If you’re looking for a cozy cottagecore story with a slow burn romance, The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is the book for you. It's also a great pick for fans of Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell and You Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne.
At the beginning of the story, we meet Kiela who is a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium. Kiela, who is almost painfully introverted, lives and works at the Great Library. Her only companion is a magical spider plant named Caz.
The city of Alyssium is in the throes of a revolution and the freedom fighters are attacking and burning the Great Library. Kiela and Caz have no choice but to flee with as many library books as their small boat can carry. These aren’t just any books: they are spell books. The use of magic has been restricted for years and only those the emperor approves of are allowed to use it. Everyone else is subject to punishment.
Kiela and Caz escape to her childhood home, a tiny island called Caltrey, where Kiela hopes to wait out the revolution and then return her stolen/liberated spellbooks to the Great Library. Kiela’s family cottage is in need of repair, and she must rely on the assistance of her handsome neighbor Larran, who confuses and frustrates her.
In order to support themselves, Kiela decides to turn the cottage into a Jam Shop. Trying, and failing, to discreetly use magic to help them along, Kiela and Caz soon befriend many people on the island and feel compelled to help not only the people living on the island, but also the trees, mermaids and merhorses that live in the sea.
Things seem to finally be going well when a red-headed woman arrives on the island during a terrible storm. Now there is unrest and talk of illegal magic on the island. Will Kiela and Caz’s good intentions be misunderstood as malicious? Can they make Caltrey their home or must they run away again, just as they were learning to trust others? |
