A- #BookReview: The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong

The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie Leong
Format: eARC
Source: supplied by publisher via Edelweiss
Formats available: hardcover, paperback, ebook, audiobook
Genres: cozy fantasy, cozy mystery, fantasy romance, fantasy
Pages: 368
Published by Ace on October 14, 2025
Purchasing Info: Author's Website, Publisher's Website, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Bookshop.org, Better World Books
Goodreads

An almost-mage discovers friendship—and maybe something more—in the unlikeliest of places in this delightfully charming novel from the USA Today bestselling author of The Teller of Small Fortunes.
Certainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to anyone. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Nevermind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her.
The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere safe: Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, corral an unruly little catdragon who has tagged along, and above all: avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical incident.
Still, as mage and novice come to know Shpelling’s residents—and each other—they realize the Guild’s hoarded magic might do more good being shared. Friendships blossom while Certainty and Aurelia work to make Shpelling the haven it could be. But magic is fickle—add attraction and it might spell trouble.

My Review:

I picked this up because the author’s debut novel, The Teller of Small Fortunes, was simply awesome and I wanted more of the same. Which I got, although in a completely different cozy fantasy story than that first one.

The story in The Teller of Small Fortunes was about a great mage who didn’t want to be used up by the Eshteran Empire and its Guild of Mages so she took to the road, using small magic, telling small fortunes, keeping herself small and unremarkable and not making any waves in the fabric of magic or the fabric of the world.

This second story begins in the midst of the Guild of Mages, as uncontrolled magic is suddenly spilling out everywhere causing rapid and chaotic changes to pretty much everything. Like turning the entire kitchen staff into cabbages.

Obviously there’s a problem.

But in the academic rivalry and wrangling about finding a solution to the problem – or mostly passing on the blame for the problem – we get some hints about why a mage might not want to be subject to the rules and regulations and strictures of the Mage’s Council. Because it is and they are more than a bit of a straitjacket for a mage who doesn’t quite fit the mold in one way or another.

Which is where Novice Mage Certainty Bulrush comes in. Certainty has very little spellcrafting ability and only one minor talent. She’s been a novice for six years because she doesn’t have enough power to become a full mage, but her minor talent is VERY useful.

Certainty can talk to objects. She has the ability to get objects to tell her what they are and what they can do. And she can persuade them to do what she wants them to do as long as what she asks for is – or can be – linked to the object’s purpose.

The wildly chaotic magic that is being released willy-nilly at the Guild of Mages is the result of overtaxing magical storage around the place. The answer is to ship the least useful of those magical objects being stored far away from the highly magical capital city of Margrave to the least magical spot in the entire Empire, the remote, tiny, backwater town of Shpelling. Along with Certainty, so that all those objects can be properly cataloged and safely stored.

If she succeeds, Certainty will finally become a full mage – and be dubiously rewarded by becoming the Deputy Keeper of magical objects. It’s about what she’s come to expect, considering that she’s from a farming village and has such a minor magical talent.

But she is from a farming village, and the place that she is sent to, with Mage Aurelia along as a supervisor, is also a farming village – albeit one that has fallen on some very hard times.

Aurelia may have been a prodigy at the Guild of Mages, but she’s an ice queen who is clueless about getting the villagers on their side – particularly as the place is dying from a lack of magic brought about by long-ago battles between powerful mages.

Which is where both the trouble and the cozy parts of this charming story come in. Certainty may not have a big talent – but she does have a big heart and she knows how to become part of a place just like the one she’s been assigned to.

One kindness at a time, one minor artifact with a big impact on a magicless village at a time, Certainty brings hope to the formerly hopeless village of Shpelling – and warms the ice queen’s heart.

Just in time for all of her efforts to fall to pieces in a big boom and a raging fire that seemingly dooms Shpelling’s hopes along with her own.

Escape Rating A-: This wasn’t quite as good as The Teller of Small Fortunes, but that story set a very high bar that’s going to be really hard to beat. However, and somewhat ironically, where that first book was constantly compared to Legends & Lattes when it was really more like A Psalm for the Wild-Built, this book really is a lot like Legends, if one substitutes pasta for coffee.

In other words, this story is very similar to several recent cozy fantasies like Legends & Lattes along with its sequels, as well as A Fellowship of Bakers & Magic and its follow-ups, because the stories have a lot more in common.

In all these stories and series, the central, and most charming and delightful part of the story, is all about bringing something magical and new to a small, cozy village, creating a home and a place for the mages and/or bakers and/or coffee shop owners, fending off a small-time bully or two, and finding a home and a place and a purpose after a ‘certain’ number of trials and tribulations.

What gives this particular story its own particular charm are the characters, especially the residents of sleepy, pungent, Shpelling, and the way that Certainty finds her way into their hearts, into the life of the village – and finds certainty in herself along the way.

Because we see the story from Certainty’s perspective, we’re not as much in Mage Aurelia’s head as we are Certainty’s. Aurelia goes through a transformation of her own – and does she ever need to – but we mostly see that transformation from Certainty’s at first skeptical but eventually love-struck point-of-view. The slow burn sapphic romance between Certainty and Aurelia puts a very tasty burnt-sugar icing on this lovely cake of a book.

And it’s the making of both of them.

There is a lot of charm – as well as an overabundance of garlic – in tiny Shpelling, along with a delightful nod to both Schrödinger’s cat and Ursula LeGuin’s Catwings. I absolutely did enjoy the return to Eshtera in this sequel to The Teller of Small Fortunes.

But both stories hinted at some hidden depths – and some very dark places – in the Eshteran Empire and the relationships between the powerful Guild of Mages and the rising tide of the Merchant’s Guild. A conflict that I hope to see explored in more depth – if perhaps a bit less coziness – in the follow-up I definitely have my fingers crossed for.

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