I love it when the publishing trends mesh with my personal reading interests, and the cozy romantic fantasy trend means so many books are right up my alley. One I read recently was Violet Thistlewaite is Not a Villain Anymore by Emily Krempholtz, and it was a fun romantic comedy in a fantasy setting.

Violet used to be known and feared as the Thornwitch, who worked for a dreaded evil sorcerer. Then after her master was defeated, a hero challenged her to be good, so she took that as a chance to turn her life around. She arrives in a nearby town, hiding her past, and sets out to open a flower shop, using her plant-related magic for good. The apothecary (and would-be alchemist) next door isn’t so keen to have her around, and he sees selling flowers as frivolous, but he’s not the worst of her worries. When someone from her past comes to town, she fears her past will be discovered and her determination to be good will be tested.

This one has all the witty banter of a rom-com (many of the chapters include the warring chalk signs between the flower shop and the apothecary), while also dealing with the serious question of redemption and forgiveness. Should someone who once caused harm be allowed to put that behind her, even if she’s atoned for her past wrongs? And how much responsibility should she bear if she was essentially brainwashed into believing she had no choice and no one else but her master could love her? Then there’s the sense of community and being empowered by love, literally. It really is a cozy, comforting book in the “person moves to town and starts a business and finds love and community” genre.

I have to say that the love story part of the plot is pretty romancey, as in it’s structured a lot like a romance novel. That’s not entirely my personal preference, but it works here. The spice comes down to one big scene, but that scene is semi-graphic. It’s easy to skip if you aren’t into that sort of thing but may not be enough if that’s what you’re primarily looking for.

Meanwhile, after reading all those contemporary-set fantasy rom-coms, I read one without any fantasy elements and kept forgetting that it wasn’t supposed to be a fantasy, and I kept waiting for the fantasy part to kick in. Which, of course, set off the idea factory in my brain as I tried to figure out what fantasy elements I could put in a story like that.

The book was Happy Ending by Chloe Liese, and I would recommend it to fans of When Harry Met Sally. It’s a somewhat similar concept, with a man and woman meeting after both have gone through bad breakups and becoming friends, but then running into challenges when friendship starts to turn to something more and there’s a fear of it ruining the friendship. In this case, they only pretend to have met years earlier. They meet when they run into each other while she’s picking up her dog and he’s picking up his daughter, and they discover that their exes are dating each other, within weeks of their divorces. To save face, they pretend that they already know each other — in fact, they met as teenagers and were each other’s first loves. Their later strategy session to make sure they can keep their stories straight is the start of a friendship that gets them through that tough part of their lives, but they’re a little too convincing with their pretense. Two years later, their exes invite them on a “two family” beach vacation, assuming they’re a couple. Maybe they might be. Or should be.

I really enjoyed the structure of this book. It starts in the present with the invitation, then goes back and forth between the present as they build toward the trip and the past, telling the story of how they met and the milestones along the way in their friendship. By the time we get to the trip, we know something has to happen between them. Things can’t go on the way they are, but it will take courage to take the leap. I think this would make a really fun rom-com movie because I like it when they play with structure, and it would be fun to show the characters in these different phases of their lives, contrasted with the present. That structure also allows the story to show that this is a long-term relationship, so no one is meeting and falling so in love that they want to get married within a matter of days. The present part of the story only covers a couple of weeks, but it still feels like a slow build because the past part takes two years.

This book could be described as a fake dating friends-to-lovers story, and it even has a “there’s only one bed” situation. Like the previous book I mentioned, the spice is limited to one big scene, which is pretty strong. (I mention this because I hear from a lot of my readers that they like my books because they’re “clean,” so I don’t want anyone getting any shocking surprises and getting mad at me for recommending something so different from what I write.)

Now that we’re getting into fall, I’m all about the cozy reads, so I’ll be looking for the kind of books best read while snuggled under a blanket with a cup of tea handy, or maybe things to read sitting on the deck on a crisp autumn day while the leaves fall around me.