I don’t know if you can call this first book exactly cozy, but it was definitely comforting. Along with the storyline, there’s something comforting (to me at least) about a short story. There are character arcs, plot twists, and usually everything is tied up by the end. It calms the soul to not have to wait!
This book is about a woman reconnecting with her ailing father. Kalista is an Olympian, and her father was a long-time high school coach. He’s scheduled for heart surgery and she learns that he’s thinking about cancelling it. Kalista basically drops her life and heads out to her home town to be with her father. She spends the next month with him recreating old memories throughout the seasons. I thoroughly enjoyed the townspeople showing up to help her and “coach” with their endeavors. It just felt calming and kind. It kinda reminded me about all the people who came to my Gram’s wake four years ago. I know she was awesome and amazing, but I didn’t realize how many lives she touched. This felt similar. Coach and Kalista didn’t ask for help, but people whose lives he touched were willing and able to come and help.
There’s nothing revolutionary about this story, but it gave me the feels. You don’t really know what happens to them at the end, but I like to think that coach got better and Kalista realized what’s important in life. That’s just my big mushy heart though!
Apparently there’s a book zero in the Legends and Lattes series that I am (per usual) reading after book one. It’s fine though, because I feel like book zero was released after book one, so I might’ve done it in the right order! My art club friends recommended this book because it’s cozy. I listened to the audiobook and they were correct. This is a story about an orc named Viv (the large green lady on the cover). She’s strong and tough and battle tested. She gets this “magic” stone at the beginning of the book and follows some magnetic lines to get to a prosperous / lucky / good place, which turns out to be an old horse stable. She does a bunch of manual labor by herself and with the aid of a random shipmaker she met while travelling the town. Viv’s dream is to open a coffee shop, but almost nobody has ever heard of coffee. The joy of hearing all the new creatures (I mean that in the best way possible, nobody’s a human in this book, they’re all some sort of creature) taste coffee and learn about the shop is cozy. She very early gets a helper and then over the course of the book gets a few more, and they’re just really cool characters. Her old fighting buddies stop by a few times, and you can just tell that although her exterior is kinda gruff, and a little terrifying, she’s a good orc. There are some really bad things that happen, but her new friends get her through it. There is also a giant cat that saves the day a few times, which I fully enjoy.
It’s funny that a book about an orc and a ratkin (I think he’s like a very small rat?) who bakes and a doofyish guy that sings and a gnome and a giant cat and a succubus can be so cozy and comforting, but it really is.
