By coincidence, I recently ran across what seems to be a similar yet completely different discussion of "cozy fantasy" -- at least I'm assuming it's a different discussion, as its catalyst was a review of a different pair of books, and while the Carousel books are mentioned, it's only as the (currently) very last of sixty-odd dense comments.

There are a number of solid recs in that discussion, but rather than port them over wholesale, I'll mention the books the OP over there was reviewing (Barbara Ashford's Spellcast and Spellcrossed, newly available in a combined edition as Spells at the Crossroads), and cite one additional example from the extended discussion, that being Elizabeth Marie Pope's The Sherwood Ring.