Cozy Fantasy

Book Review: AGNES AUBERT’S MYSTICAL CAT SHELTER

| Jessica Crawford
The above was originally an MP4 video file in which the cat at the bottom is animated and spins around. For some reason, none of the embed codes from Canva work for me in WordPress, so I uploaded it as a JPEG image instead. The result is what you see above–the back view of a cat facing away. I tried, fam! But honestly, I kind of dig this version, too.

Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett is a 353 standalone novel published in February of 2026 by Del Rey.

Genre:

Cozy Fantasy

Blurb:

A woman who runs a cat rescue in 1920s Montreal turns to a grouchy but charming wizard to help save the shelter in this heartwarming cozy fantasy from the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.

Agnes Aubert leads a meticulously organized life—and she likes it that way. As the proudly type-A manager of a much-needed cat rescue charity, she has devoted her life to finding forever homes for lost cats.

But after she is forced to move the cat shelter, Agnes learns that her new landlord is using her charity as a front—for an internationally renowned and thoroughly disreputable magic shop. Owned by the disorganized—not to mention self-absorbed, irritating, but also decidedly handsome—Havelock Renard, magician and failed Dark Lord, the shop draws magical clientele from around the world, partly due to the quality of Havelock’s illicit goods as well as their curiosity about his shadowy past and rumors of his incredible powers. Agnes’s charity offers the perfect cover for illegal magics.

Agnes couldn’t care less about the shop—magical intrigue or not, there are cats to be rescued. But when an enemy from Havelock’s past surfaces, the magic shop—and more importantly, the cat shelter—are suddenly in jeopardy. To save the shelter, will Agnes have to set aside her social conscience and protect the man who once tried to bring about the apocalypse—and is now trying to steal her heart?

Opening Line

I paused on the threshold of the shop to stamp the frost from my boots.

My Thoughts

As a cat lover myself, this cozy fantasy about a cat rescue shelter hit all the right notes on that front. The author clearly knows the species and the varied personalities one is likely to find among its members, which is delightful.

That being said, the story built around this core is…fine. But honestly nothing all that mindblowing.

Agnes is Type A and dedicated to rescuing strays when she finds herself in a pinch and has to move her shop to the only location within her means, a suspiciously affordable front on the Rue des Hirondelles. She is initially alarmed to learn that her new landlord is none other than the infamous Dark Wizard Havelock Renard, who is using her business as a front for his illegal trade in magical Artefacts in the building’s basement. But not only is Agnes in no position to find another shop, she soon learns that the renowned master magician may just be more awkward and curmudgeonly than evil, and people may have gotten the completely wrong idea about what really happened when the world almost ended three years before. Now it turns out there is a truly wicked magician after Havelock, and Agnes and her cats may be in harm’s way.

It was nice, it was fine. But where this book really works well is in the cozy vibes brought by the cats and the pastries and the crackling fires in the hearth while frost coats the streets of 1920s Montreal. For these reasons alone I enjoyed my reading experience. If you’re looking for a story like that as a nice balm to the soul, give this one a try. But if you want epic storytelling, perhaps look elsewhere. I personally feel like the author’s Emily Wilde series did a better job at balancing the two.

Book Review: EMILY WILDE’S COMPENDIUM OF LOST TALES by Heather Fawcett

| Jessica Crawford

Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett is the third book in the Emily Wilde series. It is 358 pages and was published by Del Rey in 2025.

Genre:

Fantasy

Subgenres:

Cozy, academia, Fae

Opening Line:

If there is one subject upon which Wendell and I will never agree, it is the wisdom of attempting to drag a cat into Faerie.

Synopsis:

The third installment in the heartwarming and enchanting Emily Wilde series, about a curmudgeonly scholar of folklore and the fae prince she loves.

Emily Wilde has spent her life studying faeries. A renowned dryadologist, she has documented hundreds of species of Folk in her Encyclopaedia of Faeries. Now she is about to embark on her most dangerous academic project studying the inner workings of a faerie realm—as its queen.

Along with her former academic rival—now fiancé—the dashing and mercurial Wendell Bambleby, Emily is immediately thrust into the deadly intrigues of Faerie as the two of them seize the throne of Wendell’s long-lost kingdom, which Emily finds a beautiful nightmare filled with scholarly treasures.

Emily has been obsessed with faerie stories her entire life, but at first she feels as ill-suited to Faerie as she did to the mortal How can an unassuming scholar such as herself pass for a queen? Yet there is little time to settle in, for Wendell’s murderous stepmother has placed a deadly curse upon the land before vanishing without a trace. It will take all of Wendell’s magic—and Emily’s knowledge of stories—to unravel the mystery before they lose everything they hold dear.

My Thoughts:

“We should start with…the old queen’s ladies-in-waiting.” “Most of them have fled.” “Or they’ve been killed,” Lord Taran said. “Oops.”

What a treat it was to return to the world of Emily Wilde and Wendell! But ultimately this third installment of their tale seemed a bit gratuitous.

When Emily and Wendell travel to the latter’s realm in Faerie to take their places as its rulers, they find that the old queen, in her defeat, has cursed the land. Emily believes the answer to how to address this problem lies in the stories told in Faerie, as the rules of that place don’t necessarily follow the same logics that the mortal world does.

This wasn’t as tightly plotted as the previous books of the series, but it was still a real pleasure to spend time in Emily’s wondrous world, oftentimes as horrifying as it is amusing.

Faerie snails possess a crude intelligence and value their dignity above all things; as such, they spend most of their lives occupied with revenge quests. While their vengeance may be slow in coming, they will always have it in the end.

I do wish I had reread the previous installments before staring this one, as there were several secondary characters I simply did not remember. But this was overall still quite a lark, and I will happily read on in the series should the author choose to write more!

Book Review: THE SPELLSHOP by Sarah Beth Durst

| Jessica Crawford

The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst is a 384 page standalone novel published in 2024. (I saw it labeled as “Librarians of Alyssium #1” somewhere, but I can’t find where – but either way, this story can stand by itself.)

Genre:

Fantasy

Subgenres:

Cozy Fantasy, Romantasy, Romance

Opening Line

Kiela never thought the flames would reach the library.

My Thoughts

When revolution makes the city of Alyssium a dangerous place to be, librarian Kiela and her sentient spider plant assistant flee to the outer island of Caltrey. There they meet caring neighbors, winged cats, merhorses, and more, while also growing their own ingredients to make and sell jam. If anyone from the city ever learns that Kiela is illegally using spells to heal the island’s ecosystem, there could be dire consequences. Also there is a gentle romance.

This book was intended to be like a warm hug, eliciting the coziness of drinking hot cocoa and eating pastries. In this regard, it is a success. My preferred reads tend to be darker, grittier, and more dramatic, so based purely on my personal enjoyment I would say this was a 3 star read. But I knew to expect a warm cozy fantasy with sweet relationships, and that’s exactly what I got, so taking that into account it’s a 4.

🌿🍓🧜🥧❤️🌈

Bookshop.org

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Book Review: HOUSE OF FRANK by Kay Synclaire

| Jessica Crawford

House of Frank by Kay Synclaire is a standalone novel coming October 15th from Bindery Books.

Genre:

Cozy Fantasy, Romance, LGBTQIA+

Opening Line:

“Sing for me,” you whisper. “Please.”

My Thoughts:

3.5 stars for this is a cozy fantasy story with grieving as a major theme throughout, and an LGBTQIA+ romance.

Saika is a music witch mourning the death of her sister. Fiona made her promise to see that her ashes were planted at the arboretum at Ash Gardens, where they will grow into something beautiful. Even after she arrives at Ash Gardens, Saika finds she is not yet ready to part with her sister’s ashes, and she winds up staying on and helping out around the place. She gets to know the others employed there, including cherubs, an elf, a half-gargoyle, and a one-of-a-kind beast. It turns out they are all suffering their own losses, and develop relationships that allow them to help one another navigate through their grief.

This was nice story of love, loss, friendship, and healing. The range of characters was nice, although you only get to know a few of them beyond surface level. I wasn’t really feeling the romance between our two lovebirds, personally–their interactions with one another were more irritating than anything, in my opinion, but it made for a sweet story. This is a slower-paced character driven tale, and though it takes place in a fantasy world, we are only shown this one specific part of it at Ash Gardens (with one day trip into the city). Potential readers should also know the narration often veers into second person, as Saika addressing her departed sister. It’s not like the entire book is written in second person point of view, but some people may be turned off even by a portion of it being so.

Now if I may grumble a little bit – when Saika reads that a dragon laying eggs means it’s trying to start a family and explains this to others, and their response is, “I had no idea!’…what exactly was their understanding of how eggs work?! Also, this is another case of me being taken by surprise by the occasional F-word sprinkled throughout–cursing in books doesn’t bother me (as long as it’s not excessive), but was surprising in what otherwise seemed like such a wholesome story.

But overall this was a decent cozy, emotional yet hopeful read.

Thank you to Bindery Books and NetGalley for the eARC in exchange for my unbiased review.

Bookshop.org

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Book Review: THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton

| Jessica Crawford

The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton is a 334 page novel published by Berkley in 2023. It is third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but can be read as a standalone.

Genre:

Historical Romance, Cozy Fantasy, Humor

Tropes:

Rivals to lovers, fake marriage

Opening Line:

It was the best of dress shops, it was the worst of dress shops.

Synopsis:

Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.

Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.

But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.

Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.

My Thoughts:

THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton 🫖☕️🕵️🏴‍☠️🧙‍♀️💗

A rivals to lovers, fake marriage historical romance with fantasy elements and neurodiverse main characters? Yes, please!

My Books on Tap group (we meet at a different brewery twice a month and go around the table taking turns discussing whatever book we’re reading at the time) recently had a mystery book swap night. We each brought a book wrapped up to hide its identity, then wrote a few descriptors on the front. This was the book I picked (actually, I wound up picking two because the host brought extra in case someone came empty handed). It is the third in the Dangerous Damsels series, but worked perfectly well as a standalone. I could tell which of the characters here had wound up together in previous books in the series.

Alice and Daniel are the two top agents in an underground agency that trains “the help” (maids, housekeepers, butlers, footmen, valets) in espionage. They must join a party of pirates (who, by the way, use incantations to make their houses fly) posing as a married couple in order to thwart a conspiracy to assassinate Queen Victoria. What follows is a fun and absurd romp that prioritizes humor over a sensible plot. Chapters begin with amusingly modified literary quotes from the likes of Austen.

There are pretty explicit open door love scenes, and mild comedic violence.

One complaint that is exceedingly minor in the grand scheme of things: I counted four instances of characters’ mouths shrugging. Wut?

I had been wanting to try this author and am glad the book swap gave me the opportunity. It was a fun story that managed to be fairly swoonworthy to boot.