Friday, August 15, 2025

Short Book Reviews: A Cozy Battle-Orc Fantasy

 Bookshops & Bonedust, by Travis Baldree (Tor)


Is there such a thing as a cozy high fantasy with a female battle-orc heroine? Elves, dwarves, enchanted swords, necromancers…and spicy romance novels? Yes to all of this, because Travis Baldree has invented the subgenre!

Bookshops & Bonedust is a delightful prequel to Legends and Lattes, although each works beautifully on its own.

Recuperating from wounds incurred in the hunt for a powerful necromancer, battle-orc soldier-of-fortune Viv finds herself in the sleepy beach town of Murk with nothing to do. In desperation born of overwhelming boredom, she follows the literary suggestions of Fern, the ratkin owner of a dying bookstore. Any fantasy reader worth their salt knows what comes next! Not only is Viv drawn into the enchanted world of novels but she sets about reviving the bookstore, complete with a surprise appearance by the elf author of fabled romance adventures. Along the way, Viv encounters a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a retired mercenary turned baker extraordinaire, a mysterious traveler in gray, and a talking bag of bones. All is not hunky-dory in Murk, however, for the necromancer responsible for Viv’s injury is still on the loose…

I loved every page of it!

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