The Spellshop
Genres: Fantasy,
Romance Pages: 376
Rating: 
Synopsis: Every home needs a little magic...
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people, and as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a sentient spider plant, have spent most of the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s precious spellbooks, protecting the magic for the city’s elite. But a revolution is brewing and when the library goes up in flames, Kiela and Caz steal whatever books they can and flee to the faraway island where she grew up. But to her dismay, in addition to a nosy – and very handsome – neighbour, she finds the town in disarray.
The empire has slowly been draining power from the island, and now Kiela is determined to make things right. But opening up her own spellshop comes with its own risks – the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela starts to make a place for herself among the townspeople, she realizes she must break down the walls she has kept so high . . .
I received a copy of this book for free in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
I’d been looking forward to Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop for quite a while, because I do love my cosy reads, and I especially loved the idea of a sentient spider plant being a major character. And Caz certainly didn’t disappoint, and is an excellent sidekick. I also liked what we see of the world, the magic, and of course, the love of books.
In the end, I think I felt a bit dissatisfied because it felt like a world created just for the story. Which of course it is, that’s normal, but I mean that I didn’t have a good sense of what lay beyond the story’s edges, and I don’t just mean in terms of a map. I was also a bit meh about the romance, because it felt rushed. It tries to add depth to that with some history between the characters, but it didn’t ultimately ring true to me. Adding the depth didn’t work because, OK, Larran remembers Kiela, but she doesn’t remember him. So things should, at least, have taken more time on her side.
I do love Caz, though, and then the addition of Meep. It was a fun read as long as I didn’t think too deeply into it, ultimately. And it is pretty cosy, despite the opening being a flight from a burning capital city during a revolution, and despite some peril for Kiela and another character.
Rating: 3/5
