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Viv’s career as a notorious mercenary isn’t going as planned. When she is wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk.
At first, to keep herself occupied, she spends a majority of her hours at the beleaguered bookshop along the strand, reading books she wouldn’t normally pick up at the recommendation of the bookshop’s foul-mouthed proprietor. Adventure isn’t as far away as Viv thought, though. As she helps the bookshop owner fix up the shop and bring the place back to life, she encounters a suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with something to prove, a summer fling, and one endearing skeleton. Murk may not be as sleepy as she once thought, and with danger brewing on the horizon, it’s up to Viv to protect the town and the people she’s come to care for.
Bookshops & Bonedust chronologically takes places two decades before the internet sensation Legends & Lattes. It’s a charming prequel. The world of Murk feels cozy, quirky, and steeped in magical oddities, and Murk’s beach town ambiance is vividly sketched. Overall, though, I found it did not have the same level of magic of Legends & Lattes. Perhaps it’s because I’d read Legends & Lattes first, so the stakes did not seem that high. And while I loved coming back to Viv’s world and seeing what she was up to before settling in Thune, a part of me wished this was just a sequel about a side character who was trying to start a bookstore, because I wanted more of that.
It’s still a charming cozy fantasy, though, and might make a good lighthearted palate-cleanser for readers who love thick high fantasies.
Rated: High. Profanity includes 39 uses of strong language, 22 uses of moderate, 142 uses of mild, and around 27 uses of the name of Deity. Sexual content includes innuendo referencing same-sex fictional characters making out or having sex and comments and jokes about spicy romances. Violence includes general peril.
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