The Spellshop
The Spellshop
Content Warning: Fire/Fire Injury, death, grief.
Looking for a cozy fantasy read that is less autumnal forward than most others? Durst’s The Spellshop is just the ticket. With its summer storms and seahorses, you’ll just fall in love with this charming island that is the background to Durst’s story.
Our main heroine, Kiela, is a displaced librarian. Her assistant, Caz, is a magicked spider plant. Together, they flee the burning library that was once their home, clutching all of the books they can carry. Kiela and Caz travel to Caltrey, an outer island of the empire, to hide away in Kiela’s old childhood home. Here, Kiela is hoping that she and Caz can keep their heads down, keep the books safe, and not interact with the community, but that’s easier said than done.
They bide their time, intending to eventually return to their burned library, but life, and the island have other plans for them. In order to survive and help the island thrive again, Kiela uses her books and enchants the plants to grow. With the grown plants, our protagonist opens a jam shop as a cover as she tends to the island itself.
It’s a low stakes kind of book, but that’s not to say that Kiela doesn’t come up against obstacles and unknown forces. Pick up the book today to discover what happens in this magical world next!
Kayleigh Dyer is a Library Technical Processing Assistant at May Memorial Library. Contact her at kdyer@alamancelibraries.org.