The Spellshop - BookWyrm.World

Hardcover, 384 pages

English language

Published July 9, 2024 by Tor Publishing Group.

ISBN:: 978-1-250-33397-1

(1 review)

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.

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 …

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.

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.

5 editions

Soh Kam Yung reviewed The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

An entertaining 'cosy fantasy' with a librarian with a knack for casting spells, and who has a handsome neighbour.

4 stars

An interesting addition to the 'cosy fantasy' category where the stakes are not very high (but high enough for the protagonists), with a dose of romance. It helps that the main character is a librarian who gets to show off her librarian indexing skills.

At the start of the story, she is happy taking care of her corner of the Empire's library full of spell books with the help of a magical sentient plant. But it all comes crashing down when a revolution gets out of hand and the library is put to the torch. Saving whatever spell books they can, the duo escape in a boat before heading to the only place she can think of: her childhood home on an outer island.

Before she has a chance to settle in her old home, her nosy (and rather handsome) neighbour intrudes, to try to help renovate the place. Now …

An interesting addition to the 'cosy fantasy' category where the stakes are not very high (but high enough for the protagonists), with a dose of romance. It helps that the main character is a librarian who gets to show off her librarian indexing skills.

At the start of the story, she is happy taking care of her corner of the Empire's library full of spell books with the help of a magical sentient plant. But it all comes crashing down when a revolution gets out of hand and the library is put to the torch. Saving whatever spell books they can, the duo escape in a boat before heading to the only place she can think of: her childhood home on an outer island.

Before she has a chance to settle in her old home, her nosy (and rather handsome) neighbour intrudes, to try to help renovate the place. Now lacking an income, she decides to start selling jam, with the help of her mother's old recipe book that she discovers. But finding fruits to make jam is hard on the island, especially since the Empire's sorcerers have stopped visiting the outer islands, casting spells to help make living easier. She decides to use the spell books she saved to help her grow the required fruits, as well as revive the plants on the island. This has to be done surreptitiously, as using magic is forbidden, except by approved people, which she isn't.

As first, it goes well, as her jams are a hit with the island folk, who she starts to get to know, including her nosy, handsome neighbour. But then an outsider intrudes, claiming to be an Inspector, out investigating the improper use of magic. And now she has to somehow hide that fact that she used magic for her jams. But the Inspector would turn out to be the least of her problems when other visitors appears, and this one may use military force to bring back what they believe is hidden on the island.

In this book, magic takes place in the form of incantations in a language with the proper ingredients. So anybody could do it, if they knew what they were doing. And at first, the librarian has to experiment to get things right, as the writers of the book may sometimes be vague about how a spell actually works; and that is assuming the handwriting can be correctly read. The island itself is full of magical creatures that the librarian gets to know when they sense her using magic and come to her for magical aid.

The tone of the book is light-hearted and full of humour. Even the 'bad guys' in the story turn out not to be so bad after all, and she learns to deal with them, with the help of the islanders who are mostly friendly and willing to help out one another. For life on the island is already hard enough, so having helpful neighbours is a good thing. And in the end, the librarian gets to come out and help the islanders with her use of magic to make their lives easier.