This is my introduction to the author’s works and it was a sweet one.  I’ll definitely look for another when I need something to lift my spirits.

Kiela doesn’t do well with people so working as a librarian suits her.  She was born on a remote island but her parents moved her to the big city as a child.  They’ve passed and Kiela believes herself to be happy and content living and working in a gigantic library with only a sentient cactus to keep her company.  So it wasn’t surprising that a societal revolution took her by surprise; giving her mere hours to evacuate the library as it begins to burn down.  Stuffing as many books from her spell section of the library into as many crates as she can, she and Caz, the cactus, escape with several crates in a small boat.  With no real destination in mind, she can only go back to the island where her parents had a house.

Finding the island and the abandoned and decrepit house was a bittersweet end to their journey.  Kiela imagined that she could just quietly move in, do a bit of shopping in town, and no one would really know they were there or bother them. Since she left as a child, she could be forgiven for not understanding the nature of the island’s population: everyone knew everyone and nothing was really secret… This was a problem since Kiela wasn’t quite sure if her theft/rescue of the books belonging to the library would be considered illegal or heroic.

To her discomfort, even panic, her closest neighbor (who happened to be tall, broad-shouldered, with a lovely deep voice…) appeared inside her house to wake her the very first morning.  The hidden spellbooks were her first concern, eating was next; she wasn’t quite sure exactly how she was going to accomplish the latter. She’d been accustomed to the Library staff taking care of her needs.  With a few coins in hand, she went into the village and almost immediately was the focus of the village’s attention.  Mostly the explanation that she’d returned to her parents’ home was satisfactory; but the intense scrutiny was intimidating.

Finding a way to keep eating and support herself was of paramount importance.  So it wasn’t surprising that she started looking at her spellbooks and wondering if there was something there to help her.  What she decided she needed was a spell to invigorate plants – something she could eat.  But since she’s a librarian and not a wizard, it wasn’t easy to determine the strength of the spell she cast so she ended up with a garden full of mature fruit in an afternoon. This brought a solution to her: grow berries and make jam, something not available in the village and easily made with the help of her mother’s recipe book.

In an attempt to distract her nosy neighbor (he with the nice voice and shoulders), Larren, she agreed to accompany him down to the sea to meet his mer-horses.  To her dismay she learns that both the village’s decline and the mer-horses’ low birthrate were tied to the indiscriminate use of magic by the Empire’s many wizards.  A generation earlier, the Empire would send out wizards to the outlying islands to balance the magic; protecting the islands and making sure they prospered.  But a corrupt Emperor stopped the program, leaving islands like Kiela’s unprotected from horrific magic storms, declining crops, and leaving a magic-created race of mer-horses without the means of procreating.  And that led to Kiela’s next great idea; one that all but horrified Caz who was sure they’d be caught.  She decided that in addition to revitalizing the failing crops on the island, she would find a solution to the mer-horse problem. And she would do it under the guise of opening a Jam Shop (which would really be a Spellshop) and providing magic to the villagers as “home remedies.”  Did I mention that unsanctioned magic use in the Empire was very, very illegal?  But Kiela has no idea who is in power in the Empire since the revolution.

So, right on the heels of a bad magic storm, Larren rescues a young woman, Radane, alone on a small boat and brings her to the island.  Her arrival is what opens up all sorts of problems.  She claims to be a magic investigator sent by the Empire to find a wizard using illegal magic – Kiela is pretty sure that means her.  And it also seems to confirm that the Empire is still in power.  She also provides a temptation to Larren which unaccountably distresses Kiela.  But Kiela is much more concerned about protecting the village’s inhabitants; many of whom have become friends – something she never dreamed of having.

So, Kiela has to find ways of saving the island, helping the mer-horses and stay out of jail; all while navigating unfamiliar emotions stirred up by Larren.  But Radane’s true story isn’t at all expected and causes Kiela to consider helping the woman, as well, despite the threat of imprisonment or worse.

While the threat is real, this reader never really believed Kiela to be in any danger; the story and Kiela are just too sweet.  I did worry that Kiela might be forced to leave the island, Larren, and all her new friends.  I couldn’t quite see how she was going to do all that and escape the law.  But the author handled that quite adroitly.

The plot was sufficiently complex to keep me interested and I completely enjoyed the characters the author created.  Even the sideline plotlines were engaging. And even though I knew I was going into a romcom where you can usually be sure everyone lives happily ever after, the conflicts were real and caused me some anxiety.  I really wanted those two crazy kids to get together.  Kudos to the author for giving this reader a delightfully cozy story to enjoy.   ~~  Catherine Book

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