"I dont want to go back - I want to be on the sea," Ree clarified. "This is where I belong ... you can miss home and choose to live your life elsewhere at the same time. It's okay to feel both."

GENRE: Cozy Fantasy
RATING: 4/5
FORMAT: eBook and physical ARC
Tropes: Found Family, Life at Sea, Sea Serpents and other fun magical creatures

Overall Impression: I think one of my favourite things about this series and cozy fantasy generally is how there is a focus on finding our home and found family. It shines a light on how sometimes we do have to travel far to find the place where we belong. It also validates the feeling that it's okay to miss all the places we've been or grew up in and that it's okay we feel that we belong elsewhere.

Review:

Ahhh we're back to the Spellshop world and I was so excited to see that we get a story about Marin!

This one was a fun story where we follow Marin, who leads a quieter life in the sea with her friends, Perri (sea serpent) and a few others that she meets along the way. Then, we get to meet Dax and ahh what a cute, wholesome interactions this found family has.

Sea of Charms definitely has the same wholesome vibes you find in the first two books. We also get to address heavier themes, like self-doubt and learning to trust our selves. We also get to see the impact of politics and the impact of the Empire on the rest of the islands. I think what I appreciated is that because Marin is always in the sea, we get to see the world in the book through her eyes and see how the empire and the changes they implemented impacted everyone. We also get to see the painful way that making a change turns out to be and I'm excited to see if we dive more into this in further books.

Sea of Charms definitely builds up on the first two books and we get to meet older characters too! This was so fun and the way it was done was unexpected too. I'm not sure if this is a standalone though I do think you could read it without reading the first two books BUT I do think there are a few easter eggs that you do only catch if you've read the first two books. Also, there's such a fun thing that connects all these books in terms of a central theme and it's finding a place where you belong and are accepted as you are, which I love reading about

I'm super excited to continue reading more from this universe and reading more of Sarah Beth Durst's books, which are always so wholesome, all in different ways! I'd definitely recommend Sea of Charms to all Cozy Fantasy lovers. My favourite is definitely The Spellshop (the first book) and I'd start there to catch all the easter eggs along the journey

I was provided a free advance reader copy and I’m sharing my honest thoughts.