The Spellshop

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a beautifully-written story with immersive world building, immense character growth, secret magic, and raspberry jam.

This story follows Kiela, a librarian at the Great Library in the capital city, Alyssium, and her sentient spider-plant, Caz. With unrest in the capital city, Kiela and Caz are forced to flee to an outer island that Kiela lived on as a child. They arrive and take over her parents’ abandoned cottage and make it into a home. With the help of others on the island, they turn their home into a jam shop that sells special “remedies” upon request.

One of the main insights that I picked up on while reading this is that change can be scary, but if you surround yourself with the right people, it can be easy.

In the acknowledgements at the end of the book, Sarah Beth Durst stated that she wanted to write something that felt like a warm cup of hot cocoa and so I would recommend this to anyone who is looking to escape into a warm and cozy world that is full of secret magic and raspberry jam.