THE SPELLSHOP by Sarah Beth Durst – Review

I received this book for free from the Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Published by Bramble on July 9 2024
Genres: Adult, Cozy fantasy, Romance
Pages: 374
Format: ARC
Source: Publisher
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The nitty-gritty: If you’re looking for a fun, upbeat story, then look no further. Reading The Spellshop feels like being wrapped in a warm blanket on a cold winter’s night.

Sarah Beth Durst says in her Acknowledgments that she wanted to write a story that captured the feeling of drinking a cup of hot chocolate, and that’s exactly what she’s done. The Spellshop is one of the most delightful books I’ve read in quite some time, and it grabbed me from the very first sentence. The vibe right from the beginning—despite the fact that a library is on fire—is warm and cozy, with interesting characters and a magical world that I wanted to visit myself. If you need a break from heavier reads, or even just a break from life, I highly recommend this book.

Kiela is a librarian at the Great LIbrary of Alyssium, and she loves her job immensely. Her duties include protecting and organizing the vast quantities of spellbooks housed in the library. But when the story opens, Alyssium is under siege. Revolutionaries are pushing back against the autocratic regime, and the emperor has been killed. The fires of war are getting closer and closer, but luckily Kiela is smart and has been smuggling spellbooks onto a boat, just in case the library is compromised and she has to abandon it. And when that day arrives, Kiela and her assistant Caz, a sentient spider plant, sneak out through the underground canals with a boat full of spellbooks. Kiela knows what she’s doing is illegal, but she refuses to let the books burn.

Kiela decides to head for the outlying island of Caltrey, her childhood home. She knows her parents’ old cottage is still there, and it will be the perfect place to hunker down until she can come up with a better plan. Right away, the people of Caltrey welcome Kiela and Caz to the island, and she meets a handsome (but annoyingly friendly) merhorse farmer named Larran. Everyone is so nice, but Kiela knows she must lie to them about why she’s here. The spellbooks must stay hidden at all costs, and she doesn’t want to alarm anyone by telling them about the revolutionaries. But the island is dying. Trees don’t bear fruit, the town fountains are dry, and even the fish in the ocean, critical for the town’s survival, are drying up. Kiela has to make a choice: keep the spellbooks hidden, or try to help Caltrey by using illegal magic and the spells within to heal the land.

The Spellshop is set in a land where magic can only be used by an elite group of people, and using it in secret can be punishable by death. The aftereffects of magic create an imbalance in the land—think terrible storms, for example—and so sorcerers are sent to the various outer islands to perform spells that keep nature in check. Because of the revolts, Caltrey has been without a visiting sorcerer for a long time, which is why the land is slowly dying. The fact that Kiela has all these spells at her fingertips—but technically isn’t allowed to use them—sets up a lot of tension in the story, and there’s an ominous feeling that someone might find out what she’s doing and report her.

Luckily, Caltrey is full of friendly folk, and it doesn’t take long for Kiela to feel at home. One of my favorite things about this book is the way everyone looks out for one another (well, except for one grumpy character!). It’s a tight-knit community of all kinds of different creatures—like centaurs, mermaids, unicorns and many others—who each have something special to contribute to the group. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling and I honestly wouldn’t mind living there myself. I loved all the characters, but my favorites were definitely Caz and Meep. Caz’s backstory and why he became sentient is sort of a tearjerker, but in a happy way. I won’t spill the beans on Meep, who is a non binary creature, by the way:-) You will just have to read the book to experience the utter charm of these characters. Oh, there’s also a runaway chicken in the story who keeps popping up, and its sections were very funny.

There’s a romance brewing between Kiela and Larran, but it’s a very slow build romance and certainly not the focus of this book. Kiela is an interesting character. She reminded me a lot of myself, actually. She’s an introvert who just wants to be alone and do her thing, but Larran and the other characters burst into her life anyway. Part of the plot revolves around Kiela’s decision to open a jam shop (to cover up the fact that she’s messing around with spells and magic), and of course, running a shop means dealing with people. The author did a great job of showing how she comes out of her shell, little by little, and embraces new relationships. I will admit I thought Kiela was sort of prickly at times, especially when it came to Larran, but I guess it was just part of her quirky personality.

Eventually real life intrudes on the happy people of Caltrey, but even then The Spellshop doesn’t loose its cozy, warm glow. Durst imparts plenty of positive messages through her story, like helping others, taking care of the earth and doing what’s right, even if that means breaking the law, and she does it with such a subtle touch that it never feels like a lecture. If The Spellshop doesn’t put a smile on your face, I don’t know what will.

Big thanks to the publisher for providing a review copy.