Title: Sea of Charms
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: Fantasy, Romance
Published: July 28, 2026
Publisher: Bramble
Format: Hardcover
Length: 369 Pages
Series: The Spellshop
Goodreads Synopsis:
Marin is a supply runner with her own boat that she sails from island to island, delivering whatever anyone will pay her to deliver: letters, flour, even the occasional enchanted lemur. It’s a lonely life, but it’s hers, and she wouldn’t trade the freedom of the sea for anything. Her only companion is a sea serpent, Perri, whom she saved from a fisherfolk’s net.
One day, she sails to Alyssium and discovers the city is on fire. There’s been a revolution, and the empire has fallen. Marin, with Perri, begins transporting refugees, finding them new homes where they can start over. One such refugee is Dax, a composer who refuses to leave behind his instruments, no matter how much she tries to emphasize the gravity of the situation. Intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, and his charming smile, Marin discovers perhaps she isn’t saving him ― maybe it’s the other way around.
My Rating: 5 Stars
I had recieved an advanced copy of the ebook for this book, but I had also pre-ordered the Hardcover edition. Thank you to the publisher for the advanced copy. However by the time I did get around to reading this book, it had been published and I had used my physical copy as the version I read.
While this book is part of the The Spellshop series, it is a stand alone story. It only exists in the same universe as all of the stories, within a similar time frame. There are some overlaps with previous books, but explains what happened from the perspective of the character the story is following. For example the main character in this story, Marin, we met briefly in the previous book in the series, The Enchanted Greenhouse, as the supply runner that brings things the Island in that story cannot offer.
While the stories themselves are standalone, I think that reading them in published order would be a good idea. Though I may be biased on that as that is the order in which I have read them. I say that because the overarching story regarding the empire and the happenings there. I do not want to spoil things for anyone who has not read the series, so I will try to generalize it. In the first book we get a glimpse on a general uprising and fleeing from the city. The books that follow show and explain things in more detail, how things have changed. This book showed us an even closer look at the immediate aftermath of the uprising. So I think going from general, to focused in that regard, is easier to understand the bigger picture. I hope that’s not too confusing, and makes sense. If you decide to pick up any of the books in this series, and I hope you do, as they are wonderful, it is entirely up to you which order you read them in. For me this book answered the questions that I had from the first two, regarding Alyssium, the main island city that everything that has happened is central to.
Marin is a supply runner. She sails across the oceans in the empire taking jobs to locate items and deliver them, or general supplies for people on the various islands. With the current turmoil in the empire with the revolutionaries having overthrown the emperor and taking over she finds her self being more of a ferry. Rescuing people from the city and taking them to safety on other Islands. The first she rescues are the musicians from the conservatory within the city. Though she had only meant to look in on Dax, someone she and her sea serpant friend- Perri, visit every time they come to the city.
Dax ends up staying with her wanting to learn to sail, to make himself useful, as it has been a dream of his to see other places and hopefully find the inspiration he needs to write his Opus for the winter solstice festival. Marin reluctantly agrees to let him stay on, with the condition that he pretends to be her boyfriend at the upcoming harvest festival on her home island.
“Something can not make much sense and still be true,” Dax said. “Especially in art. Music is all about the truth of the heart.”
That was lovely. And it made her think about the stories she loved, like the one she’d told Ree or all the variants on how she’d befriended Perri—full of very little fact but a lot of truth. No wonder he likes my stories. They were like his songs.
– Sarah Beth Durst, Sea of Charms
I really enjoyed reading this book. Sarah Beth Durst has been my introductory to modern cozy fantasy. I really resonated with this story, it’s themes of music and stories, certainly helped with that. Music has been a big part of my life, it’s what my degree from university is in. While I know very little of sailing, I have always enjoyed stories that involve ships and sailing.
I loved the slow-burn romance that this one was. Though I often found myself frustrated at our main character Marin. One theme explored and heavily implied by this character is the freedom of choice. We see this through her relationship to Dax. Everyone has decided for him what he should do, who he should be. She is the first person to ever offer him choice. But in her internal monologue, as soon as she realizes how comfortable she is with him around, she starts to decide things for him. How he feels, what he wants to do. Which in turn stunts her own growth. I found myself yelling at the pages “Ask him what he wants! Stop deciding for him!” What happened to the girl who yelled at others to stop deciding things for him and let him choose?
As much as I was frustrated with her, I understand that she was only doing this to protect herself, to keep herself at arms length because what if he did choose to go back. What then? Her heart would break all over again. So she did whatever she had to do in her mind to keep her heart from breaking, after all it can’t break if there was never anything more than friendship, right?
I feel like some of the flaws in storytelling I noticed in the first book in the series have been done better, or I’ve allowed myself to just be in the story, so I didn’t notice as much. This story, and the series in general is absolutely worth reading if you want to read fantasy romance books with lower stakes and no spice.
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!
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