Somehow this book was thrilling, and cozy, and sweet, and almost kind of boring, but also really fun all at the same time. Viv is a brash, young, hotheaded, and impulsive Orc that gets herself into trouble and winds up needing to take a little sabbatical in this shanty seaside town. And while she’s healing, she’s falling in love with books, and repairing stuff, and getting into absolute nonsensical trouble with a necromancer. So fun! 

 

So despite wishing that I had read B&B before Legends and Lattes because of the chronological order of the story, I don’t think I would have been as taken with L&L the way I was if I read this one first. Like it makes more sense chronologically – – even though they weren’t released that way – – but also getting to meet Viv after she’s settled down and is more worn out by life and looking to retreat into a cozy little coffee shop becomes more gratifying after you see some of the things that she struggled with in her youth. I’ll never know but I wonder. 

 

B&B walks a fine line of cozy and slow and “holy crap that book is a portal” or “those bones are a talking creature”; wild and creative! And a romance subplot! I had a very good time.