“—do you support the gods because they are good, or because they are your family?”

I so love how Rick Riordan’s writing quality amplifies throughout the series, (or maybe I’m only realizing this now) but a lot of his sentences or dialogues were so well-written that it takes you aback for a few minutes and make you realize that ‘oh, this is so much like our real world’ or ‘wow. I can relate so much to this if I think more about it’ I mean, I know the essence of writing novels is also to capture what your real world is, like to create such thing for people to become more aware of in the most creative way, but it’s just so beautiful to even have a chance to consume their art as it is (I hope whoever is reading this gets what I mean 😭). I’m just so amused how beautiful the series gets throughout its progression. It started as a child-like adventurous story, suitable for children, then it grows as we are too. It levels the same way as our mind does and it’s just so beautiful to witness this. This is such a recommendable series that I hope more people will get into.

You can read between the lines in a way “do we support these certain people because we’ve perceived them as good? like just because they did good to you once that you’ve never think to see them otherwise, or just because they are family doesn’t mean that we are obliged to back them up whenever they’re in the wrong’ I know this is such a rough review but I hope you get what I’m trying to say lol 😭✋

With a few of these cozy fantasy books under my belt, I feel like I'm noticing a trend where of those that include a romantic storyline, a much smaller proportion are straight compared to the fantasy genre in general. I considered if it's just selection bias, but I usually find myself being (pleasantly) surprised by it because I hadn't known in advance of picking a given book up. Has anyone else noticed the same trend, and if so do y'all have any theories as to why that trend might exist?

Hi sweet friends, I wanted to come in here and chat a little bit about what actually draws us to cozy fantasy. Not as a debate on definition (because we've sure had plenty of those), but more to understand what pulled us into this little group here and has kept us here since. Maybe we can even get to know each other a bit and build a better sense of community while we are at it 🩷

So, to share a bit personally here, recently I've been having something like a crisis of faith about this genre, which I once loved so much (enough to make a quest!) but in the past few months just wasn't doing it at all for me. When I think back, I found cozy fantasy at a time in my life where I was very overwhelmed, when the world felt large and scary and unpredictable, and when these books offered me some hope and some calm. I read them for escapism and comfort. Thankfully, I was able to find much more steadiness and groundedness in my life, but that means the books snagging my interest have been offering a balance in the other direction: more problems, more adrenaline, more grey areas. In the spirit of transparency, I also got a bit down with seeing how much criticism several cozy fantasy books that have made their way to more of the mainstream got for being boring, shallow, sad, or on the flip side not cozy "enough." I admittedly started wondering if maybe these books only really hit in times of crisis? But I just finished reading A Psalm for the Wild-Built, and I feel like that book really reminded me that actually, these stories can be more than just a hug only when you need one. They can also be inspiring, and change your perspective, and just be really dang lovely to read for fun when you're already doing just fine. Maybe that's obvious, but I figured if as the quest owner I've had doubts and gone through different seasons with these books, surely some of y'all must have too? And maybe we can talk about that.

So, all that said, I'd love to hear: what prompts you to pick up a cozy fantasy book? What are you hoping to find within the pages? Do you need to be in a particular mood? Have you also gone through on and off seasons with it? Is there anything else you want to share that feels related?