Bingo Square: Strange Worlds
Viv is an orc who’s tired of the adventuring life of bounties and bloodshed. She’s ready for something else. Taking her savings and a magical doo-dad that may or may not bring your heart’s desire, she sets off to the city of Thune to make her fresh start. Which for Viv is opening a coffee shop. Which would be fine, if people there knew what coffee was.
But as Viv starts to build her shop, something amazing happens. People show up. Not just customers, but helpers – a craftsman to help her see what she might need in her shop; an employee that might become so much more; a ratkin who happens to be an amazing baker – and they could be the ones saving Viv this time. If she’ll let them.
But of course not all goes smoothly. There’s a gang in town that expects respect – and payment every month – from Viv, plus a disgruntled old colleague who thinks he got duped and is out for revenge. Can Viv hold onto her dream?
I’ve seen this around on social media a fair bit over the past year but have always ignored it because of the cover. I’m not into high fantasy or D&D and it just screamed ‘not for me’. There’s that not judging a book by its cover thing again. Because this was just delightful and exactly what I needed to be reading right now. Low stakes, but with fantastic characters you want to spend time with, even if that time is watching people discover coffee and pastries. Just lovely from start to finish and I’m mad at myself for ignoring it as long as I did. But maybe I wasn’t ready for it then?
