The Spellshop, by Sarah Beth Durst

The Spellshop is an utter delight of a sweet, satisfying girl-finds-friendship-love-community-and-magic story—and it is stressful as all heck! Do not be deceived by that warm, glowing cover (what a gorgeous cover!): this book begins with a library on fire, and the tension doesn’t let up. I was seriously worried, ok?  Because Kiela and Caz and the weird and wonderful inhabitants of Caltrey need to be safe and happy and thriving, and it's touch-and-go there for a while. 

Personally, I think Sarah Beth Durst cheated. Knowing that her readers probably like books, she made her main character a librarian saving books from a fire. So we have to like her! Kiela is actually a really interesting character, because, other than saving the books, she's not particularly likeable. Introverted to the point of shunning all human contact, paranoid and suspicious (for very good reasons, yes), she makes things hard for herself by building walls between her and everyone who could help her. The tension of whether and how those walls will be torn down is added to—and gradually supplants—the tension of is she being chased? will they find her? what will they do to her when they do? And once she starts caring about more people the stakes just keep going up, because now it's not just the books and Caz at risk.

Caz might be the best thing about this book. Durst is excellent at creating magical sidekicks, and Caz is fighting with Monster (from The Girl Who Could Not Dream) for first place in my heart. (Might have to reread Dream and get back to you on that.) Caz certainly wins for most unique; also I love that the talking plant created by a rogue librarian is a spider plant—what library would be with out one!

The romance is possibly a little too perfect, but we didn't come to this book looking for realism, did we? We came because we wanted a guy who builds bookshelves and keeps secrets, respects boundaries but is patient enough to coax Kiela out of her thorn-encased heart.

I thought the resolution was interesting and satisfying—I won't spoil anything, but it was nice to see alternate ways of handling conflict.

Sarah Beth Durst is a wonderfully diverse writer—The Spellshop is different again from anything else she's written—and I look forward to seeing what she comes up with next!