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Stay for a Spell by Amy Coombe - This was my first cozy fantasy romance and I loved it. I really needed a low stakes feel good story and it fit the bill perfectly. It's a sweet romance with a lot of books and a lot of heart. I really enjoyed it.
Princess Tanadelle of the Widdenmar is disillusioned with life as a princess. She longs for real conversation, the chance to build a life of her own making, and uninterrupted reading time.
During a routine royal visit to the town of Little Pepperidge, Tandy’s dream comes true when she finds herself cursed to remain in a run-down bookshop until she unlocks her heart’s desire. Certain that someone will figure out how to break the curse eventually, and delighted by the prospect of an entire bookstore of her own, Tandy settles into life among the stacks. She finds it easy to exchange balls and endless state dinners for teetering piles of books and an irritatingly handsome pirate who seems bent on stealing her stock.
She even starts to believe she's stumbled into her very own happily ever after.
There's just one, minor problem: as Tandy's royal duties go unfulfilled, her frantic parents start sending princes to woo her, each one of them certain their kiss will break the curse. After all, what more could a princess want but a prince?
Bound to be Beautiful by Bari Zaki - I love the look of hand made books. I was hoping to pick up a few skills but the craft is rather intimidating. The book has nice step by step instructions and pictures, but I think I need something even more basic as a beginner's guide.
Discover the joy of hand-binding with this inspiring guide from expert bookbinder Bari Zaki.
Whether you're new to bookbinding or looking to refine your skills, you'll find more than 20 stunning projects here to spark your creativity – from classic soft and hardcover books to elegant albums, journals and folders.
Learn how to create eye-catching details such as window spines, recessed collage covers, and intricate exposed bindings using the Coptic stitch. Explore a variety of formats including envelope-page albums and drop-spine accordion books with hidden pockets – perfect for preserving memories.
Each project is infused with Bari's love of paper as she walks you through every step, sharing techniques for folding, glueing, and stitching, as well as her go-to tools and materials.
Even the more advanced case-bound and screw-post spine books feel achievable with Bari's clear, step-by-step approach – making this guide a must-have for bookbinders of all levels.
Sublimation by Isabel J. Kim - This is a thought provoking piece of alternative SF. I didn't particularly like the protagonists, but I thought their story was compelling and found the book hard to put down. The cover copy is a little misleading in that borders don't force an instance to be created, but there is the possibility of one being created whenever you cross one. The book follows 2 people who instanced in different ways.
The border cuts you in two.
When you immigrate, you leave a copy of yourself behind, an instance. One person enters their new country; the other stays trapped at home.
Some instances keep in touch, call each other daily, keep their lives and minds in sync in the hopes of reintegrating and resuming a life as one person. Others, like Soyoung Rose Kang, leave home at ten years old and never speak to their other selves again. Rose, in America, never imagined going back to Korea until her grandfather died and her Korean instance called her home for the funeral.
She doesn’t know that Soyoung plans to steal her body and her life.
How far would you go to live the choice you didn’t make?
Wildflower by Becky Jenkinson - I only made it 48 pages in before I had to stop reading. I found the world-building simply did not make any sense. While I loved the premise, the execution annoyed me too much.
Cursed from birth to always tell the truth, magical florist Felicity “Fliss” Farrow chooses her words carefully to avoid trouble. But when she receives an anonymous request for a mysterious flower, her search leads her directly into trouble’s path: to Willoh Vane.
Fliss knows the outcast—yet teasingly handsome—sorcerer is rumored to have used dark magic to corrupt the northern forest five years ago. She’s witnessed the resulting feud with Prince Bastion, whom her best friend, Card, is soon to marry. Despite her divided loyalty, Fliss reluctantly accepts Will’s help with gathering rare flowers and finds herself increasingly drawn to him.
As the royal wedding approaches, Fliss fears the flowers she’s delivered are intended for a sinister purpose. But when her warnings are ignored, can she and Will save the kingdom from disaster, and ultimately discover what Fliss has sought for so long—the truth.
What's a prince to do when the man of his dreams doesn’t want a crown and his cat is banned from the palace?
His Imperial Highness Faraj al-Nadhir has never thought himself a charming sort of prince. He’s shy, round, middle-aged, and always dutiful. But he has also secretly spent years dreaming of a man tending jasmine in a sun-lit window — prophetic visions that led him at last to one blissful night with someone who sees his heart, not his crown.
He did not expect to wake up with a cat walking on his face.
Cat-familiars are forbidden in the Imperial fortress. They might be spies. They might be soul-charmers. They might even sharpen their claws on thousand-year-old tapestries. But Faraj cannot regret that sweet little Sahar chose him — just as he cannot regret Asharan bir Chameli, the enchanting owner of the House of Jasmines. Asharan wants nothing to do with Faraj’s title and power, only his kindness. And Faraj hadn’t expected either the delights or the dilemmas of Asharan’s magical, soft-pawed little gift.
The rules have always been different for the God-Emperor's brother. Faraj never before realized how much.
Now he's breakfasting from community cauldrons in back alleys full of children and kittens. His foresight shows him a thousand paths toward disaster, but not the way through. His devoted chamberlain fears that Faraj has been bewitched by a purring agent of chaos, and Faraj can’t exactly say he’s wrong.
When the choice comes down to betraying his lover's name, his cat-familiar’s life, or his own use of forbidden magic, Faraj does the only thing he can: He gets himself put on trial for heresy, trying to change the laws of the Empire itself.
If his visions always lead him into trouble, he might as well make useful trouble.
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