u/Sayeds21

I’m not sure I’m in the right place for this, but I’m going to try anyway.

I think I’ve finally figured out what I like, and I’m having a hard time figuring out how to find it. I read every T. Kingfisher fantasy novel and loved the fantasy and adventure. Then moved on to the Emily Wilde trilogy and absolutely loved it. I also really enjoyed Half a Soul and H.G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door was still enjoyable, but it was about as much tension and bad stuff happening I can go.

Then I read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and that made me realize that if a book is too cozy, I get bored. The ending was okay, but most of the books fixed any conflict before anything interesting could happen.

I don’t want epic, world ending stakes or books that have me anxious and unable to put them down because the tension is so high. I need to know that everything will definitely turn out okay and that the characters I’m attached to are likely to survive. But I also need there to be genuine tension, meaningful consequences, and an actual plot beyond “found family drinks tea, eats cozy
meals, and slowly gets to know each other.”

Basically, I’m looking for “gentle stakes.” Enough conflict that I’m invested, but not so much that my nervous system is on high alert. How do you find books like that??

I’m not sure I’m in the right place for this, but I’m going to try anyway.

I think I’ve finally figured out what I like, and I’m having a hard time figuring out how to find it. I read every T. Kingfisher fantasy novel and loved the fantasy and adventure. Then moved on to the Emily Wilde trilogy and absolutely loved it. I also really enjoyed Half a Soul and H.G. Parry’s The Magician’s Daughter. The Scholar and the Last Faerie Door was still enjoyable, but it was about as much tension and bad stuff happening I can go.

Then I read The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches, and that made me realize that if a book is too cozy, I get bored. The ending was okay, but most of the books fixed any conflict before anything interesting could happen.

I don’t want epic, world ending stakes or books that have me anxious and unable to put them down because the tension is so high. I need to know that everything will definitely turn out okay and that the characters I’m attached to are likely to survive. But I also need there to be genuine tension, meaningful consequences, and an actual plot beyond “found family drinks tea, eats cozy
meals, and slowly gets to know each other.”

Basically, I’m looking for “medium stakes with adventure” Enough conflict that I’m invested, but not so much that my nervous system is on high alert. How do you find books like that??

Just got into reading again and flew through every fantasy and Romantacy book by T Kingfisher and loved almost all of them. Then moved on to Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries and have LOVED those. From what I’m seeing, the elements that I love make the books less “cozy” because there is some dark themes and some higher stakes than a typical cozy fantasy book. Like the demons and beheadings in the Paladin series, and the darkness of the faeries and the dangerous predicaments she gets into in the Emily Wilde books. I need more than just characters living their lives, but I also can’t handle traumatic themes, or negative endings, so that’s why I am asking here.