Title: The Spellshop
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Published: July 9, 2024
Publisher: Bramble
Source: Paperback
Goodreads Synopsis:
The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.
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.
In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have: jam. With the help of an old recipe book her parents left her and a bit of illegal magic, her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries.
But magic can do more than make life a little sweeter, so Kiela risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much needed secret spellshop.
Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.
My Rating: 4
This book was like comfort food on a bad day. It was a refreshing story in comparison to a lot of books I’ve read recently. The pacing of the story was perfect, slow to build up to things, but also a lot happening in between. I did, however, feel like the conclusion was rushed and that there were some issues in the stories execution.
“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.”
― Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop
Kiela and Caz make their way from the city of Alyssium to Kiela’s childhood home island Caltrey. While the blurb makes it seem like this was an intentional decision, the book to me made it seem like they didn’t know where they were heading and she just happened to notice the island in passing and remembered it was where she grew up and decides that will be there first stop on their journey to where ever after that to escape whatever consequences might follow them for fleeing the library with crates of books in tow.
We are then introduced to Larran, who was never given a proper description, beyond being tall and muscled. I don’t know if this was on purpose for us to insert our own ideal male romantic interest or an oversight. We get a descriptions about a lot of other minor characters when introduced to them, especially if they are non-human. We are told that Kiela has blue hair, blue skin and that she has freckles again now that she’s spent quite a bit of time in Caltrey, multiple times, but beyond Larran’s initial description the only other details we get are his eyes.
There were a few issues I’m realizing now with our main character Kiela. First, for someone who despises being around people, interacting with them, things sure do seem to go her way. She is not nearly as awkward as she should be, and everyone seems to love her immediatly, with the exception of one character, but we are told that’s just because he’s a grumpy old man. Second, she deviates from her intial plans of keeping the books a secret, to using them to help not only herself but the island, even though the consequences of doing so are incredibly severe if caught by anyone from the empire. Very little thought is put into it.
The story takes place over several weeks to several months, and in this time no word about a rebellion makes its way to the outer islands until potential consequences show up on their island. But even before that, you’d think there would be rumors and possible recruitment for the rebels cause circulating the outer islands since they seem to have been dealt the short end of the stick with the way things were run in the empire. So everyone is just completley clueless, living as best they can in the circumstances they are dealt. There are no visitors to the island, ever? If we are to believe the island is in as dire straits as the book makes it seem, where do all the ingredients for the bakery come from, or supplies from whatever other shops exist, which we don’t really see anyway. The Bakery seems to have everything she needs, including seeds to plant her own garden.
I don’t want to be too critical of the book, because despite all of that I did enjoy it. It was the fastest I’ve read a book in awhile and it kept me engaged, and if I didn’t have a million other things to do in my days, I probably would have read it in its entirety in one sitting.
I really enjoyed the banter between Kiela and Caz, as well as the slow build up of romance between Kiela and Larran, I would have liked more of it though.
The book is described as being cozy fantasy, and it definitely delivered on that. I’m hoping with the second book in this series, set in the same universe, but standalone, that some of these things have been improved upon.
Have you read this book?
What were your thoughts on it?
Are there any books you would recommend for me to read based on this book review?
Leave a comment below and let me know.
Happy Reading!
Leave a Reply