Cozy fantasy is a subgenre that emphasizes low-stakes conflict, community-building, and a sense of comfort. The genre saw a significant surge in popularity during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, as readers sought refuge from real-world anxieties, and Travis Baldree’s debut novel, Legends & Lattes (2022), was one of the books that helped popularize the subgenre. These stories often focus on characters choosing to leave behind lives of high-stakes adventure to pursue quieter, more fulfilling domestic paths, such as opening a small business.

Some tropes of cozy novels include safe, comforting, or nostalgic settings such as cafés, bookstores, and magic shops, places where characters can explore interests that would often appeal to readers themselves. Protagonists are often navigating dissatisfaction or past grievances, such as failed relationships, family trauma, or warring kingdoms, and they find a community where they can gradually build a life for themselves. Healthy romances and “found families” are frequent features of the subgenre, appealing to a desire for positive, conflict-free relationships that would’ve been particularly appealing amid the isolating era of the pandemic. Other popular cozy novels and fantasy books include Before the Coffee Gets Cold (2015) by Toshikazu Kawaguchi, The Spellshop (2024) by Sarah Beth Durst, and The Pumpkin Spice Café (2023) by Laurie Gilmore.

Brigands & Breadknives begins firmly within this framework, as the protagonist Fern leaves her old life to open a bookshop next to her friend Viv’s successful coffee shop. However, the novel deliberately expands the genre’s boundaries. Fern’s dissatisfaction is not resolved by settling down; instead, she impulsively stows away on an adventurer’s cart, embarking on a perilous journey. The author acknowledges this shift, noting in the acknowledgments that he questioned if readers would want a book that was “less cozy in every way than the ones that preceded it” (321). By pushing Fern into external conflicts involving brigands and monsters, the novel explores the idea that personal peace is not always found in quietude but must sometimes be won through external struggle.