Cozy fantasy has existed since forever, but it exploded in popularity recently as the world has become more, well… less than cozy, shall we say. We all need a little escapism. And why not read a book where opening a bookflowercoffeeshop is both profitable and also something you can afford to do.
Overall, I’m a cozy skeptic: I’m immediately suspicious of any form of media that calls itself cozy because that word often gives people permission to avoid having a plot (and be boring). This list includes some of my personal favorites, but also some popular picks that I may or may not have liked simply because you might enjoy them.
Cozy Romantasy
The Wisteria Society of Lady Scoundrels by India Holton
This is a delightful Victorian fantasy romance in which our heroine Cecilia belongs to a group of lady pirates and there’s an assassin sent after. When the rest of lady scoundrels are kidnapped, Cecelia is forced to ally with her would-be assassin to find her friends and family and find out who’s behind it all. And that’s really the least of it, but I don’t know how to explain the amazing sense of humor this book has, or its ingenuity and creativity. It doesn’t take itself too seriously, and you shouldn’t either. Just know that you won’t be bored for a moment while reading this!
Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater
Half a Soul is a regency fantasy romance where Dora, whose half a soul has been stolen by fae when she was a child, is taken by her aunt and cousin to London under the guise of finding a good husband. But really, her cousin wanted Dora to meet the Lord Sorcier and get him to help her retreive her soul. Lord Sorcier seems disinterested at first, but Dora’s blunt nature and kind heart draw him in. I found this book really lovely, with a good plot that won’t get your blood pressure up, but it’ll definitely keep you entertained.
Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher
If you want a romantasy that’s both a bit spicy, has a good world, but isn’t too stressful and features characters well over thirty, may I introduce you to Paladin’s Grace, and this series, and T. Kingfisher in general? In this book, Stephen’s God died and now he and his paladin friends don’t have anything to do. One night, while escorting a doctor in a poor neighborhood, he meets and attempts to rescue Grace, a fugitive, and the story unravels from there. It’s well-written, swoony, and Stephen even likes to knit, so please tell me what is cozier than that?
The Honey Witch by Sydney J. Shields
Even though suitors have tried to woo her, Marigold always prefered the company of the spirits of the meadow, and being alone. When her grandmother offers to train her to be a Honey Witch on a remote island, Marigold jumps at the chance, but of course: there’s a catch. No one can fall in love with the Honey Witch. Which would be fine, but then Lottie Burke, a skeptic of all things magical, shows up at her doorstep, and Marigold can’t resist trying to make Lottie believe in magic. Soon enough, she begins to care for her in ways she didn’t expect, but magic is fickle and things unravel from there. And all I can tell you is that this is the kind of cozy fantasy I can get behind!
Wolfsong by TJ Klune
Okay, so I have to be honest: while I enjoyed this book and had fun with it, I don’t think I can take any more of that prose. However, if you like this author or you just want a nice, cozy werewolf series with both romance and found family, please give this one a go. So, Oxnard (or Ox) is abandoned by his father and convinced he isn’t worth much, until a group of mechanics adopts him and then a strange family appears in town (and they adopt him as well). One of their sons in particular seems to be obsessed with Ox, and while everyone is friendly and happy, dark forces threaten to tear them all apart. See my full review here.
The Undertaking of Hart and Mercy by Megan Bannen
Hart and Mercy dislike each other. Hart is a lonely marshal, and Mercy is struggling to keep her family’s undertaking business afloat. But when Hart sends a letter to “a friend”, someone surprisingly writes back. And while neither Hart nor Mercy realize they’re writing to each other, they keep getting closer and revealing their souls to the person they hate the most. Plus, there’s danger drawing in, and in the end they’ll have to work together to save everything they love.
Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries by Heather Fawcett
This is a famous, popular title, and I’m sure you’ve heard of it before. Here’s a secret, though: I found it boring the first time I read it. However, I’m planning to give it another chance, just because I might have judged it unfairly and in a bad mood (since, again, so many people love it). Either way, this book is basically Emily Wilde’s diary, as she sets off on a research trip to a cold northern country and hopes to complete her book. Unfortunately, the locals are not forthcoming and her rival unexpectedly joins her on her trip!
A Witch’s Guide to Magical Innkeeping by Sangu Mandanna
I know this author has a more popular book, but this one is my favorite, so please indulge me. In this one, Sera is the most powerful young witch of her time, but then her aunt dies and in her grief, Sera tries and manages to revive her. However, it costs her all her magic. Years later, and many unsuccessful attempts to get the magic back, Sera finally has a chance when a young magic professor finds refuge for his young sister and himself at her inn. I absolutely loved how this book dealt with mental health, I loved the found family and the romance was absolutely swoony! My full review is here.
Payback’s a Witch by Lana Harper
Emmy is not a very powerful witch, and she’s been avoiding her small town, which houses her horrible ex boyfriend, for years. But when she’s forced to return, she’s roped into a revenge plot on her ex by the enchanting, badass Tilia and her old best friend Linden (who have both been manipulated by her ex). But the more time she spends with Tilia, the more she finds herself drawn to her, and it’s super confusing. I thought this was cute and sort of funny, so give it a go if you’d like a witchy, sapphic take on John Tucker Must Die.
Agnes Aubert’s Mystical Cat Shelter by Heather Fawcett
This is another one I didn’t exactly love, mainly because I didn’t find the love interest charming, but if you like cats and coziness, give it a go! So, the plot is this: Agnes is forced to move her cat rescue shop and her new landlord is the notorious dark wizard using her shop as a front for his own, shadier business. Agnes doesn’t really care until the darkness from her landlord’s past starts to threaten both her shop and her cats.
Baking, cooking, magical shops!
Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree
Viv, a battle-worn orc mercenary, decides she’s done with the sword-and-blood life and spends her retirement fund on starting the first coffee shop the city of Thune has ever seen. The problem is that no one in the city even knows what coffee is, there are old rivals showing up at her door, and running a business isn’t easy at all. And while on the surface, it doesn’t seem like this book would have much going on, it’s actually pretty exciting and keeps you turning pages, so you definitely won’t be bored.
The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst
Not my favorite book, but it does have a lovely cover and you might enjoy it after all! After a revolution burns down the great library she’s spent eleven years tending, librarian Kiela flees home to the remote island where she grew up, bringing along a stack of stolen spellbooks and her sentient spider plant named Caz. There, she opens a secret spellshop in order to help the neglected people, even though sharing magic is punished by death. And there’s a grumpy, handsome neighbor she has to deal with too.
A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic by J. Penner
Arleta is a human baker in a world where there are elves and dwarves, so she has to work twice as hard to make her pastries taste magical. And then her neighbor enters her into a baking competition. She doesn’t really believe in herself but she does make her way to the competition with the help of a handsome elf, and she does participate. I found the recipes in this one charming, and it was soft and sweet, very much a cozy, comforting read. (do not read while hungry though; or scratch that, you’ll get hungry anyways)
A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking by T. Kingfisher
Mona’s magic only works on bread and her familiar is a sourdough starter, but she’s very happy in her aunt’s bakery, until, that is, there’s a dead body on the floor and someone is trying to kill her too. It’s fun, and cozy and I abslutely loved Mona. T. Kingfisher’s sense of humor just works for me, so I would highly recommend this one.
The Bookshop and The Barbarian by Morgan Stang
Maribella inherits a bookshop and hires a huge warrior woman, Arabella, to protect it after finding squatters on her property. Together, they try to make the bookshop successful and enjoy a bunch of seasonal events, but there’s an evil noblewoman who wants to thwart their plans. This is very low stakes, very cozy, but still eventful and not boring. I love bookshops, as I’m sure you do too, so it’s always a bonus when a book is set in one!
Cottagecore cozy and witches
Practical Magic by Alice Hoffman
This is the legend of all witchy books, and no list is complete without it. I loved the movie as much as I loved the book, and found something unique to love about each. So, Sally and Gillian are raised by their witch aunts in a town where everyone hates them. Both react to this differently: Sally wants to blend in, be normal, and Gillian wants to escape. This is what they do. Sally marries and has children, Gillian travels and lives freely, but there’s a curse on the family that makes sure they can’t keep the men they love, and this manifests in very different ways.
Flowerheart by Catherine Bakewell
Clara’s magic accidentally makes poisonous flowers bloom in her father’s chest. In order to save him, she makes a deal with her former best friend, now a distant, mysterious man, Xavier. He asks a terrible price, but he’s got secrets of his own, and as Clara struggles to save her father, she uncovers both his secrets and a darkness in her kingdom. To be honest, I like the cover and the vibes of it all more than I liked the book itself, but you might enjoy it, so here it is.
The Witches of Moonshyne Manor by Bianca Marais
This one is campy and weird and so funny. It’s like Hocus Pocus meets Golden Girls, and you’ll love it. It’s about a group of 80 year old witches who are about to be angry-mobbed and evicted from their home. They lay all their hopes on the help of a TikToker and their sister’s return, but trouble just keeps finding them. It’s charming, warm, feminist, and if you want something unique, I cannot recommend this one enough!
The Herbwitch’s Apprentice by Ireen Chau
Sixteen year old Amarante Flora lives in a world where dabbling in magic could lead to death. All she wants to do is get rid of her own magic, more so than ever when she accidentally zaps Prince Ash during an event of the season. And then the queen falls ill, and Amarante teams up with the Prince to find out what happened and who did it, but the problem is she might expose her magic that way.
Mooncakes by Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu
Nova is a hard of hearing witch working in her grandmother’s shop, loaning out spellbooks and investigating supernatural crimes. When she hears of a white wolf in the forest, she finds her childhood best friend Tam there, and they want her help. There’s some danger, some witchcraft, and a budding romance between these two. It’s a really fun and cozy graphic novel, and you’ll absolutely fall in love with it!
Found Family Stories
The Goblin Emperor by Katherine Addison
This story follows the youngest son of an elf emperor, a half-goblin, who lives in exile, but the his father and three brothers get killed, and he has to take the throne. He knows nothing about politics and has no friends, plus he knows whoever killed his family will try to kill him next, but he’s incredibly kind-hearted and meets all of this with an open mind, hoping for acceptance, and maybe love.
The Hands of the Emperor by Victoria Goddard
The Hands of The Emperor tells you a story about the personal secretary of the Last Emperor of Astandalas, who’s basically a god. No one knows this god better than Cliopher, but they have never shared a touch or a conversation. And then he invites the god for a vacation, and the god accepts. It’s incredibly cozy, funny, gentle, kind and heartfelt. I loved this book and if you end up enjoying The Goblin Emperor, I think you’ll love this one too.
The Lost Story by Meg Shaffer
Jeremy and Rafe went missing as kids, and then came back six months later. Only Jeremy knows what happened because Rafe doesn’t remember (he’s a reclusive artist), but now that a girl has gone missing, he needs Rafe’s help to get her back. You see, when they went missing, they were in a beautiful, dangerous magical realm, and Jeremy knows the missing girl is there. So, together with the girl’s sister and her fancy pet rat, the two of them go back to that realm to rescue her.
Soft adventures and whimsy
The Tea Dragon Society by Katie O’Neill
Greta is a blacksmith apprentice who finds a tea dragon at a market and discovers the lost art of taking care of tea dragons. She befriends and learns from tea shop owners and develops a lovely relationship with their ward Minette, and the whole graphic novel is so sweet and cute that you’ll adore it. It’s suitable for all ages, and such an uplifting delight!
Miss Percy’s Pocket Guide to the Care and Feeding of British Dragons by Quenby Olson
Miss Percy is a spinster who stopped dreaming and having adventures. But then she inherits a dragon, the first dragon the world has seen in a while, and she must raise it. There’s a bit of romance with a lovely vicar, and tons of humor in this book, so I highly recommend it if you enjoy historical romance with a bit of a fantasy spin.
A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers
This story follows Sibling Dex, a tea monk who abandons a comfortable life to search for something they can’t quite name, and Mosscap, a robot who wanders back into human civilization after centuries of absence to ask one deceptively simple question: what do people need? While I didn’t like Becky Chambers’ other books, I found this one quite comforting, with lovely conversations on purpose and happiness and how little we really need.
Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
If you love the anime, try the book! It’s a lot funnier and less dreamy, but certainly a cozy adventure worth having. You know the story, Sophie Hatter gets cursed by the Witch of The Waste to have an appearance of an old lady and she bullies Howl, the notorious wizard and eater of hearts into accepting her as his maid. They argue a ton, they have fun adventures, and they fall in love as Sophie learns self-love and Howl learns to have a little less vanity.
The Cat Who Saved Books by Sosuke Natsukawa
After his grandfather’s death, Rintaro thinks he’ll have to close the second-hand bookshop he inherited, until a talking cat appears and asks him to go on an adventure where they would save books from people who have mistreated them or betrayed them. This is a simple book, but profoud in its love of, well, books. And none of the adventures are dangerous, the cat isn’t especially likeable, but it reminded me of Ghibli movies, and it has that same magical, relaxing quality.
To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose
Okay, so this isn’t cozy by definition, but it does have the wonderful cozy vibes. Fifteen year old Anequs finds a dragon egg and her people are overjoyed because dragons used to live freely among them. But the Anglish conquerors force her to enroll in a dragon school so her dragon can be raised “the proper way”. But Anequs wants what’s best for er dragon and she won’t let these people win, even if she has to teach herself. I really liked this book, and Anequs in particular, so I can’t wait for more books in this series!
Silver in The Woods by Emily Tesh
This book will make you want to wander around in the woods, trust me on this! It’s such a short but lovely story (only 100 or so pages) but it’ll live in your memory forever. It’s a story about Tobias who lives an ordinary life with his cat and dryads at the edge of the forest. But then comes along Henry Silver who’s insatiably curious about everything and old secrets are dug up, both Tobias’ personal ones, and the secrets of the forest.
The Book of Atrix Wolfe by Patricia A. McKillip
There’s no one quite like Patricia A. McKillip and nothing quite like her books. I absolutely loved this one, and I recommend it, especially if you’re interested in this author’s work but don’t know where to start. In this one, a powerful mage is exiled after his magic kills a king he loved. Now, the Queen of The Forest gives him a second chance if he’ll find the daughter she lost in the massacre he caused. No one knows where she is, but a scullery maid appeared in a castle out of nowhere one night and she cannot speak.
