Welcome to the fourth and final Wyrd & Wonder Fantastic 5!

Cozy mysteries have long been a staple in the literary world as a sub-genre of mystery. But it’s only been in more recent years that the term “cozy fantasy” has been heard.

But what is a cozy fantasy?

Like many sub-genres, a definitive definition doesn’t exist. What cozy fantasy is tends to be subjective. One common answer is that they’re fantasy books with low stakes. Another answer is that the story has an absence of violence. Other answers have included stories with a happy ending, slice-of-life stories, or a story with an emphasis on kindness and character growth.

My favorite definition is a story that just makes you feel good and you know it when you see it.

With that, here are my 5 Favorite Cozy Fantasy Reads.

Howl’s Moving Castle

I would argue that Howl’s Moving Castle is the classic cozy fantasy. One that Studio Ghibli made into a movie from a writer that Neil Gaiman said “[a]s an author she was astonishing.” This is one of Diana Wynne Jones’s most heartwarming books.

Sophie, the eldest daughter of a milliner, is quite resigned to never having her own great love or adventure. But when the Witch of the Waste transforms Sophie from a young woman to an old lady, Sophie leaves home and takes a position as housekeeper to the wicked magician Howl. Only it turns out Howl isn’t so wicked after all, and each of them might hold the key to breaking the curses laid on the other.

This is a book that everyone should read or listen to or see the Studio Ghibli movie. I have and I can say all 3 options are equally fantastic!

Legends and Lattes

This is the book that many say launched the cozy fantasy genre into the spotlight, mostly thanks to social media. Whatever the reason, I loved Legends and Lattes. It’s what the D&D characters do after the adventure—all the magic and mysteriousness but very low stakes. It’s a story of found family and reinventing oneself.

Viv, an Orc and former mercenary, decides to settle into a quiet life and launch a coffee shop in a town that has doesn’t know what coffee is. Plus, some old rivals and new enemies stand in the way of her succeeding. For Viv to achieve her dream, she must chart a new path with new found friends.

This story is a delicious cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth.

Travis Baldree, who also narrates the audiobook version, wrote this during NaNoWriMo 2021! I absolutely love that. If you’ve been following my blog for a while, then you know that I’m a long-time participant of NaNoWriMo. His NaNo success makes me so happy.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon

The Girl Who Drank the Moon is a Newbery Medal winner middle-grade book. In other words, it’s meant for those around 5th grade (around ages 10-11). But this story transcends age as it is a story of love and family and how the truth can set us free.

The cast of characters includes Luna, an ordinary child who was fed moonlight instead of starlight; Xan, the witch in the forest who is actually kind and gentle; Glerk, a wise Swamp Monster; and Fyrian, a Perfectly Tiny Dragon. Xan rescues abandoned children, who were actually “sacrificed” by the Protectorate to “appease” the witch in the forest. Unknowing this, Xan delivers these apparently abandoned children to welcoming families on the other side of the forest. But a young man from the Protectorate decides to free his people by killing the witch. Luna must protect those who have protected her–even if it means the end of the loving, safe world she’s always known.

This story has wonderful world building, memorable characters, and lovely, whimsical prose. This is what a cozy fantasy should be, complete with witches, a beast, and a perfectly tiny dragon.

Garden Spells

Sarah Addison Allen is one of those writers who just create enchanting worlds you want to step into. Garden Spells, her debut novel, is lovely, magical, and enchanting with evolving characters and an undercurrent flow of magic.

The story centers on the Waverleys, a curious family endowed with peculiar gifts that make them outsiders, even in their hometown. Even their garden has a reputation, famous for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit and its edible flowers imbued with special powers. When Claire’s rebellious sister Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her own, Claire’s quiet life gets turned upside down.

I so wanted to travel to Bascom, North Carolina to have some of Claire’s delectable and magical treats. Allen makes you feel, smell, and even taste things. She seamlessly blends the magic to the story making it seem natural and everyday—magical realism at it’s best.

The Monk & Robot Books

A Psalm for the Wild-Built and A Prayer for the Crown-Shy are novellas by author Becky Chambers. Since they’re novellas, clocking in just under 150 pages each, I’m counting them as 1 cozy read.

Chambers self-published her first novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, the first book in the Wayfarers series, in 2014, after successfully raising funds on Kickstarter. The book hit social media and received Kitchie nomination* for Best Debut Novel and a level of critical acclaim that’s usually reserved for seasoned authors. Soon after that, a publishing house republished the novel.

The Monk & Robot books introduce Dex, a traveling tea monk, and Mosscap, a sentient robot. The books are delightful, philosophical, and thoughtful. I absolutely adore them and will revisit them often. Plus, I totally want to be a traveling tea monk. How charming does that sound?

“What do you do?”
“Oh, I’m a traveling tea monk.”

See? Absolutely charming.

*The Kitchies are British literary prizes presented annually for “the year’s most progressive, intelligent and entertaining works that contain elements of the speculative or fantastic.”

Bonus Pick: The Colour of Magic

No fantasy list is complete without a Terry Pratchett book. And since Pratchett holds a super special place on my shelves, then he needed a super special place on this list.

I could have picked any number of the Discworld books. So I went with the very first book (chronologically speaking)—The Colour of Magic.

Discworld, for those not familiar, a fantasy book series written by author Terry Pratchett and is also the setting. It is a magical world, somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. A flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants, which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle, it plays by different rules.

In the Colour of Magic, Discworld’s very existence is about to be threatened by a strange new blight: the arrival of the first tourist, upon whose survival rests the peace and prosperity of the land. But if the person charged with maintaining that survival in the face of robbers, mercenaries and, Death, is a spectacularly inept wizard, a little logic might turn out to be a very good idea.

Twoflower was a tourist, the first ever seen on the Discworld. Tourist, Rincewind decided, meant idiot.

Discworld comprises 41 novels and everyone has their own opinion on the reading order. Some like chronologically by publication date. Some prefer reading by character. And some like a thematic reading order.

In fact, the Discworld Emporium has a quiz to help find the best path for you.

Or one fan created this reading order guide to help.

The great thing is there is no wrong answer. The Discworld reading order is a choose-your-own-adventure at its finest.

This wraps up the month of Fantastic 5s! I hope you enjoyed this series.

Share your faves of the month in the comments below.

Black dragon by Ehtisham Sajid 
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