Publication: 11th July 2024 – Tor UK
Every home needs a little magic . . .
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, Kiela and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, in addition to a nosy – and very handsome – neighbour, she finds the town in disarray.
The empire has slowly been draining power from the island, and now Kiela is determined to make things right. But opening up her own spellshop comes with its own risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down the walls she has kept so high . . .
From award-winning author Sarah Beth Durst, The Spellshop is a cottagecore cosy fantasy following a woman’s unexpected journey through the low-stakes market of illegal spell-selling and the high-risk business of starting over.
When the revolution breaks out, Kiela, an introverted librarian, thinks only of saving the books from the library where she works and returns to the island where she was born in the company of her best friend, Caz, a sentient spider plant. She plans to lead a quiet and inconspicuous life, just her, Caz, and the spell books she shouldn’t have taken, but things don’t go accordingly. First, her kind and handsome, but, too curious neighbour doesn’t leave her alone, offering her food and help fixing the house, and then the other islanders seem eager to welcome her and become her friend. And that’s how she finds herself opening a jam shop, which is actually a spell shop, as she covertly uses the spells in the books as remedies to help heal the island.
The Spellshop was such a fun and immersive read. A cozy fantasy with a little magic and the right amount of romance, friendship and found family, and even some suspenseful moments that kept me completely immersed in the story. I loved the atmospheric setting of the small village, the plot is well-developed, intriguing, and engaging, and the cast of characters is interesting and delightful. Larran, the helpful neighbour, is adorable. I liked Bryn, Eadie, and Ulina with their Pine Cone Coven and how they all become close friends. And I loved Kiela, her love for her books, her wish to help others, and her bond with Caz, who was my favourite character.
A witty and heart-warming novel, I can’t recommend The Spellshop enough!
A huge thank you to Tor and NetGalley for providing me with a proof of this beautiful novel.
Sarah Beth Durst is the author of over twenty-five fantasy books for adults, teens, and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love, and Spark. She has won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times. She lives in Stony Brook, New York, with her husband, her children, and her ill-mannered cat. Visit her at www.sarahbethdurst.com.
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