I actually have quite a few problems with this book. Problems you could chalk up to “debut author struggles” or to my personal preferences. I looked through the reviews and while there a lot more reviews that loved this, there are others who have the same thoughts as me. 

First of all, I did not like the way first person and second person narration were combined together.  I’ve never seen a book use both narrations in this way before. There was no spacing between the two, sometimes it was changed mid-sentence and it drove me nuts. Also, Saika says her sister’s name constantly. I understand that she’s addressing her but why do you need to say Fi at the end of every sentence when talking to her?! That was strange to me and didn’t feel natural at all. 

Second of all, Saika is the newest member of the crew at Ash Gardens and through her abrasive questioning becomes the one holding all the secrets and making decisions for others without talking with them first (e.g. poor Beelzebub). Idk who Saika thinks she is getting everyone to spill their secrets and yet for her to give nothing in return. Again, this also didn’t feel natural to me at all. 

Third of all, I didn’t find this cozy. The grief is heavy from the first page and I just don’t see how that could be considered cozy. Also, throughout the story, one of the characters begins to show signs of dementia and it’s evident with every interaction (which is quite a bit because it’s one of the main characters). 

The diverse mix of mythical creatures was a delight to see but most of them are background characters. This book is marketed as a “found family” cozy fantasy and sure I’d agree with that if the found family was half the characters that were actually included. In all the books I’ve read where there is found family, we get to know every character included in that family. That’s not the case here. We got a lot of information about some and then hardly any at all about others (poor cherubs, Evette and even Hilde YIKES ifykyk). I sensed a bit of tokenism but maybe I’m being too harsh and we can just cough that up to first-time author struggles. 

I feel like a lot of books I’ve read are formulated in a way where the first 80% is slow af and then all of the action and secrets are revealed within the last 20% always making for a very rushed ending. This debut suffered from that as well. The pacing was wonky and I felt like some things were expanded on that didn’t need to be and others  that we could have used more information on, was not. This book either needed better editing. 

Despite all of this (if you’re still reading you probably think I hate this book at this point), I did enjoy this. It was a quick-ish read and I loved the concept of Ash Gardens. Being cremated and having my ashes repurposed to grow a tree?? DOPE. That’s something I desperately wanted more information about. There is a tiny mystery surrounding the property and the slow disintegration of it and that was fascinating too but I feel like that plot line got wrapped up much too quickly for my tastes. 

Lastly, there is a budding romance that I felt wasn’t necessary and very in the background even though it involved the main character, Saika. I generally like romance subplots but this one was so shallow it barely constituted as one.