Comforting and Gentle: A Guest Post by Sarah Beth Durst
Sarah Beth Durst knew she wanted her first romantasy to be as warm as a hug and as sweet as your favorite mug of tea. The Spellshop gives us all of the intrigue and wonder of an epic fantasy without any of the stress. Sarah dives into the creation of her unique world and characters in her exclusive guest post, down below.
Hardcover $29.99
The Spellshop
The Spellshop
In Stock Online
Hardcover $29.99
If you loved the high fantasy and low stakes of Legends and Lattes, allow us to introduce you to Sarah Beth Durst. Combining the coziness of cottage core with the magical thrills of romantasy, this brand new world is one we can’t wait to share with readers.
If you loved the high fantasy and low stakes of Legends and Lattes, allow us to introduce you to Sarah Beth Durst. Combining the coziness of cottage core with the magical thrills of romantasy, this brand new world is one we can’t wait to share with readers.
When I sat down to write The Spellshop, I didn’t know what the story was. I knew I wanted it to be about a librarian, and I knew her library assistant (and best friend) was a sentient spider plant. And I knew how I wanted the book to feel:
Like a warm hug.
Like drinking hot chocolate. Or like eating really good raspberry jam.
We have all been through a lot in the last few years. There’s a lot of terrible out there—a lot of loss, a lot of anger, a lot of pain—and so much feels out of one’s control. I wanted to write a book that would be comforting and gentle and, hopefully, healing. I wanted my book to be an escape—to be a sanctuary, for anyone who needs it.
So I sat down with my librarian and my talking spider plant and started to write. I began with a fire (because what else is a better metaphor for the world these days), and I decided that Kiela was a librarian in the Great Library of Alyssium, a library full of spellbooks. When a revolution breaks out and the library begins to burn, she saves as many books as she possibly can and flees, along with her librarian assistant and best friend, who is a talking spider plant named Caz. They sail to Kiela’s childhood home, a remote and beautiful island, where they open a rather illegal spellshop that also sells raspberry jam.
I learned to make jam while I was writing this book. (You boil fruit and sugar and just keep stirring.) And I filled every chapter with as many things that bring me joy as I possibly could. That’s what I’d ask myself with each scene: “What can I add that makes me happy?”
So it has merhorses, winged cats, spellbooks, quirky new friends, and a kind neighbor with a smile like the sun coming out from behind the clouds over a stormy sea. It also has sunsets and raspberry bushes and really delicious cheese.
I knew right away that what I was writing was cozy fantasy. The most common definition you hear for cozy fantasy is “low stakes.” In this subgenre, you’re not saving the world; you’re saving a soul. The Spellshop is very cozy, very cottagecore, deliberately so. It’s about second chances, found family, and opening yourself up to friendship and love. And I loved every second of writing it!
You hear a lot about the pain of writing—there’s that often-paraphrased quote, “Writing is easy; you just open up a vein and bleed”—and yes, writing does have its moments of drama and angst and self-doubt and all that. But this book… I wrote it from a place of joy and love. It’s my gift to anyone who wants to escape and sink into a world filled with kindness and enchantment.
I hope you enjoy it!
