Review of Amethysts and Alchemy by Rachel Rener (Amethysts and Alchemy 1)
BlurbI 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…
This was one of those books into which I went with no expectations. I know the author writes fantastic books, but even so, this didn’t look like my usual fare, so I kept my expectations low.
But oh boy, this was just an awesome book! I loved Delaney so much! She was everything I love and more.
Delaney Stone is a pharmacist with a rare ability to taste the essence of minerals, and has a compulsive need to eat rocks to get to the minerals in them. During her childhood, her doctor diagnosed her with pica, and she had a tough time at school with bullies and people making fun of her and her parents putting her down as well. Now, she lives on her own with Topie, her pig, who she rescued from being killed by the farmer who bred him because he was a runt, and has a thriving business where she sells potions distilled from the essence of minerals to her regular customers.
When she has a chance to travel to China, to some of the mines having the rarest and most amazing minerals, Delaney has to make a choice. Accept the offer from Heath Spencer, who she hates just on principle, or stay on her high horse and refuse him. But when one of her regular clients show signs of cancer and Delaney knows of no minerals that could cure her, she decides to swallow her pride and take Heath’s help because she feels like a Chinese mineral could be the answer.
But Heath’s behaviour and actions show him to be a completely different person than she expected, but when she learns he has lied to her–one of the things she hates most of all–can she get over it enough to give him a second chance?
I loved Delaney so much. She’s neurodivergent and so so human. Many aspects of her neurodivergence are similar to my own, that I found her very relatable. The tendency she has to ramble about things she likes, going off on tangents, telling stories that are longer than strictly needed, even the way she appears self centred while being utterly selfless are all things that I’ve been called out on and had to suppress in myself. Hence I loved seeing a person who didn’t have to do it, whose neurodivergence is something that’s celebrated instead of being reviled in this book.
Topie, of course, is awesome! The best emotional support animal ever! I haven’t seen pigs in this role before this and didn’t even know I needed it. I love my B-A-C-O-N and P-O-R-K, but now I feel like I shouldn’t eat them because they come from P-I-G and Topie is one.
Heath was a balanced character, who I loved from the start. Delaney is an unreliable narrator but it’s clear to the reader that she’s seeing Heath through the glass of her prejudice rather than as he is.
Even the minor characters like Li held my attention.
There were a couple of things I found issue with, but not so much that it affected my enjoyment of the book.
If you love urban fantasy, romantic fantasy, strong female characters who are flawed and relatable, pets who are more intelligent than they let on, and neurodivergent rep, you will love this book.
