Flowerheart

By: Catherine Bakewell

Narrated by: Morag Sims

Length: 9 hrs and 25 mins

Publisher's summary

*Now including a brand-new bonus scene in the paperback edition!

“Flowerheart is like a garden in full bloom: vibrant and sweet, whimsical and wondrous.”—Allison Saft, New York Times bestselling author of A Far Wilder Magic

Perfect for fans of Margaret Rogerson and Tamora Pierce, this stand-alone YA debut is a stunning cottagecore fantasy romance about a girl with powerful and violent magic that she must learn to control—or lose everything she loves.

Clara’s magic has always been wild. But it’s never been dangerous. Then a simple touch causes poisonous flowers to bloom in her father’s chest.

The only way to heal him is to cast an extremely difficult spell that requires perfect control. And the only person willing to help is her former best friend, Xavier, who’s grown from a sweet, shy child into someone distant and mysterious.

Xavier asks a terrible price in return, knowing Clara will give anything to save her father. As she struggles to reconcile the new Xavier with the boy she once loved, she discovers how many secrets he’s hiding. And as she hunts for the truth, she instead finds the root of a terrible darkness that’s taken hold in the queendom—a darkness only Clara’s magic is powerful enough to stop.

©2023 Catherine Bakewell (P)2023 HarperCollins Publishers

So magical

I love this fluffy but well rounded magical fantasy. And it really does evoke imagery of howls moving castle. I kept envisioning scenes of flowers and flowers from the movie. I loved it. A really nice palette cleanser after reading so much dark/sensual high fantasy. This sparks joy.

Studio Ghibli vibes

This was a wonderfully magical story! I enjoyed it throughly, and fell in love with Clara and Xavier.

It was a lighthearted, and nice paced story. I loved the voice acting as well. And I loved how inclusive this book is. Would def read again

A Studio Ghibli Type World

If you enjoy Studio Ghibli films, I think you would enjoy this book. Feels akin to Howl’s Moving Castle. In this world of magic, our main character has to overcome her fears and doubts out there by her unruly magic in order to save the ones she loves. She’s had so many teachers, but none have helped her tame her magic yet. Can she trust her new teacher? Is she just a hopeless cause?

Cute Story

I thought it was ok. It was just a sweet fantasy story. I found Clara a little too whiny and didn’t like the love relationship in the story. I did enjoy the magical element and thought it was original.

[good for what it was]

I feel like this is a story for anyone who wants to get lost in descriptions of flowers, potion crafting and shops, and magic rather than someone looking for a deep, engaging story. This does have trigger warnings for body horror but I didn't find it too graphic or anything, just flowers blooming out of people, which is a neat visual. Clara as a character was okay, though her magic and sometimes whiny attitude can grate on you. Her strong points are her relationships to her father and the love interest. The romance was cute. But the story fell a little flat when it felt like it was trying to do commentary using the council, Clara's mother, and euphoria. I see what the author was trying to do but unless you're willing to spend a bit more time on it, or narrow it down to one particular thing, maybe just leave it out and focus more on the relationships and "aesthetic descriptions." Honestly the whole council aspect of this story was annoying to me personally, but I can look past that for the rest of the story. Overall, I'd say it's worth a try for an easy, fairly predictable listen.

It was ok

It wasn’t my favorite I’ve heard. It was pretty predictable. I wish there was maybe more about the mother. The they/them really took me out of the story and made it confusing for me, it didn’t seem like it fit the time period of this story. The narrator was good except it made Clara sound more whiny at some points.

Blooming Magic

With all the references to flowers, this was a magical springtime read. I found myself rooting for the main characters, and I enjoyed watching their magic and self-confidence bloom.

Rewrite with LGBT+ trope for listens

The story was juvenile at best, and just annoying most of the time. There were a few tangents that were enjoyable, but not creative or noteworthy. Felt like a case of rewriting a story line that is already well known, but adding a few key “transgender” or “non cis-gendered pronouns” nominally to fit into the LGBT+ genre to get more listeners. Felt cheap.