Publisher: Macmillan Audio

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst | Book Review

Posted July 10, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 5 Comments

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst | Book ReviewThe Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Series: Spellshop #1
Narrator: Caitlin Davies
Published by Macmillan Audio on July 9, 2024
Genres: Fantasy, Fantasy Romance, Romance, Romantasy
Pages: 377
Length: 12 hours and 11 minutes
Format: Audiobook
Source: Audible
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The Spellshop is Sarah Beth Durst’s romantasy debut–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.

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.

Do you need a warm hug? How about a cozy evening by the fire with your pet, a snack, and your favorite blanket? Or maybe a kiss on the cheek from your favorite person in the world? That’s what The Spellshop is. This book is cozy and wholesome and sweet and magical, and it was just the balm my world-weary soul needed. I loved it so, so much that it’s taken me nearly a year to read it because I have no words. I loved everything about it, and I know that this is a book I will turn to again and again when there’s too much going on and I need an escape.

The heroine, Kiela, is a librarian who works with now outlawed spellbooks. The library is attacked by rebels and she takes her library assistant (Caz, a talking spider plant who I simply adored. He’s hilarious.) and the most valuable spellbooks and flees to the little island where she grew up, Caltrey. The island was once controlled by magic, so the crops flourished and there were magical animals (merhorses). But now since magic is banned, the place is falling apart. She and her plant start using magic to grow fruit so they can make jam to sell, plus home remedies (aka secret, illegal magical spells) to help people revive their plants. So there’s lots of magic, a cute little cottage with jams and herbs, magical beings (like a centaur baker), a merhorse farmer (baby merhorses!), forest sprites who come to Kiela for help and give cute gifts in return, and a love story blooming on the side. The secondary characters are all like family, and the entire island is peaceful and happy. Everyone knows everyone, and they take care of each other. The writing is really pretty, with lots of descriptions of the scenery and this place sounds stunning. Very low stakes (but there are stakes, so I was fully invested and eager to see how certain things played out), precious characters, and an absolute joy to read. The audiobook was wonderful! The narrator did a great job, especially with Caz’s voice. She made him even cuter than he was on the page!

All in all, I highly recommend this sweet little story. As soon as I finished listening to the audio, I ran and bought the beautiful hardcover with lavender sprayed edges so I can gaze at it and hug it like a silly person. I am just about the start the next book in this series, The Enchanted Greenhouse (I promised myself I would write this review before starting it), and am so excited to return to this world! The Spellshop is the perfect gateway book to the cozy fantasy genre, and I want to curl up here and stay a while.

Do you have any cozy fantasy book recommendations for me?

Off the Map by Trish Doller | Book Review

Posted May 29, 2025 by Jana in Adult Fiction, Book Review / 1 Comment

Off the Map by Trish Doller | Book ReviewOff the Map by Trish Doller
Series: Beck Sisters #3
Narrator: Sarah Naughton
Published by Macmillan Audio, St Martin's Griffin on March 7, 2023
Genres: Contemporary Romance, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Pages: 272
Format: Audiobook ARC
Source: Publisher (Netgalley)
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On the road to love, you don't need a GPS...

Carla Black’s life motto is “here for a good time, not for a long time.” She’s been travelling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love and she doesn’t ever go home.

Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out—literally.

Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings, and a chance at love - if only they choose it.

I will spit it out right now: I did not like this book at all. Maybe it’s because I haven’t read the first two books in the series, but I don’t think that’s it. I don’t think that seeing these characters as secondary characters in someone else’s love story would make me like them more. They both are just sucky people, and since I’m a character driven reader I knew this would most likely go downhill really fast. I listened to this book, though, and I always end up hanging in there longer than I otherwise would have if I’d been reading the book on my own. Sarah Naughton did a very good job reading this book, and the Irish accents were perfect. I loved listening to her. And that, my friend, is why I finished this book at all.

I love road trip books, and two people trekking through Ireland gave me Leap Year vibes. You know, the movie with Amy Adams? One of my top favorite movies ever. And that’s why I jumped into this series with the final book. I needed a Leap Year feeling! It was my mistake for elevating my hopes way too high but, even so, Carla and Eamon suck. They are so irresponsible and see no problem with dragging their feet to their friends’ wedding so they can go on adventures and sleep together a lot. Like. Come on and put your pants on, you idiots, the wedding is waiting for you!! Carla’s personality was also pretty crummy. She has absolutely no tact, and I didn’t find it to be funny or endearing. She’s just rude. Eamon was a jerk. And the fact that their “relationship” just screamed of a string of one-night stands gave me no depth or development. They start getting it on within the first few pages of the book, and I didn’t get it. There’s no romance there, and the spicy scenes were prominent. The story was all over the place for me.

I’ve read multiple reviews saying that the first two books in this series are totally different from this one, and that some people had whiplash from the spice level and lack of emotional depth that they had assumed they’d get again going into this final book. That gives me hope that I might like those, so I will give them a try because I usually like Trish Doller’s writing. Luckily this is not my first book of hers, and luckily I have reviewer friends I trust, or I might have decided to not give her another chance. That cover sure is cute, though, and I did like the scene from the book that’s been illustrated for us. It actually might have been the only scene I liked? lol. Oops.