“Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore,” by Emily Krempholtz, is a cozy romance that focuses on healing and found family with a fantasy twist. The story follows Violet Thistlewaite as she attempts to leave the thorns of her past behind her, but learning to be good is especially hard for the girl once known as the infamous Thornwitch.
For someone who usually reads high stakes fantasy, this book was the perfect story that I didn’t know I needed. It had so many great attributes and themes.
To start off, the themes of healing and starting over were so wonderfully woven throughout the pages. Not only did the story follow Violet as she went on her own healing journey, but it also talked about many other characters that had gone through similar things.
Through the many characters, it truly shows how hard it can be to start over at any point in life and how important it is to rely on the people around you. For example, at the start of the book Violet was really struggling with the idea of being good, but as she began to rely more on the people around her, it slowly became like second nature for her.
The way the community accepted her from the beginning was also so important to the story, especially Violet’s journey to being good. Due to many of the villagers being so kind to her early on, it truly kept Violet on her path to being good. For example, when one of the villagers found her having a panic attack, they supported her in the way she needed in the moment. The overall connections in the community were just amazing to see because they opened their home and hearts to an outsider without much of a second thought.
This story also heavily reminded me of “The Spellshop” by Sarah Beth Durst. Both of the books had such cozy fantasy vibes and were both heavily rooted in building found families and community. Additionally, both books had their own sentient plant. However, the plants had vastly different personalities and abilities. For example, Caz from “The Spellshop” is a sentient spider plant that can talk and get around as if he were human despite him being a plant.
Bartleby from “Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore” is a houseplant that was once a person. However, the only thing Bartleby can do is use his vines to steal things and attempt to murder people, leaving Violet to constantly disarm him.
Both characters add some comedic relief, but in their own ways. The books are similar, but there are also so many differences that make both of them amazing. For example, both books have different magic systems. In “The Spellshop,” most magic is reliant on the use of spellbooks, while in “Violet Thistlewaite Is Not a Villain Anymore,” magic comes from within the characters themselves.
They both are totally worth the read if you are looking for a cozy romance. “Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore,” is truly an amazing story with cozy vibes and important themes.
