowing that working together is often better than trying to go it alone. A lovely slow-burn, gentle romance develops too which is very sweet. I gave The Spellshop 5 stars but I think this one's even better! And the cover is just beautiful. Thoroughly enjoyed it.
Thanks to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan, and Sarah Beth Durst for the free ARC. All opinions are my own.

The Enchanted Greenhouse is a quiet, comforting kind of magic—the kind that grows slowly, like ivy through old stone, until you realize it’s completely wound itself around your heart. Sarah Beth Durst returns to the Crescent Islands with a whimsical, deeply gentle tale of found family, blooming second chances, and the quiet, steady power of choosing kindness—even when it's hard.

Terlu Perna is a wonderfully imperfect protagonist—lonely, eager to connect, and so desperate to be seen that she breaks the rules in a way that is both earnest and ill-advised. Her punishment is strikingly harsh, but her eventual reawakening on an island of magical greenhouses feels like the beginning of a fairytale she might finally be allowed to write for herself. From the first honey cake offered by the grumpy gardener, Yarrow, the story sets down roots in themes of redemption, healing, and growth.

Durst’s gift for cozy worldbuilding is on full display here. The greenhouses are each little magical microcosms—lush, strange, sometimes mischievous—and the island itself feels like a balm for tired souls. From a flying cat companion to a sentient rose with a flair for the dramatic, every detail is crafted with charm and care. It's a world that invites you to slow down and breathe it in.

At its heart, though, this is a story about connection: Terlu’s slow-burn, tentative friendship-turned-romance with Yarrow is built on small, vulnerable moments that feel all the more meaningful for their restraint. Their dynamic (sunshine x grump, of course) is cozy rather than swoony, and I appreciated how the story let them grow toward each other rather than rushing into romance. The emotional payoff is subtle but sincere.

While some readers may find Terlu’s insecurity grating early on, I felt it was a realistic portrayal of someone learning, at last, that she is allowed to take up space—that she doesn’t have to earn her worth through perfection or performance. Yarrow, with his silence and grief, may remain something of a mystery, but the glimpses we get of his gentleness and care are all the more impactful because they are hard-won.

With lovely prose, a cast of endearing magical beings, and themes of forgiveness, re-growth, and quiet courage, The Enchanted Greenhouse is a perfect read for anyone who’s ever longed for a fresh start. It’s tender, whimsical, and filled with a deep, blooming kind of hope.

In The Spellshop we met Caz, a sentient plant with all of the personality in the world. We also get a hint of the lore behind his creation. Which I didn’t think about much until I started The Greenhouse. Because so many times we get lore and little side quests that are fun but never developed - but should be. And that’s what happens here.

We meet Terlu Perna, a former librarian punished for creating Caz out of sheer loneliness - by being turned into a wooden statue.

There is a grumpy, yet attractive Gardner with possibly the coziest home in the world of fantasy. There is a sassy but so sweet sentient Rose. And a quest to restore magic, discover true friendship, love and peace.

The Enchanted Greenhouse is perfect for readers seeking a heartwarming, low-stakes fantasy that emphasizes emotional depth and the importance of community. And honey cakes.

The only reason I didn’t love it: it drags. I needed more cottagecore!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the eARC.

I expected to love this as I fell in love with the Spell Shop and its characters straight away and I’m also a big plant nerd. This is set in the same world but (disappointingly for me) does not include any of the same characters so could be read as a stand alone. I unfortunately didn’t warm to the characters or find the story as exciting as the Spell Shop.

Thank you Netgalley for this ARC.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me the chance to be able to read this eARC for my honest review. Seriously, thank you. I cried when I got approved.

Thank you, Sarah Beth Durst, for writing this amazing book. This is without a doubt my favourite world to live in and I hope you write many more books in this world.

Sarah says in the acknowledgement that she writes books about hope, and Terlu was the one character in the Spellshop that didn't have any hope, so she kept thinking about her and so this book came to be.

This book is the definition of hope, a warm hug on a cold day, second chances (life, not romance) and found family (Human, magical creatures and sentient plants alike).

What I first thought was going to be a grumpy x sunshine romance, surprised me in so many ways, The MMC Yarrow wasn't grumpy, he was just quiet and didn't know how to connect or talk to others.

"I found his secret. Every time he talked about plants, he lit up."

Watching Terlu and Yarrow open up to each other and help each other overcome their fears and anxieties was such a delight.

"What I'm trying to say is you make my world better. Every day, in a million different ways. You brought me to life."

I could talk about this book forever, the characters have such depth from tiny pollinating dragons, sentient plants, to a silent gardener, a departed sorcerer, a sailor who wishes to sail alone and a librarian who just wants to find her place in the world and be loved.

There is so much magic in between these pages, but I don't want to give anything away and will let you discover the magic yourselves.

I cannot recommend this book enough, if there is one book I can convince anyone to read, let it be the Spellshop and the Enchanted Greenhouse.

**3,5/5**

„She‘d always taken refuge in words whenever anything was difficult or confusing or too much. They were both her shelter and her shield.“

✨Sentient plants
✨Grumpy x Sunshine
✨Slow Burn
✨Secluded island
✨Whimsical worldbuilding

What I liked:
- The cozy and whimsical worldbuilding. There are little dragons, a flying cat, talking plants and a lot of baking and gardening. The characters spend their time in the (absolutely amazing) enchanted greenhouse, a cozy little cottage and a lighthouse full of books and journals. All on a small island. I wished I could live there too!
- I really liked the storyline about the late sorcerer who built the greenhouse. He slowly went mad, left behind lots of encrypted notes and a ghostly presence in his abandoned lighthouse, and made a lot of questionable choices that the characters now have to struggle with.

What I didn’t like:
- The characters. That sounds harsh but a quite personal preference, so it shouldn’t keep you from picking the book up. The female main character made me constantly roll my eyes. For me she was way too naive, insecure, whiny and doubtful of herself. She desperately wants to make friends and everyone tells her she’s too much … so of course her only option is to break the law and bring a plant to life. How could that go wrong…. About the romantic interest I know almost nothing. He almost never talks with the fmc, likes plants and has some unresolved family problems. He’s so introverted and grumpy I couldn’t connect to him at all.

Thank you Pan Macmillan for the arc!

3.5 stars

The cosy fantasy follows Terlu, the librarian who turned Cas sentient. After six years as a statue, Terlu awakens to find herself on a deserted island with a magical greenhouse and one grumpy gardener.

This book was cute and sweet. There was a bit of a slow start and the story suffered a little bit from having only 2/3 characters. Unfortunately, around 60% through many side characters appeared and the story then suffered from too many side characters to keep track of. That being said it did add an element of found family which I enjoyed. There was some mystery to keep the story going , uncovering the reason for the magical greenhouse losing its magic.

It was a cute easy read with cosy magic and romance.

3.5⭐️It was really nice going back into this world.
The enchanted greenhouse was a unique read, I’d love to visit an island like this one.
I laughed a lot, the plants were really entertaining.
The romance fell a little flat for me but overall it was an enjoyable cosy fantasy.

If you love "The spellshop", this sequel should be to your taste as well. We meet other characters (our main character being someone we have heard off in the previous book), and travel to another part of the world, on an island hiding a little (big) treasure : hundreds of enchanted greenhouses. They are all tended by one person, only inhabitant of the island, at least until our main character transforms back into her human form.

Note that you don't need to have read "The spellshop" to enjoy this one. Yes both book take place in the same world, somewhat in the same timeline, but they don't follow each other plot wise.

"The enchanted greenhouse" happens in winter (as the cover suggests), making it a perfect little winter cosy read (if you like snow at least). It has all the ingredient for a simple, soft read: talking plants of various temperament, lonely and grunting gardener, exhuberant and kind librarian, now focused on saving the remaining greenhouses as their enchantment fails. And, of course, a winged cat.
It makes for a good relaxing read, with a little bit of mystery as Terlu (the MC) seeks to understand the late sorcerer's notes. The romance between her and Yarrow is nice. It doesn't meet with that much complications or difficulties, I wasn't super invested in them, but it works nicely for the story.

I like how Sarah Beth Durst decided to play on the cosy vibe of her book, without falling into the trap of being too sugary or optimistic. Yes, hope and kindness are at the centre of the story. But hurt, revolution and difficulties are still there, making a nice balance for a cosy read.