The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a charming and heartwarming tale that blends magic, romance, and a touch of adventure in a sweet and lovely story. With its engaging premise and likable characters, this novel is an enchanting escape that earns a solid four out of five stars.

The story follows Kiela, a reclusive librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, who finds solace in her work and the company of her magically sentient spider plant, Caz. The peaceful routine of preserving spellbooks is shattered when a revolution erupts, forcing Kiela and Caz to flee the burning library. Their journey leads them to a remote island, Kiela's childhood home, where she must start anew.

Kiela’s character is completely relatable to me. Her struggle with social interactions and her subsequent growth throughout the novel is portrayed beautifully. The presence of Caz adds a touch of whimsy, providing a companion for Kiela and a unique element of magical charm to the story.

Once on the island of Kiela’s childhood home, her handsome and helpful neighbor brings a much needed and sweet romantic subplot to the story. Kiela's rescued spellbooks from the library combined with her parents' old recipe book is how Kiela plans to earn income. However, it is repeatedly stressed that Kiela 'stole' the spellbooks, she did not resuce them. I'm not sure why that is an obsession that the author focuses on - the library and the city were burning. Kiela clearly rescued them, but over and over again Kiela states that she stole the books. It's a niggle, but it is annoying.

The novel’s setting, a quaint island with mythical creatures and a close-knit community makes the entire setting cozy, not just Kiela's cottage. Aside from my annoyance at the repetition of 'stolen spell books', some secondary characters and subplots, while charming, lack the depth and complexity that could elevate the story further.

The Spellshop is an enjoyable and cozy fantasy novel that offers a perfect blend of magic, romance, and heartwarming moments. It is an enjoyable read. 4 stars.

Rating: Absolutely Loved it, 5 stars

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is cozy fantasy exactly how I like it! It is more in the vein of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea than Legends and Lattes. There is a plot with a little more stakes and a dash of romance. In this, we follow Kiela, a librarian at the Great Library where the realms collective knowledge of magic is stored. When there is a rebellion in the city, she flees with Caz, her sentient spider plant assistant, and all the books she can carry with her. They end up back on the island that she grew up on. Kiela now has to figure out how to make her way in the world and ensure that she is able to protect the books and herself when rogue magic is highly punishable in her world.

I loved following Kiela as she figured out how to survive and to thrive. She is socially awkward, prickly, and very anxious about the fact that she is committing treason by keeping and using the books to help her new neighbors. I loved seeing her relationships build, and there were some really touching moments as she interacted with her neighbors and began to build friendships. She also was on a journey of self-discovery and rediscovery of her past.

I thought it was just a really charming, lovely story. Kiela was an endearing character and all the side characters were very likable. I especially loved the sweet romance that bloomed between Kiela and Lorn (? unsure on spelling, I had the audio copy). He was her very kind, very helpful neighbor who was just a smidge too helpful for Kiela's comfort with all her contraband books lying around.

The world itself was absolutely delightful with so many colors and magical creatures about: sentient house plants, winged cats, merhorses, mermaids, unicorns, sprit bears, and so much more. It was just a delight to read. And the plot, while many times a meandering slice of life, still felt like it had stakes. I was stressed out because while I knew it had to resolve, I just didn't know how, and I really struggled to put this down. The narrator did an excellent job, and the narration added an extra element because there is a lot of description of colors, sights, sounds, and food. Sometimes that can grate on me, but it really worked in this one for me.

Overall, I loved this book and highly recommend if you like your cozy fantasy with a bit higher stakes. I had a fantastic time and highly recommend! Thank you to MacMillan Audio and Netgalley for an early copy of the audiobook. All thoughts and opinions are my own. The Spellshop releases July 9, 2024.

The Spellshop is a perfectly quirky story filled with magic, intrigue, and enough danger and excitement to keep readers entranced! Fans of The Good Witch or Charmed will love this book. The audiobook was great, and the narrator was charming.

Did I bake two pies, a batch of jam, and homemade soup with sourdough in the two days it took for me to listen to this book?

Yes. Yes, I did.

Cozy is a good word for how this book made me feel, but giddy and giggly might be even better. There were multiple points at which I giggled out loud. Caz was my absolute favorite character until about halfway through the book and then... MEEP! 🌵

And The Pinecone Coven? Come ON! 🥹😭🥰

Some of my favorite quotes:
- “Is a sentient spider plant a plus or a minus for a business?”
- “Questions are the heart of a functioning society.”
- “You shouldn’t argue with a woman who has hooves!”
- “The more friends I have, the safer I am.”

4/5 ⭐️ Only because, while I loved settling into the atmosphere, the plot took a while to develop. It was about the 50% mark that all of the threads were present and then slowly woven together throughout the remainder of the book. It felt a little slow at times.

PS. Merbabies!!!
PPS. Thanks to NetGalley for the advance audio copy. All opinions are my own.

This book was fine and cute. I think it started strong but became repetitive quickly. Drama, nitty-gritty of solving the problem, problem is solved by everyone no matter what. By the time the imperial ship I was actually thinking, "Seriously?? ANOTHER round of the same plot line!"

I did like the characters and the jam and the talking plants quite a lot. My one thing is how weirdly resistant to the MMC the FMC was. I was starting to wonder if the reader was supposed to like him for her or not.

Finally, I listened to this on Audio (Thank you, NetGalley!) and the reader was...odd. She over-enunciated every word. The voices sounded like anime characters rather than serious people. She was not my favorite for this.

This book was so fun and cozy. It's perfect for anyone looking to disappear into an entirely new world! I loved the way the writing made me feel like I had disappeared onto the island. Kaz, the sassy spider plant, was so cute and funny. Will be recommending it to anyone looking for a fun escape.

I really loved this book. The start of the story was a little bit rough for me (I was promised cozy, and library fires are NOT cozy), but once we got past the set up, this fantasy really leaned into it's cozy vibes. Are the stakes potentially quite high? Yes, but the general story revolves around an introvert finding her community and reorganizing her life into one that is more enjoyable for her. Labelled as a 'cozy romantasy', the romance is not really the main focus of this story. It is important, but no more important than any of the other friendships that come along Keila's way. I loved the way that the world was fully-magical and had clear rules about that magic, but didn't spend too much time explaining all the details. Our lead has blue skin, why? Who knows? It's not important to the story so we're not going to waste any time there. I would compare this book's vibe to that of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea, where the ultimate stakes do feel higher than is often normal for cozy fantasy, but where the general vibe and the cozy tag let you know that it's all going to turn out fine in the end. I hope that there will be more books coming in The Spellshop's universe. I look forward to meeting more of Durst's colourful characters.

The Spellshop was a happy and cosy book. It follows Kiela as she escapes from the from her home for the past decade due to rebels, and find a new way of life at her childhood island. I listened to the audiobook version and at first I didn't care for the narrator. Her cadence was odd, but eventually I either got used to it or she got better.

~~What I liked~~
-It was a happy, sweet story. While there were obstacles that Kiela needed to overcome, none were extremely dark or sad.
-The characters were interesting. All the characters that Kiela meets are interesting and add a bit to the story. Most are very likable and helpful and friendly.
-The romance in this story was very mild and G-rated. On a side-note, this is listed on goodreads' 'Hottest New Romances for the Summer' list. I don't know if I would agree that it was a hot romance. The romance was there, but most of the story was NOT about the romance, which was ok by me.

~~What I didn't like~~
-I wish there had been a bit more backstory to the government and why Kiela had to leave. There was also not a whole lot of world building, only the people/beings on the small island Kiela fled to were ever really described. There was a bit too much unintended mystery behind the world.
-The first half of the book was a bit slow, but eventually it picked up. Overall the plot was good, but I had a bit of trouble getting invested in the story.

Overall, I enjoyed this cosy fantasy. It was cute and sweet, but it didn't have enough of something (action? character development? world building?) for it to *wow* me. If you are looking for something upbeat and easy to read, this is the book for you.

This story was so fun, definitely giving all the cozy vibes. This was giving that same feeling you get when you watch your favorite Disney movie. There is such a vast cast of characters and it's so hard not to love every single one of them.

This will be the book I compare all other cozy fantasies to. Sweet and wholesome, beautiful, vivid world building, found family and small town romance, with the addition of mer-folk, centaurs, and all sorts of other creatures. I could read a 10 book series in this tiny coast fantasy town and not get tired of it

Thanks to NetGalley for the ALC. Marketing this as Romantasy is a bit of a stretch- I would put it firmly in the cozy fantasy category. Recommend for lovers of epic quests, and fans of Legends and Lattes and The House in the Cerulean Sea.

3.75
I've got mixed feelings about this book, but overall, I was pleasantly surprised. My issues with it seem to be common critiques I have of cozy fantasy as a whole. While, in concept, I really love it, sometimes it ends up being a bit bland or underdeveloped. For example, a revolution plays a pretty big role in influencing the events of the story, but the characters and thus the author never seem to make a firm stance for or against it. Another example is that there is a sentient plant (by far my favorite character) who is terrified of herbivores and anything that might endanger his leaves but has no qualms harvesting leaves from other plants for spell-work. Maybe I'm asking to much to have my cozy fantasy to have political insights and complex world-building, but I've seen it done, and will continue to beg for depth as well as fluff.

So what did I actually like about the book? First off, Caitlin Davies is an excellent and engaging narrator who added even more charm to this already charming story. Second of all, I love seeing a shy main character represented and watching her find her community and place in the world. Thirdly, the island Kiela flees to after the library where she worked and lived is destroyed by the revolution, is as idyllic as Tolkien's Shire and definitely a place where I'd want to live (as long as they keep the magical storms under control). While there, Kiela revitalizes her abandoned childhood home, opens up a jam shop, helps out the island folk with forbidden spells, and gets to know her cute neighbor. Of course, she lives in fear of someone from the possibly-not-fully-overthrown empire discovering the spell-books she stole and so struggles to open up to those around her. Overall, this is a sweet and cozy tale that will totally have you craving raspberry jam! Just don't expect it to be more than that.

Truly enjoyed this lighter cozy fantasy!!

This does read like a debut as it leans toward telling over showing. However, I think it suits the genre well. This is exactly what we need in fantasy right now: cozy fantasy romance reads that feel like mature childhood animated movies. It’s a cute premise and has enough going on to keep it interesting.

I very much enjoyed the awkward characters finding romance. Sometimes social skills / interactions don’t come naturally to people, so it is really refreshing to have an FMC who constantly questions if she follows social etiquette, and also holds her own boundaries. I do feel like some people won’t understand this though and that’s okay.

I was a bit skeptical about the sentient plant but Kaz is SUCH a fun character and I love the found family aspect.

I think this will be my new comfort read!! Cannot wait to see what this author comes out with next!!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance audio copy in exchange for my honest review!!

I love this book. With my whole heart. This book is beautiful and sweet, cozy and like a hug. I am also completely obsessed with Meep and want a little figurine of them for my desk.

SO CUTE AND WONDERFUL. I loved everything about this book. It was so magical, whimsical and wholesome with wonderful message.

When I think about magical fantasies, I always think of Harry Potter. This is not the case for this one. It is a story of a girl who moves away from the big city to a small oceanside town. It is known that magic exists, so this makes it that much better.

When one issue arises, it is taken care of. Not too long after it has been dealt with, another issue comes up. There are characters that pop in and introduced. It seems to be all over the place because of the never-ended plot twists. The imagery described seemed ok and the world building didn’t make sense part of the time.

I did have a hard to finishing this but it was still cute. I think this story may be suitable for someone that enjoys the fairytale-like books.

I had never heard of the term “cottagecore” before this novel. I didn’t know there was such a thing. When I looked up the term, it really makes sense. This story is definitely part of the cottagecore movement and it seems whimsical.

The audiobook was narrated by Caitlin Davies. Anyone narrating a story that has to speak for all of the characters deserves praise. I couldn’t do it and I don’t know how they do it. She did great at narrating each individual.

Special thanks to #NetGalley and #MacmillanAudio for this #ARC to review. Publication date is set for July 9, 2024.

This was a sweet, cozy, cottagecore story about starting over. Unfortunately for me, it read very much like a children's fairytale.

Move over, <i>Legends & Lattes</i>, there’s a new sheriff in—

<b>*record scratch*</b>

Just kidding. But you could really tell this was inspired by <i>Legends & Lattes</i>, or at least had a lot of coincidental similarities. It features an FMC who leaves behind a dangerous <s>life of crime</s> palace overrun by rebels and starts a new life in a small town where she opens a <s>cafe</s> jam shop by renovating an abandoned <s>stable</s> home that used to belong to her parents. Along the way, she enlists the help of the cast of characters in the small town she finds herself in, who slowly but surely form the bedrock of her new found family. She even finds love.

<b>Really, these two are ridiculously similar at the start.</b>

As much as this may seem like I’m dunking on <i>The Spellshop</i>, I have to say that I really enjoyed it! Low-key and cozy, it’s got the found family with a dash of romance that I really enjoy in these lower-stakes fantasy novels. If you take it at its surface, you’ll love this as long as you’re into that kind of book.

However, I did notice a few things I want to critique.


<b>World Building</b>

Kiela, our FMC, has blue skin and hair. Okay, fine. This is a fantasy story with magic, so whatever. I can handle that. Except in the latter half of the story, Kiela needs to find ingredients for a spell, and one of them is the spit of a human, which she provides. After being introduced to a world full of centaurs, sentient spider plants, and a blue-skinned FMC, I didn’t really expect to see the word “human” pop up in the story. Not only that, but I absolutely didn’t understand how blue-haired, blue-skinned, purple-freckled Kiela is a human. Someone plz explain because your girl is confused.

The politics also felt very surface level. We are thrust en media res, where a rebellion has wrested control of the palace. Kiela is there, in the library, grabbing several spell books and fleeing with her assistant, the aforementioned sentient spider plant, Caz (speaking of whom—how does he even see or speak?? He’s just a plant???). They commandeer a vessel and sail to Kiela’s birthplace, a small island she hasn’t returned to since she was a child.

At this point in the story, we are given nothing of the world except that there is a rebellion, only some people can practice magic, and the royal family hoarded spell books for themselves. Thus, Kiela taking the spell books would definitely be deemed a crime. However, it’s never explicitly stated at the start whether everyone is capable of doing magic (it turns out they are), or how the laziness of one generation relying on others in power to do magic for them would conceivably wipe out the skill from every other generation going forward (you’re telling me not ONE layperson kept practicing?). Somehow, those in power then managed to outlaw everyone but a select few from performing magic. But how are they certain that all spell books have been captured and hoarded away in the royal library? Sure, they have inquisitors to investigate unlawful use of magic, but literally what even are the limitations of this magic? There’s a spell somewhat close to invisibility in this book; who’s to say there isn’t one for actual invisibility somewhere that could keep a practicing magic user hidden? And even if the rebels didn’t have access to magic, how did they manage to defeat actual magic users? How does magic exist but the islands don’t know what’s happening politically on the mainland? If they don’t have magical means of messaging, do they not have boats that carry news? Or messenger birds? Literally how did we go so long without ever getting confirmation of whether the rebellion succeeded?

When held up to scrutiny, Durst’s world literally begins to fall apart. As a result, this facet of her storytelling feels like it belongs in a middle-grade book. And I hate saying that because there are some fantastic worlds crafted in many middle-grade series. However, the overly simplistic way in which the building of this world was approached lends itself to a more immature tone and genre that didn’t quite fit the vibes of what I thought was an adult cozy fantasy.

This is where <i>Legends & Lattes</i> triumphs; <i>L&L</i> is like a middle-grade fantasy aged up for adults. It doesn’t shy away from a sturdily-built world or some adult themes, but it maintains the cozy, low-stakes energy that many middle-grades exude. <i>The Spellshop</i>, by comparison, flounders. The world feels so underbaked that I couldn’t take it seriously until I started skimming past certain sections of world building and tried to put some tidbits out of my mind altogether (human = blue-skinned, blue-haired? Time to pretend I didn’t read that!).


<b>Imagery</b>

I have to say, I really struggled picturing a lot of the characters in this book. Durst is one of those writers that describes a character once, and then good luck to you if you don’t remember, because you’re getting literally nothing else going forward. This happened with the love interest, Larran. We get one vague description of him at the start of the novel when we meet him (tall, strong, and “he wasn’t what she’d call handsome”), and then literally nothing else afterward except that he’s built like a brick house. This doesn’t lend itself to very clear imagery. Quite the opposite, actually. When I was trying to picture Larran in my head, all I could conjure up was a grayscale blob man with a massive muscled Gaston body. This was especially frustrating because we kept being reminded of Kiela’s blue hair, blue skin, and purple freckles. But we don’t even get Larran’s hair color. What gives?

Let’s also sidebar real quick and talk about the “handsome” comment. Why does the synopsis reference a “very handsome” neighbor when the love interest is not supposed to be conventionally attractive? Make it make sense.


<b>The Ending</b>

I have to say, this has got to be the strangest, most meandering, never-ending ending I’ve ever read. One conflict brews in the second half of the novel. It goes on for a bit, and then it’s resolved. Now another conflict crops up, involving a new character we were just introduced to, who is shoehorned into a role in which we’re supposed to care about her safety after she behaved horribly. Resolved! But oh, wait, there’s more! (This feels like a bad infomercial.) The conflict we just resolved is no longer resolved! Now we have to address it again. Resolved! The end.

It was weird. I was looking at the percentage I had left once the first conflict was resolved and thought to myself, <i>how do I have another 20% to go?</i> Oh, boy, was I in for a treat.


<b>Final Thoughts</b>

I know this doesn’t sound like a positive review, but I had a ton of fun reading this book. It was cozy. It was adorable (hello, socially awkward cinnamon roll couple). There were actual cinnamon rolls (yum). There was gardening. There was cleaning. There was the making and jarring of jams. There was watching your hot socially awkward neighbor renovating your house and turning it into a shop. There was magical creature after magical creature (Mermaids? Check. Mermares? Check. Unicorn? Fucking check). There was methodical research. Foraging for ingredients. Spell casting. Teaching your new found family <s>illegal spell casting</s> remedies passed down from spider-plant grandpa to spider-plant grandson.

All this to say—the vibes truly were immaculate. At times, the writing was irreverent in a way that cracked me up. If any of this appeals to you, absolutely pick this up knowing that you are reading it for the vibes, the found family, the bumbling awkward yet adorably sweet romance, and honestly not much else. Trust me, you will be disappointed if you expect anything more than that.


<b>OVERALL RATING:</b> 3.5 stars (rounded up!).

<i>A big thank you to Netgalley and the publisher, Macmillan Audio, for providing me with an advanced copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review!</i>

This was the cutest and sweetest book!!! Kiela is a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium with her assistant Cas who is a talking plant. When the library is set on fire, Kiela grabs a bunch of books and flees from the rebellion to the island she was born on. Her parents' cottage is still there, and she moves in. She decides to make jam but uses a spell (which is not allowed) in order to grow the berries, as well as spells for other things to help the community. She initially doesn't want to be a part of the community, but she is slowly emersed into making friends with people in the town, including the cute man next door! I absolutely loved this book as a cozy fantasy that doesn't need tons of world building or magic systems. I want to move into this cottage, have a talking plant, a cactus that "meeps", a cute neighbor, and read! I definitely recommend this book!!!

Tropes:
Cozy Romantasy
Rogue librarian on the run
Sentient spider plant bestie
There are cats with wings!!

“A kind neighbor with a smile like the sun coming out from behind the clouds over a stormy sea.”

3⭐️
0🌶️