Readers can return to the whimsical landscape of Sarah Beth Durst's Spellshop, a cozy fantasy series, in this joyful, world-expanding third entry, Sea of Charms.
Marin enjoys a life of relative freedom as a supply runner with her own enchanted silver sailboat and a companionable sea serpent named Perri who swims alongside it. However, she never lets herself forget how close she came to losing that freedom when her traitorous ex-fiancé embezzled from her family. She will never take the risk of a relationship again, not even for Dax, a handsome musician from the Alyssium conservatory who is "as precisely perfect as the mosaics, and as ethereal as the flute music" of his home. Then Alyssium goes up in a blaze of revolution, and Marin gives Dax shelter on her boat. Marin and Dax traverse the seas with Perri and Ree, a talking wax myrtle shrub who longs to be a real sailor. They travel to islands where they encounter new species, try tasty new cheeses, and make new friends whom series fans will recognize. Marin can't stop herself from falling for kind, musically brilliant Dax, but to find happiness, she will have to learn to put her trust in the toughest place--her own heart.
Durst (The Spellshop; The Enchanted Greenhouse) ups the series' already formidable adorableness factor while leaning into the tender emotional arc of a main character discovering her self-confidence with the support of her comrades. Readers longing for a glimpse of a kinder, gentler reality will find comfort and satisfaction, plus talking plants. --Jaclyn Fulwood, blogger at Infinite Reads