Rating: 5🌈

Nik Knight’s new rom-com urban fantasy new novel and the first installment in her new series is utterly stunning.  Passing Through Purgatory: Passing Through Cafe #1 by Nik Knight caught my eye by that cover and then by the description.

But the actual story surpassed all my expectations by being not just a great story, but one that brought such immensely diverse, believable cast of characters, human and otherworldly. Each with their own unique and fully defined sense of being.  Complete physical elements, emotional and spiritual elements, and often, as I think Knight will explore further, some hurtful, damaging aspects to their background and histories in the Hell Universe (just another world where trains run late and bigotry exists that feels very familiar).

The universe and characters are ones I connected with immediately. It starts with human Oliver Barnes, living in Chicago with friends (love Jude). He goes for a job interview in Greed district of Hell’s Pentagram but    in one realistic scenario (even if it’s in Purgatory), he misses his train. 

And in doing so, finds something else that is, everything he could possibly want.  But first he needs to go through the doors of the Passing Through Cafe. 

There Knight gives us the most chaotic place, a cafe of owners and employees who will become Oliver’s found family. Each one such a distinctive being who quickly find a place in our hearts. I found myself forgetting that the lovable Gem, is an Araknis (think spider with a great butt) as well as many eyes and arms. After a while, it was Gem, who actually had a fragility about him that endeared him even more. Same thing with Rusty the Pyclon, a pink walking Care Bear with a snarky attitude that hides a damaged past. I mean there’s 

Tad the Anura,  a tough dishwasher,

Willow the empath dyad who’s a baker assistant to the fabulously gorgeous Glyma the succubus baker.

And Zef the asexual winged Mantodea , who is sometimes a drag Queen and cafe greeter, along with the handful, handsome demon Toni the Elas. 

Quinn, owner and  partner to Glyma, along with Bob, a question mark of a species who lives in the office and resembles a bug, complete the cafe found family.

It seems like a lot, but how Knight introduces them to Oliver (and the reader) folds them beautifully into his new dynamic and the world view we are seeing.  Their lives and respective personalities as well as personal backgrounds will start to be revealed the more Oliver becomes a deeply entrenched part of their lives. 

Because the Hell world has its intricacies as far as status, bigotry, speciesism, and it’s divided along racial or specific lines and into territories.  This element is still being explored. But the basic concept is laid down and it’s ugly in its reality. And how it impacts our little group. 

I look forward to seeing what happens next.  Because while there are scenes of absolute hilarity here, there’s some of moments of such pain, of past history that’s so bad that it’s unmentionable.  Both hit hard because we’ve come to care so much about our group of characters.

And that includes the final one I haven’t mentioned yet. Liel Karakis  the Gymnot lawyer from the Greed district. He’s the one that Oliver falls for. A fantastic relationship and romance, but albeit not human in its sexual scenes. As it should be because Liel isn’t human.  But for Oliver, it’s the person who matters, not the body. And Knight has been as imaginative in this element as she is in every other aspect of the story.

Beautifully executed and well done. 

I’ll end this saying I was so excited to see the narrative flow to the ranch, every part of that storyline, and the family. A glimpse into the Christmas visit would be amazing, because you know the gang is going to have to go too.  Just saying, pretty please?

I honestly need Gratification in Gluttony now.  I highly recommend this and the author. Just fabulous.

Cover Design © 2024 Priska Mills

The Passing Through Cafe 

• Passing Through Purgatory #1
• Gratification in Gluttony #2  (Coming winter 2024

Buy link:

        Passing Through Purgatory: Passing Through Cafe #1

    

Blurb

When Oliver applied for a job in the Hell dimension on a whim, he didn’t expect it to turn his whole world—or his heart—entirely upside down.

Recently graduated at twenty-six, and two months behind on rent, Oliver Barnes is desperate. So desperate, in fact, that he applies for a job in the Greed district of Hell’s Pentagram. But when he misses his train and, subsequently, his job interview, he stumbles, instead, upon a strange little coffee shop in the middle of Purgatory’s barren desert—and into an unexpected opportunity.

It isn’t the job he came to Hell for, but maybe it’s exactly the job he needs.

As he navigates the demon dimension and tries to survive the ridiculous shenanigans of his unholy co-workers, Oliver soon falls head-over-ass for a tentacled lawyer with electric fingers and a deadly-sharp grin. Together, they discover that, sometimes, love and happiness can be just a train ride away.

Join Oliver and the rest of the eccentric staff of The Passing Through Cafe in Nik Knight’s new rom-com urban fantasy series, full of found family, embarrassing encounters, spicy situations, and love that crosses dimensions.

• Publication date: September 13, 2024
• Language: English
• Print length: 395 pages