But she quickly gets to exploring this town, and meeting all the locals and their businesses, and soon enough viv finds many different kinds of adventures that will keep her busy while she waits for rackam to come back for her.

With its mysterious encounters, summer flings and a growing number of skeletons, Baldree’s fantastical novel is the perfect cozy romp. His nose was a hatchet, his hair hung kelp-thick past sharp ears, and his forearms writhed with tattoos.He has those gentleman/butler vibes that I have always found adorable which is why I loved him the minute he appeared on the page.

It made me feel like every scene between Viv and the love interest was crammed in for filler material and I was beyond bored. This charming outing will please anyone who’s ever wished to spend time in a fantasy world without all the quests and battles. I was so over the moon to be allowed an early copy of this book on NetGalley, as Legends and Lattes is one of my all time favourite reads of all. It’s wonderfully wholesome, and I hope heralds the rise of a 'slice-of-life' sub-genre in modern fantasy. Sarah Rice, also in Booklist, claims the book "cements [Baldree's] talent for cozy fantasy, engaging characters, and anachronistic references that would be at home in a Discworld novel.She also cusses all the time, barely reaches Viv's knee, and has an adorable pet gryphet named Potroast (see cover for reference). Adventure and danger do, it's true, come to the town in the end and Viv plays her part in defeating it, but I was pleased to see that Viv's success was due as much or more to the friendships she's made as to her fighting prowess (in contrast to the episode at the start where she fails just because she tries to do it all herself). This was a fun and heart warming cozy fantasy about friendship, first love, finding happiness in helping others and finding your purpose in life.

Last but not least, Gallina, Viv's friend from the first book, is also in Murk and we get to find out how the two of them met and what their relationship was like before they teamed up. I never thought I would be into cozy fantasy but the first book pleasantly surprised me so I was very excited for the prequel.Glass floats and storm lanterns were strung or nailed up in the rafters, alongside netting and weathered oars with names carved into them. Unfortunately, I only somewhat enjoyed the first half of this prequel, and once it hit about the halfway point, I stopped being even remotely compelled to continue. fern (the rattkin bookseller) really felt like a once in a lifetime character for me, because she really embodies the feeling and the power of seeing someone fall in love with books and reading and how special it feels when maybe you played a little part in that. The bandages showed some discoloration where she’d oozed through, but it was a big step up from moss and a dirty wool shirt.

A long bar ran along the back wall, and the tavernkeep leaned against it, idly cleaning a copper mug. The one in the sleepy seaside village is worse off than most, though, because the owner is objectively terrible at her job. The world isn't ending, things are grim but not hopeless, there's an acceptable element of danger without being over the top.

Just like Legends and Lattes, this was a cosy fantasy set in a small town with many characters with distinct personalities that cross paths. Enlightened by Viv’s newfound happiness for reading, I feel recharged to read the next dark fantasy and sci-fi novels I love to read.