Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore

A powerful plant witch and a grumpy alchemist must work together to save their quiet town from a magical plague in this debut cozy fantasy romance about starting over, redemption, and what it really means to be a good person.

Guy Shadowfade is dead, and after a lifetime as the dark sorcerer’s right-hand, Violet Thistlewaite is determined to start over—not as the fearsome Thornwitch, but as someone kind. Someone better. Someone good.

The quaint town of Dragon’s Rest, Violet decides, will be her second chance—she’ll set down roots, open a flower shop, keep her sentient (mildly homicidal) houseplant in check, and prune dark magic from the twisted boughs of her life.
Violet’s vibrant bouquets and cheerful enchantments soon charm the welcoming townsfolk, though nothing seems to impress the prickly yet dashingly handsome Nathaniel Marsh, an alchemist sharing her greenhouse. With a struggling business and his own second chance seemingly out of reach, Nathaniel has no time for flowers or frippery—and certainly none for the intriguing witch next door.

When a mysterious blight threatens every living plant in Dragon’s Rest, Violet and Nathaniel must work together through their fears, pasts, and growing feelings for one another to save their community. But with a figure from her past knocking at her door and her secrets threatening to uproot everything she’s worked so hard to grow, Violet can’t help but wonder…does a former villain truly deserve a happily-ever-after?

Content Tags:

Perfect for readers who want:

• Grumpy x Sunshine enemies to lovers romance
• A very cute, slightly murderous plant named Bartleby
• Rock goblins . . . which are far cuter than they sound, I assure you
• Fantasy in a quiet, cozy setting
• A cast of quirky characters that are giving squad vibes
• Narrative around forgiveness, second chances, and redemption

Overall

I have a confession. I totally judged this book by its cover. Can you really blame me, though?! Look how utterly adorable and charming that cover is! It’s all purple-bluey and flower and has a freaking dragon. It checks aaaall the boxes, plus some I wasn’t even aware existed. Okay, sure, the blurb sounded great, too, and I’m a sucker for reformed villains, but that was really just icing on the antihero cupcake.

Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore is a grumpy/sunshine enemies-to-lovers cozy romantasy, featuring plant magic, a quaint little town, a quirky squad, and second chances.

I honestly had no idea what to expect going into this book (re: I picked this up because of the cover), but I was immediately pulled into the story. However, my interest waned, and I ended up skimming the last 15% of the book, so it was kind of a mixed bag overall? The romance was fun. Enemies-to-lovers is one of my favorite tropes, with grumpy/sunshine being one that I find particularly fun. When the story focuses on the magic, city, and squad, I really enjoyed it. The setting, especially, is delightful. I think it was a fun romantasy, and I had a good time with it, despite a few sticking points I had.

I received a copy in exchange for an honest, unbiased review.

My Thoughts

Welcome to Dragon’s Rest, the quaint little town celebrating its newfound freedom after the overthrowing of Guy Shadowfade, the dark sorcerer that terrorized the town for decades.

At first glance, Dragon’s Rest seems perfect. It’s quiet—aside from the rock goblins, but they’re forgivable pests. The town is tight-knit by necessity. When a dark sorcerer threatens your very existence, it’s much easier to survive as a group. In fact, the motto there is, “We take care of our own.” Super charming, right? 10/10 would live there if given half the chance.

A reader might understand why Violet Thistlewaite has chosen this place to begin her new life and open the flower shop of her dreams. Okay, sure, it’s weird that she’s still within spitting distance of the castle she used to live in where her pseudo-father raised her and died violently. Probably wouldn’t be my first choice of places to settle down, personally, but to be fair to Violet, she doesn’t exactly have a good history with most places around. Y’know, on account of her villainy.

While we don’t really get a view or an understanding of much of the world outside Dragon’s Rest, other than few mentions of other places and systems, I absolutely loved this little town and didn’t feel like I particularly needed more. Especially given our point of view characters, this felt like a solid decision. Violet is focused on Dragon’s Rest as a place she can forge a second chance, and Nathaniel feels trapped in the small town where he was born and raised, so it makes sense that they’re not giving a whole lot of consideration to the outside world.

There’s a quirky squad that forms, filled with interesting characters that I wish were explored a bit more, rather than just in passing, because I loved them so much!

If I’m honest, Violet seems rather boring in comparison, and she was the right-hand of a dark sorcerer. How can that possibly be the least interesting character of a novel?! There’s Quinn, a beekeeper who seems to have an unnatural—almost magical, if you will—connection to her bees, given that there are always some following her around. There’s a mute baker, who lost his tongue to his own namesake, Guy Shadowfade, but who can still bring people together with food. And a curmudgeon gnome who is critical of everything and everyone, even while he goes around town fixing things.

But the best character of the whole book? Bartleby, the homicidal houseplant. Oh. My. Gosh. I have never felt more connected with an object. My office needs a Bartleby, and I promise to take better care of it than my slightly withering, barely-holding-on peace lily I’ve lovingly named Philomena. I wanted more Bartleby.

If plants aren’t quite your thing . . . well, first, Violet is a plant witch opening a flower shop, and the cover is literally full of plants and flowers, so why are you even here to start with? You’re setting yourself up for disappointment. (Though, to be fair, I am not a plant person and I found this book cozy and charming despite that.) But more than that, if you need a bit of a sturdier sidekick (pun intended), there are also rock goblins, which are the magical world’s versions of pests. They’re mostly harmless, but they do enjoy causing trouble and being all around mischievous.

There’s a grumpy/sunshine enemies-to-lovers romance that was mostly cozy, with both trying to run from a past they’re ashamed of.

Because broken people loving broken people can be a beautiful thing! Especially when they’re helping each other heal. Nathaniel, for his part, has a great reason to be grumpy. Things haven’t been going great for him the past several years, and he certainly hadn’t expected to end up back in Dragon’s Rest drowning in debt and working at an apothecary he never wanted. His suspicion is understandable, especially when you consider that he has severe anxiety and is socially awkward. Can totally relate. Meeting new people is hard, especially when you always seem to say the wrong thing.

Violet also hasn’t been having a great time of it . . . but she really doesn’t have a whole lot of reason to be sunshine, except that she wants to be good? Don’t ask me. I never fully understood where her sunny disposition came from and why she was so open and trusting of others, given her (fairly recent) history, personality, and behavior.

I’m not a great judge of romance in the best of times, but this one seemed . . . okay? I didn’t love it, but I didn’t have anything particularly against it, either. There is the one mildly spicy sex scene that seems almost requisite these days in any sort of romance that I didn’t think particularly added anything to the story (though I’m biased in that I rarely think sex scenes add to romance stories anyway). My favorite thing was the banter between Nathaniel and Violet, who often played off each other in a way that was light and fun (especially their storefront signs!).

My favorite—and most conflicting—thing about this book was the second chance redemption narrative, where just because people do bad things doesn’t mean they can’t choose to be good.

This is such a freaking powerful narrative that I absolutely love, and I think it was handled fairly well in this book. Obviously, Violet Thistlewaite was a villain. Sure, she was literally forced into it, but also . . . her actions were definitely her own, and she acknowledges both her inability to choose her own direction and the fact that her actions are still her own. After all, she didn’t hate all of it, and there were bad things she chose to do that she wasn’t forced to do.

That being said . . . this was also a weird narrative for me, because yes, I believe in second chances, and I think people can absolutely turn their lives around . . . but how far gone is too far? At what point do we decide that behavior is unforgivable? Violet didn’t “just” murder a few people; she committed atrocities. The book tries very hard to push the narrative that even such a person can be forgiven if they’re really sorry and want to be good, and that’s a narrative I had a really hard time trying to buy into for the sake of this story, especially with how sudden and radical Violet’s shift was from villain to ex-villain. I found that the characters were much quicker to forgive her than I was, as the reader, just hearing a few things she had done recently. Not even the extent of her tyranny and crimes.

I was tripped up in multiple places while reading this due to some pretty glaring plot holes and awkward pacing at times.

I was absolutely riveted for the first 25 – 30% of the book and just didn’t want to put it down. After that, though, things waxed and waned, culminating in me scanning the last 15% or so of the book. Which should be the part that I am most glued to. That just wasn’t the case here.

I mention these together because I think the pacing is, at least in part, connected to the plot holes, though I’m not sure if one causes the other or if they just happen to run concurrently. For example . . . Bartleby! Absolutely love the little guy. However, it’s mentioned that he used to be a person . . . and Violet’s magic somehow turned him into a potted plant . . . and that’s it. There’s no clear explanation, no inkling of how that could be, no further consideration given to why her magic would behave so differently just once accidentally, and no thought to fixing it. Not even as she’s trying to be good now. You would think, hey, the human I have living on my shelf as a sentient plant would be a great place to start with my redemption tour might cross Violet’s mind at some point, but it never does.

There are way too many parts of the plot that felt too convenient and unearned. Items they need literally fall into their laps when they need them. Violet’s magic does what it needs to at any and every point that she critically needs it, with no explanation why she is so overpowered—and this is something other characters comment on and are confused about, without a satisfying explanation ever being given.

Also, the one “hero” that’s actually mentioned or shown on page is a total douchebag, and I couldn’t decide whether that was intentional or not. This is literally a book full of people who made terrible mistakes changing their lives and trying to atone for them by living well and helping others. But the one supposed “hero” deserved to be pushed off a cliff, in my humble opinion.

I don’t want to say too much, due to spoilers, but the gaps in plotting and the wonky timeline pulled me out of the story multiple times, where I was trying to decide how much time had passed and how unrealistic (within the rules of this world) it was for certain things to happen when and how they did. If there’s a sequel, maybe some of these things will be explained, but I have not seen this book billed as the first in a series anywhere, so I’m assuming it’s intended as a standalone.

About Emily Krempholtz

Emily Krempholtz has never quit her day job to go open a flower shop, but that might be because she works with stories all day for a living, so she’s already doing what she loves. As a bestselling ghostwriter, editor, and book coach, Emily has worked with hundreds of writers as they write and publish their books—and she’s delighted to finally send one out into the world with her own name on the cover.

When she’s not writing or reading, Emily bakes cakes that look like the books she reads and changes her hair color like it’s some kind of mood ring. She lives in sunny Colorado, where you’ll often find her in the mountains—either hiking (and pretending to be a character in a novel) or curled up in a hammock with a good book (and also pretending to be a character in a novel). She’s on a lifelong quest to discover the magic in the world and has a sneaking suspicion that the written word is where she’ll find it.

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