In Sarah Beth Durst’s latest novel, “The Spellshop,” she clearly demonstrates her amazing ability to write across a variety of genres and for a variety of readers. She can write children’s middle grade fiction, young adult fantasy, or adult fantasy; and here she’s written a sweet, warm adult novel that has magic and quirky characters. It’s a love story, but not “just” a romance. When the main character, Kiela, flees the library where she has worked as a librarian for over a decade, immersed and literally living at the library, she travels to the distant island where she was born.

In Alyssium, there was a revolution by people who believed the Emperor, who hoarded magic for the wealthy, was not protecting the best interests of his people. (He was not.) When her best friend, a magical plant named Caz, points out that the library is on fire, they flee. Kiera had prepared for this by packing up important books with a few provisions in the boat she used for book delivery.

They arrive at Caltrey, the island where Kiera had lived until she was nine, and dock at her family’s cove. Her parents had moved to the capital for better opportunities, but she has fond memories of their life before. And while the family home is a bit neglected, it’s still standing, and Kiera and Caz make themselves at home. There’s the immediate problem of how to get food, but a friendly (and very handsome) neighbor, Larran, provides not only nourishment but help with the house.

Durst makes Kiera extremely awkward around people. It’s very obvious that living basically isolated in the stacks of the library has atrophied any people skills she might have possessed. But once she ventures into the small village, she begins to open up and make some friends. She realizes the harm that the Emperor’s greed has caused when he decided that the sorcerers shouldn’t visit the outer islands and help them because he wanted all the magic centered around the capital. The magical merhorses aren’t reproducing. The fruit orchards and trees are dying. And the storms are extremely destructive as a direct result of the misuse of magic at the capital.

Kiera decides that the magic books she brought should earn their keep. Even though the price of performing unapproved magic could be death, she decides to make some small, innocuous homemade “remedies” to help the islanders — and herself. She uses the remedy, a spell that helps plants grow, to nourish the raspberry vines that have been dying around her cottage. The results are spectacular, and she begins to make jam to sell.

The story mostly revolves around warm feelings, love, friendship, and companionship. Kiera meets people with whom she forms a bond, and her once awkward relationship with her neighbor Larran blossoms much as do the plants she charms. Durst’s own magical ability as a writer is the way her mind comes up with hugely imaginative scenes and creatures. There’s a bird Kiera accidentally created from an apple tree while she was experimenting with the magic spell. We meet an adorable cactus named Meep who prefers the pronouns “they” and “them.” There’s even a unicorn.

Of course there are happy endings, and of course we want another book that will let us know how Kiera is doing. Don’t read this novel expecting the heroics of those in Durst’s “The Bone Makers,” or “Race the Sands” (both of which are books I love). This is a different kind of story.

In the Acknowledgments, Durst explains that she was drinking hot chocolate and decided she wanted to write a book that reads like drinking that warm, sweet, supremely cozy beverage. “I wanted to write a book that felt like a warm hug.” She succeeded. Make yourself a cup of hot chocolate, sit in front of a roaring fire or just on your couch ensconced in a pile of warm quilts, and enjoy this book, written just for that very setting.

Please note: This review is based on the final, hardcover book provided by the publisher, Bramble, for review purposes.