Sarah Beth Durst's The Spellshop is the rare fantasy where the highest stakes are a good jam harvest. Kiela flees the burning Great Library with an armful of forbidden spellbooks and Caz, her sentient spider plant, and washes up on the remote island where she grew up — where, instead of saving the world, she opens a little jam-and-spell shop and lets a small life grow back around her.
Readers tend to love it for the same handful of things: the cottagecore hush of an island cottage and a berry garden, a lonely librarian slowly folded into a community, and a quiet, low-drama romance with the neighbour next door. It has been called a bedtime story, and it means that kindly.
If that is the feeling you want to keep — gentle stakes, found family, a shop to tend — here is what we would hand you next. In-stock favourites first, then two we would happily order in.
The one you loved
Island LifeCottagecore
The Spellshop
A shy librarian rescues a trove of forbidden spellbooks and retreats to her late parents' island cottage, where she quietly turns magic into jam and slowly lets people back in. Bees, blossom, a chatty sentient houseplant, and the warm ache of learning to belong somewhere. Read it when you want gardens, neighbours and a fresh start.
If you loved The Spellshop, try these
The one most readers reach for first: a tired orc mercenary hangs up her sword to open a coffee shop, and the whole pleasure is watching a small business and its regulars take root. The same cosy-commerce comfort as Kiela's jam-and-spell shop.
On our shelves →
A mage and her knight slip away from the capital's reach to open a teahouse in a far-off town — the same 'run from the empire, open a quiet shop' spine as Kiela's flight from the Library, with a community to fold into and a tender sapphic slow burn.
On our shelves →
A young mercenary, benched in a sleepy seaside town, coaxes a failing bookshop back to life over baked goods and bickering friends. The same pleasure as watching Kiela revive a little shop on her island.
On our shelves →
A witch who has spent years hiding her magic arrives at a new home and is slowly, helplessly absorbed into a found family — grumpy bookish librarian included. If it was Kiela and Larran's gentle thaw you loved, this is almost the same arc.
On our shelves →
For the bookish heart of The Spellshop: a prickly scholar decamps to a snowbound cottage to do quiet, careful, magical work, with a slow-burn romance she would frankly rather catalogue than admit to. An introvert and her books in a cosy, remote place.
On our shelves →
The pairing people reach for in both directions. A buttoned-up loner washes up on a sunlit island, finds a found family and an unhurried romance, and mends without quite noticing — the same island warmth and manageable stakes.
On our shelves →
If it was the gentleness more than the plot, here is a tea monk wandering in search of meaning with a robot for company — a kinder cousin to Kiela and Caz. Conflict-light and deeply soothing.
On our shelves →
Durst's own return to the same world — more cottagecore magic, more growing things. It is the single most-asked 'what next' from Spellshop readers; we do not have it on the shelves yet, but it is the obvious one to chase.
Two lonely people in a small fantasy town, building a careful, mutual-understanding romance — the same warm, lower-stakes romantasy register. Not in our stock, but it shelves naturally beside The Spellshop.
Good questions
Legends & Lattes is the usual first port of call — the same cosy-commerce comfort. After that, Can't Spell Treason Without Tea and The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches both scratch the same itch. If you want Durst's own world again, The Enchanted Greenhouse is the one to hunt down.
Not a direct sequel — Kiela's story reads as a complete, finished standalone. Durst has since written The Enchanted Greenhouse, a separate standalone set in the same world, which is the closest thing to 'more of this'.
It is a standalone — you can read it on its own and come away with a whole story. The Enchanted Greenhouse shares its world but stands alone too, so there is no reading order to worry about.
Firmly on the gentle, low-heat end. The romance between Kiela and her neighbour Larran is a slow, quiet burn between two introverts — tender rather than steamy.
They are close cousins: both follow someone quitting their old life to build a little shop and a found family. Legends & Lattes is the more urban, tavern-warm one; The Spellshop is softer and more pastoral — island cottage, berry garden, jam on the stove. Want cottagecore, start with Spellshop; want the original cosy-commerce blueprint, Legends.
Travis Baldree, Rebecca Thorne, Sangu Mandanna, TJ Klune and Becky Chambers are the names to follow for this gentle, low-stakes cosy-fantasy register.
The Cosy Corner →Will Hug You →Whimsy & Folklore → ← More read-alikes Browse every book →