I Read Stories: Wyngraf Valentine's Romance 2025

 

Wyngraf Valentine’s Day 2025: Cozy Fantasy Romance

Three stories of cozy fantasy romance from the cozy fantasy magazine.

In Be Kind And Rewind by A C Mills and Kaitlin Schmidt, Oliver, a newly transitioned repairman is coming home from studying rewinding (turning broken things back in time so they are whole again). He sends letters to Talia. It becomes clear that Oliver is dangerously naïve, he loses the money he was going to spend on a sky-wyrm ticket and signs on a ship as repairman to get home. But they turn out to be going the wrong way, and are also pirates.

Talia doesn’t receive the letters in the usual way; she’s on a Faith Journey to become a Truth-Seer. She’s in another world, a foggy, marshy place, trying to find her truth, to learn what she wants. She thinks she’s going to fail, and so be unable to provide even the simplest of homes for Oliver when he returns. If he returns.

The two stories are written differently, intertwining through magic. Oliver never despairs (though he does worry), never loses his good humour. Talia does pass through a lot of anger and possibly despair, having to confront the spirit that seeks to prevent her becoming a Seer. And the more that goes on the more it becomes clear that somehow the time apart, the changes the two have gone through, make them love each other even more.

The Scientist And the Lighthouse Keeper by A M Croll. Elio is a scientist looking to trap sea dragons to determine if they are becoming amphibious. The way down is by the lighthouse. He and Ronan, the lighthouse keeper, initially fail to hit it off. Elio gets caught in a storm at the end of the season, desperate for results. Ronan rescues him, nurses him back to health, the two learning about each other, eventually falling in love. A magical-biology heavy story.

In Hedging Your Bets by Luana Saitta wizard’s apprentice Bart is transformed into a woman and sent into town by the wizard to get ingredients to reverse the spell. On the way goblin bandits stop her, not recognising her in her new guise. A knight, Matthias, intervenes on her behalf but she’s able to talk the goblins into leaving. Taking the name Bella she heads into town with him, Matthias due to fight in a tournament.

Bella meets Niamh, the witch’s apprentice at the shop, the two hitting it off after Bella stops an escaping hellspawn at the cost of her tunic, Niamh giving her a new dress. At the tournament the three come together and Bella decides that she’s going to stay a woman as her life is much better this way. There’s a number of good jokes along the way, especially when fanfic romance cliches are averted.

These are all queer romances; as the editor* says in his introduction although he did not make Wyngraf a political publication, sometimes the work shouts.

Three decent stories, one light-hearted and joyful, one earnest, and perhaps the most interesting Be Kind And Rewind which does both in interlaced sections.

Read This: Three small cozy fantasy romances of varying types, and it’s pay what you want, there’s no excuse
Don’t Read This: You have a heart of stone and want no more to do with this
Disclosure: I’ve been published in Wyngraf’s Little Cozy Book and if the fates are kind I will work with Wyngraf again
It's Pay What You Want: So pick up an ebook file

* So talking of the editor Nathaniel Webb, in his introduction to Wyngraf #3 he attempts something of a typography of cozy fantasy. His three main ingredients are low stakes, small scale, and food and drink how does this stack up?

Romance, of course, is rarely low stakes in human terms; still for a romance edition let's lay that aside. Oliver is trying to get home, though he gets into trouble we know he has the luck of good-hearted and will succeed. Talia’s efforts to become a Truth-Sayer are certainly small-scale, yet she has to delve into her own ambition and self-image. Can she even get back home from the Spirit Journey?

No food and drink springs to mind.

Elio and Ronan probably best exemplify small scale and low stakes; Elio is certainly invested in his study and risks himself for it; still that’s the most of it. Again they don’t really eat or drink!

They do actually eat some porridge in Hedging Your Bets; ingredients are for magic however. Some moss gets harvested for a spell. Matthias is injured in a tournament and Bella makes a series of big choices for her life. Still I think small scale and low stakes is a good description.

I put this in the footnote for interest rather than to attempt serious criticism