#sarahbethdurst

I remember reading ALANNA by Tamora Pierce when I was ten years old and thinking, "If Alanna can become a knight, I can become a writer." *fistbumps ten-year-old me* THE QUEEN OF SORROW, the final book of my Queens of Renthia trilogy, comes out today!

http://www.sarahbethdurst.com/QueenofSorrow.htm

After helping to overthrow an empire, former assistant librarian Eloren returns home expecting to feel trapped in her grandmother's magical cheese shop. Instead, she discovers that rebuilding a community can be every bit as important as saving one.

📚 Pre-Reading Thoughts

By this point, Sarah Beth Durst has established a wonderfully recognisable style. Her stories are full of magical shops, charming companions, and cosy communities, but underneath all the warmth they're really about people finding a way forward after everything they thought they wanted has fallen apart.

I was especially interested to see how this book would connect to the wider world. We'd seen the revolution from the edges before—but what would it look like through the eyes of someone who had actually been part of it?

📖 Post-Reading

As I thought…

Once again, the setting is utterly delightful. Dew feels like somewhere you could happily spend a week wandering between magical businesses, meeting eccentric neighbours, and eating entirely too much cheese.

The connections to the earlier books reward returning readers without making newcomers feel left behind. It feels like the world is growing naturally rather than simply collecting cameos.

Garyn is a lovely romantic lead. The childhood friendship gives the relationship an easy familiarity, allowing the romance to develop without ever feeling rushed.

It surprised me by...

Just how much closer this story sits to the revolution itself. Unlike the previous heroines, Eloren wasn't simply living through history—she actively helped shape it. That history weighs heavily on her, giving her a sense of guilt and responsibility that makes her feel distinct from the other protagonists.

How much the series itself deepened on a reread. It's easy to remember these books for their magical shops, comforting food, and cosy atmosphere, but beneath all of that they're really stories about rebuilding. They're about finding purpose after loss, creating community after upheaval, and discovering that healing isn't a single moment—it's something you choose, day after day.

One particular aspect of Eloren's journey that I can't spoil, but which delighted me. I worried that returning to a tiny island would mean she had to abandon the intellectual curiosity that made her love the Great Library in the first place. Instead, Sarah Beth Durst finds a wonderfully satisfying solution that allows Eloren to remain true to herself without suggesting she has to choose between knowledge and home.

And, of course...

Libby.

No further explanation required.

🎧 Music Pairing

🎵 Featured Song: Home

🎶 Vibe Album: Folklore — quiet communities, intertwined lives, and stories that find hope after heartbreak.

🎧 Artist Recommendation: The Oh Hellos — warm, hopeful folk music with just enough magic to feel at home in Dew.

🌈 Vibe Check

Colour Palette: buttery gold, sea-glass green, library oak, soft cream

Soundtrack: waves against the harbour, contented unicorns, inventors' workshops clanking in the distance

Season: late summer, when everything is ripe and the evenings seem to last forever

Mood: comforting, hopeful, quietly triumphant

Scent: aged cheese, sea air, old books, wildflowers

🃏 Tarot Pull

Six of Swords

Not because Eloren is escaping, but because she's learning how to move through loss instead of remaining defined by it. The Six of Swords is a card of transition, recovery, and carrying the lessons of the past into a calmer future.

👀 For fans of

The Spellshop

The Enchanted Greenhouse

cosy fantasy where hope is something characters build together rather than stumble across

A sea serpent, a sailor shrub, and a second chance at belonging.

Returning to the Crescent Islands feels like coming home — full of salt air, laughter, and that warm hum of found family. Marin’s journey across the waves is equal parts adventure and celebration, reminding us that home isn’t a place. It’s the people who sail beside you.

Tarot Pull: 4 of Wands — joy, belonging, the moment you realize you’re exactly where you’re meant to be. (Pulled from the Cosy Witch Tarot — whose mantra for this card reads, “Family is whoever makes you feel the most safe & comfortable being you.” It couldn’t be more perfect.)

Tomorrow (Friday 5/8) I'll be taking over the HarperCollins Library Love Fest Instagram to show you my writing space, with a video tour at 11am EDT. Come visit my writing room, meet my cat, and see where I create my monsters and the women who ride them! https://www.instagram.com/harperlibrary