The Roots Take Hold: A Novel of Slow Magic and Second Chances
Previously published as The Proving: A Novel of Bread, Belonging, and the Magic of Being Seen by Mattieu Cross.
"I came here to stop," she thought, standing in the doorway of a Victorian greenhouse she'd inherited from an aunt she barely knew, in a village she'd never visited. The ancient fig vine at the far end didn't care. It was simply continuing, the way it always had, the way it would long after she was gone. She looked at it for a long time. Then she put down her bag and got to work.Maren Ashvale has spent twenty years being indispensable as a Master Cultivator at the Royal Apothecary Corps - saving lives, keeping systems running, and quietly running herself into the ground. Now she's forty-two, burned out, and unexpectedly in possession of a Victorian greenhouse in a village called Thornmere.
She intends to rest. Instead, she starts tending things.
Over the course of a year, the greenhouse comes back - the climbing rose that shouldn't still be blooming but is, the ancient fig vine that has been quietly growing since before she arrived, the mysterious grey-green plant that has never once flowered. Until now.
And then there is the neighbour. Quiet, steady, patient in the way of someone who has learned to leave a door open without standing between you and it.
Over the course of a year, Maren tends the soil. The soil, in its patient way, tends her back.
Cozy FantasySlow Burn RomanceAge Gap RomanceMidlife Second Chance RomanceOlder Woman YoungerBurnout RecoveryFound FamilyQuiet Magic / Low Stakes FantasyCottage Core / Green Witch AestheticFemale Protagonist Over 40Small Town RomanceFor anyone who has ever needed to stop before they could begin.
The Roots Take Hold - Full Novel, 27 Chapters + Epilogue
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