Part of Spellshop
First published 2024
Kiela has spent ten years hiding in the Great Library of Alyssium with Caz, her magically sentient spider plant assistant. She prefers spellbooks to people and feels safe preserving ancient magic for the empire's elite. When revolution erupts and flames consume the library, Kiela grabs every spellbook she can carry and escapes to a remote island she abandoned long ago. Her childhood home offers refuge, but it also brings an attractive, persistent neighbor who keeps appearing with food and offers to repair her cottage. Kiela needs money, so she uses her parents' old recipe book and forbidden magic to grow perfect berries for jam. The island's bakery has nothing like it. Soon she takes a bigger risk and opens a hidden spellshop, the island's first, using the stolen magical texts. Her quiet life becomes complicated by the neighbor who won't leave her alone, the illegal spells she's casting, and the community that slowly draws her in.
Genres: romance, adventure, fantasy
Vibes: cozy, hopeful, intimate, slow-burn, whimsical
Tropes: forced-proximity, found-family, reluctant-hero, slow-burn-romance
Setting: Great Library of Alyssium, Alyssium, remote island
377 pages · Hardcover · Bramble