Amethysts & Alchemy

By: Rachel Rener

Narrated by: Lia Langola

Length: 9 hrs and 29 mins

Publisher's summary

I used to eat rocks as a child.

The family doctor diagnosed me with pica, dooming me to years of intensive therapy and extensive dentistry work. It wouldn’t be until much later that I would understand the all-consuming, insatiable craving that spurred me to eat a variety of rocks and minerals wasn’t a mental disorder, but an innate gift that allows me to extract the magic contained inside them: tourmaline for speed, celestite for strength, augite for a powerful laxative effect (that I had to discover the hard way).

Twenty years later, I’ve hidden my abilities beneath a white lab coat, working as a small-town pharmacist who creates proprietary “naturopathic” tonics that treat everything from memory loss to erectile dysfunction. Those tonics, in turn, fund my expensive lifestyle of solo flying around the world to search for more rocks. What more could an airplane-loving, mineral-munching, magical alchemist want?

Unfortunately, my arch nemesis, Heath Spencer, has recently taken it upon himself to single-handedly ruin my life. No longer content with annoying me from afar with his overpriced, tacky rock shop, Heath has decided to further antagonize me by dangling the opportunity of a lifetime right in front of my face: traveling to an ancient copper mine in China, which is home to some of the rarest and most stunning minerals on Earth.

It’s not until after I’m trapped halfway across the world with my least favorite person on the planet that I’m forced to come face-to-face with three terrible realizations: everything I thought I knew about Heath Spencer is wrong, some minerals were never meant to be ingested, and – worst of all – I’m not the only one who’s been keeping secrets...

©2024 Lightning Conjurer Books LLC (P)2024 Lightning Conjurer Books LLC

Absolutely brilliant

I love it when a narrator captures exactly how a main character should sound. And this narrator ABSOLUTELY NAILS the voice and heart and soul of Delaney.

Fun! Sweet! And completely cozy!

OMG! I thought that reading an ecopy of Amethyst & Alchemy was absolutely fantastic! And now having experienced the audio version I have been completely floored once more. The narrator—Lia Langola—is the epitome of what I imagined Delaney Stone sounded like. Her execution of Delaney’s quarks and mannerisms where completely perfect! And she really did a phenomenal job bringing Delaney to life.

Delaney is such a unique, brilliant, and interesting character that I wholeheartedly fell in love with. Add in Heath, Li, and Topie and this book was completely captivating and wonderful. The story was completely cozy with enough tension and angst to keep you needing to know more, and the rivals to lovers romance was completely unique and fresh in its execution.

All in all, this is a completely wonderful story, filled with unique and fantastic characters, extremely interesting and intriguing magic, enough swoon and spice to set you on fire, and the cutest little piggy sidekick you could imagine!

amount of research

I liked the narrator she brought the characters to life. It was also nice to learn about minerals and some Chinese culture. Was intrigued by the concept of minerals having magical properties when ingested. Since this is is a review of the audio version forgive possible misspelling. Topie the emotional support pig was a great character. Also liked the faguts which I had never heard of before. Delaney's sense of humor works for me. While the romance wasn't fade to black it also wasn't super risque either at least not for me.