Thank you to the author, publisher Bad Press Ink, and online book club The Pigeonhole for the chance to read this. This is an honest and voluntary review.

 

Mark loves working behind the bar. He likes his co-workers and isn’t tempted to move on to new horizons as they regularly do. Not until he’s fired. Then cast adrift an ex offers him a job as landlord at the Axe and the Grindstone, a role which is about far more than serving pints of cherry brandy to a troll named Arthur.

 

A combination of fun and epic, The Axe and the Grindstone is a bit like Legends and Lattes although with more complex lore and epic battles for the souls of two worlds.

 

The main character Mark is a great lynchpin for the story. He’s the right balance of charming and lost, someone who hasn’t found his place, but truly comes into his own when the chips are down.

 

There are some places where the story gets a little bit complex/hard to follow, but the moments in between more than make up for these. A great read.