Bookshops & Bonedust

The anti Abercrombie.

I am not the target audience for this book. I love Grimdark, I love grey characters and i love cynical humour.

Bookshops and Bone Dust is none of the above, the characters are good, they do good things and are rewarded for their efforts. Boring right? Wrong! The author executes the story so well that the characters, rather than being sickly sweet, feel like real people who make real decisions. They just choose to be kind to each other.

There are two plots in this book, a low stakes and a higher stakes one. I found myself caring about the low stakes plot and found the higher stakes an unnecessary distraction. I can go to thousands of other fantasy books for life and death situations. I come to this world to spend time with a wonderful bunch of characters being nice to each other in nice places and that is when this book is at its best. Oh and when it describes the cake. Do not read when hungry.

Synopsis: Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it. What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

My Thoughts: The prose in the book is solid, and it's clear that it has been edited with care. There's an attempt to recapture the cozy and comfortable atmosphere of the first book, though it's only somewhat successful. I personally would have preferred a stronger emphasis on either more dynamic action sequences or more charming, bookshop-related scenes. Unfortunately, both elements seemed lacking, leaving the story feeling somewhat incomplete. The inclusion of a necromancer plot offered potential for an interesting twist, but instead, the narrative unexpectedly veered into exploring a romantic subplot between an Orc and a Dwarf, which felt out of place to me. The storyline also hinted at involving a rat female character in this dynamic, contributing to a sense that I was delving into someone's personal and rather unconventional fantasy. Overall, the book is an average read – it's not entirely unenjoyable, but it's not something I'd be keen on revisiting

I like how this prequel touches base with [b:Legends & Lattes 61242426 Legends & Lattes (Legends & Lattes, #1) Travis Baldree https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1654581271l/61242426.SY75.jpg 94968745] as an epilogue.

4.5 stars. Almost perfect. Very slightly ups the stakes compared to Legends & Lattes, although not enough to take it out of cosy territory. Maybe the threat is dealt with just a little too easily (hence the dropping of half a star), but I guess that is not why we're here, so I'm happy to round it up. In any event, I loved the setting and characters, and it sets up the L&L world nicely. Might even be better than L&L.