A cozy romantic fantasy that made me think about animal rights in fantasy settings more than once.
Many thanks to Mara Rutherford, St. Martin’s Press, and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book in advance in exchange for an honest review. This book will be out in December 01, 2026.
With a high stakes magical competition in the horizon, desperate times call for desperate measures—even if that does mean navigating an unconventional bond between a mage and his human familiar. The cozy fantasy My Unfamiliar by Mara Rutherford brings together sugar, and spice, and everything nice Winslow Green with skeptical but desperate Bastian Triplehorn in a classic “sunshine x grumpy” story that brings up the question of, why don’t animal familiars have laws that protect them? This trope filled story is an easy read that culminates to a satisfying pay off in a classic “good triumphs over evil” and “you don’t always end up where you think you will” ending.
What can I say about this book besides the fact that it felt like the author was given a list of tropes to hit and a general plot, and they hit every one of them. Not equally well, but they were certainly checked off the list. May of the characters felt flat, the main characters were just a bit more dynamic—but only barely. Good world building bones with their use of magic affiliation, but it really could’ve been expanded upon to make it feel more fantastical. Typical fantasy naming sense that is so cliché it’s corny—from the names of the characters, to some of the animals, to the towns. Just because this is supposed to be a cozy fantasy doesn’t mean that it everything has to be so… bland in terms of naming sense.
In terms of storytelling, the author does an excellent job in hinting at future events. Lots of details and points of interest that get a callback a few chapters later which makes that aspect of reading satisfying. Where they came in short was their inability to “show rather than tell”. That is to say, I felt that I was being spoon fed information soup rather than actually chewing on a detail that helped maintain my interest. There were notable parts where “showing” would’ve benefited the story and made the pay off even more satisfying.
The pacing was interesting. There were some arcs that felt like they just dragging on and there were others that felt clipped. For the most part, each chapter helped move the story forward to the climax rather than just dilly-dallying around with fillers. The action scenes were confusing and very brief, and I had to reread the passages several times to try to digest what was going on in the scene. If you’re into magical action scenes, you will be disappointed. The ending felt quite Disney-esq which makes sense for the genre and I can’t fault the author for that. In fact, I felt like it was a good way to do the ending.
After every interaction between Winnie and Bastian, I couldn’t help but wonder if there was any genuine chemistry beyond that of basic attraction and being duty bound to each other. It was a constant loop of the Squidward “Oh no, he’s hot” meme. In a way, the physical attraction and falling in love in a short amount of time made sense considering the fact that they’re both teens and hormones go crazy at that time. Tell me there wasn’t a time during your adolescence that you thought you were in love with someone because they were hot and was in your general vicinity on an almost daily basis. I like to think that this was a feature, not a bug.
In general, there were too many characters with wasted story potential—characters that could’ve added further friction to the plot beyond just filling the room. Would’ve been more effective if more characters showed more desperation to achieve their motives, it felt one-sided that only the main characters were passionate about their goals and the others were quite nonchalant for the most part.
There really were only two stand out characters and they were both old mages, three if you include the royal mage but in all honesty, you could combine MMC’s mentor and the royal mage, and you would essentially get the same person. The MMC’s rival was a bit more hashed out than most, by acknowledging his reasons for being a bad person (societal pressure) and having some parts that flex a bit of his cleverness, the rivalry didn’t feel mismatched.
The Verdict
This is certainly a book I would rent from the library. The cover art is beautiful and does a wonderful job in encompassing the general whimsiness of Winnie Green. It’s the kind of story that I would reread again because of the potential it had. I wish that this could’ve been a trilogy, it certainly had enough content that could’ve been expanded upon to be a trilogy.
& babbling 