fantasy

The Spellshop

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The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst

If cozy fantasy is your jam, you’re sure to enjoy this book. Lots of jam is made and consumed in this novel, mostly raspberry jam. Librarian Kiela and her assistant Caz flee Alyssium during a rebellion when fire reaches the library. They take five crates of spellbooks down the lift to a sailboat and head for the islands.

Caz is an enchanted spider plant with great penmanship. Kiela sails to a remote island where she was born, and finds that her parents’ clifftop cottage is still vacant. Introverted Kiela soon meets baker Bryn and her friendly neighbor Larran, who tends the merhorses who help the local fishermen. There are also mermaids, winged cats, a harpist with four arms, and a cactus. Kiela has blue skin, blue hair, and magenta freckles. This is lovely cottagecore, but with lots of drama, including some suspicious islanders, dangerous storms, an imperial inspector, and the uncertainty of trying new spells. Kiela and Caz would love to stay in her cottage, now with multi-colored custom shelves for the jam and spellbooks thanks to Larran, but can they? This is a compelling and entertaining read. Readalikes include Shanna Swendson’s Tea and Empathy or Bread and Burglary in her Tales of Rydding Village series.

Brenda

Winter Lost

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Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs

The dedication for this book is to Dan dos Santos, the painter of the striking book jacket art featuring Mercy, holding a fancy and very unusual lyre. Mercy, a shape shifter, is still hurting and usually has a headache resulting from the events in Soul Taken. I read Soul Taken in 2022 but only remember Italy and a very strong and wicked vampire.

Mercy’s half-brother Gary, also the son of Coyote, shows up on a snowy night and can’t talk or write. Mercy and Adam, her werewolf husband, head to a ranch in rural Montana where Gary was working. They encounter a mammoth blizzard, caused by Ymir, a frost giant. At a lodge nearby they find most of a wedding party and some more supernatural beings. The lyre, or perhaps a harp, must be found. Also, the wedding needs to happen as scheduled, on the winter solstice by the nearby hot spring. The groom is still a couple of states away due to the blizzard.

Mercy investigates, Adam tries to protect her, and a silver spider gets involved along with Jack, a ghost. This is not the Mercy Thompson book to start with, but if you’re already acquainted with Mercy and the Tri-Cities werewolves, it may be hard to put down.

Brenda

Uprooted

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Uprooted by Naomi Novik

Dark, with marvelous storytelling, this fantasy novel is decidedly NOT cozy, and not recommended for bedtime reading. It is also very unlike the Temeraire series by Novik in which Temeraire is a dragon bonded to a naval captain in the Napoleonic Wars. Her book Spinning Silver is probably a good readalike, but I haven’t read it (yet).

Agnieska grows up in the village of Dvernik, in a valley near the Wood, which is a very scary place. Agnieska’s friend Kasia is beautiful and is sure to be chosen by the Dragon, a wizard named Sarkan, when they are 17. When Agnieska the untidy and untalented is chosen instead, it’s a shock to the village, the girls, and their mothers. Every ten years a girl is chosen from the valley villages, later they have enough education and money to move to the city and be independent.

Agnieska was chosen because she has magic. Her magic isn’t like Sarkan’s, and her first months in the Tower are a struggle. Then Wensa, Kasia’s mother, comes for help. Kasia’s been taken to the Wood. A book of spells by Jaga (aka Baba Yaga) may be helpful.

So, the adventures begin, in the Wood, the Tower, and in the heart of the Kingdom, when the Queen comes out of the wood. Kasia and Agnieska, plus a little prince and princess, are the heart of this compelling, spellbinding story.

Brenda

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea

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Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

This mostly cozy fantasy is patterned after Travis Baldree’s novels Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust. Reyna is a palace guard to ruthless young Queen Tilaine, as her mother was a guard for Queen Tilaine’s mother. At court, Reyna meets powerful mage Kianthe, and her griffin Visk. Reyna loves Kianthe’s idea of moving to a quiet village where they can open a bookshop that serves tea and is decorated with tropical plants. They find the village of Tawney, near the mountains, and a likely site for their shop.

One problem to settling down together in Tawney is that Kianthe is the Arcandor, the chief mage, and must respond to problems like dragons. Also, Reyna isn’t allowed to resign from the palace guard. And the dragons are searching for three stolen dragon eggs that may be somewhere near the village. Characters in Tawney include young Gossley, a wannabe bandit, midwife Matild, and two town leaders who each claim oversight of the village.

I enjoyed the charming small town setting and the book and tea shop. There is plenty of danger from outside the village, and this certainly has more action than Baldree’s books. I liked Baldree’s writing better, but this is a good read, and I look forward to Reyna, Kianthe, and Visk’s return in A Pirate’s Life for Tea, to be published in October. The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, a July release, may be a good readalike.

Brenda

Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands

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Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands by Heather Fawcett

Book 2 of the Emily Wilde Series

Cambridge dryadology scholar Emily Wilde is off to the Alps with Wendell Bambleby, her colleague who is heir to a fairy kingdom, now ruled by his stepmother. Accompanying them are Ariadne, Emily’s talkative niece and a student at Cambridge, Shadow who’s sort of a dog, and senior scholar Farris Rose. Fox-like little faerie creatures appear, both vicious and helpful, along with faithful brownie Poe and his magical bread. Wendell has a magical scarf for Ariadne and a cape for Emily, but is weakened when he does magic, probably due to poison.

The group are in the Alps looking for a door to Wendell’s kingdom, and to search for two long-lost wanderers who haunt the nearby village. There are many adventures, in and out of faerie lands, and a cat named Orga is introduced. Prickly Emily very gradually becomes close to Ariadne and Rose, and considers a request from Wendell.

I enjoyed this portal fantasy even more than Book 1, Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries, mostly because of the ensemble cast, and partly because Emily is becoming a more appealing character. This novel is definitely not a cozy fantasy, but is vividly written, and a compelling story. More adventures are planned.

Brenda

Demon Daughter

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Demon Daughter by Lois McMaster Bujold

In the 12th novella featuring Penric and Temple Demon Desdemona, Penric is now married with a young family. He travels with Desdemona and his wife Nikys to a coastal village where a little girl has washed ashore and then set several fires. It turns out that Otta, about 6, last remembers being on her family’s trading ship. She has acquired a very new demon, and both Otta and the demon are scared. With few other options, Penric and Nikys bring Otta home with them until her demon can be dealt with and her family located. Their children, especially Rina, help make Otta feel at home, even though only Penric speaks her language. Penric and Desdemona have an argument over what’s best for Otta, which is rather funny as they share Penric’s body. I’ve wanted to read more about Nikys, and it was charming to read more about her daily life and to see more of their kids, and especially Otta. An unlikely solution for Otta’s problem leads to a charming ending. More, please! The first Penric and Desdemona novella is Penric’s Demon, and it’s also in a collection, Penric’s Progress. This is a very appealing fantasy series in a well-crafted world.

Brenda

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries

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Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett

In 1909, Dr. Emily Wilde visits the (fictional) Scandinavian island country of Ljosland to do research for her encyclopaedia of faeries. Emily is interested only in faeries, and isn’t very comfortable with people. Unfortunately, she got off on the wrong foot with the Hrafnsvik village leader, and isn’t sure why. Her rented cabin is sparsely furnished, and the two meals provided daily are barely edible. Fortunately, a brownie she calls Poe bakes lovely bread after she agrees to keep a path clear of snow for him. Then her Oxford colleague Professor Wendell Bambleby arrives unexpectedly, along with two of his students, and moves into the cabin. The cabin gets more comfortable, the students chop their firewood, and the villagers like the handsome golden-haired professor. Wendell wants Emily to coauthor a paper with him, and will even help find more fae, if he can ever get up early enough to travel with her.

Hrafnsvik has a changeling, and a girl who was taken and later returned by the courtly fae. When two young women are later kidnapped by the fae, Emily has come to care for the villagers, and volunteers to search for them along with the charming and infuriating Wendell and her unusual dog Shadow. I was hoping for a cozy fantasy read when I started this book, but readers of fairy tales will expect some danger from the cold and occasionally cruel fae. The worldbuilding is very well done, and prickly Emily becomes more likable. A sequel, Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, which also features Wendell Bambleby has just been published. Books by Seanan McGuire are a good readalike, as is the Invisible Library series by Genevieve Cogman.

Brenda

The Narrow Road Between Desires

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The Narrow Road Between Desires by Patrick Rothfuss

While this is not the long-anticipated doorstopper sequel to the Wise Man’s Fear, this illustrated fantasy novella is a very enjoyable read. Set all on a Midsummer’s Day, it features Bast, a fae who lives and works at Kvothe’s inn in a small village. It’s a secret that Bast is fae rather than human, and I won’t mention what type of fae. He is very handsome, and some of the villagers think he’s lazy. He provides advice and favors for the village children and tweens who visit him at the Lightning Tree…for a price. Perhaps the price is a secret, a bunch of flowers, the location of a beehive, a couple of sticky buns, or a favor. Bast can lie, but does follow some rules. Rike needs the most help; a plan to deal with his angry father. Viette wants to keep a kitten, someone wants to learn about the fae, and a boy wants revenge on a brother who stole his sweetheart. Another girl wants to avoid a well-deserved scolding. Bast also woos a pretty lady, with help from one of the kids. He is supposed to be running an errand for Kvothe, but keeps mislaying things. By turns serious and very funny, with many black and white illustrations by the talented Nate Taylor, I didn’t want this story to end. Reading this on one of the shortest days of the year, it was lovely to be immersed in a long, warm, and sunny day.

Brenda

Two Teen Novels: Divine Rivals and Highly Suspicious & Unfairly Cute

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Divine Rivals by Rebecca Ross

I listened to the first half of this Good Reads Choice Award teen fantasy on audio, narrated by Rebecca Norfolk and Alex Wingfield, both excellent narrators, and read the rest in print a few weeks later. This is the first book in the Letters of Enchantment duology. The second, Ruthless Vows, will be published December 26, and is likely to be just as popular.

Iris Winnow, a poor teen journalist, is vying for a columnist job along with well-educated and well-dressed Roman Kitt. Forest, Iris’s brother, has enlisted in a war between two recently awakened gods. Iris types letters to Fores on a typewriter she inherited for her grandmother, hoping her mother doesn’t find and pawn it. The typewriter turns out to be linked to another typewriter, now owned by Roman, who replies to the letters using his middle name.

After Iris suffers a loss and a setback, she signs up to be a war correspondent and takes the train to a distant town, staying along with a fellow war correspondent, with a kind boardinghouse owner. The town is on high alert for human or magical attacks. Iris hopes to find news of her brother. Iris is surprised (though not the reader) when Roman follows her, now also a war correspondent, and Iris learns of their grandmothers’ connection. At Iris’s request, Roman shares stories of the gods. Once rivals, Roman and Iris quickly fall in love. A dramatic cliffhanger ending sets up the sequel. The rivals to lovers romance is believable and the characters and dark, dangerous steampunk setting are memorable. Not a happy book, but a compelling read.

Highly Suspicious and Unfairly Cute by Talia Hibbert

Black British teens Celine and Bradley were friends until a few years ago, when Bradley, an athlete, became very popular. Bradley has obsessive compulsive disorder, but it’s not presented stereotypically and most of his friends are unaware of his issues. Celine is refreshingly weird, is usually scowling, and has a popular conspiracy themed social media site. Their mothers are best friends, and are delighted when the teens both qualify for an unusual scholarship competition, which involves hiking, orienteering, and camping. Neither Celine or Bradley is outdoorsy, though they’re both capable hikers. Speaking of the title, Celine is highly suspicious, and thinks that Bradley is unfairly cute, especially his hair. They become friends again, with plenty of funny banter leading to a sweet romance. This was an entertaining and enjoyable read from an author best known for her adult rom-coms, the Brown sisters trilogy.

Brenda

Tea and Empathy

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Tea and Empathy: Tales of Rydding Village, Book 1 by Shanna Swendson

Author Shanna Swendson set out to right a cozy fantasy in a traditional setting, a welcome recent trend. She is best known for her contemporary fantasy series, Enchanted, Inc., mostly set in New York City.

While the story starts with Elwyn at a very low point, wondering if she’ll survive, it ends with her and the village of Rydding starting to thrive. Elwyn is on the run, hungry and weak. She leaves the main road for a lane leading into a forest, where she immediately feels safer, then crosses a stone bridge over a bridge to find a quiet village in the valley. Elwyn finds refuge in a vacant stone cottage with a large overgrown cottage, reminding her of a cottage she once lived in. This cottage turns out to be something magical. Elwyn, who now calls herself Wyn, meets Mair, who trades her goat milk and cheese. Soon Wyn opens a tea chop in the front room of the cottage, and later, reluctantly, does a little healing. A wounded and unconscious man appears in the village, who remembers nothing of his past when he wakes up, but is happy to help Wyn with blending herbs and tea.

Will Wyn be able to stay in the village, or will serious troubles from her recent past find her if she stays in Rydding? A very pleasant read, and I look forward to more cozy fantasy novels in this series.