I'm not sure why it took me so long to get through this book. Every time I picked it up, I really enjoyed it, but the moment I got distracted, I put it away so thoroughly it took me days to come back for another few chapters. I guess for the most part that was just some discrepancy between the story and my mental state, because really, this is a super nice cozy fantasy.  Pretty much everything I expect from the genre: books, cooking, picturesque setting, a close-knit community, and a semi-distant threat of actual big real world problems that provides a looming shadow over the quaint sweetness, turning it from an unrelatable utopia into a reminder that we can carve out these islands of peace and hope even in the dark\ times.

I really enjoyed the more whimsical elements of the worldbuilding: the anxious living plant friend, the winged cats, the merhorses. The magic system was pretty fun, and Kiela's attempts to nail the spellwork resulted in some nearly laugh-out-loud moments for me. Oh, and Kiela herself was a great protagonist. I've seen reviews calling her stuff like "purposefully unlikable at first, but gets better," and that kind of breaks my heart, because come onnnn. How is she all that unlikable? She's just a socially awkward bookworm who doesn't know how to do this people thing! It takes her some time, as well as trial and error, to be brave enough to commit to it! There's nothing wrong with not knowing how to people, especially when you're also dealing with, you know, your whole life having burned around you. :( 

All that said, the book wasn't entirely without faults for me. There was a point around the middle when the story kind of started meandering, as if the narrative itself wasn't sure of its direction. And then there's this weird thing about the romantic plotline (which I otherwise really liked). How does Kiela not remember Larran? She wasn't *that* young when her parents took her away from the island. Idk, this detail just kept bugging me throughout the story, even when it was no longer being mentioned.

But, yeah. All in all, this was great, and I might even reread it one day when I'm either less anxious all the time or experience a different vibe of anxiety that lets me get more in tune with cozy reads like this.