Hi, happy friends! Oooh!!! It’s my first book review since I have been back at it. I am glad to share with you why The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is an easy 5 out of 5 for me. I’m going to try really hard not to spoil this book because if you decide to read it, I don’t want to ruin the magic.

Our main protagonist, Keila, is a Librarian in the Great Library of Alyssium, along with her faithful assistant, a spider plant named Caz. During an uprising to overthrow the Emperor, the library burns in the flames! Good thing they prepared for this; with a few crates of spell books inside a small boat, both Keila and Caz flee with no hesitation. With nowhere else to go, Keila travels to a place all too familiar: her childhood Home in Caltrey. There, Keila and Caz both find out who they truly are and what they are capable of. A story of survival, love, courage, and a little bit of magic; The Spellshop brings a new meaning to the word home.

This was an easy 5 out of 5 for me because of three reasons:

1. The character development of our girl Keila. From the start, her character set the tone of “we gotta survive”. But by the end of the book, she found more than that! In Keila’s mind, she said that the situation with Clatrey is temporary. They were to stay there until they got word of what was happening in Alyssium. Then they would go back to the city and live happily ever after in whatever new library was put up after the fire. But then, as the book goes on, she starts to see the effects of the Emperor’s ruling and why her being a librarian is going to help cultivate the dying island of Caltrey. On top of that! Keila knew nothing but the library and Caz. She wasn’t used to people or being social, but now that she’s on this island, she has to develop a whole new personality. By the end of this book, Keila came out of her shell, and it was so beautiful to see. She walked with so much courage, and on top of that, she fell in love. Her life on the island gave not only the townspeople hope of a new start but also gave her the courage to move forward with her new life and home.

2. Larran and Keila’s love story was a slow burn, but I did not mind. Although a subplot, I feel like it was an important part of the book. Larren is one of the helpful townspeople who helps just about anyone, but is also a merhorse caretaker. Their story was forced proximity-ish. I had to keep in mind that Keila only knew the walls of the library, and whenever Larran did something nice and she was skiddish, I wanted to scream. I actually did at one point. He is a bit nosy, but in a good way. I had to give it to Keila; she knew her boundaries, she set them, and HE LISTENED! He remembered Keila when she was a little girl because she did something nice to one of his merhorses. So a part of him felt like he owed her for that kind gesture. As time went on, Larran became a big part of Keila’s character development because she ultimately lets her walls down and accepts the fact that she is also in love with him. HE DOES SOMETHING SUPER CUTE WHILE THEY’RE IN BRYN’S BAKERY! AND YES I DID LITERALLY SQUEAL WHEN I READ IT! Who doesn’t love a good love story along with some magic!

3. The theme of community and having a village. I 100% believe that everyone should have a village. It doesn’t have to be big, let it be 3 to 5 people, to me that’s enough. I feel like Keila going back to Caltrey made her realize that there was so much more to the library. Let’s just be real, this girl and Caz had a lot of social anxiety going on. As I read through the book, the sub characters help her feel that human interaction and she learned that having someone’s mental support is so important. She was there to seek refuge and was so headstrung to think that her situation was temporary. After opening the Jam Shop with the help of Bryn, the Bakery owner, and using her knowledge of research and the illegal books, she turned what was supposed to be a temporary plan into a plan to help her dying town. One by one, people in town needed her. In turn, she became close to everyone and slowly started to let he guard down and saw that she also needed them. You can see this big change in her spirit when she meets Radane. How she helped Radane was the way the townspeople helped her when she first landed on the island. In the last few chapters of the book, you can see that they came together as one to help each other out of a sticky situation. Keila was so thankful for what happened during this time that she couldn’t imagine where she would be if she had to leave.

Not going to lie, having to not write what I truly feel without spoiling the book is hard! This book was a very easy read and it took me out of my book slump. I am glad that I picked this up to get out of it. NOW ON TO THE NEXT BOOK!!!

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Don’t forget that happiness is in the little things you do to make this world a better place. Be kind to yourself and be kind to others… and as always, look out for yourself and one another. – C