I think for me it's that I DO love quiet, domestic books and books that are fundamentally about people being (reasonably) happy and kind to each other... but they have to feel like PEOPLE to me personally, not like cardboard cut-outs. Which is obviously a subjective thing, but part of that is feeling like the world has sufficient depth that it doesn't just shape itself to the protagonists' needs, and like there are options other than happiness for them. Also, that the work behind their material comforts matters, whether they're the ones doing it or not; it isn't just done by handwavy magic (unless that's explicitly part of the worldbuilding! that's fine if so) or by people who don't count enough to deserve a cozy story.
Also, I agree very much about McKinley's heft, and the attention to domestic details and work. She's just so good at that! (Though I don't know that a lot of her work counts as cozy, per se... but it does explore a lot of the same stuff that more explicitly cozy books try to embrace and often fail to make compelling or plausible.)
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I think for me it's that I DO love quiet, domestic books and books that are fundamentally about people being (reasonably) happy and kind to each other... but they have to feel like PEOPLE to me personally, not like cardboard cut-outs. Which is obviously a subjective thing, but part of that is feeling like the world has sufficient depth that it doesn't just shape itself to the protagonists' needs, and like there are options other than happiness for them. Also, that the work behind their material comforts matters, whether they're the ones doing it or not; it isn't just done by handwavy magic (unless that's explicitly part of the worldbuilding! that's fine if so) or by people who don't count enough to deserve a cozy story.
Also, I agree very much about McKinley's heft, and the attention to domestic details and work. She's just so good at that! (Though I don't know that a lot of her work counts as cozy, per se... but it does explore a lot of the same stuff that more explicitly cozy books try to embrace and often fail to make compelling or plausible.)