MY RATING:
Synopsis:
The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.
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.
Read More:
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.
- Pages: 377
- Genre: Cosy Fantasy, Fantasy
- Publication date: July 9, 2024 by Bramble
- Format: Paperback, Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook
- Source: Owned
PURCHASE LINKS:
AMAZON
KOBO
REVIEW:
Ahh… I am so bummed about this. This was such a letdown and a disappointment that I don’t even know where to start.
This book was one of my most anticipated reads, due to the promise of its cosiness, magic and newfound family. Which, to an extent, were present. I really liked Caz, Larran, and the other creatures. But Kiela was another story, as was the entire plot.
For a cosy fantasy, this book dipped into very heavy and serious topics, with even more hevier background. There is nothing wrong with having low-stakes books with more serious undertones. This one was so matter-of-factly and it didn’t even scratch the surface of what Durst had included. The author just dumped a lot of trauma, domestic abuse, anxiety, revolution and PTSD and whatnot without actually concentrating on anything in particular. And these are just a few of the themes in the book.
I hated how Kiela was potrayed, her character was so inconsistent, she was hot and cold with everyone even herself. And so self-centred and at times plain stupid I just couldn’t. People said it got better but in reallity it got worse for me.
Then there was the whole magic/spell issue. I still don’t understand the difference between being a sorcerer, a librarian and a civilian. According to the author, the spells are meant for everyone, but due to the laws, only certain people are using spells. I can’t, it was so confusing and so poorly executed, the plot made no sense to me, it was all over the place. So many things were going on at once, and like I said, so many topics were there that it was a big mish-mash.
We spend a lot of time in Kiela’s head, with a lot of contradictions and repetitiveness. Larran, on the other hand, I still don’t know much about, I don’t even know what he looks like. Does anyone?? He was a likeable character, yes, but other than that, I still don’t know him. Their “romance” was nonexistent, like she was so cold and mean to him and out of nowhere, she suddenly had feelings for him…
Overall, I did like the atmosphere, the nature descriptions, and the animals and the slice-of-life bits. It was cosy indeed, but on the next page, I would get a whiplash from the heaviness of the tone and the noncoherence of it all. In total, it received 2.5 stars. I am still willing to read the second book, maybe it will be better.
Lin's Perspective 
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