Review of The Faraway Inn, by Sarah Beth Durst

Fantasy, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

The Faraway Inn

by Sarah Beth Durst
read by Soneela Nankani

Listening Library, 2026. 11 hours, 2 minutes.
Review written April 21, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I’ve loved Sarah Beth Durst’s books for years, so I’m delighted that now they’re hugely popular at the library. The only catch is that it takes longer for a hold to come in. Today I ordered more print copies for the library than my initial purchase because demand was so high – I’m happy that others have found this wonderful author.

The Faraway Inn is an inn deep in the wilds of Vermont. Sixteen-year-old Calisa hasn’t been there since she was very small, when her Mom Kate had a falling-out with Calisa’s great-aunt, Auntie Zee. But now Calisa needs a refuge after she discovered her long-time boyfriend cheating on her. She needs to rethink her whole future and where she’ll apply to college – because it’s not going to be with him. Mom Kate suggests Calisa stay at the Faraway Inn and help out Auntie Zee for the summer.

But apparently Auntie Zee was not in on the plan. She tells Calisa she’s going to have to leave, then gives in that she can stay three days. This is despite the fact that she can obviously use some help. The yard and garden are completely overgrown, inside is rundown, the front porch breaks when Calisa steps on it, and the only staff is Jack, the son of the groundskeeper. The groundskeeper left on a supply run and hasn’t returned.

Auntie Zee tells Calisa there are two rules in the inn: No opening doors without permission, and no asking questions. Calisa quickly accumulates lots of questions. She tries asking Jack, but he’s evasive.

The beginning of the book felt slow to me, because it took Calisa forever to figure out there was magic going on. I had to remind myself that she didn’t know she’s a character in a fantasy novel, so she wasn’t primed for it like I was as a reader. But the book becomes delightful after the magic becomes impossible to ignore, and it’s more a matter of finding out how it works to solve some tough problems – like finding Jack’s dad. And getting the inn in better shape for guests. Yes, there’s some romance, but it stays sweet and low-key.

There’s also some fun magic wildness in the guests from other realms, and it ends up being a happy story full of magical possibilities. And like Sarah Beth Durst’s other books (Go back and read them if you’re only discovering her now!), it’s a whole lot of fun.

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Review of Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter, by Heather Fawcett

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter

by Heather Fawcett

Del Rey, 2026. 353 pages.
Review written April 14, 2026, from my own copy purchased via Amazon.com.
Starred Review

I love Heather Fawcett’s Emily Wilde books so much, that when I saw she had a new cozy fantasy novel coming out, I preordered my own copy. Sure, I can read the library’s book, but this is going to be a favorite I’ll want to come back to.

As with Emily Wilde, Agnes Aubert is an ordinary woman – but also very competent and single-minded – who encounters a man who is not quite human.

Agnes is a widow who runs a cat shelter with her sister in 1920s alternate-reality Montreal – but the shop she was renting to run her shelter was recently completely destroyed by two irresponsible magicians having a duel. She looks all over the city for somewhere to move her cats, but everywhere she looks is either too expensive or won’t allow so many cats.

So when a shop in an upscale part of town eagerly signs her up at a reasonable price, she does wonder what’s up. But she’s too desperate for her cats to have a roof over their heads to hesitate for long. But when it turns out that the most notorious magician in the world – the Witch King himself – is running a magic shop in the basement, she’s a bit alarmed.

It turns out the Witch King is socially awkward and allergic to cats. But even he can’t keep a determined cat out of his rooms. And his sister – also a powerful magician – wants a powerful artefact she says he has.

Well, Agnes is not surprised he can’t find it – his rooms are a disorganized mess! That’s something she can fix. And then maybe these magicians will get out of her life.

With all the cats plus many mentions of good food (from the enchanted oven), “cozy fantasy” is the perfect description of this book, solidifying my conviction that it’s my new favorite genre. This one will make you smile. I hope it’s only the beginning of another series.

heatherfawcett.com
heatherfawcett.substack.com
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Review of Relit, edited by Sandra Proudman

Fantasy, Short Stories, Starred Review, Teen Fiction Review 0

Relit

16 Latinx Remixes of Classic Stories

edited by Sandra Proudman

Inkyard Press, 2024. 346 pages.
Review written December 26, 2024, from a library book.
Starred Review

Here’s a bit of the Foreword from the editor so you know what’s going on in Relit:

This anthology began with a hope, a dream, a spark of an idea that the contributing authors and I felt passionately about: to take some of the most popular classics out there (the novels, myths, and plays we’ve all read in class or seen adaptations of on TV and in movies)… and reimagine, reignite, remix them into some epic science fiction and fantasy tales, with Latinx characters at the center of all the action.

I’ve always loved a good retelling, and this authors of the stories in this collection bring creativity and a sense of fun to the originals. Some of my favorites: Anna Meriano starts off by giving us Pride and Prejudice as livestreamed from space. Monica Sanz gives us a version of Jane Eyre with witchcraft and some female empowerment. David Bowles writes a science fiction version of Hamlet with fighting in mech suits. And Sandra Proudman does a version of The Old Man and the Sea in the future barren desert of Nevada.

There’s lots more here, with a collection of stellar authors retelling tales as varied as “Bartleby, the Scrivener” and “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” They all have a speculative fiction twist, and they all feature Latinx characters showing resourcefulness and creativity. It took me a long time to get this book read – it’s too tempting to put it down between stories – but that way I got to lengthen the fun.

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Review of Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

Bookshops & Bonedust

by Travis Baldree
read by the Author

Macmillan Audio, 2023. 8 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written March 27, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred review

I have discovered my new favorite genre! Okay, I’ve already read lots of books in this genre and loved them, but when I read a Writer’s Digest interview with this author and heard his books described as “Cozy Fantasy,” I knew I would like them. I was completely correct.

In fact, I think the adult Cozy Fantasy genre is exactly what I liked about Young Adult Fantasy when I started writing Sonderbooks 25 years ago. Okay, the current Cozy Fantasy has a little more sex, but not super graphic sex. Current Young Adult Fantasy has gotten a lot darker, in general, as well as getting sexier, and I still enjoy it, but it’s a little harder to find stories I love. I also sympathize a whole lot less with tropes like the good and noble prince with a terribly evil father ruling, but the prince falls in love with a commoner oppressed by his father. Or other tropes that I’ve seen before which aren’t so wonderfully healthy if you think about them very long. Cozy Fantasy, though, currently seems like a good bet I’ll like it. (Anyway, I’m going to test that out and search for Cozy Fantasy and see how long that lasts.) 25 years ago or so, I said I didn’t like adult fantasy too much because it was mostly epic quests and detailed world-building, and I preferred young adult fantasy which had a mythic element, simpler with a fairy-tale feeling. (I still love fairy tale retellings.) It seems to me that Cozy Fantasy has recaptured that simplicity, throwing a dash of magic into a world you might want to live in.

Okay, so this book is actually a prequel – described as #0 in the series by Libby – and I decided to read it first. I was completely charmed and will queue up to read the rest of his books. (And the author does a great job reading it.)

Our main character is Viv, an orc who works as a mercenary with an elite group of rangers chasing down a necromancer. In the prologue, she gets out ahead of her group, fighting and slaying some wights – when one of them gives her a severe leg wound. Viv has to stay in one place to recover, so she’s in a quiet sea village waiting for the rangers to come back for her.

As an orc, Viv’s an imposing figure, but Fern, the ratkin who owns the village bookshop, dares to recommend a novel to Viv – and a friendship is born, as well as a new habit for Viv. Fern’s bookshop, which she inherited from her father, is cluttered, has a smelly rug, and is in general disrepair. Viv helps Fern spruce things up and revive her business.

But while that is happening, someone comes to the village with the smell of death. Some articles owned by the necromancer turn up in their town, and it’s no surprise to the reader when the battle with the necromancer comes to Viv before she’s necessarily ready.

But most of the story is about the characters and relationships. Enough so that we’re super concerned for everyone in the village when the big showdown happens.

I do love the way an orc who turns out to love to read is our main character. Okay, she is a skilled mercenary, but there’s a lot more to her than that. I was completely charmed by this book and ready to read the other books about Viv and Fern reunited years later (with Viv married to a succubus) in another town. Cozy fantasy is the perfect way to describe this.

travisbaldree.com

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Review of The Library of Unruly Treasures, by Jeanne Birdsall

Audiobooks, Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy 0

The Library of Unruly Treasures

by Jeanne Birdsall
read by Sorcha Groundsell

Listening Library, 2025. 7 hours, 51 minutes.
Review written March 16, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.

Like The Penderwicks series by the same author, The Library of Unruly Treasures is a sweet and old-fashioned story. There’s magic hidden in the everyday world that only the kids can see.

The Prologue starts with a tale of a girl going with her brother across the sea from Scotland to America, and convincing the Lahdukan of her clan to come along. The Lahdukan are small people with wings. Only children under the age of six – and the Calban of the clan – can see them. The current Calba is responsible for protecting them, and it’s passed down to girls of the clan on their 11th birthday.

Then we come to the present, and Gwen MacKinnon comes to stay with her great-uncle Matthew while her neglectful parents are off on separate adventures. There’s a library in town named after her family, and the small children there talk about small flying people. Before long, they show themselves to Gwen, too – and it looks like they expect her to be their next Calba.

But the Lahdukan are in trouble. The library is going to be renovated and upgraded very soon, and their nests are sure to be disturbed. They will find a prophecy to find out where they need to go next, and they will need Gwen’s help to get there.

Before I comment further, let me say this is a sweet and enjoyable story. Lots of fun, and Gwen and her Uncle Matthew – and the Lahdukan and other characters – are all wonderful people to spend time with.

However, many of the obstacles and trials in the book were based entirely on the prophecies the Lahdukan told Gwen about, and that felt pretty artificial after a while. I suppose it was a cute trait of the Lahdukan that they relied so much on prophecies, but the charm wore off for me. Also, I work in a library and am currently involved in reopening a renovated branch – and I simply could not believe the haphazard job portrayed in this book. The one librarian working there wasn’t even sure when the workers would come and apparently didn’t have a chance to move her own things, and there was no talk of a temporary location, and I just find the lack of bureaucracy over a major renovation extremely hard to believe. (It also gave me new appreciation for bureaucracy, as I wondered how safe it all was for children and other visitors to the library.)

However, most kids won’t care about these persnickety details and will simply enjoy the fun of Gwen helping out these winged people that only children can see.

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Review of The Summer War, by Naomi Novik

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Summer War

by Naomi Novik

Del Rey, 2025. 127 pages.
Review written March 11, 2026, from a library book.
Starred Review

This is a novella by fantasy master Naomi Novik – so it’s about the same length as the children’s books I often read. Naomi Novik doesn’t need much time pulling you into her fantasy worlds. The book begins:

Celia was twelve years old on the day she cursed her brother.

The book reminded me of Robin McKinley’s The Hero and the Crown [and this is a high compliment!], because it begins with a long section about the past, how Celia grew up alienated from others and didn’t have magic. But the day she cursed her brother – for suddenly leaving her, and not caring – was the day she discovered her magic. She hadn’t known her curse would be effective, but the emotion and passion behind the curse awakened the strong magic within her.

After the explanation of this incident, we hear about the Summer War between humans and the summerlings, who live in the Summer Kingdom. The war went on for a hundred years, but Celia’s father, a general, supposedly stopped it with his tactics. Now the king is wary of him, but Celia’s father is also mourning the departure of his oldest son, and Celia and her remaining brother must keep things going.

But the main action of the book happens when Celia is fifteen. [This book could very well have been published for young adults. The only reason I can think that it wasn’t was to attract Naomi Novik’s existing fans.] She gets drawn into the Summer Kingdom and there is danger of the Summer War starting up again, and many are in peril, and the mess requires great skill and cleverness to solve. And Celia would like to break her brother’s curse as well.

This is a quick read, but it’s full of magic and the otherworldly, and it showcases Naomi Novik’s magical weaving of worlds.

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Review of A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping, by Sangu Mandanna

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping

by Sangu Mandanna
read by Samara MacLaren

Books on Tape, 2025. 9 hours, 53 minutes.
Review written February 23, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

I think this audiobook was suggested to me after I finished Sarah Beth Durst’s latest. If so, the recommendation was spot-on. This is also a cozy fantasy story with all kinds of feel-good vibes.

At 15 years old, Sera Swan was one of the two most powerful witches in Britain. But she was an outsider because she wasn’t from a long-standing British magical family. So when she uses up her magic to bring her great-aunt back from death, instead of other witches helping her get it back, she’s put in exile from all magic society.

Fifteen years later, Sera is making do with only a tiny bit of magic. She’s running the inn with her great-aunt, protected by the spell she performed as a child – only allowing those who truly need the inn to find it. They’ve assembled a hodge-podge family of sorts – an overeager elderly lady, a young man who works at the Renaissance Fair and calls himself her knight, and Sera’s young cousin Theo who is learning the fundamentals of magic – and letting Sera read the more advanced texts he checks out. And then there’s Clemmie, the witch who turned herself into a fox when a curse backfired. She wants Sera to regain her power and restore her as well.

And now it looks like Sera may be able to restore her power. With the help of the powerful Restoration spell – and the handsome librarian who has shown up at the inn, needing a place for his young sister, who is a witch but is also autistic and doesn’t always follow the rules. But then there’s the matter of figuring out the ingredients of the spell.

This is a delightfully cozy story with a clear progression of tasks for Sera, but some setbacks and plot twists along the way. I found myself loving the assortment of characters at the inn – while hating the villain who is indeed despicable but powerful. I wish I could find my way to this magical inn, but enjoying through the book was perfect.

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Review of The Magician of Tiger Castle, by Louis Sachar

Audiobooks, Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Magician of Tiger Castle

by Louis Sachar
read by Edoardo Ballerini

Books on Tape, 2025. 7 hours, 17 minutes.
Review written February 12, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

Louis Sachar has written a book for adults!

Louis Sachar is the Newbery-winning author of Holes and the Wayside School books, both of which I read before I started writing Sonderbooks. (I do have a review up of his 2010 book, The Cardturner.) From those books, I already knew he’s especially good at intricate, clever plots – and yes, that’s a way this book shines as well.

By the time my hold came in on this audiobook, I’d forgotten it was for adults, and just saw it was a Louis Sachar book. So I was a bit surprised when the main character was a man in his forties. After said main character was surprisingly frank about some bodily functions (nothing crude, just surprising if you thought it was a children’s book) – I remembered it was his first novel for adults.

The book begins with Anatole sipping tea at a cafe in front of a castle that keeps a tiger in the moat. As he talks about what the tour guide is saying to a group, we begin to realize he knows a lot more about the castle than he should. And then he launches into the story of how the first tiger came to the castle in the 16th Century as a betrothal gift to the princess of Esquaveta (which was the small country the castle ruled then) in preparation for the wedding of the century.

Anatole was then the royal magician. He didn’t cast spells, but he was exceptionally skilled at mixing potions. As the wedding approached, Princess Tullia declared that she was not going to marry the prince of a neighboring country because she’d fallen in love with her tutor. The tutor was now in the dungeon, and the king tasked Anatole with making the princess go through with the marriage and saving Esquavita from the neighboring kingdom’s powerful army.

And that’s the story that follows. At first, Anatole simply plans to fulfill the king’s command. He’ll make a potion to make the two lovebirds forget all about each other. But he needs to get close to the prisoner in order to get a heartfelt tear for the potion – and that involves getting to know him. And things get much more complicated than they seem at first.

So this is a fantasy story – Anatole is very good at making potions, and we appreciate all the work and experimentation he puts into making it just right. This is no romantasy – but we do come to care about the princess and the prisoner, and there is definitely a romantic subplot – even if their love must first be thwarted. As I mentioned, this author is particularly good at plotting, and he had me intent on the story every step of the way.

Yes, adults who read and loved Holes as kids are going to love this, too. It’s a completely different story, but it does appeal to the same part of my brain that loves a tightly constructed plot with characters you can’t help but care about.

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Review of The Enchanted Greenhouse, by Sarah Beth Durst, by Caitlin Davies

Fantasy, Fiction Review, Starred Review 0

The Enchanted Greenhouse

by Sarah Beth Durst
read by Caitlin Davies

Macmillan Audio, 2025. 13 hours, 33 minutes.
Review written February 7, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review

The Enchanted Greenhouse is another cozy fantasy romance from Sarah Beth Durst, set in the same world as The Spellshop. Though this book was written after The Spellshop, I think you’d be able to read the books in any order. And if you enjoy one, you’ll enjoy the other. I was delighted to learn the origin of the sentient spider plant who was the friend of the main character in the first book.

However, enchanting that spider plant into life got our main character, Terlu, into deep trouble. She was a librarian in the Great Library of Alyssium, the Empire’s capital city, and she got lonely in the stacks with no one to talk to. So she enchanted a spider plant to keep her company. But the law declared that only sorcerers were allowed to do magic. Terlu was discovered and found guilty – and condemned to be a statue in the Great Library as a warning to others.

But then Terlu wakes up in a snowy forest. She’s not a statue any more. She goes searching for others and finds a giant enchanted greenhouse, with many smaller greenhouses inside of it, full of wonders. There is one gardener on the island in charge of it all. He’d expected that the statue he’d been sent and awoken was a sorcerer to help him solve the problem of the greenhouses failing after the death of the sorcerer who’d created them. Instead he got a librarian who’s afraid to do magic because she doesn’t want to be turned into a statue again.

But it turns out the gardener, Yarrow, is a kind man (and handsome!) and he gives her food and shelter for as long as she wants to stay. And then Terlu waters and awakens a small sentient rose plant who had been dormant. And this rose convinces her to seek a spell to awaken her fellow sentient plants who are all in an enchanted sleep. Between that and the failing greenhouses, Terlu realizes that she needs to figure out the old sorcerer’s spells to help these other beings. Fortunately, she’s skilled in multiple languages, though she might need a little help with code-breaking.

That’s the world of this book, and it adds up to another sweet and satisfying cozy magical story.

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Review of The Queen’s Secret, by Jessica Day George

Children's Fiction Review, Fantasy, Starred Review 0

The Queen’s Secret

Rose Legacy, Book Two

by Jessica Day George

Bloomsbury Children’s Books, 2019. 250 pages.
Starred Review

This is the second book in a planned trilogy about a land of exiles where people can communicate with horses. And our heroine, Anthea, has an especially strong bond, able to communicate with all the horses, not only Florian, the stallion who’s bonded to her.

I enjoyed this book more than the first one. In that one, the set-up of magical telepathic communication with horses seemed a little bit too much like generic wish-fulfillment.

In this book, the set-up is done, and I enjoyed seeing the people and horses trying to work together. The horse communication seems horsey, not just the thoughts of people attributed to horses.

The Horse Brigade has the favor of the queen – but the king is not so easily won over. As the book opens, they are trying to prove themselves by carrying messages and trying to be useful in the king’s service. However, as things develop, it appears that someone is working against them.

Then an outbreak of illness starts – in the exact places where the horses had been. For a country that already thought horses bring disease, trying to win support for the Horse Brigade just became much more difficult.

The book does end on a disastrous note. We will have to wait for the next book to see how Anthea and the horses of Last Farm can overcome a major setback.

These books are perfect for fantasy-lovers who also love horses. It takes the idea of becoming one with your horse to the next level.

jessicadaygeorge.com
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