Bookshops & BonedustReview posted April 16, 2026.
Macmillan Audio, 2023. 8 hours, 24 minutes.
Review written March 27, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
I have discovered my new favorite genre! Okay, I've already read lots of books in this genre and loved them, but when I read a Writer's Digest interview with this author and heard his books described as "Cozy Fantasy," I knew I would like them. I was completely correct.
In fact, I think the adult Cozy Fantasy genre is exactly what I liked about Young Adult Fantasy when I started writing Sonderbooks 25 years ago. Okay, the current Cozy Fantasy has a little more sex, but not super graphic sex. Current Young Adult Fantasy has gotten a lot darker, in general, as well as getting sexier, and I still enjoy it, but it's a little harder to find stories I love. I also sympathize a whole lot less with tropes like the good and noble prince with a terribly evil father ruling, but the prince falls in love with a commoner oppressed by his father. Or other tropes that I've seen before which aren't so wonderfully healthy if you think about them very long. Cozy Fantasy, though, currently seems like a good bet I'll like it. (Anyway, I'm going to test that out and search for Cozy Fantasy and see how long that lasts.) 25 years ago or so, I said I didn't like adult fantasy too much because it was mostly epic quests and detailed world-building, and I preferred young adult fantasy which had a mythic element, simpler with a fairy-tale feeling. (I still love fairy tale retellings.) It seems to me that Cozy Fantasy has recaptured that simplicity, throwing a dash of magic into a world you might want to live in.
Okay, so this book is actually a prequel - described as #0 in the series by Libby - and I decided to read it first. I was completely charmed and will queue up to read the rest of his books. (And the author does a great job reading it.)
Our main character is Viv, an orc who works as a mercenary with an elite group of rangers chasing down a necromancer. In the prologue, she gets out ahead of her group, fighting and slaying some wights - when one of them gives her a severe leg wound. Viv has to stay in one place to recover, so she's in a quiet sea village waiting for the rangers to come back for her.
As an orc, Viv's an imposing figure, but Fern, the ratkin who owns the village bookshop, dares to recommend a novel to Viv - and a friendship is born, as well as a new habit for Viv. Fern's bookshop, which she inherited from her father, is cluttered, has a smelly rug, and is in general disrepair. Viv helps Fern spruce things up and revive her business.
But while that is happening, someone comes to the village with the smell of death. Some articles owned by the necromancer turn up in their town, and it's no surprise to the reader when the battle with the necromancer comes to Viv before she's necessarily ready.
But most of the story is about the characters and relationships. Enough so that we're super concerned for everyone in the village when the big showdown happens.
I do love the way an orc who turns out to love to read is our main character. Okay, she is a skilled mercenary, but there's a lot more to her than that. I was completely charmed by this book and ready to read the other books about Viv and Fern reunited years later (with Viv married to a succubus) in another town. Cozy fantasy is the perfect way to describe this.