The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong, a review

(I received a free digital ARC in exchange for honest feedback.)

So, I read Julie Leong’s cozy fantasy The Teller of Small Fortunes early this year and wanted to do a book review for it, but never managed to find the words for it. This second book, set in the same world, and seemingly shortly after the first one, helped me figure out how to put it.

These books are what cozy fantasy looks like now that the genre has matured into its own identity. Yes, everyone knows Legends & Lattes and that’s certainly the foundational genre (in the modern sense of Cozy Fantasy rather than fantasy that feels cozy like Wind in the Willows, Redwall, The Hobbit, etc). The tropes are still here, of course: a world where magic is somewhat restricted, a rundown building that needs revitalized into a place to stay, a slow-burn lesbian romance, small town environment, etc. (I’ll be honest, the number of cozy fantasy books I’ve read where magic is controlled by a single organization is fascinating to me). With Leong’s two books, and especially this one, the tropes no longer feel like they’re there because it’s what people expect.

In this one, our protagonist is Certainty Bulrush (her parents named their children after virtues they wanted their children to possess), daughter of farmers who has been studying to be a mage for seven years, but simply appears to lack the magical power to become a mage. She can, however, speak to objects, both enchanted and non-enchanted. It makes her invaluable to the Guildtower servants, who are very fond of her, both for who she is and what she can do, but leaves her a failure in the eyes of the Guild and her family (at least, according to what Certainty thinks they think of her).

Unfortunately, a magical accident turns the kitchen staff into cabbages (unfortunately for them) due to unknown magical artifacts being stored in a pantry because the magical storage sections are overflowing. Fortunately, the High Mage recognizes that Certainty can do an excellent job of identifying and cataloging artifacts, so she’s sent off to Shpelling, a village whose natural magic has been long lost (decreasing the chance of another magical accident), alongside Aurelia, another young woman, the youngest ever full-mage, known to be brilliant, but also thought to be stuck-up and arrogant.

So, they’re bundled into two enchanted coaches and shipped off to Shpelling, which is a dying and decrepit village, where they are grudgingly welcomed by the villagers, with no small amount of hostility, no thanks to Aurelia’s being a city-dwelling aristocrat. Thankfully, Certainty is able to ease some of the tension and make amends for her companion’s poor behavior. However, even the rude and suspicious welcome is undermined by the stable and carriage house that was meant to be both house and warehouse being a derelict building.

I liked how this worked, honestly. Usually, in cozy fantasy, the decision to take over and renovate a derelict building is a choice that acts as a big part of the story. Perhaps not the main conflict, but at least the primary structuring of the narrative and character arcs. In proper Stardew Valley fashion, that makes a lot of sense. The journey is the destination, and the journey is about building something good and meaningful and safe (I’m trying to not think too hard about the social commentary of that being a popular fantasy subgenre).

That’s not the case here. Instead, repairing the building is a point of conflict within the overarching storyline, and one that also serves to introduce the primary antagonist of the book, if he can be called an antagonist. He’s the secretary to the lord of the fief to which the village belongs. I’m not entirely sure how the feudal system works here, but it was interesting to see that take more of a role compared to the previous book.

While The Teller of Small Fortunes was relatively distant from the going-ons of the setting around them, due to the nature of Tao basically being on the run from the Guild, this one was deeply tied to the politics of the situation around them. That elevates the stakes compared to most other cozy fantasy books that I have read, but in a way that makes sense for cozy fantasy. Certainty and Aurelia aren’t going to be making huge policy changes or resolving long-standing political grievances. Much of the high-stakes political elements take place completely off-screen and readers only learn of it when the characters learn it from others.

These elements are where Leong’s work really shines in terms of the cozy fantasy genre. There is tension that drives the plot, with real stakes, and the impact of the character’s actions matter. Many of the other cozy fantasy books I’ve read have lacked those elements. As a result, while they were enjoyable, I never felt invested in them and the story felt somewhat half-baked (if you can forgive me for using a baking pun about a genre full of baked goods). The common tropes feel stuck into the story without being well-integrated into the overall narrative. Not the case here.

Leong does an excellent job of integrating the expected genre tropes into both the world and the story, so that they all fit together in a way that feels natural. I really, really like that. Additionally, the characters are excellent, especially the main two. I think they balance each other out exceptionally well with their personalities and narrative weight. And their arcs, I think, are well done. They move in fits and starts, hesitantly, and make mistakes that they end up having to make amends for, gradually changing through the course of the story. The timeline of the story is relatively drawn out, which helps balance the pacing and development with the relatively shorter length of the book.

Overall, I’d highly recommend this book for anyone who likes not just cozy fantasy, but fantasy in general.

The Keeper of Magical Things is out now and can be purchased here (an affiliate link).