And it is through the delight and escapism bestowed by reading great books that she feels this further. Before that, he spent decades designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. It does the impossible: showing us a character twenty years before her story, and making us hold our breath to see what happens next. i know this whole review is a big gush, filled with big praise with big words, but i truly do mean them all.

Baldree creates an imaginative and fully-developed world, "peopled" with rich, warm, likeable characters. 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. i am sure you guys know this about me, but seeing how travis created fern to describe these things in this book really hit me so unexpectedly hard and right in my very heart and soul. Thank you to NetGalley, Travis Baldree, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review.

This was a fun and heart warming cozy fantasy about friendship, first love, finding happiness in helping others and finding your purpose in life. Due to injury, Viv finds herself on a forced break from action in the sleepy coastal village of Murk whilst she recuperates.

She’d caught a fever while bouncing along in the litter behind a pack mule, coughing through all the dust it could raise. 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. Which is okay for some readers since this is a cozy, slice of life story but for me, I felt like this book was a little too long. However, reading our unspoken emotions and words written by other authors eloquently, or feelings spoken by characters who feel the same passion about reading, can feel good. 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.Maybe Val will be the one to introduce the indoor mall to the world after acquiring a gigantic abandoned palace she can't afford to maintain for her own. Beautifully humane, it is a loving reminder that the best parts of life are what happens between the big moments.

this book starts out with viv and rackam (and their mercenary group - the ravens) in battle against a necromancer’s skeleton army! Viv caught him watching her devour the food from the other end of the bar and tried to slow down, but the potatoes were salty and rich with the egg, and it was hard not to shovel it in without pausing. It attaches a fascinating history to her as each person she comes across in Murk changes her, some only in little ways, others in big ones. It was hard to enjoy because the characters involved are so lovable and earnest and honest its hard not to reserve a little judgement. That is the one thing I could say over and over and over again about this book; it is astoundingly comforting.

I could have done without the necromancer bits but they don't detract from the "cozy" narrative that is at the heart of the novel. I don’t know if I can explain it, but watching you read what I give you, putting a book in your hands and seeing what happens to you once you put it back down . A suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. Ben Aaronovitch, author of Rivers of London It's the rare prequel that beautifully adds depth, power, and love to the lore.