Synopsis
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.
Review
The author writes in the acknowledgments that she wanted to write a book that reads like drinking hot chocolate. And that’s exactly how this book reads. She writes that she wanted to fill the book with joy and delight, and she certainly succeeded at that too.
In this cosy fantasy-romance we follow Kiela, a librarian who lives a solitary life with her entirely wonderful enchanted spider-plant friend Caz. She lives and works in the library of the capital. They escape in a boat one night during a revolution as the rebels attack and begin burning the library to the ground. She and Caz escape and sail to her home island, a remote place on the outskirts of the kingdom, slowly being forgotten by everyone and left to fend for itself. She sets up a new life for herself as she tries to rebuild her deceased parents’ abandoned cottage and figure out what to do now that her librarian life is gone.
This book has all the cosy fantasy vibes you’ll ever need. It has a great setting and the story itself is interesting and fun. I loved following Kiela as she builds a new life for herself. Her journey of self discovery as she has to start over is heart warming and relatable. The island and all the characters who live there were wonderful. The romance is sweet. There’s no spice but so much sweetness that anything more wasn’t really needed at all. Any fantasy romance fan will be pleased with this book I’m sure.
If you are looking for something to make you smile, remind you why reading can be so fun and for something light-hearted and whimsical, then look no further.
Thank you to the author and publisher for the review copy. This book publishes on July 9th.
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