Spellshop

**Author: Sarah Beth Durst**
**Published July 9, 2024**
**Page Count: 384**

Kiela has spent the majority of her life in isolation at the Great Library of Alyssium working as a librarian, entangled in a life of books and quiet study. This is just the way Kiela and her assistant Caz, a sentient spider plant, like it, alone with no interaction with people (shutter). Her antisocial tendencies are challenged as a group of freedom fighters take over Alyssium and burn the Great Library.

Caz and Keila gather all the spell books from the burning library they can and flee to the only other place she knows, the island she grew up on. With no real plan Kiela takes up residence in her parent’s abandoned home, hides the spellbooks (since spellcraft is illegal for the normal commoner), and discovers her neighbor does not understand boundaries or personal space. That same neighbor though, has a simple charm about him and dreamy eyes…

Reading Audience:

The aim here is likely adults, but I could see teens who love fantasy and Hallmark movies reading this one.

Stuff to be aware of:

Gore/Violence - A character mentions that someone got, “stripped of all his flesh.” In a backstory a character reveals that another character’s father killed his mother and then his father is later found dead.

Language - When describing a section of a library a character refers to it as the, “bull sh*t” books/area. This is the only curse word in the story. The words heck and crap are each used at least once.

LGBTQ+ - There is nothing in the way of LGBTQ themes until about the last 1/3 of the book. A female character reveals that she had a wife who passed away, during a brief backstory explanation. Later this character is seen holding another female character’s hand after several scenes of being really close. They later share a passionate kiss. This relationship quickly unfolds outside of the story during a time of turmoil and feels a bit forced. Kind of like, oh yeah, her is a lesbian couple.

A sentianet cactus is said to prefer the pronoun “they,” instead of it, he, or she. After this statement is made the cactus is referred to as “they” for the remainder of the book. However, there was a slip up once where the cactus was referred to as he. I’m not sure if this was an issue with the book or the narrator I was listening to on Audible. There is one statement about the spider plant (a he) and the cactus (they) being very close, but it is kind of left up to the reader’s imagination. They are plants with no eyes or mouths so they can’t do much in the way of romance.

Sexual - Fertility is mentioned briefly in reference to mer-horses magically reproducing. There are a couple of scenes where a girl gets her clothes wet and she changes into a man’s shirt, which covers her like a dress. There are some awkwards thoughts/moments between a man and a woman in these scenes, but nothing overly sexual.

The phrase “sharing a bed” is said a few times. One character mentions that a man wouldn’t notice a female character if she was, “casting the spell naked…”

Scariness - There is a mermaid who has sharp teeth, but the scene her teeth are seen in is not meant to be scary, but intense. There are also several magical storms that take place, but nothing too intense.

Overall

Spellshop feels like a fantasy Hallmark channel romcom, except for it is well written and actually has funny humor. Sorry, Hallmark lovers. If I had to classify this story I would call it a “cozy fantasy romcom.” I should probably trademark that. Unlike most fantasy novels you won’t find big battles, fighting, and good vs evil instead you’ll find an antisocial girl with blue hair that is covering up an illegal spell shop with a jams and jelly store front. The story was well written and it was hard for me to put down.

The author also does a good job with giving the reader a sense of danger and intensity even though there isn’t really an antagonist. The theme of the rich and powerful keeping books and spellcraft from the common folks runs throughout the book, but it isn’t written in an in your face or preachy kind of way. It very much is part of the story, but is written in a way that it doesn’t feel like the author was trying to make any real world statements (maybe she was, but it didn’t feel that way).

I found it easy to fall in love with the characters, invest in Kiela’s quest to help save the island’s resources, and the budding romance. I got lost in the story and fell in love with the world author Sarah Durst created, except for what seemed like forced LGBTQ themes. These themes don’t come up until around the last 1/3 of the book. I mention the scenes in the Stuff to be Aware Of section about. The cactus wanting to be called “they” seems logical since plants don’t have a sex, but it just seemed like the author wanted to include a character with a different pronoun to meet a quota. Later, two female characters become romantically involved. This does not affect the story whatsoever so it seems to be added just to appeal to certain people. Other, than that the story was very refreshing and easy to get swept away in.

This comfy cozy book was well done, I would just advise parents to be aware of the things mentioned above.

The Wild Robot Protects