"The Spellshop" enchanted me right from the start and earned the distinction of being my first 5-star read of 2024!! Let's GOOOOO!
From its gorgeous cover art, to the captivating premise, through it's varied and vibrant characters, this novel weaves a spellbinding tale that lingers long after the final page.

The protagonist, Keila, is a devoted librarian with a passion for books and knowledge. Keila, literally waits until the library is burning around her, and there is fighting in the building before she escapes. (She wanted to believe the revolutionaries wouldn’t want to destroy books, WHO would dare!?) Her decision to rescue forbidden books on magic, accompanied by her sentient spider-plant sidekick, Caz, sets the stage for a discovery-filled journey.

One of the most striking aspects of the story is Keila's unwavering dedication to preserving knowledge, which sets a poignant backdrop for her eventual escape to her childhood island home. Her goal was to hide the books until they could be returned. She saw herself as a guardian and caretaker of the books...But... here, against the backdrop of her parents' abandoned cottage by the sea, Keila embarks on a transformative journey fueled by her decision to use forbidden spells and the desire to heal neglected lands.

The narrative unfolds with a seamless blend of magic and realism, as Keila uses spells like rapid growth to have the resources needed to establish a jam shop, gradually justifying more extensive magic to rejuvenate the island. Along the way, she forms deep connections with friends and kindles a romance that adds warmth to the story without overpowering it.

While "The Spellshop" isn't primarily a romance, its cozy romantic subplot adds depth to Keila's personal growth and the overall narrative. The story maintains momentum with well-balanced stakes and a compelling drive that propels Keila forward in her quest for self-discovery and empowerment.

The world-building in "The Spellshop" is nothing short of exceptional, rich with vivid descriptions that bring to life a diverse array of characters and magical creatures. From cloud bears to merhorses, each element adds to the story's enchanting allure and expands your imagination.

"The Spellshop" is a delightful blend of fantasy, adventure, and personal growth. With its endearing characters, imaginative world-building, and a narrative that seamlessly balances magic with real-world challenges, this novel captivates from beginning to end. Highly recommended for readers seeking a magical escape filled with warmth, creativity, and a touch of romance.

And Lastly, I must thank Net Galley, MacMillan Publishing, and Sarah Beth Durst for the pleasure of allowing me to preview this book!

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher and an ARC of this audiobook.

This was the perfect "if you liked Legends and Lattes you'll like" book.

Keila is an anti-social librarian caught amid a political rebellion about ready to destroy the library she works at. With the help of her sentient spider plant Caz, the two save several crates full of spellbooks and escape the city. She returns to her childhood home on a remote island where Kiela thinks she can survive on her own. However, Keila is pretty helpless and begins a plan to barter jelly and spellwork, or "remedies", in exchange for her needs.

This is the perfect cozy fantasy. It has low stacks, light romance, found family, some action in the climax, and lovable side characters. A couple of critiques would be I wish we had a little time with Keila as a librarian before the conflict. The book starts right in the action of her escape, but I think I would have liked more information about her life before beyond what we were given in flashbacks. For a brief minute, there was a love triangle thing going on and I didn't need that. Besides that, I adored it.

The Spellshop is an absolute cozy delight. In a true testament to Durst’s writing, she was able to craft an engaging character in the form of a spider plant as well as an adorable Groot-esque cactus. Don’t get me wrong, almost the entire cast of characters are wonderful, but there’s something about those two that’s just pure perfection. I also really appreciated Durst’s world building and magical system. Additionally, get yourself a partner who will build you bookshelves to store you allegedly stolen spell books. For being a cozy read, I felt that there was plenty of action mixed in to keep the plot moving forward and avoid slowing down too much. I read this via ebook and audiobook. While the ebook is great, the audiobook is phenomenal. Caitlin Davies was superb at evoking peak cozy cottagecore vibes making the story a full experience. I highly recommend adding this to your TBR pile because it’s sheer binge worthy delight.

Cozy Fantasy • Cottagecore • Romance
Low Stakes • Spells • Magical Creatures
🎧 ALC • Pub Date 9 July 2024

Thank you @macmillan.audio for complimentary early access to this ALC!

Needing to slow things down? If you’re craving a change of pace, here’s a #cottagecore read full of raspberry jams, blueberry 🫐 preserves, cute sentient plants 🪴 and other magical creatures 🪸🐚 🌊, with a cozy romance subplot to boot 💘

Kiela is an introverted former librarian turned refugee. She flees the big city for small town island life after her library burns to the ground under suspicious circumstances. Escaping with only a crate full of now stolen spell books and her sentient spider plant Kaz, Kiela must keep her true identity and former life a secret while she attempts to start over from scratch.

The only problem? Kiela has no marketable skills. Which makes it very tempting to just peek into some of those spell books...surely one or two small enchantments would not hurt to help Kiela bootstrap herself off the ground. She finds herself opening an apothecary selling jams, preserves, and other herbal remedies... Enter Larran, friendly neighbor and handyman extraordinaire. Sparks may fly, hallmark style, but what will happen when Kiela’s past catches up to her?

The first third is slower paced than I usually prefer, but it does pick up in the second half. However at its heart this is a low stakes cutesy cottage core fantasy featuring small town, nosy neighbors, and the boy-next-door. Perfect for fans of Legends and Lattes, Bookshops and Bonedust and Can’t Spell Treason without Tea.

Actual Rating 2.5

Kiela was comfortable with her relatively solitary life as a librarian in the capital city, but when rebels unexpectedly set fire to the city threatening the library, she finds herself fleeing with as many book as she can. She flees with her companion, a talking plant named Caz, to a small island where she was born. Once there, she does her best to fit in with the locals while trying not to get caught using magic as it’s against imperial law. But magic is unbalanced on the island, and Kiela soon realizes she may be the only one who can help. Will she be able to make a new life for herself and save the island?

This was an easy read that didn’t require any real focus to enjoy. I enjoyed some of the elements of the magic though it wasn’t ever really explored in much detail, and the island setting was described relatively well. It’s also very light with a happy ending and some cute secondary characters, so it could make for a good comfort read if you’re looking for something along those lines.

However, it took over 50% of the book for any real conflict or forward motion to happen, which made the first 50% begin to feel repetitive, especially when it came to the protagonist’s internal dialogue. She just worried about the same things over and over with no new information or action taken to the point where it became frustrating. I also felt like nothing in this book ever went beyond surface level until much nearer the end of the book, and even then it didn’t go much deeper. This made it difficult to really become attached to the characters or any aspect of the book. Despite being in Kiela's head, I felt like we learned almost nothing about her as a character aside from the two or three character traits she was assigned.

There was also essentially no real worldbuilding included beyond what was needed to barely keep the plot supported. The author also used words that don’t have a fantasy feel (e.g., police), which was an oversight and detracted from the fantasy vibes.

I have minimal experience with cozy reads, so it’s possible that my dislikes here have more to do with the genre in general than this specific work (I’ll have to ask Srivalli!). If you like cozy reads, light fantasy, and cottage core aesthetics, you might love this one. My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read this work, which will be published July 9, 2024. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

This is a lovely cozy fantasy romance with strong cottagecore vibes! The stakes are a bit higher than some other popular cozy fantasies, but it didn't feel too stressful to bring the reader out of that cozy feeling. Also, the author had me at "sentient spider plant."

This is an absolutely ADORABLE, cozy read that I was immediately obsessed with. The narration is fantastic and provides emotion, enthusiasm and unique voices to go with all the unique characters within this story.

“ Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she and her assistant, Caz―a magically sentient spider plant―have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite.

When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers, much to her dismay, a nosy―and very handsome―neighbor who can’t take a hint and keeps showing up day after day to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home.”

I love a library, I love plants, I love cozy forests and unique and fantastical characters and I LOVE a handyman neighbor (Luke Danes anyone?). This was an absolutely magical read and on audio it was even better, I felt like I was being carried off by Merhorses to listen to a fairytale and I was totally mystified by Sarah’s writing.

This was a perfect blend of cozy and high stakes but most importantly had interesting and unique characters that you cared for and wanted to have in your own life. Truly a mesmerizing read.

This is exactly the cozy fantasy I've been searching for since I finished the last Emily Wilde's book. Magic, mystery, found family, a little romance, and some incredible jam make the perfect recipe for this story.
I found myself immediately relating to and rooting for Kiela and the fantastic Caz from the moment I met them.
Kiela is, well was, a librarian in the greatest city in the nation. And then the rebels attacked, burned it down. Being ever pragmatic, Kiela expected this would happen eventually and had been prepping and packing books to take should the need to fell arise.
Now that is has she must decide where to go. Magic use is illegal for anyone who isn't a registered sorcerer, even having these books could land her in big trouble. So as far away as possible from the city is best. And that just so happens to be the exact same island Kiela grew up on as a child, her famiky even has an old house tucked away in a cover there. Perfect for hiding out.
That is until the incredibly kind and helpful neighbor, Larin, shows up and offers all of his help with whatever they need. And then the rest of the island does, and suddenly Kiela is surrounded by people who are choosing to love her and support her, no matter what odd things tend to happen around her. Or hang out with her.
Kielas journey to self-love, and the reciprocal love of others was so incredibly satisfying. The narrator for the audiobook did a fantastic job keeping me engaged and curious about what happens next.
In life, you never know who needs a little help, maybe some jam, to turn things around and change themselves, and the world, for the better.
Now, to begin politely begging for more books like this.
Thank you to Macmillian audiobook and Netgalley for providing me with the free audiobook to listen to and provide my honest feedback. All opinions and statements are my own.

This book was so sweet and magical. I loved the independence and creativity of Keila and the side characters were great. I teach sixth grade and will recommend this book to our fantasy and romance lovers. The only issue I had at all was the main character's name. Keila is pretty but every time the narrator said "to Keila" it sounded like "tequila" and that was enough to take me out of the story. It was said a lot.

This book was my jam! Pun intended.
The story had a really strong start. I was immediately invested in the books and the urgency to go to a new location.
I felt that Kiela is a relatable character to introverts, bookworms, and those with anxiety.
The ending fell a bit flat for me, but overall this was a fun, whimsical, magical, cozy, feel-good story.
3.5 rounded up

This book is completely sweet and entirely cozy. I read in the acknowledgements that Durst intended to write something that reads like a cup of hot chocolate and I’d say she succeeded. This story is a warm hug in book form. 😊

I related so much to the main character, who is a librarian like me, someone who prefers solitude and a good book to most any social situation. I also appreciated the author adding the authentic detail that our heroine acquired an advanced degree to become a librarian (lots of folks don’t realize that, so it’s a pleasure to see represented accurately in fiction).

The romance element was nice, and I appreciated the bit of romance for a couple of side characters, as well. I was pleased to see a bit about the winged cats, and even the sentient plants worked for me.

The mild peril was the perfect amount to make the story interesting without sacrificing the comfortable tone of the read, in general. The theme of found family is strong in this book, contributing to the warm hug appeal.

I hope this author writes more books, either set in this world or another; I will want to read them. I will also be inclined to read this again as a comfort reread! 🥰📚

ETA: I just learned she’s written a zillion books so yay! ❤️

Second ETA: I listened to the MacMillan audio version of this book and it was lovely! The narrator covered a range of characters and voices and did it well. This story is so sweet and cozy, I would 100% re-listen as a comfort reread! 💕

I loved every bit of this book. It's a cozy cottagecore fantasy with a bit of romance and an engaging plot that will keep you turning the pages.

After escaping unrest in the capital city. Librarian Kila, some old books that she "rescued", and her best friend Caz, ended up at her childhood home. A cottage on a small island where she spent her childhood years.
But how would she feed herself? She has nothing but the books she brought with her.
Luckily, she has a tall, handsome "Mr Fix It" neighbor to help with her crumbling cottage.
But, will he shun her when he find out what she did. what's really in those books?
Is her jam shop selling "just jams"?
Will she help save them, are bring them more doom?

Thank you NetGalley for this ARC❤️

As another reviewer said "I need more cottagecore fantasy romance in 2024" and I couldn't agree more!

I am so happy I had a chance to listen to this book. Caitlin Davies did an excellant job!

This book is cozy, funny, sweet and so much fun! Her little plant sidekicks Caz and Meep were my favourite part of the story. I would do anything for them!

I just had a great time listening to this!

Thanks to NetGalley for the Audio ARC!

This was everything I wanted and MORE. It was cozy, funny, sweet, unexpected, and really fun. It was extremely well written with amazing characters, a beautiful setting, and an interesting plot. It walked the line perfectly between keeping me interested but not raising my blood pressure and leaving me feeling lighter.

This has easily risen to the upper echelons of cozy fantasy for me. I would die for Caz and Meep....they are perfect babies and you cannot tell me otherwise. I love the hesitant and beautiful love story with the hunky, softspoken merhorse herder that build book and jam shelves and the quirky, socially awkward librarian.....it makes me smile to even think about.

The ensemble case is AMAZING - I want to live there and meet them all eating at the bakery and riding the merhorses, exploring the orchards and visiting the cloud bears....I could go on and on about how much I loved it, seriously.

If you love cozy fantasy (or even if you don't), you do NOT want to miss this one. It's beautiful and is a warm hug with a cup of tea with a side of toast and jam, perfect.

Ahoy there me mateys!  I be a fan of this author's writing and was excited to listen to her cosy novel.  This follows a librarian, Kiela, whose world goes up in literal flames when the Empire faces a rebellion.  Kiela escapes the library with 5 crates of spellbooks and her friend, Caz, a sentient spider plant.  Kiela has no choice but to return to her parent's cottage on her home island and start over.

First, let me start by saying the title is misleading.  Kiela's store is a jam shop because her magic talent has to be hidden.  Secondly, Kiela inherits the cottage and is a native of the island which makes her journey a lot easier.  Thirdly, her handsome neighbor helps her fix things which is also convenient.  And lastly, Kiela is kind of a special snowflake due to said magical ability.

I did like the majority of the book.  The first third was excellent fun.  Caz is awesome and was the best part of the book.  I wish he had more page time.  I also loved the addition of Caz's friend Meep.  It was enjoyable to watch Kiela deal with her shyness and also see her determination to learn new skills.  I also wish there would have been a lot more of the tree spirits.

Lesser enjoyment came from the fact that there were three potential endings and each one resolved too quickly and easily for me.  The magic system could have used a bit more explanation.  I also thought the world building regarding the empire could have been fleshed out more.  Kiela is a LOT more forgiving then I thought she should be and I was annoyed by this.  Of course, that is personal preference.

I am glad I listened to this one and think that it will have a ton of fans.  For me it was very mixed.  Arrrr!

3.5 starts rounded up

3.5 stars rounded up
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a cozy cottagecore fantasy where the focus is on books, spells, gardening, a little romance and tons of adorable mystical creatures. The first half was a bit on the slower side for me, but I felt like it picked up in the second half. I loved the adorable sentient spider plant companion, Caz, and I always love a cinnamon roll MMC.

What to Expect:
- An adorable sentient spider plant and other mystical creatures 🌱
- Dash of romance ❤️
- Cinnamon roll MMC 🥐
- Found family
- Jam making (kind of made me hungry for an English muffin with jam) 🍞
- Legend & Lattes vibes ☕️

Special nod to Caitlin Davies and her fantastic job doing the narration.

Thank you to Sarah Beth Durst, Macmillan Audio, and to NetGalley for providing an audiobook in exchange for an honest review.

That is just one of those books that just makes you smile. I love the characters. Everyone needs a friend like Caz! If you love cozy romantasy with a side of laughter, you should read this book. This has been one of my favorite cozy reads!

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ (4/5 stars)

Listening to The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst as an audiobook was a delightful experience. Caitlin Davies' narration really brought the story to life, making it easy to get immersed in the cozy fantasy world.

Plot and Characters:
The story begins with Kiela, a shy librarian, escaping a burning library during a rebellion. She ends up on her childhood island with crates of valuable spellbooks and her unique assistant, Caz, who is a sentient spider plant. The island, which has seen better days, becomes the perfect place for Kiela to rebuild her life and form new connections.

Kiela is a wonderfully relatable character, especially for anyone who loves books and sometimes prefers solitude. Her transformation from a solitary librarian to an active member of the island community is heartwarming. The developing romance between Kiela and her neighbor, Larran, is sweet and adds a nice touch to the story without taking over.

Caz, the talking spider plant, adds a lot of humor and charm to the story. His quirky personality and the diverse cast of magical creatures and townspeople make the island feel vibrant and alive.

World Building:
The world-building is engaging but could use a bit more detail. The magic system, in particular, felt somewhat vague at times. Additionally, the political backdrop of the rebellion could have been explored more to add depth to the story.

Imagery and Descriptions:
Durst does a great job of creating cozy, inviting scenes. However, some descriptions felt sparse, making it a bit challenging to visualize certain characters and settings. For example, Larran, the love interest, is described in general terms, leaving his appearance somewhat open to interpretation.

Ending:
The ending felt a bit drawn out, with several conflicts arising and being resolved quickly. This made the final chapters feel slightly rushed and repetitive. Despite this, the overall conclusion was satisfying and left a warm feeling.

Final Thoughts:
The Spellshop is a charming and cozy fantasy that is perfect for those looking for a feel-good read. The audiobook enhances the experience, making it easy to get lost in Kiela’s world. While it has its imperfections, the lovable characters, sweet romance, and magical elements make it a book worth reading. If you enjoyed Legends & Lattes, you’ll likely find The Spellshop a delightful addition to your reading list.

Thank you NetGalley and author for allowing me an ARC audiobook for The Spellshop.

This was such a cozy read and had lots of sweet found-family moments/ loveable characters (meep!!) The world building and imagery was so cozy and imaginative!

This book had stakes while still remaining cozy, which is a five stars in my book.

AND THAT COVER!!! It is GORGEOUS!!!!!!

This book was absolutely perfect. The narrator did a fantastic job bringing the characters to life and the voices are the best. I imagine listening is an even better experience than if I had read it on my own in my head. The story is charming - the main character does have some problems to fix but ultimately very low stakes. I want a Caz of my own as a friend. The idea of an alive, talking spider plant is a great friend. I already bought a physical copy of the book before I even finished it because I knew I would want to read it again. Thanks so much!