Is cosy fantasy just vibes and cinnamon buns?

In 2022, Travis Baldree self-published a novel called Legends & Lattes, which would be picked up and traditionally published by Tor later that year. The book follows a retired orc warrior who opens a cosy coffee shop while making friends with folks in her new town. This book was my first encounter with what publishers are now calling ‘cozy fantasy.’

Legends & Lattes is low-stakes, features queer characters in a queernorm world, puts a major emphasis on found family, and generally exudes cosy vibes – cinnamon buns play a major role in the plot. Is this what cosy fantasy is, then? Low-stakes and cinnamon buns?

I think it depends on who you ask: publishers, authors, readers, booktockers… but if you ask us here at Season of the Cosy Witch what exactly cosy fantasy is, we’d say the genre typically (but not always!) explores or contains the following:

• Low stakes (no physical threat, no battle sequences, no reader anxiety that a character might die)

• Found family, friendship and community

• Queerness or difference (e.g. neurodivergence)

• ‘Cute’ or ‘cosy’ settings/images (e.g. coffee shop, bookshop, tea, etc)

A cosy fantasy reading list

In episode 1 of Season of the Cosy Witch Podcast, we discuss many cosy fantasy titles. Here’s a reading list of cosy fantasy books - click on the links to add them to your Storygraph TBR.

• Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

• Paladin’s Grace by T. Kingfisher

• Nettle & Bone by T. Kingfisher

• The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

• Half a Soul by Olivia Atwater

• Newt’s Emerald by Garth Nix

• Best Hex Ever by Nadia El-Fassi

• Howl’s Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones

• The Emily Wilde series by Heather Fawcett

• The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna

• A Letter to the Luminous Deep by Sylvie Cathral

• Ghost Cat by Alex Howard

Is cosy fantasy a reaction to male-dominated fantasy?

Although undoubtedly cosy fantasy books have been around for years (The Last Unicorn was published in 1968), only since the 2020s has traditional publishing been widely using the term ‘cozy’ to describe low-stakes, slower-paced fantasy books typically set in cute or charming settings like a bookshop or a spellshop or a flowershop or a teashop… Why are cosy fantasy books so popular now? Why are readers drawn to these stories?

We postulate that cosy fantasy might be a reaction to the popularity of male-dominated, dark or gritty fantasies like Game of Thrones. Perhaps it might even be a reaction to the fantasy genre at large, which has historically featured mainly books about men written by men (obviously this is not to say that there aren’t a plethora of classic fantasy novels written by women - like Usula Le Guin, my favourite fantasist)

That’s the other thing about cosy fantasies - they have the brilliant capacity to imagine a better, more interesting, more inclusive world.

Being able to re-imagine our post-capitalist, increasingly fascist world is actually an incredibly powerful tool. Read Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism if you don’t believe me (actually, read Fisher’s book even if you DO believe me – it might change your life and certainly your perspective on our AI and nostalgia-obsessed world).

No bad books: the spectrum of cosy fantasy

Even though we endeavour to define what exactly cosy fantasy is, we also want to acknowledge the great variety of titles within this genre. I think of cosy fantasy as a spectrum: on one end we have books (like Legends & Lattes) that rely on and adhere to the common tropes of the genre while on the other end of the spectrum, we have books (like Howl’s Moving Castle) that are blending genres and working technically harder to do (as I say in the podcast) ‘many things at once’.

The delightful subgenres of cosy fantasy

We’d be remiss if we didn’t discuss the myriad delightful subgenres of cosy fantasy. There’s something for everyone here.

• Modern-day witches (The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches & Best Hex Ever)

• Fairy tales and folklore (Nettle & Bone)

• Regency (Half a Soul)

• K-drama (God and the Gumiho)

• Sci-Fi (A Letter to the Luminous Deep)

• Cats (Ghost Cat)

If you’ve yet to pick up a cosy fantasy novel, this is your sign to give the genre a try!

For a more in-depth discussion of what cosy fantasy is and how to start reading within the genre, check out episode 1 of Season of the Cosy Witch Podcast where Sarah and I get into the cosy details of this growing genre.

May your tea stay hot!

Angie Spoto

This episode was edited by Lila Woodbridge.

Instagram: @seasonofthecosywitch

Welcome, cosy witches, to the Season of the Cosy Witch Podcast! This is the place for folks who love cosy books of all genres - fantasy, sci fi, romance, books specifically about cats in libraries... stories that make us feel like settling into a soft armchair, sipping a cup of tea and getting lost in another world.

We're twin sisters who love cosy books and since we're always talking about them with each other, we thought we'd share those conversations with other likeminded readers who want to understand why they love these kinds of stories, what they can teach us about our real world, how they can be catalysts for change, and how they are shaping the landscape of publishing and reading. Angie Spoto is a fantasy novelist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She’s currently working on her third novel, a cosy romantasy inspired by Scottish folklore. Sarah Spoto is a podcaster and entrepreneur living in New England in the USA.

Between the two of us and special guest experts, we're going to chat about…

• Tropes

• Zeitgiest-y stories that are shaping the genre

• The pitfalls and foibles of the cosy genre and so much more

Future topics include:

• Deep dives into our favourite cosy books (The Last Unicorn, Emily Wilde, T. Kingfisher to name a few)

• Conversations about subgenres (horromance, romantasy, folklore and fairy tales)

• Explorations on themes that fascinate us (queernorm worlds, cats, and witches).

If that sounds like your cup of tea, join us every month for a new cosy conversation. 

This episode was edited by Lila Woodbridge.

Instagram: @seasonofthecosywitch