4.5⭐ rounded up to 5. Wow, did someone read my mind and throw everything I love into a single novel? This book felt like a warm fuzzy blanket, and I really enjoyed listening to the narration. I recommend to fans of cozy fantasy with a cottagecore feel!

❤️ Cozy atmosphere
❤️ Fantastic audio narration
❤️ Green-flag (but still swoon-worthy) MMC
❤️ Magically-sentient plant sidekicks
❤️ Diversity and trauma rep
❌ Some unnecessary subplots
❌ Repetitions / redundancy
❌ Long list of TWs inconsistent with mood/genre

Trigger warnings: war, fire and fire injury, child abuse (mentioned), domestic abuse and murder (mentioned), blood, death and grief, injury and injury detail, PTSD, homophobia, suicide (mentioned).

Plot:
Grumpy librarian Kiela flees the capital city amidst a violent rebellion with only one thing in mind: protecting her assistant and best friend Caz, the talking spider plant, and saving as many books as she can. But these are no regular books—they’re spell books… and magic is illegal. Seeking refuge in her hometown on a secluded island, Kiela opens a jam store as a front for a rogue spell shop, where she secretly helps the townsfolk deal with magical storms, depleting resources, and more. But when a stranger arrives, everything starts to go wrong.

The blurb had me at “she and her assistant, Caz—a magically sentient spider plant.” As an introverted and slightly antisocial bookworm with a houseplant addiction and a deep love for all things magic, cottage life, and jam making, I could miss the opportunity of reading this book. Was it a little cheesy? Absolutely. Predictable? Yep. Credible from beginning to end? Of course not. But I expected a cottagecore cozy fantasy that’d make me smile, and it certainly did the trick.

Characters:
I didn’t dislike the main characters, but I didn’t fall head over heels either. I thought Kiela was inconsistent and thoughtless, and very rude at first. However, her character experienced tremendous growth and I liked her by the end. Loren (not sure if I spelled it correctly) was a decent MMC, but maybe a little flat. I would have liked to know more about his background and trauma. My favourite characters were undoubtedly the sentient plant sidekicks, Caz and Meep.

Writing:
I enjoyed Durst’s writing. However, I thought this book had some repetitions and redundancies in terms of internal struggles and dialogues. The length of the book was fine, but some parts felt rushed. More thorough editing and cutting down would have fixed both issues. (I read an ARC, so maaaaybe it was fixed in the final version!)

Audiobook:
The voice actor did an amazing job!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.


Caz is amazing and 100% carried this book. Everything he said was entertaining. I also particularly liked the moments he decided to take things into his own hands (or leaves I guess). Honestly, I would read a book completely from his point of view. Perhaps a novella of him and Meep?!

I wish Kiela and Larran’s relationship had been developed a little more. If it had been further developed, their chemistry would have been a lot more convincing. There were a lot of mentions of them knowing each other as children and I really wish we had gotten some flashbacks of their time together back then.

The other aspect that rather annoyed me is the politics. They were constantly mentioned, but just on a surface level. We know there was a revolution because people thought that magic should be available to everyone, but there was never any extra background information given. The emperor was overthrown, but no one seems too worried and that bit of the plot was kind of left hanging. The arrival of the real imperial guard was great, but I feel like it resolved way too easily. For something that could have had severe consequences, it was handled very quickly and without too much trouble. While I know that the focus of the story was less on conflict and more focused around new friends and family, the constant mentions of the revolution made me feel as though I should expect something to come from that. However, the story ends and there is no information on what ends up occurring in Alyssium.

I will however say that this story was enchanting. The details and imagery given of the merhorses, mermaids, and spells were amazing. Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. Kind of makes me wish I could take a nice vacation to Caltrey. It was fun and sweet and the friendships formed were heartwarming.

This was one of my most anticipated reads of the year. Sadly I don’t think cozy fantasies are for me. I missed the high stakes and action of the books I typically read. However, if you are someone who typically enjoys lower stakes, magical descriptions, and a funny side character, give this a try!

This cozy fantasy has found family, magic, and sentient plants and lots of small town charm. Kiela and her assistant, a spider plant named Kaz, find themselves making a home, jam, and a lot of trouble when they arrive at Keila’s childhood home after revolution displaces them from their beloved library. The book was a lovely little escape but felt a little slow paced and included a love story almost too cute to suit my particular tastes. Despite this, I’m sure many will quickly fall in love with the adorable cast of magical and wondrous inhabitants of the world Durst has created.

Would recommend to anyone who loved the cozy found family of the Legends and Lattes books.

Thank you to the publisher, author, and NetGalley for this audiobook for review purposes.

Cottage core vibes and rom-com for fantasy lovers - what more could you ask for?

Super cute and cozy fantasy that follows an introverted librarian and her sentient plant companion as they flee their area of residence back to her childhood home when a rebellion attack hits the library.

Left with little belongings/money but plenty of salvaged books she spirited away from fire, our FMC uses the contents of the books to open a shop that will benefit both her livelihood and the betterment of the citizens/land.

Let’s not forget about the nosy neighbor/childhood acquaintance that just wants to help and make sure she’s alright. Totally not going to fall in love with him or anything like that.

I also loved the narrator. She brought this world to life beautifully.

Thank you MacMillan Audio for the audio arc of this book in exchange for an honest review!

Overall I had a good time with this story! The cozy vibes were wonderful and I liked the characters. The pacing felt pretty slow so I did struggle to want to pick this up at times. Caz kept me going! Loved that spider plant so much! The audio was very well done. Definitely will recommend it!

This book is FANTASTIC! It's super cute, inventive, and overall a wonderful story. It's a little silly, but that's part of the charm. I'd love a continuation and/or some way to continue inside of this world.

When I read the 4 and 5 star reviews of this book, I don't disagree with them. This book is cozy and sweet and adorable. However, I think this book has some issues that really prevent it from being that great to me. First, there are some SERIOUS trigger warnings that, honestly, don't feel like they belong in the book. They don't add enough to the story that they feel necessary, and I think this triggers are something that just shouldn't be in a book that was meant to feel like drinking a mug of hot chocolate. Second, the story was just too long. Over 11 hours for a cozy fantasy? No thanks. The world building was more complicated than necessary, but not well thought out enough. I think the author could have simplified things and it would have flowed better.

That all being said, it was sweet, and a talking spider plant is the kind of companion many of us love to have. So, kinda recommend? With low expectations?

Thank you to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for an audio ARC in exchange for an honest review!

The coziest book Ive been waiting for!
If you are looking for a cozy Cottagecore fantasy romance with some small town and witchy elements this book is the one for you!
I was gift an ACL and enjoyed it very much.
Kiela (FMC) and Caz ( her sentient plant) runaway to an island to open up a jam shop. But the jam shop is just an excuse so she can secretly do spells and no one would notice.
I adored Kiela and her plant friend’s friendship and enjoyed the main plot of the story including the subplot of romance.
Would highly recommend this book!

The Spellshop is the quintessential cozy fantasy. Durst had me at sentient, pottless spider plant best friend/assistant who hops around on his root ball and suffers from anxiety.

This was an incredibly sweet and delightfully charming orignal story. It had me giggling and awwing and yaying throughout the whole book.

Women supporting women, women befriending women, women setting boundaries and saying "fuck niceness, "women NOT fighting over men, but over seemingly different morals. We need more of this. In 2024, we should have so much bickering between women over petty nonsense, and clearly Durst agrees. And somehow she had all of this in a COZY fantasy. 🤌

I can't recommend this book enough. It's a wonderful summer read. Please don't miss this one.

Thank you to MacMillan, Bramble and Netgalley.

Cute. Cute. Cute!! The most heartwarming thing I’ve read in ages. This was adorable and quirky in exactly the way I always hope Cozy Fantasy’s will be when I pick them up. The characters and setting were absolutely charming and I breezed through this happily!

5 Stars
This was such a fun, cozy fantasy with great characters (Caz and Meep were my favorites!!) and the dreamiest setting. I definitely appreciated how Kiela was a librarian and her love for books - I loved (and could relate to) how Kiela was so excited about someone building her bookshelves lol. Larran has set a new standard for me and I loved his golden retriever energy. The audiobook narrator did a really great job at bringing this story to life. Another one to add to my favorites!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the ARC!

I loved how cozy this book was, kinda reminded me of Legends & Lattes and don’t get me started on Caz the sentient spider plant who is so just so freaking adorable, i now need one for myself.

Kiela being a librarian and not much of a people person is very much up my alley and more to it would be how she had encountered some anxiety and how much she pushed through her fears.

The narrator did a splendid job on this, i literally read this in one day and her voice was not tire some, it was more to the factor i needed to listen even more. The sound affects for a certain plant was good and i enjoyed my time.

💛 Cottagecore Cozy Fantasy
💚 Stolen Spellbooks
💛 Found Family
💚 Cinnamon Roll Man who builds book shelves and raises merhorses
💛Sentient Plant Friend
💚 Rogue Librarian

The only thing i felt was the ending was quite quick to me, kinda like there was no more time to go more into depth. In ways i actually thought there might be a book two because of where we were but alas i don’t think there will be.

I enjoyed my time and very much will be recommending it to my friends.

This book was everything you could have wanted and more. It was cozy, inviting, magical, and absolutely beautiful. I loved our main character and her assistant spider plant. There were mermaids, unicorns, tree spirits, and mer-horses. I had such a fun time listening to this audiobook and the narrator did an amazing job of voicing all the characters and their quirks.

In short, this was good, I enjoyed it for the most part. There's romance in it, humor and Caz the plant is pretty cool. Kiela is a book lover and we get all the cozy cottage fantasy vibes. There are a lot of slow moments but there's also a little sprinkle of suspenseful moments. Really, if cozy slow paced fantasy books are your thing, give this one a try.


Ps: I really have to say this, I freaking love the cover! 😍 its so stunning!!!

4.75 stars!!! This is such a cute cozy fantasy and I enjoyed every second of it!! Watching the main character relearn how to live in this island and the connections she formed in the process was so fun! Can’t forget the talking plants and amazing creatures throughout! I really feel like this is a book everyone can enjoy regardless of preferred genre

Kiela has spent the last few years as a spell-book librarian in peace. That is, until the rebellion hits the capital, and she is forced to leave with a few boxes of spell-books, Caz - a sentient spider plant, and the clothes on her back. She returns to her childhood home, a small cabin on one of the outer islands, and wants to do all she can to lay low. But when she realizes that life isn't as it once was on the island, Kiela wants to help, and the only way she knows how is to open a secret spellshop. She never meant to make friends and open her heart to the people on the island she once left, but it might just be what she needed all along.

I absolutely adored this book. It had the cutest cozy fantasy vibes, and I just felt like I was wrapped in a warm hug the whole time I was listening. I loved all of the characters and the whole concept of the story. I honestly felt like it was really refreshing to have a story that started out with a large conflict, the rebellion in the capital, and transformed into almost an island getaway story. It felt like the problems of the capital were just a fleeting thought and that nothing could really go anymore wrong on the island. (I would like to add that since I listened to the story, I am not including the actual name of the island because I don't know how to spell it correctly) I also love when stories are so comfortable in the world they are set in that the reader just accepts everything that's happening and what the characters are/look like without question and without confusion.

Caz is one of my ultimate favorite side characters now. I also loved Meep.

There was slight conflict close to the end of the story that didn't feel out of place or overwhelming which I also really enjoyed. And I really liked Kiela's character development.

Clearly I have no reason not to give this beautiful story less than all the stars, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys cozy fantasy and a beautiful cast of characters.

This story was so cute and if whimsy is a buzzword for you, this book has whimsy in spades. We follow a librarian named Kiela as she flees the burning of the library she overlooks and she goes back to a cottage from her childhood for shelter along with her companion Caz, a magically enchanted spider plant. As Kiela tries to navigate a new life in a town that's falling apart, there she meets a handsome strange. She decides to open a secret Spellshop, secret because sharing magic with commoners is punishable by death. Keila needs to keep it a safe from the empire and the revolutionaries. She just needs to start trusting the people in the town if she wants to truly live. This book was mostly about the vibes, but I was here for it. The magic and whimsy was everything, her sidekick was the right amount of curmudgeon and sweetness. The romance in this was adorable and if slow burn is your thing I highly recommend this one.


Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan audio for this ARC! 😊

The Spellshop is every bit as enchanting and delightful as I'd hoped–and maybe even a bit more!

This is exactly the cozy, delightful fantasy that you've been looking for. Sarah Beth Durst has created a vibrant, comforting, and compelling world with a magic system that absolutely captivated me. I quickly and completely fell in love with this world, the protagonist, and every other character we meet in this book (well, maybe barring one or two). This wasn't necessarily the most original story I've ever read, but I'm not someone that needs every single thing to be brand new and I really loved what Durst did with this story.

We follow Kiela, a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, as she unexpectedly is forced to leave the library and ends up going into hiding at her childhood home, a remote island that she hopes will be able to provide a safe place for her to stay and also keep some magic–and illegal–spellbooks safe. Once there, Kiela ends up opening a jam shop, which allows her to better get to know her neighbors and also begin experimenting with some new ideas that have the possibility of getting her into some trouble one day...

Kiela is a delightful protagonist, and that's not exactly because she's an exceptionally warm or bubbly person, but rather because she is the exact opposite–in all the best ways possible. Kiela is the ultimate introvert (she reminds me a bit of Emily Wilde, if that helps at all), avoiding social interactions whenever she can and remidning herself that seeing poeple is not a bad thing–although she does come to realize that maybe she doesn't feel quite as terrible as she thinks when interacting with some poeple. I loved how true she stayed to her character throughout the story while still managing to showcase some wonderful character development throughout.

This book doesn't rely too heavily on world-building, but I really loved the world-building that we did get to learn about. I was really intrigued by the unrest that was happening in the city where Kiela worked as a librarian, as well as the magic-caused storms that are plaguing the island Kiela travels back to. I honestly would have liked to learn a bit more about this world and some more specifics, but I understand that they weren't necessarily needed for this story. However, I still appreciated how much detail Sarah Beth Durst put into this world, including the magical plants, merhorses, cloud bears, and other fun and delightful creatures in this book. I also loved the magic that largely came in the form of Kiela's spells disguised as "remedies," as I always enjoy a magic system based upon recipes and putting spells together.

I was pleased to see find that the romance actually fit well into the story and didn't feel too overwhelming, In fact, I think it really helped highlight some of Kiela's own personal development in a way that fit nicely into the story. All of the characters, in fact, have great dynamics with Kiela and each seem to impact her own development in their own unique way. It really made each character feels important to the story and therefore more enjoyable to read about and see in different scenes. I really liked how vibrant the entire cast of characters was and how Durst mananged to bring them all to life in such a purposeful and effective way.

I also want to note that I listened to the audiobook version of The Spellshop and the narrator did a fantastic job giving life to each characters–especially the delightful plant friends! I would happily listen to anything else Caitlin Davies narrates, as I found her narrative voice incredibly clear and entertaining to listen to.

I was really sorry to say goodbye to the characters in this book once I hit the last chapter and would love to read more from this world and these characters. I don't think this needs a sequel (and I'm not sure if one is even planned), but I certainly wouldn't say no to one. Overall, I've given The Spellshop 4.25 stars!

This book does exactly what cozy fantasy is designed to do (I know this was published by Bramble, Tor's fantasy romance imprint, but the romance is not the central aspect of the book; it is a cozy fantasy first and foremost). About an hour in, I wanted to drop my entire life and move into the book so I could have a flying cat and a sentient cactus who can only say MEEP and a spider plant best friend, and do magic with my friends while we eat tea and make friends with tree spirits while eating jam-filled pastry.

Halfway through, I just went ahead and preordered the book.

If you like fantasy and want something wholesome and heartwarming to wish your way into for an afternoon, this might be the book for you. Very glad I read it.

I knew from the second I saw the cover that I was going to love this book. I love fantasy and haven’t experienced much that would be considered “cozy fantasy” but now I know what book to recommend if anyone is looking for a recommendation in that category. The story was beautifully written and I love all the cute magical elements. I can’t tell you how badly I want a talking plant now. I’m going to be thinking about this book for a long time. The narrator for the audiobook was fantastic and easy to listen to. Overall it was fantastic and such a refreshing experience.