Reading now.

I started out loving this novel and ended up just liking it. Which is not bad! However, I was hoping to continue to love it straight through to the end. After the first third of the book, I found the pace rather slow. I think the book could easily have been 25-50 pages shorter and not lost anything. Baldree does write well, but what's up with the cursing? He crafted a delightfully cozy world and the curse words seemed out of place in it to me. The characterizations were good. It was not a bad book, but I think I was hoping for more coziness and a slightly faster pace throughout.

This is headed out as part of the wishlist tag game. Enjoy!

The wishlist book arrived safely today; many thanks! This one does look fun.

Later: Very cute concept, some marvelous characters - and the perfect fantasy-realm coffee shop. And while there are some tense bits here and there, for the most part it's just so... cozy! As a long-time D&D player, I appreciated the many tidbits about Viv's adventuring party, peeks at the kinds of adventures they went on, hints as to the back-stories of each of those characters - and the ways in which they came back in to the story after the now-retired Viv has set up her coffee shop and acquired some new allies. (And yes, I sensed that sparks might fly with Tandri from the moment she showed up, but the relationship was nicely developed over the course of the story.)

I also enjoyed the bonus story, "Pages to Fill," from one of Viv's earlier adventures; nice to see the gang in action before our hulking heroine got too jaded!

[There's a TV Tropes page on the book, with some entertaining tidbits.]

I'm planning to give this to BCer iddylu as a possible candidate for books-to-take-on-an-upcoming-trip - or to release locally, whatever appeals. Enjoy!

** Released for the 2023 Wine+Food challenge. **

** Released for the 2023 Keep Them Moving challenge. **

To take traveling with me on some upcoming trip or another (I have three planned for 2023)!