If you read my review of Legends and Lattes, you’ll know that this series is cozy. This one’s a little less cozy, because it’s Viv (the green orc) pre-coffee shop and mid-mercenary. She gets stabbed in the leg badly enough that her group basically leaves her in a town to recuperate until they come back around to get her.
For a while Viv can’t walk or do much, and she gets really really bored. Once she can move around a little bit though, she walks down the boardwalk and finds a bookshop. It’s run by a rattkin named Fern. Her and Viv slowly become friends by Viv hanging out at the bookshop every day and helping Fern here and there. There’s also a cute (sounding) little gryphet named Potroast, who is Fern’s pet. The descriptions of him are amazing. He hoots, he bites things, he has fur and feathers, but he’ll also curl up into your lap. Viv also falls in love, or at least lust with the local baker Maylee. There’s a lot of personal growth and even a few battles. I think my favorite character of all has to be Satchel, who is literally a reanimated bag (satchel) of bones. I listened to the audiobook, which is Travis Baldree reading. He does a GREAT job with voices. I always know who is talking based on his voices. Satchel just has an old soul and seems like he’d be very comforting to have around, even though he is literally just bones.
There are themes around meeting the right people at the right time, or the right people at the wrong time, and of course there is lots of reading. I was delighted to hear the epilogue alluding to Legends and Lattes and couldn’t wait to pick up the next book!
