Get Cozy: 8 YA Cozy Fantasy Recommendations

Mona is a young witch whose magic is pretty much confined to bread. She is anything but prepared to discover a dead body in the bakery, and is appalled to realize that someone is targeting magic users, and she, of all people, might be a suspect. When your familiar is a sourdough starter, you’re not quite the type to be investigating mysteries. Kingfisher brings absurdity and a fun sense of humor to this tale about a 14-year-old witch trying to get her life back to normal.

For generations, Mina’s community has sacrificed a beautiful girl to the Sea God, to serve him down in the Spirit Realm, in the hopes of stopping the nasty storms that plague their village. But this year, Mina’s brother’s true love is chosen, so Mina herself goes out to sea, and throws herself into the waves. Spirited down into a magical city, Mina discovers that the Sea God hasn’t been awake in a long time. This Ghibli-like story inspired by Korean folklore will absolutely enchant.

Two young princesses thought they had fairytale endings ahead of them. But both obedient Amala and rebellious Kha’dasia are struck down before reaching their happy endings. They wake up in a forest and are told they can be reborn—if they find true love’s kiss. With the caveat that there are no second chances: you get one guess, and that’s it. The two team up to try and find their way back to life in this easy romantasy read that puts a fun twist on fairytale tropes.

The OG cozy fantasy, in my opinion! Sophie is a sensible eldest daughter who catches the bad side of the Witch of the Waste, and is cursed to be an old woman as a result. She has to try to find her way back to normalcy while figuring out the implacable wizard who runs the mysterious castle she’s found her way into. You may know the movie, but the book is that plus more—more Howl, more Sophie, and if you don’t mind me saying, a bit more fleshed-out of a plot.

Willow runs a shop packed with magical items. Except that, well, most of them are fake. And people pretty much know that by now. But when a girl named Brianna with the power to make everything she touches turn magical walks into the shop one day, looking for a spell that can fix her, the two of them set out on a quest to find a solution both of them can live with. A tale with enough suspense to keep the pages turning and enough whimsical energy to keep you feeling cozy.

Ridhi loves to listen to the plants, and craves the day that the magical forest kingdom of the yakshas, Alkapuri, finally lets her in. Her snobbish ex-friend Nilesh, who always made fun of her for believing in magic, runs away from his family and manages to stumble into the enchanted forest just as Holi celebrations are beginning. The two of them are thrown into a botanical-laden, atmospheric tale heavily inspired by Indian American community and by Hindi folklore and culture.

Cerys is ready to inherit her father’s job as the royal gardener of Aloriya. It’s a safe place, peaceful and never struck by disaster, as long as you stay out of the woods that border the kingdom. She remembers the quest she and her friends took into the forest once, a regrettable mistake. But as a mysterious, dark curse descends on Aloriya, she’ll be forced to face her past and dive back into the evil forest, a shapeshifting fox alongside, to try and save the place she calls home.

Two guardian angels compete to save the future of Lucy Addlesberg, a girl with an impossible crush on the princess of Lumina, a bookstore that isn’t doing well, and a string of gnarly bad luck. The thing is, Darling and Calamity, both of whom are working as hard as they can to try and earn a role with the prestigious Mortal Outcome Council, are both working the same case, with drastically different approaches. These two rivals quickly discover their chemistry in this cozy spin on a classic fairytale.

In a village far up north, the only sunlight is granted by a mysterious magic-user, the Starmaker. When he descends on Aurora Finch, sensing she has magic worth cultivating, she’s forced to acquiesce to his demands, leaving everything she knows to live in his icy, cold palace. The two of them start off poorly, but as they learn more about each other, things naturally begin to warm in this cozy, fairytale-like romantasy.