Into the Forest discussion

Hi everyone! Several of us are reading The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst, so I thought I'd set up a buddy read of it!

I'm 92 on the wait list, but there are 14 copies. Let's see how long this takes.

Mir wrote: "I'm 92 on the wait list, but there are 14 copies. Let's see how long this takes."

It's hard to tell!

How's everyone enjoying this so far? Any favorite characters?

I love the plants best, personally. :)

i put it on reserve at the library, i should be able to pick it up one day this week.

Latasha wrote: "i put it on reserve at the library, i should be able to pick it up one day this week."

Yay!

Hi! I've just seen this now. :)

I'm on Chapter 26. Really enjoying it a lot.

Favorite character...is all of them an acceptable answer?

Picked it up today. Read to chapter 2. Hopefully will get more reading done this weekend.

Erin Darrow wrote: "Hi! I've just seen this now. :)

I'm on Chapter 26. Really enjoying it a lot.

Favorite character...is all of them an acceptable answer?"

Ha, yes! :)

I just finished it this morning. I really found so delightful and enjoyable to read.

I still couldn't pick a favorite character...I still pretty much loved them all and I think I loved just about everything about this one. I found the characters and whimsy magic really charming.

Erin Darrow wrote: "I just finished it this morning. I really found so delightful and enjoyable to read.

I still couldn't pick a favorite character...I still pretty much loved them all and I think I loved just about ..."

Oh yay!!! I'm so glad you enjoyed it!

I confess, I found it a bit boring. But I will be delighted if everyone else loves it.

I'm so excited to start this one!!! what other cozy books is everyone reading?

I just finished The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society and it was delightful. It's a cozy fantasy mystery.

I also recently read The Phoenix Keeper recently and it was great. A Letter to the Luminous Deep is one of my favorite books of the year.

Margaret wrote: "I just finished The Village Library Demon-Hunting Society and it was delightful. It's a cozy fantasy mystery.

I also recently read The Phoenix Keeper recently and..."

Thank you for these recs! I can't wait!

You're welcome!

Read a bunch last night. I almost threw it against the wall. I am not loving Kiela at all. She's either growing on me or getting better so I'm gonna keep reading for now.

Latasha, Kiela got on my nerves a bit, but overall, the story was enjoyable for me.

Latasha wrote: "Read a bunch last night. I almost threw it against the wall. I am not loving Kiela at all. She's either growing on me or getting better so I'm gonna keep reading for now."

I feel the same. Loved the plants! Ha!

And I was really curious about the mer folk. I can no longer remember, why was the love interest in charge of a mer folk flock?

It's been too long and I can no longer remember the proper names of people.

He was training with a hermit and he passed away so he inherited them? I think that’s right.

Latasha wrote: "He was training with a hermit and he passed away so he inherited them? I think that’s right."

Yes, but why did the merpeople need someone to care of them? What did they provide the village?

It remember that being his job, so I'm just wondering how he made a living caring for them (and why couldn't they care for themselves?).

Other than when they were giving birth, I don’t know they needed people to care for them.

I am still not understanding what love interest's job was, but that's ok, ha!

I can understand finding it a bit boring. I rather enjoyed the quietness of the story myself.

From what I remember, the merhorses helped the islanders with fishing. Finding where they were abundant and whatnot. I'm not sure why they needed people to care for them, either. Perhaps since the loss of magic caretaking on the island and because they were unable to successfully breed and so on? I'd consider them analogous to land horses - they live in the wild just fine and they also live domestically and help humans.

Amy wrote: "I'm so excited to start this one!!! what other cozy books is everyone reading?"

I also enjoyed The Phoenix Keeper set in a zoo of magical creatures featuring a protagonist zookeeper who I read as having social anxiety.

I also enjoyed the tone and atmosphere The Honey Witch. It had a fairly central focus on romance and was somewhat formulaic at times. If you enjoy that, you may like this one.

Not read recently but I liked Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell. It's about a witch who struggles with her emotions and subsequently, her magic craft.

If you enjoy cozy fantasy short stories, Wyngraf magazine is a good one to check out.

I enjoy the cozy fantasy vibes but I often find many are heavily romance-inclined stories, which is not always what I am in the mood for. I find I tend to skip over quite a lot that give me an overly romantic vibe.

I saw Sarah Beth Durst is publishing The Enchanted Greenhouse in a similar vein to The Spellshop so I'm looking forward to that one!

I finished it last night. Over all I enjoyed it. It’s unlike anything I normally read but I live in north East tn and it was a welcomed distraction.

Erin Darrow wrote: "I can understand finding it a bit boring. I rather enjoyed the quietness of the story myself.

From what I remember, the merhorses helped the islanders with fishing. Finding where they were abundan..."

Ah okay, comparing them to regular horses makes more sense.

Erin Darrow wrote: "I saw Sarah Beth Durst is publishing The Enchanted Greenhouse in a similar vein to The Spellshop so I'm looking forward to that one!..."

Even thought I didn't love The Spellshop, I will probably read The Enchanted Greenhouse anyway! I've loved other books by the author. :)

Latasha wrote: "I finished it last night. Over all I enjoyed it. It’s unlike anything I normally read but I live in north East tn and it was a welcomed distraction."

Oh I hope you're doing okay! It's so scary. I live in Nashville and have friends out that way. You definitely need the distraction, I imagine.

I'm currently reading The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst. It's very weird, but has her style. I like that she has a wide range of genres.

Ozsaur wrote: "I'm currently reading The Lost by Sarah Beth Durst. It's very weird, but has her style. I like that she has a wide range of genres."

I hadn't heard of that one!

Well, I finished The Lost and found out the second book will probably never get published. It's a real shame. The book is a bit rough in places, but really dug into topics of grief and loss.

Ozsaur wrote: "Well, I finished The Lost and found out the second book will probably never get published. It's a real shame. The book is a bit rough in places, but really dug into topics of grief and loss."

Oh that's too bad!

Latasha wrote: "Read a bunch last night. I almost threw it against the wall. I am not loving Kiela at all. She's either growing on me or getting better so I'm gonna keep reading for now."

Good to hear. I'm finding her kind of dull, although I like Caz.

Mir wrote: "Latasha wrote: "Read a bunch last night. I almost threw it against the wall. I am not loving Kiela at all. She's either growing on me or getting better so I'm gonna keep reading for now."

Good to ..."

Caz was my favorite. :)

p. 70 Kinda bored. I find it seems a lot like Legends & Lattes but with romance... so I should like it as I love Baldtree's books... but the romance is dominating the story and I'd rather have more of how she learns to be independent and how she makes friends (at her own pace of course).

I'd also like more of Caz's inner world as so far he seems like just a stock sidekick. And Larran is tall & muscular, got it, thank you.

Cheryl wrote: "p. 70 Kinda bored. I find it seems a lot like Legends & Lattes but with romance... so I should like it as I love Baldtree's books... but the romance is dominating the story and I'd ..."

I'm afraid I was with you here. I did like Legends & Lattes quite a bit though!

Yeah. I finished, but barely three stars. Thank you!