Cozy Appalachian Romance in “Witch of Wild Things” https://ift.tt/l9VQhDX
With the fall season upon us, Raquel Vasquez Gilliland’s newest novel is guaranteed to charm anyone who sings to her plants and enjoys steaming, foam-topped drinks and romantic evenings under harvest moons.
Witch of Wild Things tells the story of Sage Flores, a jeweler with a unique “gift” whose eventful homecoming to the fictional Appalachian town of Cranberry, Virginia turns into a mission to bring together the broken remnants of her bittersweet past. Among these remnants are Sage’s family — her aunt Nadia and her sisters Teal and Sky — and Sage’s long-lost high school crush, Tennessee (Tenn) Reyes. This dynamic cast of supporting characters, in addition to a fiery, highly relatable protagonist and lore steeped in the importance of heritage and nature, gives Witch of Wild Things a sweet balance between mystical family drama, coming-of-age in your thirties story, and cozy-yet-titillating romance.
Let’s start with Sage: Witch of Wild Things is told entirely from her perspective, and I loved her voice from page one. In the first chapter Sage’s situation fits the mold of a romance protagonist to a tee. She’s fresh from an embarrassing and painful break-up with a Temple University professor who clearly did not deserve her, and she’s broke enough to have to move back in with Nadia and Teal in Cranberry where Tenn, who supposedly wasn’t in town anymore, was spotted at the local Piggly Wiggly.
Her situation may feel familiar, but Sage is also enchanting in her own right, not only in the way that she is witty and loyal and creative, but also in more fantastical ways, too. The ghost of her dead sister, Sky, brings her mugs of raspberry chocolate coffee and appears to her when she cries. And Sage, along with her sisters and all the other women in the Flores family, can do what others find impossible — in Sage’s case, she’s able to speak to plants, and she uses this gift as she settles into a new job at the local Cranberry Rose Company to help rediscover and cultivate native plants from blue flag irises to an extremely rare blue rose.
In my personal reading I’ve found that elements of urban fantasy can feel like a gimmick, especially in regard to the trope of ghosts and hauntings, but in Witch of Wild Things, these elements provide depth to Sage’s journey. The mystical connection between the members of her family is integral to the source and eventual healing of their strained relationship following Sky’s death, and her past and present work with plants is what brings her closer to love as the novel progresses.This lore is also very much steeped in the natural setting of Cranberry, which is so named by the cranberry bushes that lined the surrounding woods, and is an integral part of the family’s history.
And yes, even in the middle of magic and the natural setting and the family drama, Gilliland never lets us forget: Witch of Wild Things is a romance novel, and a very enjoyable one at that. She seamlessly transitions from speaking to plants and ghosts with cups of coffee to AIM chats and teen angst to illustrate the storied history and heartbreak between Sage and Tenn. The 90s kid in me was giddy about Sage’s AIM username, silvergurl0917, and Sage keeping her identity a secret from Tenn à la Hillary Duff in “A Cinderella Story,” while the 2020s adult me is irrevocably in love with shameless flirt, tattoo-having, mushroom-loving Tenn and totally invested in the forced proximity, acquaintances-to-lovers pipeline that unfolds between him and Sage.
While there seems to be a lot going on in Witch of Wild Things, I never once felt lost in the many nuances of Sage’s world. She may speak to plants, and her family may be both cursed and blessed with powers, but her story is something we can ultimately learn from — about rekindling broken relationships, remembering past joys, saying “I’m sorry,” respecting nature, and maybe a little bit about love.
Witch of Wild Things
By Raquel Vasquez Gilliland
Berkeley Romance
Published September 12, 2023
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