If you judge a book by its cover, ‘Spellshop’ is for you

Linda Sullivan - The Book WhispererOur Town Readers

When the soon to be released hardcover of The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst arrived in the mail, I was thrilled. Not only was I invited to review the book but also meet the author at an event on her Book Tour at Fable Hollow Coffee & Bookshoppe in Fountain City. Someone pinch me!

Fable Hollow hosted a wonderful event with specialty drinks and a very organized Meet and Greet with the author. Durst was excited to be with us, and the audience soaked up her joy. She shared how she knew from a young age she wanted to be a writer and would read the phone book and write the “cool” names on index cards to use later. I enjoyed learning about her writing process and her mischievous cat, Gwen.

Sarah Beth Durst is the author of over 25 fantasy books for adults, teens and kids, including The Queens of Renthia series, Drink Slay Love and Spark. She has won an American Library Association Alex Award and a Mythopoeic Fantasy Award and has been a finalist for the Andre Norton Nebula Award three times.

The Spellshop is Durst’s first book in the romance genre, and she built a fantasy world based on the cottagecore aesthetic that celebrates simple living, particularly in the countryside. Durst said she wanted to write a story that offered the same safe, kind and gentle escape she had found when reading The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune. While writing The Spellshop, Durst asked herself these questions:

  1. Who needs this story a story of kindness, healing, empathy, tolerance and hope?
  2. How can I add more joy and delight to each scene?

Have you seen the hardcover of The Spellshop? The cover art is gorgeous plus the page edges are sprayed purple. A reader who judges a book by its cover will want to dive into the story.

The protagonist of The Spellshop is Kiela, an introverted librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium. When a revolution puts the library and its books in jeopardy, Kiela and her magical spider plant, Caz, pack up the one of a kind spellbooks and flee to the island her parents left when she was just a child. As a way to provide for herself and with a little magic, Kiela makes and sells jam in an illegal spellshop. Along the way and despite her best efforts to remain a loner, she makes friends who become her family.

If you have an Enya playlist and are looking for a low-tension cozy mystery set in a fantastical world, then rush to read The Spellshop. Durst shared another one of her books, The Enchanted Greenhouse, will be set in this same world, and I have already written the title in my ‘To Be Read Log.’ I did forget to ask her for the jam and muffin recipes. Maybe she will share those if we meet again.

Look for these recommendations and other books at Knox County Online Library or your local independent book store each week.

Linda Sullivan is an avid reader and wants to make you one, too. For more recommendations or just to talk books, reach out to her at thebookwhisperertn@gmail.com. She can also be found @thebookwhisperertn on Instagram.

 

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