The Wayward Glasshouse

For fans of Legends & Lattes and The House in the Cerulean Sea comes a cozy fantasy about an autistic botanist, a magical greenhouse, and the small enchantments that change everything.

Iris Ashwood never expected to inherit a glass conservatory full of impossible plants—or the debt that came with it.

The Glasshouse Sanctuary specializes in magical botany that everyone else has given up on: seeds that won't sprout on command, flowers that bloom on their own timeline, and spells too small to be worth a proper wizard's time. It's messy, inefficient, and completely unmarketable. In other words, it's perfect.

But the Guild of Standardized Magic has other ideas. They want Iris to modernize, scale up, and start acting like a real business. The problem? Iris's magic has never worked the way it's supposed to. Her spells activate through texture instead of words. Her best work happens at 2am during hyperfocus sessions. And her encyclopedic knowledge of forgotten plant lore is the exact thing the Guild considers wasteful.

When a series of clients arrive with problems no one else can solve—an insomniac poet seeking night-blooming magic, an anxious baker who needs calming herbs that won't trigger sensory overload, a burnt-out healer desperate for boundaries—Iris discovers that her "inefficiency" might be exactly what her community needs.

With the help of Thorne, a quiet forest ranger who speaks her language, and a found family of fellow misfits, Iris begins to understand that different doesn't mean broken. Some magic is meant to grow slowly. Some gardens thrive in gentle chaos. And some people bloom best when they stop trying to fit a shape that was never meant for them.

Perfect for readers who love:
? Low-stakes cozy fantasy with no violence
?? Authentic neurodivergent representation (autistic + ADHD)
?? Slow-burn romance with parallel play and competence attraction
?? Slice-of-life storytelling with episodic client stories
?? Detailed magical worldbuilding and botanical lore
?? Found family and gentle community building
?? Sensory-rich writing and cottagecore aesthetics

The Wayward Glasshouse is a love letter to late bloomers, passionate enthusiasts, and anyone who's ever been told they're too much and not enough at the same time.

SERIES NOTE: While each book in the Quiet Magic series can be read standalone, characters and relationships continue to develop across the series.