4.5 rounded up to 5

Thank you to Bramble Romance, Macmillan, Tor, and NetGalley for an eARC of this perfect cosy fantasy romance book!

The Spellshop is such a well-crafted cosy fantasy book, with some high stakes moments that keep the plot intriguing but also lots and lots of cosy elements that I found simply perfect: a cottage overlooking the sea, island life, baked goods, lots of jam, sentient plant friends (Caz was my spirit anim... sorry, plant!), cute winged cats, found family, spell books, books in general, academic research and practical magic. The romance was also heart-warming and sweet. I have loved immersing myself in the world of this book so much and recommend it to all cosy fantasy fans! Kudos to Sarah Beth Durst for writing about what she loves. I'm so excited for The Enchanted Greenhouse, a standalone set in the same world as The Spellshop coming out in summer 2025!!

You'll like this if you liked: Emily Wilde trilogy; Legends & Lattes series; Six of Crows duology.

Loved it! Cozy and sweet! 100% recommend.
I love books about books and since this started with library I was hooked since first chapter. The jam making, the love, the danger circling around and magic. All merge together in great writing.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

When I picked up The Spellshop, I was in the mood for something easy and cosy. And let Me tell you, it's like being wrapped in a warm, comforting hug!

Kiela, the main character, is a true introverted book lover. She's a librarian who adores books and even has a sentient spider plant as a companion. Her preference for solitude over socialising is something many of us can relate to. When a fire breaks out in the city, she's forced to leave the safety of the library and return to her childhood home with her friend and a few precious spellbooks.
Little does she know that the remote island that is her childhood home is a place where everyone takes care of each other. This book has everything: found family, small-town vibes, an engaging plot, delicious foods, and a cute slow-burn romance. Also, sentient plants, winged cats, merhorses, and many other interesting creatures help make this cosy story as magical and sweet as it is.

And every book lover knows that any man willing to build you bookshelves is worth keeping ;)

"Maybe this was something that could last.
How often did you meet someone who offered to build you bookshelves?"

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan, and Tor for a review copy. My review is my honest thoughts and opinions, and I was not influenced by receiving a free copy.


#Spellshop #PineConeCoven #Netgalley #Bookstagram

The Spellshop is cosy fantasy meets cottagecore. Kiela is a librarian in the Great Library of Alyssium when she is forced to flee with her assistant Caz, a sentient spider plant, as a fire engulfs the library during a revolution overthrowing the monarchy. She saves several cratefuls of the library’s spellbooks and sails to the remote island she was born in. Her attempt to lie low in her parent’s old cottage is thwarted, however, by a handsome but nosy neighbor and her own pesky need to somehow support herself. Things become more complicated when she decides to open a jam shop as a front for selling illegal spells disguised as folk remedies to sabe the dying island.

This was just the perfect cosy fantasy. From the few pages of the first chapter, I knew I was going to love this book, and I was indeed utterly charmed by it. This cosy fantasy delivered charming characters in a wholesome setting, a sweet slowburn romance, and a welcoming found family. It was just very cute, joyful, and delightfully heartfelt. I like to have a bit more stakes in my own cosy fantasy reads, and this one gave me while not having it be too great to alienate fans of low stake cosy fantasies.

I just loved Kiela because I just completely meshed with her introverted personality and her love of books. She is socially awkward, overanalyzes things, and reads for fun. What’s not to love? I also loved her relationship with her sentient plant assistant Caz who was just a sheer delight. Oh Caz, for a plant, he is so full of personality, helpfulness, playful antics, and even some snark and sarcasm. And then there’s Larran—the kind, handsome, and gentle man who raises merhorses, has a bit of a boundary/personal space issue, and is utterly lovesick over oblivious Kiela. Their awkward and sweet romance could not have been more perfect.

The Spellshop gave me everything I could want from a cosy fantasy.

Thank you NetGalley and Pan Macmillan for the ARC. This was more of 2.5⭐️ read for me at its best, but overall a dull read for me hence the rounding down.

I have to preface that I do enjoy reading cozy fantasy in general, and am not put off by low stakes in a story. Yet, The Spellshop never seemed to captivate me the way others in this sub-genre did. I was often so bored at times that I ended up skimming chapters past the second half. While the storyline holds some charm—strengthened by its theme of community and looking out for one another—the prose felt so lackluster that I wasn't moved by the book as much as I knew I could've.

It didn't help that it took a while for me to warm up to protagonist Kiela. An introverted librarian who wants to be left alone with her books should be up my alley, and I don't even mind prickly characters. What grates me is incompetent ones who refuse fairly reasonable help offered, and at times it felt like I was reading about a naive teenager rather than an adult. Fortunately, she does go through some much needed character development, and my irritation at her is practically gone by book's end. The romance she has with her neighbor Larran also did her no favors. It was rushed and felt like she's just falling for the first man that shows her even the slightest bit of kindness, due to her abysmal history of having no other friends other than Caz, her sentient plant assistant.

Caz, by the way, was such a great character that his inclusion added a whole .5 to the rating. A literal spider plant was more interesting than the main character.

For #womeninsff day 3 we celebrate fictional female friendships with an arc that got me out of a readingslump: The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This was the ultimate cottage core fantasy book. With a very introverted librarian bookworm Kiela as a main character, and a sentient plant companion Caz that will make your heart melt.🪴💕

For me this book has the right amount of coziness with small town vibes, magical creatures, and enough stakes to keep you turning the page.
After the Library Kiela works for burns down she goes back to her small island town to live in the overgrown cottage in the woods. The people are very interested in her, but she is quite the introvert hiding in her shell.
When she realizes she needs to build a life and provide for herself (and Caz) she starts making jam for the local bakery using spellbooks from the library.
Because the town is winning over her affection, and her friends want to support her she starts a coven to provide "remedies" to the town in order to help them flourish.

If you love cosy fantasy with beautiful female friendship, weird plant companions and a dash of romance pick this book up next week!

A cozy fantasy with a library and cottagecore is something that is going to resonate with a lot of buzz in the blogging community. And that happened with The Spellshop. It is a good book, but I also felt slightly let down. That doesn't mean I didn't like it though.

When the rebellion comes to the great library Kiela has to escape with the books she can put on the little boat she has. But where does she and her companion, Caz the sentient spider plant, go? She is called to the island that she grew up on. Where the cottage from her parents still stands empty.

There is a lot to love in this book. I fell for the love of books that both Kiela and Caz showcased. That is a very strong current throughout the book. But also the cottage and the garden felt like a real part of the story. I wish we had gotten more of the runaway chicken. I also loved seeing and learning about the merhorses.

The author managed to put in a lot of world building for the island and link it to the situation where Kiela came from. We do get a good feel for the political situation without being in the middle of it. The only thing that I felt was a little underdeveloped was the town. We mostly get the bakery and the fountain. I have very little idea of how big this town is and how many people the island even has.

The end is where it fizzles out a little for me. The politics came a lot closer with the way things went and I feel like everything was wrapped up too nicely. It was all a little too idealistic. You can write a cozy and still make things feel real.

Despite that I did really enjoy reading this book. It has so many great elements and I would love to return to the island or this world sometime.

This was one of the best cosy fantasies that I've ever read. It was like a warm bowl of soup on a cold day. I loved every second of it. It was everything I wanted in a cosy fanatasy - a sweet romantic sub-plot, spells, magical creatures and of course cats. I also didn't know I needed a talking spider plant but apparently I did. I love Caz.

Thank you to Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

R E V I E W

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

☆☆☆.5

Advanced Reader Copy graciously provided by Pan Macmillan | Tor via Netgalley

This book enticed me with its charming cottagecore cover complete with winged cat and crawling vines. And charming it was.

When reclusive librarian Kiela is forced to abandon her home amongst the stacks in the Great Library of Alyssium, she is left with little choice but to return to her childhood home on the island of Caltrey. Armed with only her boat filled with illicit magical tomes and her sentient spider-plant assistant Caz, Kiela seeks refuge in her childhood home; a cliff-top cottage that has seen better days. On an island where the people are known for their curious natures, Kiela quickly realises that her days filled with quiet and solitude are long gone and that perhaps, the place her parents had been so desperate to leave might just hold everything she could ever need.

This was a low-stakes cosy fantasy with talking plants, found family, magical creatures and just a hint of romance. This book didn't have a great deal of substance to it, but provided a wholesome smiles and an easy read.

I'm only halfway through this book, but i feel compelled to rave about it already.
I'm not good with the fantasy at the moment, not sure why, but cosy fantasy still goes down well.

The spellshop, it's wonderful. The world building is great and unique, the characters and creatures are just brilliant. It does leave you fuzzy and warm, and i don't expect that to change gor the second half of the book.

I trust this will do splendidly upon release!

A heartwarming story about community, helpfulness, and found family. Kiela is a deeply understandable protagonist. She goes from constantly having her guard up and rejecting help out of fear, to slowly seeing the good others mean for her. The story touches on points like social boundaries and fears, anxiety and overthinking, and the feeling of needing to stay hidden to protect oneself.
First and foremost, the story is touching and incredibly adorable.

I think The Spellshop will feel quite comfortable among the ranks of popular cosy fantasy greats.
When librarian Kiela and her talking plant Caz, are forced to flee the city during a revolution, she rescues some spell books from the fire and returns to her childhood home. But her parents' old cottage is a mess, she's a total recluse, and the town of Caltrey is far too friendly, especially her handsome neighbour, Larran.
The Spellshop does have fairly high stakes, yet it still feels cosy. There was tension and intrigue at times, but I always knew things would turn out okay in the end.
Kiela was a fun protagonist to follow. She and Larran had the most UN-toxic relationship I think I've ever read. They felt like a very easy romance, so it felt believable when their feelings developed.
Caltrey is described beautifully. I can see it so vividly in my head it's like I was there. Many cosy fantasy books are set during autumn, but this book is set in spring or summer, changing things up a little and making it a perfect summer read when relaxing in the sunshine.
This is a must-read for anyone who really loves the cosy fantasy genre, or for anyone who simply wants to take a break from the epic stuff

A very sweet and cozy fantasy book for all fans of the genre!

This is the story of Kiela, a librarian forced to flee the revolution-ridden city of Alyssium. Together with her assistant, a sentient spider plant named Caz, she takes as many magical books as she can and heads to her home island where no one can find her. Although she is not a sorceress and cannot use magic, Kiela decides to help the locals by opening a spell shop, hoping that no one will realize she possesses magical books.

The book reads well, though, as with most cozy fantasies, the stakes are not particularly high. This is not a flaw but rather a characteristic of the sub-genre. Yet, things do happen, and although the resolution to these events is somewhat predictable, it is still engaging.

I really liked the main character, Kiela, who is a slightly quirky introvert who has spent more time with books over the years and now has to learn to be around people again. Nevertheless, the absolute best character in the book is Caz—who wouldn't want to be friends with a sentient plant? Caz is not just the comic relief of this novel, but a full-fledged character whose actions repeatedly save the day. I also loved Caz's dynamic with Kiela.

When it comes to the other characters, I have a bit of a problem. On the one hand, I liked that the world-building includes various species and creatures, from centaurs to mermaids, and the main character has blue skin and blue hair. On the other hand, I found the character development a bit lacking. The love interest, Larran, is a very cool guy, and his relationship with Kiela is very sweet. Yet, he seemed a bit too perfect and thus one-dimensional. It's a pity that his background wasn't developed better because this would have made it possible to understand him more fully and lead to a more realistic and less idealized relationship between Larran and Kiela. The other characters—the islanders—are also rather stereotypical and one-dimensional. From the beginning, we know who is bad and who is good, making the book somewhat predictable. I know that's part of what cozy fantasy is all about, but still, I think we could expect a bit more here.

Anyway, I highly recommend this book to all fans of cozy fantasy—I'm sure people who like "Legends and Lattes," for example, will enjoy this book.

Kiela is a librarian in the city, happiest between the shelves by herself, except for her best friend Caz, a sentient spiderplant. When rebels attack, she rescues her most important spell books and sets sail for Caltrey, the island she grew up on and where her parents' old cottage is. Pretty soon Kiela finds out that the magic coming from the city is causing lots of issues on Caltrey - but using magic as a civilian is forbidden...

This book is SO cute and cozy. It's really silly and honestly it's like a hug in a book. All the happy things are in here. Totally recommend if you need something solid to cheer you up!

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher and the author for granting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

Cozy fantasy is probably my favorite subgenre, and as soon as I saw the cover and read the synopsis I knew I had to request this one!
The cozy, cottagecore vibes were perfectly executed - sometimes the whimsy of the worldbuilding can feel a little forced and this wasn't the case.

I think Kiela had something interesting as a main character, she wasn't really grumpy nor sunshine and I liked that she didn't immediately fall for the hot neighbour but had to learn to trust him first! Her and Caz's friendship was probably my favorite aspect. He was so much fun with his paranoia and dry remarks!

As for the ensemble, I think the sense of community was definitely there and it was really sweet how everyone on Caltrey rallied to support and help Kiela! None of the side characters stood out to me much, but that's not inherently a bad thing. Larran was so freaking nice, I wanted to pinch his cheeks! He's such a golden retriever and I loved how kind he was despite all the pain he'd been through. I wish we got a little more of his backstory coming from him rather than told by other people, I think it could have given more even more depth. I didn't have time to warm up to Radane to be honest, but I think it was fun how the true villain ended up being the grouchy old man!

Despite it being a cozy fantasy where stakes aren't usually too high, something was always happening! The story kept me on my toes the whole time, so much so that I almost wished for a few more pages of reprieve inbetween the big events (The sick merbaby, Radane's arrival, the captain and his crew, the second storm, etc). I don't personally mind much given its expected in the genre, but I can tell some people might say each conflict's resolution was too easy, as in Kiela and the gang being able to perform difficult spells on the first/second try.

I thought the epilogue was sweet, the happy ever after I like to see in cozy fantasy!
I'd definitely read a novella about Kiela and Larran's future (maybe a look at the other couples as well?)

All in all, an adorable story perfect for anyone who is looking to escape for a few hours! :)

I really enjoyed reading The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst! It was a lovely cosy fantasy, however, it was not boring at all. A lot of stuff happened during the story, from scenes with the love interest to magic storms and spellwork. I loved the small town vibes (or should I say small island?) and how Kiela was quickly included in their community. The love story was executed well and felt very natural. All in all, The Spellshop was a nice cosy book and I would recommend it.

*Thanks to NetGalley and Tor for an eARC in exchange for my honest opinion.

This is a gorgeous cosy romance.

The cottage core vibes are strong in this book and I found it to be such a heartwarming read.

I loved the main character - an introverted librarian - she is basically me in my dream life! It's the first time ive read of the side kick being a plant which is a bit unusual but hey it worked. The romantic interest is basically the perfect partner and they were such a good match for each other. I loved seeing their relationship develop.

There is an element of threat to this book - its a bit predictable but I was fine with that and when I read this sort of book sometimes that's exactly what I want - to know what is coming.

This is just a gorgeous story

4.5
This is the coziest cutest read of the year so far and if you're looking for some low-stakes cottagecore fantasy, this is your sign ! The cast of characters is amazing, and you will be meeting a lot of very different creatures. The magic system is pretty much like simple witchcraft, with spells and "remedies". And now I want a talking plant too, because that was probably the highlight of the book !

This was like a warm hug in a book. I recently read legends and lattes and this had similar vibes. Low stakes, cozy fantasy, following our fmc set up her own business.

The writing was beautiful, loved the setting and the fmc was great, whole low stakes it did have some hard hitting and emotional moments. Highly recommend..

Sadly, this didn't fully work for me. I gave it a good 54% but I just didn't care and I'm sorry for it because I do like the vibes, the talking spider plant companion, the merhorses, the idea of a sort of undercover spellshop, and the cottagecore aesthetics.

I just didn't like this FMC, she kind of rubbed me the wrong way and I didn't warm up to her. Also, though this is low stakes, it felt like nothing much was happening and what was happening just wasn't interesting or engaging me in any major way. The romance didn't hit for me either, I wasn't at all invested and, as far as I read, he deserved better than this rude woman lmao. Maybe she grows and changes or whatever, I don't care enough to find out. Again, I'm sorry for it, I went into this book hoping to love it.

Giving it a soft 3 stars for effort and because I acknowledge that many other people will love it and find magic in this as it is.