Review of Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

Spellshop with an alternate cover

I have read a Sarah Beth Durst middle grade fantasy novel so when I saw Spellshop, I jumped at the chance to read the ARC. My intrigue with reading Spellshop was also encouraged by the beautiful special edition Barnes and Noble released with purple sprayed edges and the most whimsical cottagecore cover I’ve possibly ever seen (complete with a winged cat).

Writing a cozy novel in which the reader truly cares about the characters and is interested enough to continue reading despite the low stakes plot is challenging to say the least. But I enjoyed the world Durst creates in the magic-depleted remote island of Caltrey and loved the addition of Caz, a sentient and verbally communicative spider plant the size of a dog.

Readers meet librarian Kiela as she is saving ancient magical texts  and grimoires from a burning city, Fleeing with Caz to the only other home she’s known, she arrives on Caltrey and wastes no time setting up cottage, hiding the secret of where she is from and what she has brought with her.  She is very quickly inundated with meeting locals, Larran - a local caretaker of the merhorse herds - chief among them.

Spellshop is marketed as romantasy but be aware that while romance is part of this tale, it is quite chaste (kisses and thoughts about how attractive someone is). This is not a steamy romantasy by any means. It’s cozycore and cottagecore at its finest.

Thank you to Durst, Tor Publishing | Bramble, and NetGalley for the ARC.