It’s been a while since my last post. Sorry about that. I didn’t mean to go MIA, but life does take unexpected turns. Nothing bad, thankfully, but busy. Good news to report, though, the second book in The Animal Magic Series is almost finished! If you haven’t had a chance, the second book, Beasts and Books, is available for pre-order on Amazon. I haven’t done a full cover reveal yet, but it’s coming soon!
Okay, on to the book review. Unusual for me, I read a mainstream book! Even more unusual, I read a physical book. But a few weeks ago, I was in a bookstore with a gift card and saw The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst. I confess I’d been curious about this book, and since I had a gift card, I decided to purchase it.
The Spellshop is a cozy fantasy with a sweet, low-spice romance filled with jam. In the author’s note at the end of the book, she said she wanted a book that felt like a warm hug and was filled with things that gave her joy.
It’s a cute story that begins with a librarian and a talking plant. The capital city, where the library is located, is experiencing political unrest. Keira, the MFC, is convinced the library will go untouched, but when it starts to burn, she flees with her talking plant, Caz, and as many books as she can take on a small boat. She manages to find safe harbor on a remote island far from the capital where she was born.
The pacing is steady and a bit slow, but it’s very engaging. The stakes are low, but entertaining, and pull the reader in with curiosity! Keira needs to survive on the island, and she’d prefer to do it alone, but her neighbors, including a handsome merhorse herder, are always knocking on her door trying to help her. You can probably guess where this is going. As Keira decides to make a life for herself on the island, she dabbles in some of the ‘remedies’ (spells) hidden in the books she saved from the fire, and antics ensue. This adds some comedy and light-hearted fun.
The magic system in the book was definitely soft. There were actual wizards, so initially, I got the impression these were people who were gifted with magic. However, Keira cracks open spell books and learns, through a lot of trial and error, how to work spells, which she calls ‘remedies’.
There were also real moments in the book that touched on deeper issues, but they didn’t take away from the overall cozy nature of the read. The characters felt fairly rounded, though some of the personalities could have been slightly more developed to add a bit of separation. I confess that I did get confused a few times because some of the characters were too similar. In deeper reflection, this might have purpose, as part of the cozy nature was ‘small, secluded island with a tiny population’, so it is natural that the inhabitants were close-knit.
There were a few times in the book when things happened that were important to a scene but weren’t followed up on, even though they were mentioned again in the story. I would have loved more development on some of Keila’s ‘experiments’ to see more of what happened and whether the unexpected results changed over time. (For example, the singing apple tree and apple blossom bird.) There was one scene where Keila heard someone say, ‘Beautiful’ when her remedy brought a tree back to life, but we never found out who was spying on her.
Do a few flat characters and contrived scenes spoil the book for me? Not at all. Wanting more is just my reader’s desire. These instances in the book are clearly for world-building purposes. The overall story is well-written and a delight to read. It made an excellent weekend diversion from the real world! The book also fulfilled the author’s goal of giving the reader a hug!
Early on, we learn that Keira was very important to Larran in his early life. We learn his story, but again, I’m left wondering about what she did that was so memorable to him. We get hints of this from some of Keira’s new friends, which, I suppose, is the author’s subtle way of sharing the backstory with the reader. I think I was expecting a more direct reveal between Larran and Keira. Yet again, I admire the author’s clever yet gentle approach to establishing the bond between Keira and Larran. There wasn’t the random toss-out from a friend, ‘you and Larran seem great together,’ but the friends already knew what Keira’s family meant to Larran and understood his natural attraction to her.
There is another note of humor I’d like to add. So often, I hear people complain that self-published books have so many errors. This isn’t something I’ve found to be true. Yes, some self-published books do need more editing. But generally, most self-published works are very polished with few to no noticeable grammatical errors. Since The Spellshop is my first mainstream book from a publishing house in a while, I’d like to note that I did find grammatical and editing errors! I find this absolutely hilarious, given all the criticism self-published authors get. Please don’t let this stop you from a fun read!
Sarah Beth Durst did an excellent job with this book, and I look forward to reading more in her series.