Cozy Fantasy
Julie Leong’s book The Teller of Small Fortunes inspired this post. For me, it fits soundly in a category I’m calling cozy fantasy — books of magic and wonder — but not the high fantasy of Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, or Fourth Wing. Much as cozy mysteries provide a soothing read, these books won’t keep you up at night but will keep you entertained and enchanted.
Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire (started 2016)
What happens to children who have gone through doors to magical worlds and then returned to this reality? One option is to attend a boarding school for others like them, where they try to cope with being stuck in this world and wait for the day when their magic doorway reappears. The series follows many different characters, sometimes in this world, sometimes in the magic worlds, and sometimes in between.
The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow (2019)
I love books within books. Protagonist January finds a book, The Ten Thousand Doors, about people who are able to open doors between worlds. She discovers that she has the same power and uses this skill to escape a tyrannical guardian and a mental asylum.
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher (2020)
When I started this book, I didn’t realize it was aimed at middle-grade readers. So maybe it doesn’t truly fit in this post (or rather, maybe all middle-grade fantasy does). For kidlit, it had some darker themes, though everything definitely worked out in the end. Mona is a wizard with limited talents: she can enchant bread. Since she works in her aunt’s bakery, this is all for the good — she can keep bread from going stale, make gingerbread cookies dance to entertain the customers, and feed the sourdough starter named Bob. But when a villain named the Spring Green Man starts murdering wizards, Mona is pushed to use her magic to save her town.
Under the Whispering Door by TJ Klune (2021)
Wallace is not a great person when he dies. After his funeral, he is taken to a teashop run by Hugo, who helps spirits move from this life to the next. Not ready to proceed to the afterlife, Wallace stays at the teashop and learns about the denizens of Hugo’s world (living and not) and slowly figures out the person he wants to become in death. This book is sweet and sad and helped me process my own grief over the loss of a friend.
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree (2022)
With characters from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign but a plot about starting a coffee shop, Baldree’s book is prime cozy fantasy. Viv is an orc who has retired from the life of a warrior. She sets out to start a second career as the owner of a cafe. Full of descriptions of baked goods and enchanting aromas, the book keeps readers entertained thanks to tension provided by the town’s thugs.
The Teller of Small Fortunes by Julie Leong (2024)
Tao is a fortune teller who only gives insignificant predictions of people’s lives. Long a wanderer, she slowly acquires a group of fellow travelers who become friends and found family — a semi-reformed thief, a strongman looking for his missing daughter, and a baker of good-tasting if oddly shaped pastries. Much of the story involves the racism that Tao faces as a native of the neighboring land — a place she hasn’t lived since she was a young child. While she felt part of neither world, it was easier for Tao to wander, but her new friends help her see what she needs to feel whole.