Teller of Small Fortunes, Cursed Cocktails, and Cozy Tales of Larune might be more up your alley. Cozy and not that romantic.

I think The Spellshop is pretty tame.

This has such good winter vibes! Also Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik has good winter vibes, though is slightly less cozy than Emily Wilde.

It’s like Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Star Trek, with plant and soul magic.

A couple (non-romantic but very intimate, with contrasting worldviews) travel from planet to planet helping others & rebuilding communities after the empire falls.

Monk & Robot series by Becky Chambers, also there’s a new Rebecca Thorne book coming out in 2026 that’s cozy sci-fi called “Moss’d In Space” available for preorder.
And i have had a cozy sci-fi idea kicking around in my head for a while. Certainly a small genre but not unheard of.

This looks super sweet!

But yes you’re right stories can have stakes that aren’t world-ending or destructive. It can be something as simple as a character wanting to win a baking contest or make a career change, and dealing with the things that get in the way of that.

I felt similar seeing Assistant to the Villain being under the cozy category (though I don’t think I see it labeled as such anymore?) Lately I do see more “fantasy rom-com” subgenres in the vein of Terry Pratchett or The Princess Bride.

I always consider T. Kingfisher’s stories “cozy adjacent”.

Maybe Spice & Wolf? It’s medieval economics-heavy but the english VAs for the show trade off reading chapters of the light novel & do a decent job.

My current series is inspired by European cultures (France, Euskadi, Poland, Germany, Lithuania, etc.) so right now I use real names, even though it’s secondary world fantasy.

My later stories might be more unique names.

I think a combo of unique and real names is awesome though!

I’m reading the first one right now. It’s cute so far!