Крамничка чарів

Spellshop #1

by Sarah Beth Durst, Марія Пухлій (Translator)

Кіла ненавидить спілкуватися. На щастя, її робота у Великій Аліссіумській бібліотеці - перлині Імперії Островів Півмісяця - дає змогу уникати розмов. Та коли спалахує повстання, Кіла та її незмінний компаньйон, рослина-павук Каз, вимушені тікати.

Вони вирушають на далекий острів, де відкривають крамничку варення і займаються в ній таємним підробітком: пропонують відвідувачам корисні, але незаконні заклинання для розв'язання побутових проблем. Адже для тих, хто не володіє чарами, магія заборонена. Однак ніхто ж не дізнається, правда? Хіба що нахабний і дуже привабливий сусід, що раптом почав надто часто відвідувати крамничку…

Genres: Fantasy, Romance, Cozy, Audiobook, Cozy Fantasy, Fiction, Romantasy

416 pages, Hardcover

First published July 9, 2024

About the author

Sarah Beth Durst is the New York Times bestselling author of over twenty-five books for adults, teens, and kids, including cozy fantasy The Spellshop. She's been awarded an American Library Association Alex Award, as well as a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award. Several of her books have been optioned for film/television, including Drink Slay Love, which was made into a TV movie and was a question on Jeopardy! She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. Visit her at sarahbethdurst.com.

Reviews

[Rosh (on a medical break) · Rating 4 out of 5]

In a Nutshell: A cozy fantasy with an unlikeable protagonist who redeems herself along the way. A whole load of cozy, a little less of fantasy. Interesting (but flat) humans, outstanding non-humans, decent but straightforward storyline. A nice light option for those who prefer cute fantasies and can read without overanalysing.

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Plot Preview:

Kiela hates dealing with people. Thanks to her job as a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium in the capital of the Crescent Island empire, she avoids people at all costs, with her sentient spider plant Caz being more than enough company. But when the rebellion strikes and the library is up in flames, Keila has no choice but to escape with Caz and whatever books she can carry. The only destination that seems safe is her late parents’ home in the faraway island where she had spent her childhood years. She hasn’t been to this abandoned old cottage in more than a decade, but even then, she can sense that something is not right on the island. Luckily, Kiela worked in the ‘spell books’ section of the library, so the books she carried to safety contain magical spells. Yes, it is illegal for any non-sorcerer to cast spells, but this far away from the capital, no one would know, right?
The story comes to us in Kiela’s third-person perspective.

Bookish Yays:
🌳 Caz – Kiela’s assistant and spider plant extraordinaire. He goes so much more than being a talking plant, acting as an overly anxious friend and guide. His banter with Kiela is great fun. The biggest and best reason to read this book is Caz. (Technically, I should put this as a Mixed Bag. The downside of this is that I’ll never be happy with my ordinary, boring, non-talking plants now. I want Caz! 😢)

🌳 The fantastical creatures in the book, which include some we already know as well some innovative new ones. Winged cats and merhorses, anyone? 😍 I also include Meep in this category, and leave it for you to discover who or what Meep is.

🌳 The magic in the book, heavily rooted in nature and hence appearing even more delectable. I loved all the magic of the book, even when it wasn’t friendly.

🌳 The food references, from berry jams to cinnamon buns. My salivary glands rarely get affected by mention of Western dishes in fiction, but the descriptions in this one were yummm!

🌳 All things books – the magic of them, the value of them, the importance of treating them with care. Kiela’s person skills might be zero, but her librarian skills were top notch. Caz was the perfect assistant, being surprisingly passionate about books though he probably knew they are made from dead trees.

🌳 Because of the remote island setting, the story offers nice small-town feels, where neighbours can be helpful as well as inquisitive. The found family trope is used fairly well.

🌳 The indirect focus on the perils of resource hoarding by a select few, climate change affecting ordinary citizens, animals and nature suffering because of human misdemeanours, and parental abuse affecting children – all minor arcs but important and intriguing enough.

🌳 Can’t forget that stunning cover! It is almost like a painting. Don’t miss the adorable winged cat!


Bookish Mixed Bags:
🌱 While this is a cozy fantasy, it is heavily tilted towards the cozy side than the fantasy side. I like cozy fantasies so I was somewhat prepared for what I would get going into this novel. But I wish the writing had not worried so much about making things cozy that it forgot many other necessary requirements of a satisfying reading experience.

🌱 Kiela is a complicated protagonist, and not exactly a loveable one. She is quite grumpy and annoying at the start. She is also too impulsive, naïve, and a short-term thinker. While I don’t mind unlikeable characters (I think they offer far more depth to stories than goody-goody characters), the conversion of Kiela’s people-shirker persona to town saviour and friend is a bit too instant to be convincing. If you necessarily want novels to have likeable leads, this book might not work for you.

🌱 Larran and the other citizens of the town are much better and hence more likeable than Kiela, but their character dev is somewhat surface level. They are either 100% likeable or detestable, no in-between greys. This gets boring. Larran, being the male lead, deserved better character development, but we don’t even know what he looks like, except that he is huge.

🌱 The basic storyline is too simplistic. Except for the fantastical characters and the references to magic, the plot has a typical romcom storyline: a city girl moving to a small village, finding love in various forms, and deciding that her new location is way better than the life she left behind. I wish there had been some novelty to the plot, though the magical beings were imaginative enough to save the book.

🌱 The approach to the story is somewhat episodic, with several conflicts coming and going over the course of the 384 pages. Once a conflict is settled, it doesn’t pop up again. This works well in continuity, but it also feels formulaic after a point. I’m surprised that the major historical event at the start of the book – a revolution in the empire that ends with the emperor being killed and the city overtaken by rebels – is chucked aside after Keila moves to her hometown. Even during later mentions of the rebellion, there are no major details provided. If you begin with a political plot-point, surely that needs to be settled better.

🌱 The world building is highly developed on some points, and lacklustre on others. The townspeople (when they are non-human) and the fantastical creatures get exceptional description, but the ordinary humans barely get any detailing. We get great descriptions of the island setting, but hardly anything about its magical backstory. We know the whats of the magic, but it is taken for granted that we also know the hows and whys.

🌱 This is tagged as a fantasy romance. So I can’t really complain about the dominant presence of the romance, but I will complain that the romance was a bit too insta for my liking. It had elements of grumpy (Keila) vs sunshine (Larran), and was clean, so no steam-related worries.


Bookish Nays:
🍂 Though the writing is in third person, there are a lot of inner monologues, which also leads to loads of repetition. The proceedings are also somewhat slow because of this, though I didn’t mind the slow part.

🍂 Some plot points are too convenient to be convincing. A cottage that has been abandoned in the wild for more than a decade still has everything in working order and the bed isn’t even dusty? A character changes their stance on a topic at the most opportune moment? People pop up exactly when they are needed?

🍂 I think the book should have had a different title. Not only is it a spoiler (because Keila doesn’t take a call about “selling spells” until much into the book, but it is also inaccurate, since there is no actual “spell shop’ in the book.

🍂 The second relationship introduced at the end comes out of nowhere. I think it was introduced just to tick off one item on the inclusivity checklist, but it simply wasn’t needed. A similar forced inclusion is the mention of the pronoun preference of a talking plant. I’m not kidding! (At times, I feel like we are going too far with the inclusivity rep in fiction. Yup, I said it! Yes, we need to be inclusive and treat all gender and sexual orientations equally, but do we need to shove it into every single plot, even when it doesn’t even make sense?)


🎧 The Audiobook Experience:
The audiobook, clocking at 12 hrs 11 min, is narrated by Caitlin Davies. Her exuberant performance matches the cozy tone of the story. She does go a bit over the top during dialogue delivery, but I don’t mind this because it adds greater emotional depth and excitement to the conversations. Her voices for Caz and Meep were fabulous. If you want to give this book a go, I’d definitely recommend the audio version to audiobook aficionados. It would also be a great option for audio newbies as the timelines are straightforward and the characters, limited.


All in all, there are a few gaps in the writing approach of this novel, but there is also enough to enjoy. Caz alone should be a strong reason for you to pick up this ‘cottage-core’ (so many new labels these days!) fantasy-romance.

Recommended to cozy fantasy readers who don’t mind an extra bucketload of cutesy in their novels. This is Twee with a capital T! Be prepared to leave logic aside to enjoy it better.

3.5 stars, rounding up for Caz, Meep, and the audiobook.


My thanks to Pan Macmillan and Tor for providing the DRC, and Macmillan Audio for providing the ALC of “The Spellshop” via NetGalley. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.


Here's my review of Book Two: 'The Enchanted Greenhouse': https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
It went better for me than the first one.


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Connect with me through:
My Blog || The StoryGraph || Instagram || X/Twitter || Facebook ||

[Brend · Rating 3 out of 5]

''She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant..''
Ok. Sold.

Wish I had enjoyed this more but, sadly, I felt like nothing was happening. I get that's part of the cozy fantasy genre but it doesn't mean I have to like it. I think I would enjoy a story like this more as a movie, cause it was more vibes than anything.
Also, there were winged kittens. If I could see those on screen, I would care less about the lack of plot.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

screw capitalism i want whatever this is (a cute shop where i share spells and make jam + a hot man builds me floor to ceiling bookshelves)

[Miranda Reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It wasn’t that she didn’t like people. It was only that she liked books more.”

As a longtime librarian in Alyssium, Kiela knows a thing or two about the spells written in the books under her care - though she knows better than to try to use any of them

There's rumblings of a rebellion - of people who want access to the magics locked up tight in her library and privately Kiela agrees that knowledge is to be shared.

Though the last libraian who used magic to make a sentient spider plant (Caz) was turned into a wooden statue. Sooo, Kiela's not using magic any time soon.

Then the unthinkable happens, the rebellion goes haywire and there's smoke among the stacks. Fleeing for their lives, Kiela and Caz (the spider plant) save only five crates of books and set sail for Kiela's home, a remote island on the outskirts of Alyssium.

She figures they could lay low and come up with a better plan...only one problem...she can see the pain and suffering the islanders have gone through due to the magic being restricted and withheld.

Surely one teensy-tiny spell can't hurt, right?

Omg. This one was wonderful. It was such a breath of fresh air and I loved every minute of it.

One thing that really stood out was the enchanted world building! I feel like creating an established world with centaurs, four-armed people, mermaids, and so on can be a bit...much to present to the reader.

More often than not, those worlds don't really work for me - it's too much, too fast. Too many contradicting lores overlapping...and yet this one worked really well.

The author had a great balance of grounded problems and challenges for Kiela to face with whimsical magic and fantastical creatures.

I had so much fun following Kiela and seeing her budding jam shop blossom (with the occasional 'home remedy' *wink wink* on the side). I liked the lighter stakes of this story, though it did get tense a few times.

The romance felt rather realistic to me - no grand sweeping gestures, but a quiet steady love blossoming in little moments. It really caught my heart.

Overall, this one was really well written and a delight throughout. And I'm so freaking excited to read the sequel!!!

[chan ☆ · Rating 3 out of 5]

basically a bedtime story

[Jaclyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book so much. I really did. Cottagecore romantasy with a pretty cover and GORGEOUS lavender-sprayed edges? Sign me up! Unfortunately, this book fell short in practically every category that I use to judge books. Maybe my expectations were too high? I was hoping, as a bookseller, to be able to recommend this as my go-to romantasy that people may not have read. Instead, I’ll likely feel disappointment any time I see it. I’ll try to keep this review major spoiler-free, but there may be some small ones, so read at your own risk.

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First off, let’s dive into the main character. I haven’t had a main character feel so un-relatable since I read How Does It Feel. Kiela has lived in a library for years, with a sentient plant as her sole companion, completely avoiding other librarians and patrons. She cherishes every single book in the library. I don’t disagree with her opinion there, as I can usually find SOME thing I like about a book, but it’s her complete and utter SOLITUDE in this library that I have an issue with. She continuously reminds the reader (and I mean CONTINUOUSLY) that she hates any interaction with any other person and would just as soon live her life without ANY interaction at all. Besides the plant. He’s a cool plant, but really? Indeed, when the plot forces her to retreat to the island of her birth, she honestly believes that she can do it without any help, and maybe even without the island residents knowing she is there. Sure, I guess? Listen, we all have our delusions. But this one is a little far fetched, even for fiction.

Enter Mr. Love Interest! This lovely, selfless person, evidently remembers her from her childhood, and starts spoiling her with free food and labor. While she objects to his company, his gifts, and his attention, it is QUITE repetitive in her inner monologue. She wanted to live off the grid without help from anyone! And this handsome stranger keeps bringing her EGGS!! She is VERY awkward and rude when it comes to pushing him away, and while I love a good socially-inept main character, I’d like it to remain at least a BIT believable?

Here’s where small spoilers may occur. Don’t worry, they’re all in the synopsis, actually the TITLE, so they shouldn’t be crazy.

Once she realizes she can’t live completely off the grid, her mentality of “protect and hide the books I saved at any and all costs” to “well maybe I can help the island thrive by using the spells in the books to remedy some of the misfortune” which is CRAZY considering the first THIRD of the book is her (repeatedly) saying how she has to protect this secret at all costs. I’m really just confused here, but whatever. She hardly puts any thought into this idea before enacting it, which is completely at odds with her “logical” thinking in the beginning.

Not only does she decide to sell these “remedies” to select customers, she TELLS SOME ISLANDERS HOW TO MAKE THEM. As in, A COMPLETE ABOUT-FACE FROM HER ORIGINAL PLAN. Again, with NO FORETHOUGHT. I won’t tell any of the plotline past this, but this is the point where I threw my hands in the air and said “OKAY WHATEVER”

Lastly, I also have issues with the writing style. The main character is very repetitive, reclusive, and has a habit of going far left to far right then back again within the span of one chapter. It left me unable to read more than 50 pages at a time because I was just losing interest every time.

All in all, while I really wanted to like this book, and despite my best efforts (and I mean BEST), this book was a disappointment on multiple levels. 1.5/5, rounded up to 2/5, mostly because of Meep, the bat-cats, and the herds of Merhorses. You’ll get it when you get it.

[✩ Yaz ✩]

I need more cottagecore fantasy romance in 2024🌸

[Brady Lockerby · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was cute! suuuuper light fantasy, just some magic sprinkled in. giving it a 3 because it easily could have been 100 pages shorter. a lot of ramble on sentences and paragraphs that could really be skipped lol. but overall a good time!

[Bethany (Beautifully Bookish Bethany) · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was EXACTLY what I wanted out of a cozy fantasy romance!! It's precisely the right amount of coziness and small town vibes, but with high enough stakes that there's an engaging plot, and a cute slow-burn romantic subplot. Also the main character has a sentient spider plant named Caz as a companion!

The Spellshop follows Kiela and Caz as they flee the city and political unrest to her childhood home on a small island. Kiela had been a librarian and brought with her crates of forbidden spellbooks to save them. She's not great with people, but she's going to have to learn to be, what with a handsome neighbor dropping by to be helpful. In order to survive, she decides to open a jam shop from her cottage, while secretly offering useful but illegal spells as "remedies" to do things like heal trees and make berry bushes grow. It's incredibly delightful and one of my favorite things I've read this year! the audiobook also hits exactly the right notes. I received a copy of this book for review via Netgalley, all opinions are my own.

[✨Julie✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

✩ 4 stars ✩

“I want to know you better."
"No, you don't. I'm not friendly. I like to be alone."
"You can be alone with me.” 🫶🏻

What to Expect:
➼ Island Cottage
➼ Cinnamon Roll MMC
➼ Booktrovert FMC
➼ Found Family
➼ Small Town
➼ Cozy Fantasy
➼ Magic
➼ Talking Plants
➼ Winged Cats, Unicorns, Mermaids, Etc.
➼ Third Person POV

This was such an enchanting read! I always love the idea of a cozy fantasy, but it’s rare that I truly feel the magic like I did while reading The Spellshop. The synopsis likens this story to a “Hallmark rom-com filled with mythical creatures,” and that description is spot on. The author gave us the coziest small town found family vibes and then gave us unicorns and winged cats to sweeten the deal.

The booktrovert FMC is frankly all of us. “It wasn’t that she didn’t like people. It was only that she liked books more.” 😅 Socializing is hard. I’m much more comfortable at home with my books and my faithful plants, so obviously I found Kiela’s character to be extremely relatable. The MMC honestly reminded me of my father which I can assure you is a rave review. He showed his love in very practical ways by fixing things that needed fixed and just continually showing up for her. He seemed like he would be a very steadfast and dependable person to have in your corner and it was refreshing to see a more steady depiction of love.

The third person narrative made me feel slightly detached from the characters, but if this had been written in first person POV, I think it would have been an easy 5 stars. Such a sweet and wholesome story! The quintessential fall read. 🤍 Highly recommend!

“I can’t lose books; I’d lose me.”

✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼　 ҉ 　✼

Pre-read: Is that a WINGED CAT on the cover?! How am I just now noticing this?!!! 😱 I was already excited to read this, but guys… it’s a WINGED CAT! 😍🐈🪽🤗✨

[zuza_zaksiazkowane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Szczerze to trochę rozczarowanie :(((

[Madison Kait · Rating 4 out of 5]

the cozy vibes were sooo cozzzzyy🤍☁️🫶🏼

[Melanie (meltotheany) · Rating 3 out of 5]

friends, i wanted to love this one so badly. And so many of you do, so i still very strongly recommend this one, even if it wasn’t completely for me. this story starts out with a librarian fleeing her burning library with her spider plant in tow. she was prepared prior to this, and had packed up some books and a getaway boat, and she finds herself back home on the isolated island she grew up on. so throughout this book, we learn more and more about the island residence, we get to see our librarian open up a spell jam shop, and we get to see a community come together and protect their own.

there really is so much good in this. this story talks about wealth hoarding, which goes hand in hand with resources not being properly distributed, the very scary reality of climate change, and even knowledge being destroyed in an attempt for people in power to keep their people uninformed of current events and of past history! lots of powerful mirroring of our own non cozy fantasy world, and i will always respect and appreciate that.

but sadly, i was just so bored while reading this. i don’t know if it was just wrong book at the wrong time. i don’t know if i just really like my cozy fantasy with very little stakes, but i don’t feel like that’s true. i’m not sure the reason, but so many of you have reassured me that i will love book two, so i promise to continue!

trigger + content warnings: fire, anxiety, war, loss of parents in past (discussed a lot), talk of loss of parent in past, grief, ptsd, talk of torture, blood, talk of child abuse in past, talk of domestic violence in past, maybe implied suicide, hurt mermaid baby (they end up okay)

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[Quirine · Rating 3 out of 5]

If you ever played one of those cozy magical farming games and always wished there was a book like it: look no further. It reads exactly like a cottage core game. Girl comes back to the island she was born on at has to restore the overgrown family cottage, learn how to regrow berries and trees with the right spells and open a magical little jam shop (give me the Switch version, now!). This book did exactly what it needed to do. It was cozy, magical, heartwarming and a perfect escape. There were magical creatures like winged cats, a sentient and sassy spider plant, a hot bookshelf-building neighbor and cinnamon buns.

It wasn’t perfect, in terms of writing. The plot was all just a little too convenient, with minor crises and their solutions following each other up on rapid speed. The main character’s character development happens a little too abruptly (from town grump to town savior and friend of all) and most of the other characters (except Caz! He has my heart) are quite flat. The inclusivity elements felt forced and a little preachy. The first half of the book is an absolute delight, and the second half lost some of its strength as it attempted to touch upon bigger and more difficult themes, but only managed to touch the surface.

But when I grab a book like this, I don’t go to it for the good writing (and this definitely was one of the better ones within the genre!) I go to for it the way it will make me feel. So this one I rated purely for my enjoyment of it and I enjoyed it A LOT.

[manju]

pains me to dnf this bc i was so excited but i can’t force myself to finish 😭 might revisit later idk

introverted librarian & her talking spider plant?? sign me tf up

[Somaya Salama · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 35%

This was incredibly boring and not cozy at all. There were a few good quotes in the beginning but it went downhill from there.

The main character is very annoying and she’s mean to the love interest. I understand you’re an introvert and hate socializing but that’s not an excuse for being rude.

Speaking of the love interest, he was never described. The only thing we know about him is that he has a lot of muscles 🙄 like what does he look like? It’s not there. Kiela has blue skin and blue hair. What about Larran? Nothing.

It also felt like the author was trying *too* hard to make it cozy and cute but it just didn’t work.

Overall this is a hard pass.

Too bad this has a very beautiful cover 😩

[Maeghan 🦋 semi-hiatus · Rating 5 out of 5]

W•I•N•G•E•D-C•A•T•S

« He was looking at her as if she was all that existed in the entire island » 💗

This was the most heartfelt, wholesome, coziest and cutest book I’ve ever read 😭 I never wanted this to end. This was everything I never knew I needed 🥹 it’s honestly such a happy book. I smiled the whole way through.

🐱🪽 WINGED CATS 🪽🐱
🪴 A TALKING PLANT
🐎 Horse-fish
🦄 UNICORN
🧜‍♀️ Mermaids and their babies 🥹
❤️ Slow burn romance
🫖 Cozy fantasy

« I like to be alone.
- You can be alone with me »

[liz ౨ৎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

➸ 4 stars

“It wasn’t that she didn’t like people. It was only that she liked books more. They didn’t fuss or judge or mock or reject. They invited you in, fluffed up the pillows on the couch, offered you tea and toast, and shared their hearts with no expectation that you’d do anything more than absorb what they had to give.”

if i had to describe this book in a few words, i’d say it’s enchanting, magical, cozy, and heartwarming. this book feels like a warm hug. the kind of book you read with a delicious baked pastry, a warm cup of coffee or tea, and of course, raspberry jam!

this book is for the introverts, the book lovers, the readers who wish to escape to a magical fantasy world.

🧚 “Books should be shared with everyone who wants to open their minds and hearts to them.”

ꫂ➺ kiela - the introverted librarian who loves books and doesn’t like socializing with people!! i loved her tbh, she was so real and i saw myself in her <3 i loved seeing her slowly start to open up to people and letting them in! it felt like a warm hug!

🌿 “Are you ever lonely?”
“How can I be? I have books.”

ꫂ➺ caz - a talking spider plant as a best friend?! yeah i need one of those! i loved caz!! he was hilarious and never failed to make me laugh and just brought so much happiness onto the page <3

🪵 “You know, plants aren’t nearly as emotionally exhausting as humans. You should try to be more plant.”

🪻“I can’t lose books, I’d lose me.”

i absolutely loved the friendship these two had! it was so heartwarming and it gave me such joy!!

🌷“Larran thinks you’re the answer to every question he’s ever had.”

ꫂ➺ larran - UGH THIS MAN. he’s the most sweetest, caring and kindest soul ever. he’s awkward, he’s clumsy; everything he did, he did without asking and out of the kindness of his heart. he built kiela bookshelves, he fixed her stairs, he fixed her chimney, he always helped her without asking and just had so much love for those he cares about! i need someone like him!!!!

🌸 “but he’s careful with his heart. Never lets himself become close to anyone.”
“Until you.”
“You can hear it in the way he talks about you,”

🧺 “He was looking at her as if she was all that existed on the entire island.”

🌱 “He turned his head and smiled at her as if she’d gifted him with the sun, the moon, and all the stars.”

I LOVED KIELA AND LARRAN SO SO MUCH!!!! the most precious slow burn ever and they have my entire heart!!!!

[ashlyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Caz & Meep carried the whole book🥹



Buddy read with the beautiful Kendall!

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was great! This was such a heartwarming and sweet cozy fantasy about family, friendship, community, love and finding home. The Spellshop follows Kiela, a librarian who must flee after the library catches on fire during the revolution. Kiela goes to the island where she grew up and she discovers friends and love that will last a lifetime.

I was completely swept up in this wonderful cozy fantasy from the very first page. I loved the cozy vibes in this book and I loved that this book focused on friendship and love. The fantasy creatures in this book were great especially the mermaids, merhorses, talking plants, a centaur, and more. I loved the world building in this book, the author explained the world but it wasn't complicated. The plot kept for interesting for most of the book and the pacing was well done. This book felt like a warm hug and a cozy blanket. I was smiling and giggling during most of the book, it was so wholesome. I enjoyed the characters immensely! I love Kiela so much, she is brave, caring, closed-off at first but once she opens up she is so kind, hardworking and resilient. Kiela's character development was great, I enjoyed watching her become more comfortable around other people and find a home for herself. I'm in love with Larran, he is such a sweet cinnamon roll character with a heart of gold and I loved how he treated Kiela. Larran made me blush at all the sweet things he did for Kiela including building her a bookshelf. I really liked Caz (a plant who can talk), he is so funny, helpful, sweet, and caring. I enjoyed the side characters a lot too, especially Bryn, Eadie, and Ulina. I love Larran and Kiela's relationship, they understand each other and caring toward one another. I loved the romantic scenes between Larran and Kiela. I will definitely remember the message of this story and the great characters for a long time.

I recommend this book to anyone who loves cozy fantasy, awesome characters and cozy vibes.

[͙͘͡★ Ancuta✨&#x1f319; · Rating 5 out of 5]

“It wasn't that she didn't like people. It was that she liked books more. They didn't fuss or judge or mock or reject.They invited you in, fluffed up the pillows on the couch, offered you tea and toast, and shared their hearts with no expectation that you'd do anything more than absorb what they had to give.”



Have you ever felt like you’re getting a big, warm hug filled with all the love in this world just by reading a book ? Because I surely haven’t experienced such a feeling that often (it was pretty rare tbh). That’s exactly how I would describe this book, as a warm hug when you need it the most, or I should say, that hug that you didn’t even know you needed. It was such a lovely book, such a hearwarming journey filled with so many magical moments (and adorable creatures), well written characters and so many good vibes. If I had a bad day, or a moment when I felt sad or lonely all I had to do is pick this up and read a few pages. That was enough to completely change my mood, to make me feel seen and understood and oh, so happy.🥹 I truly think that in this case words are not enough to describe what a special book this one was (or for me, I feel like everything I say doesn’t really do justice to this one).

I really loved the setting, the writing style, and basically everything. The small town vibes were on point, I loved the found family trope and the magical creatures… I mean, winged cats ? Mermaids ? Cloud bears ? Unicorns? Talking plants ? A sentient cactus ? And on top of that, magic ? Sign me up !! I just wanted to live there. That’s all I wished for.🥹😭

The characters were so lovely. Kiela was such a relatable character. I actually found myself in her. Her love for books, the way she spoke about them and the way she took care of every book, her deep love for reading, her preference for books over people, her difficulty to socialise with people, I mean come on !! I felt like I was the fmc here, that’s how similar we are. I just wanted to live on that island in that pretty house, have a talking plant as my best friend and be surrounded by all those beautiful creatures. I could almost envision myself there.🦦

And the mmc was such a sweet and gentle soul. He was so patient and caring and always showed up for Kiela, supporting her and loving her in the best way possible. Their slow burn romance made me swoon. They were so lovely together and the perfect match for one another.

And Caz… omg, he was the cutest !! He’s so loyal and caring and supportive to Kiela, I grew so attached to him as well. And don’t even get me started on that cactus. He was so adorable, I could melt.🥹😭😭😭

Most of it all, this book made me happy. It truly brought me good vibes, the biggest smile on my face, laughter and tears of joy. It really delivered in making me feel good. I would definitely say that the author achieved the goal, it really felt like drinking a cup of the best hot chocolate on a cold winter night.🥹💜






The easiest 5 stars rating I’ve given to a book lately (and, actually, the first 5✨ read in quite a while 🦦). I would give it a thousand stars if I could. 🥹🫶🏻

[Zoë · Rating 4 out of 5]

you know what i was “eh” until the plant was like “what if we KILLED SOMEONE” that was great

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

She’s literally blue, everyone’s gay, and the MMC is the man equivalent of a horse-girl. The sentient plants made up for it but not really.

The book felt extremely superficial (and kinda boring). I was interested in the concept but I have a feeling it was a money grab off the social-media popularity of the romance-fantasy genre. The romance is genuinely just a minor side quest for the female main character. You barely got a description of the characters themselves or the setting other than just general features. The politics of the world are so elaborate and complex, but you’re not told any of it because of how straightforward everything is written.

I’m not sure if there was a strict deadline for publishing but it feels like the authors and publishers really half-assed it. It needs to be fleshed out more and written more eloquently. It’s upsetting that horse-birth was the most descriptive content in the entire book.

[MadamGreene · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got to page 233. DNF.

Pronouns for a sentient cactus. I'm so sick of this woke coddling shoved down my throat. This whole book is catering to a coddled socially inept woman. She's insufferable. She's hermit like and someone you have to walk on eggshells it seems. No thanks.

[aeryn rose · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️

Well...this was a miss. I definitely had some issues with this book, but I don't think it was all bad. Just most of it..😭

One of the biggest things I struggled with with this book was the characters. I found most of them to be really unlikeable and hard to relate to. Kiela was a bit boring and I just couldn't get myself to like her until the very end of the book. Even then, she was kind of meh. The love interest, Larran, was sweet and he was charming, but you could just tell the author was trying to give them some depth but it didn't work out completely.

I think the side characters in this book really carried the book and they were one of the biggest reasons I even continued this book. They were funny, witty, lovable, and all around just somehow had more personality than the main characters.

The world building, I will say, was the biggest thing this book did well. That being said though? It was too much. The beginning of the book DRAGGEDDDD because it was all about the world and scenery. Yes, it was beautiful and magical. But my problem was that there were so many details that just didn't do...anything. I kept asking myself what the point was, because it didn't really set up for anything further in the book.

The reason this book got 2 stars from me was because once the actual plot was introduced and things started picking up, this book was a lot more tolerable. It was fun and entertaining and I just wished that it didn't take 250 pages to get to that point. If it had happened sooner, maybe I would have bumped it up a bit.

Overall, this book was kinda boring in the initial set up, so much so that I wanted to DNF it honestly. But I stuck through and did enjoy the end of the book. This is not one I'd recommend first if I could pick one, but it had enjoyable parts even if the rest of it lacked.

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𝓟𝓻𝓮-𝓡𝓮𝓪𝓭: 🪄💜

So this is my first book for my new bookish bingo card I'm doing this fall and it's genuinely got me so excited to get into the spirit of fall!! Especially since I've been dealing with a bit of seasonal depression so fingers crossed this helps a bit 💜

[carol. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If there was ever a title to appeal to 15 year-old carol, this was it. A talking plant, a hidden library, mer-horses, and an abandoned cottage? What’s not to love?

Well, I didn’t love how dippy and unworldly our main character was, particularly for someone who had tragedy in her younger life. It’s kind of like after Snow White survived her encounter with the wolves–you would think she’d be a little more cautious about knocking on doors and visiting old ladies after that, wouldn’t you? That could be just me, but a little more trauma-informed characterization would have been nice. The author said she wanted a ‘cup of hot chocolate in a book’ sort of read, but I’d go with a more Mexican chocolate version.

“She was responsible for the spellbooks on the third floor, east wing. For the past eleven years, she’d worked, slept, ate, and lived between the shelves, which perhaps explained why, when she first smelled smoke, she thought she’d simply left toast on the cookplate.”

The story begins with a young woman, Kiela, who is a librarian at an esteemed library located on the central island of an island empire. Politics happen and she is forced to escape, heading back to island her parents emigrated from when she was a child. Once there, she tries to clean their abandoned cottage, fit in, make friends, and attempt a living, all while guarding a secret. Of course, her handsome, helpful and quiet neighbor, Larran, turns out to be her childhood playmate.

“He wasn’t what she’d call handsome, but he didn’t look like a murderer either. Not that she knew what that would look like. He was tall, which wasn’t an argument for or against murderer.”

And that pretty much sums it up. The plant, Caz, provides a tiny amount of acidity that the story desperately needs.

“He can’t like me,” Kiela said. “I’m unlikable.”
“This is a ridiculous conversation that I regret beginning,” Caz said. “You are not unlikable. I chose to be your assistant, out of all the librarians in the Great Library. I am a very picky plant with impeccable taste.”

The beginning and middle aren’t surprising at all, but I really appreciated the clever ways Durst deals with the inevitable conflict. What I thought was going to be the inevitable exposé turned out to be a clever bid for independence, which brought the politics back full circle. This is one of the few books that I feel truly deserves a ‘cozy’ moniker, with very little badness at all. Re-readable, for those days one wants a light, sweet piece of candy–butterscotch drops, perhaps.

[h o l l i s · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just keep on scrollin' by.

I'm sorry to say but as interesting as it was to have fantastical creatures and different-looking people populating this very low-stakes cozy fantasy, set on an island, featuring an introverted and somewhat grumpy librarian and her sentient spider plant friend.. I was so bored.

I didn't need stakes, I didn't need something other than the cozy vibes, so it can't be said I wanted something other than what I was getting into; instead I just needed to care. And I did not.

For those who have been loving this, don't get me wrong, I see why. And for those interested in picking this up, I don't want to sway you to do otherwise. This just wasn't the book for me.

All that to say, this is definitely for the reader looking for something to recapture that LEGENDS & LATTES kind of vibe but is still a little (a lot?) different and very much its own thing.

** I received an ARC from NetGalley and the publisher (thank you!) in exchange for an honest review. **

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This review can also be found at A Take From Two Cities.

[BookishKB · Rating 5 out of 5]

"He talks about me?" "He comes for a cinnamon roll nearly every morning," Bryn said. "He's mentioned you every single time. Often it's a stray thought, like wondering whether you saw the sunrise, whether you like tomato sandwiches, or how you feel about merhorses, but I can tell you that he's never acted like this before."

✨ This book is pure magic from start to finish!

I’m officially in my Cottagecore era. Whimsical, cozy, and filled with warmth, The Spellshop absolutely stole my heart. I wasn’t expecting to get so emotional, but wow! This story touched on grief, love, fear, kindness, and resilience in such a gentle and compassionate way.

💖 I would die for Caz and Meep! Also if anyone knows where I can get a talking plant, please let me know asap!


Easily my favorite read of the year and possibly my favorite read of 2025.

[Melissa ~ Bantering Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars

I’m in book love. And I’m beginning to realize romantasy may be more up my alley than I thought.

This time, it’s the romantasy-ness of Sarah Beth Durst's The Spellshop that swept me off my feet, though it’s much closer in style and theme to what TJ Klune is writing these days than Sarah J. Maas. And my body needed it right now – the book is nothing short of a big, warm hug from your most favorite person in the world, comforting and safe.

The love story between Kiela and Larran is sweet, not steamy. Kiela’s best friend is a talking spider plant, and the story is set on a far-off island filled with such mystical creatures as mermaids and merhorses. Durst also gives us books, magic, and mouth-watering food – everything our bookish hearts could ever want – and then tops it all off with a full-cast of lovable characters to round out Keila’s found family.

Keila’s problems, however, are solved too easily at the end. Cozy romantasy or not, Durst would’ve served the book well to increase the tension of the mess in which Keila finds herself. I craved a heightened sense of desperation in the final moments of the story and complexity in its wrap-up instead of a simple little bow.

Caitlin Davies is the audiobook narrator, and she’s divine. I'm struggling to explain how she does it, but her voicing somehow gives the story even more of a fairy-tale feel.

A 2024 favorite for sure, I may just turn right around and listen to The Spellshop a second time, it’s so good.

[Alexandra (less busy, catching up!) · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Nice world, nice raspberry jam, can we have a better MC?

I have heard nice things about this book, but I wasn’t as impressed as I expected to be.

Our MC is Kiela, an introvert librarian. She flees her beloved library after the revolution engulfs the capital city. (Why do people burn libraries during revolutions? Discuss.) She manages to save a few crates of books and sails to a remote island, where her parents’ home used to be.
Her assistant and companion is Caz, a sentient spider plant. Caz is awesome, Caz steals the show.
I want a talking spider plant!

In her parents’ old cottage, Kiela tries to make a fresh start. She opens a jam shop, meets people, gets a found family, finds romance and a new purpose in life. There are some dangerous situations and shenanigans, but all’s well that ends well. That’s the plot! A cozy fantasy does not need more.

I did not have a problem with any of the whats, it’s just that there were too many hows that got on my nerves. I liked the world, I liked the magic, I liked the jam-making, I liked the constant mentions of baked goods, I loved the merhorses and the winged cats. I guess that the latter were borrowed from Ursula Le Guin’s children’s books, but I didn’t mind.

Let’s talk about the annoying things. Every time there was a crisis, everyone was so, so, so worried. Then they solved it. Easy peasy, it worked! It felt very anticlimatic, and by the end of the book I started sighing “not again!” when I saw a crisis on the horizon.
Most of the characters were tropes, but I liked them anyway. I did not enjoy Kiela. Being in Kiela’s head while she was second-guessing her every word, every action and every decision was exhausting. Her awkwardness around people was written in such a way as to make this MC irritating rather than charming.

My biggest problem was yet another stereotypical portrayal of an introvert as someone who can’t bear to talk to people and be around them. I’ve seen this in other books, I’ve seen this in book reviews. Was The Spellshop the last straw for me? Could authors please remember that there are many different kinds of introvert people, just like there are many different kinds of other people? Introverts simply need to recharge their batteries after socializing. Extroverts are energized by socializing. I happen to be an introvert who likes other people and likes to talk to them. After that I need rest and some alone time. Grrrrr. At one point, Kiela is surprised that she actually wants to meet some of the nice islanders that she got to know: “am I becoming an extrovert?” I facepalmed so hard my face wanted to press charges. This made me sad. I wish more people had read Susan Cain’s wonderful Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking.

I do want a book about Caz!

Quotes:

”Are you talking to an inanimate object? Because that’s odd.”
”Says the talking plant.”
”Ouch.”

”Um, do you know what you’re doing?” Caz asked.
”Theoretically.”
”I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.”

”She’d been outmanoeuvred by a plant.”