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Isabella Nagg and the Pot of Basil, by Oliver Darkshire (2025)
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Premise: The fates of a dysfunctional married couple take a turn when they come into possession of a wizard‘s grimoire.

Review: It took me three tries to get into this witty fantasy novel, but once I finally settled in, I was blown away by the incredible attention to detail the author put into it. ⬇️

This was fine, very pleased with its own cleverness, but fine.

I swung from ☺️ to 🙄, wildly throughout this - I‘m perhaps not cut out for cozy fantasy but I‘m also just not here for stories that are driven by men feeling entitled to women‘s care & labour (in this case, the hapless Mr Nagg & well, the basil plant). Also not quite enough character depth & everyone except Grimalkin the not quite cat was hard to root for. There was some lovely moments & I really did enjoy the authors narration of the audiobook.

3/5

Isabella Nagg acquires the local wizard's magic book and begins a journey to change her generally unpleasant life as the wife of an unsuccessful farmer who she doesn't particularly like to something new and magical.

There were many things about the book that I loved: Goblins being a type of fungus, Bottom the talking Donkey, and the grimalkin. There were some pacing issues, but I still thought it was a fun and engaging book.

#netgalley

Very fun

What happens when a miserable farm wife gains access to a wizard‘s books of magics & thinks “why not”? Chaos. & then add a sassy familiar, the goblin market getting introduced to capitalism, & a talking plant.

Such fun! You can tell this is a writer raised on Terry Pratchett. There‘s humor & a moving story of a woman deciding what she‘s worth. I wish the side characters hadn‘t been so 1 dimensional, & too many threads left unresolved. 🌕🌕🌕🌕🌑