Things are getting complicated in the small town of Tranquility. The Dragon Diner is extremely busy, trying to expand with its roof elf designed garden dining area and new magic mushroom recipes.
But first, the Elf Queen is coming to town, Rylana’s best friend, the elven assassin Sylin is being hunted down by elves, Rylana and dragon chef Jildarin have just been informed that they are going to be evicted from the place where the diner is by their landlord and magical mushrooms need to be found.
All in a day’s work for this group.
It’s a story full of tangled feelings, a few mysteries (mostly about family), mushrooms and things that glow, and a slow burn romance that might finally get a tiny bit more heat. But not much.
And it’s a cozy fantasy so everyone knows that it works out well.
Adorable and still very interesting. Love the characters.
Tales from the Dragon Diner (5 book series to date)
Retired mercenary Rylana and the dragon chef Jildarin are on the hunt for enchanted morels in the hope of enticing the visiting elf queen to their diner. But more than a desire for mushrooms has brought the queen to the city of Tranquility.
For some reason, she has her people searching for Rylana’s best friend, the elven assassin Sylin.
Even as Rylana worries about her comrade, a new problem thrusts its way into her path. Despite the Dragon Diner’s newfound success, their landlord has decided to evict them. After all that Rylana and Jildarin have built together, will they be forced to close the business?
I found this writer through a marvelous fantasy short story and shortly thereafter this incredible fantasy series.
Starting with the richly crafted universe of librarians fleeing a newly fallen Empire and the mythical creatures that either accompany them or welcome them into their new lives, The Spellshop begins our adventures with a revolution and librarian Kiela, her companion, the sentient spider plant Cas, and as many magical books as she can carry, fleeing the Capital.
For a cozy fantasy adventure, I love that the author has given us a main character who’s personality isn’t automatically endearing. Kiela has spent the last years of her life withdrawing into her job, her cubicle and all the books she’s in charge of in her sector, Cas being her only companion and daily interaction.
Then, in a horrifying moment, they have to flee for their lives.
I’ve often wondered what it must have been like for the great libraries of Alexandria to have burned and my heart hurts. It’s no less painful to feel what Kiela and Cas go through here.
Durst’s emotionally rendered scenes and vivid moments are so well done that I could visualize them myself.
Once Kiela decides that she and Cas will be safe on the faraway island that was once home, the character development grows stronger as she learns to deal and become part of the otherworldly community she originally came from.
It’s found family, magical creatures, slow burn romance and just a fantastic story about friendships, finding home and family if you let yourself.
I love the characters and story. The universe is one I’m thrilled to share and happily ready to continue with the next novel. It has to do with Cas, so it’s important that this book be read first.
Highly recommended.
And that beautiful cover. So incredibly well designed.
Richly gorgeous cover by artist Lulu Chen and designer Esther Kim
AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES, USA TODAY AND INDIE BESTSELLER!
A #1 LibraryReads pick!
An Indie Next pick!
The Spellshop is the romantasy debut by #1 New York Times bestselling author Sarah Beth Durst–a lush cottagecore tale full of stolen spellbooks, unexpected friendships, sweet jams, and even sweeter love.
Join Kiela the librarian and her assistant, Caz the sentient spider plant, as they navigate the low stakes market of illegal spellmaking and the high risk business of starting over.
“Sarah Beth Durst is the hidden gem of the fantasy world.” —Book Riot
Kiela has always had trouble dealing with people. Thankfully, as librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, she hasn’t had to.
She and her assistant, Caz, a magically sentient spider plant, have spent the last eleven years sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. But when a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz save as many books as they can carry and flee to a faraway island Kiela was sure she’d never return to: her childhood home. Kiela hopes to lay low in the overgrown and rundown cottage her late parents left her and figure out a way to survive without drawing the attention of either the empire or the revolutionaries. Much to her dismay, in addition to a nosy—and very handsome—neighbor, she finds the town neglected and in a state of disrepair.
The empire, for all its magic and power, has been neglecting for years the people who depend on magical intervention to maintain healthy livestock and crops. Not only that, but the very magic that should be helping them has been creating destructive storms that have taken a toll on the island. Due to her past role at the library, Kiela feels partially responsible for this, and now she’s determined to find a way to make things right: by opening the island’s first-ever secret spellshop.
Her plan comes with risks—the consequence of sharing magic with commoners is death. And as Kiela comes to make a place for herself among the kind and quirky townspeople of her former home, she realizes that in order to make a life for herself, she must learn to break down the walls she has built up so high.
Like a Hallmark rom-com full of mythical creatures and fueled by cinnamon rolls and magic, Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop will heal your heart and feed your soul.
I love Sara Bourgeois’s many different paranormal murder mystery series, whether it’s situated in the Arizona desert mountains or in a small NW Pacific coastal town. Whether a woman has inherited a ghost filled desert ranch or a seaside bookstore or witchy herb shop that’s accompanied by a cat familiar, whatever the location or inheritance, the characters and community are intriguing, plot and character development well written, and the series one that expands into a ever deeper layered narrative and leads to wonderful relationships and even more mysteries.
This is our introduction to Rowan Page, her inherited bookstore, Quill & Tide, the familiar, cat Moss, and the very interesting seaside town of Willow Cove, where things are brewing. Murder and plenty of mystery to go around with the charm and quirky community.
Her aunt’s presence is still there, and magic is winding its way into Rowan’s life.
Bourgeois has, through her other series, kept her characters layered, even the murder mysteries, from victims to villains, have dimensions that have a reader feeling about them from multiple perspectives. There’s a sense of realness in their behaviors that makes us able to understand them, if not condone their actions.
Even for a urban fantasy or paranormal murder mystery novel, having the author write characters that a reader would find engaging and relatable, even while we laugh at the “nosiness” make this a series I can’t wait to continue.
Plus I want to visit any bookstore with the name Quill & Tide. I’m sold.
It is not a good plan, but it is technically a plan. She’ll come to Willow Cove, sort out the seaside bookshop her late aunt left behind, sell the property before the money runs out, and move on with her life.
Quill & Tide has other ideas.
The shelves are beautiful but impossible to navigate. The bathroom mirror keeps leaving messages in her dead aunt’s handwriting. And Moss, the sea-glass gray cat who came with the building, keeps glowing every time someone lies.
Rowan would love to pretend all of that is normal.
Unfortunately, denial gets harder when a bestselling thriller author drops dead at the town’s Masques & Manuscripts festival, right in front of half the waterfront.
The police have a suspect. The town has gossip. Moss has strong feelings about everyone involved, most of them unflattering. And Rowan has questions she really should stop asking, especially once they lead to a stolen grimoire and secrets Aunt Oona apparently took to the grave.
Willow Cove is charming, magical, and very bad at minding its own business.
Rowan was supposed to sell the bookshop and leave.
Instead, she may have inherited a murder mystery and one extremely judgmental cat.
Part of a mult-author fantasy series centered around a Marriage Market and “forced marriage” trope, I picked up A Match Made in Slumber because of the author and the description, which seems to have found a good way around the forced proximity aspect in the series that’s just not my thing.
Bacon doesn’t disappoint here with a charming tale of two totally different men who have been haunting each other’s dreams each night. Each man from a different world or realm, although they’re both Elves. And each one differs in their lifestyle and personality. Except for the fact they appear to be fated for each other.
Commander Keălhem Reñyés is about to storm the castle with his men, a bloody battle sure to ensue. He’s been in a war for a long time and only his nightly dreams have kept him sane.
Elian Fountenblym, is an imaginative genius who creates wondrous things with his magical matchsticks. But his nightly fantasies and the dream man who haunts them are keeping him up and from being productive. And when his magic goes wrong, it’s Keălhem who suddenly appears before him.
Bacon does a terrific job of characterizing the various backgrounds of each man while making the chemistry between them feel absolutely believable.
And being able to see Keălhem find his own way into Elian’s life and the marketplace, using his own strengths and skills is such a great pleasure and part of the relationship and storyline.
Even the “forced proximity/marriage” aspect loses the “ick” factor for me when the author builds such a strong case for them being fated partners being pulled together.
There is a happily ever after for the couple and the ending is very satisfying.
For those readers like me who are a fan of the author, this Shared world universe stands outside of Bacon’s Order Universe. FYI.
“Each book explores queer pairings across the gender spectrum (M/M, F/F, F/X) through light-hearted mishaps and shenanigans. Romance tropes include fake engagements, forced proximity, opposites attract, marriage of convenience, and grumpy/sunshine dynamics.”
Kidnapping an interdimensional warlord is a crime. Marrying him is a get–out–of–dungeon–free card
Commander Keălhem Reñyés is mid-swing—about to storm a fortress—when the battlefield dissolves into the scent of candyfloss. Instead of headbutting an enemy, he crash-lands face-first into a heap of silk ribbon talismans, yanked across dimensions to Everend by an alchemist desperate for some shut-eye.
Elian Fountenblym, a genius matchstick maker with a cataclysmic track record of magical mishaps, is plagued by sensual dreams of a mysterious soldier. Every night, they leave him randy, pining and knackered—all in the run-up to the Great Midsummer Market—the busiest event of the year. To kill the longing once and for all, he invents the Match of Tranquillity, only to unwittingly trigger a forbidden summoning enchantment that delivers his dream man straight into his waking world. That’s one more whoopsie he could’ve done without.
With High Arbiter Cholerius—Elian’s former Academy rival—sniffing around for unauthorised magic, the stakes are high. Bound by the volatile constraints of the spell and forced to share a bed to keep Keălhem from flickering out of existence, the pair must turn to an ancient legal loophole to save Elian from a one-way trip to the dungeons on interdimensional kidnapping charges.
Navigating a fake marriage that begins to feel dangerously real, they have until the Midsummer Moon wanes to decide: part ways or let the flame of their accidental match burn forever?
A Match Made in Slumber is a low-angst, marriage-of-necessity, forced-proximity story featuring fated mates, accidental kidnapping and a stoic/chaotic dynamic. It is part of the Marriage Market Misadventures.
Marriage Market Misadventures is a light-hearted series of standalone queer romances where elves from all over the realm gather at the Everend Midsummer Markets to meet, match, and marry—with plenty of shenanigans along the way.
A Match Made in Slumber is a low-angst, marriage-of-necessity, forced-proximity story featuring fated mates, accidental kidnapping and a stoic/chaotic dynamic. It is part of the Marriage Market Misadventures.
Dark Matter is fantastic. The Class 5 series is just getting better and better with each new book.
Bane, the AI who decided to remain independent and has been on the periphery of the storylines as a enigmatic character is front and center here. And I’m so excited for this.
Each newly freed AI Class 5 battleship will be eventually associated with a human woman (or more accurately several in its history). Here, Bane was given information by the AI Paxe before Paxe sacrificed himself (yes each “thinking machine” decides to gender identity) that there’s yet another human female being held by the Tehrans. And she needs to be rescued at all costs.
That’s Lucy Harris, who harrowingly escapes from the Tecran science lab where she’s been a prisoner and is on the run for her life on the Tecran planet.
Grih Commander Dray Helvan is traveling to carry out the Council’s mission of punishments for breaking the UC law when Bane informs him of Lucy’s presence on the planet. And the race is on to rescue her before she’s recaptured.
It’s thrilling, suspense filled and action packed with battle scenes and moments of drama and heart-stopping sequences when the reader is right there with Lucy on the run.
Bane is as terrifying as you might imagine and Dray Helvin the next soldier and commander who realistically wants the Tecran to pay for the atrocities that they’ve committed.
Diener expands on her overall universe, answering questions that I had about why only women, and other elements while still exploring the galactic conspiracy and ongoing conflicts involving the women and the Council.
Just a great series and group of characters.
A another winner from an author who’s become an auto read.
DARK MATTERS . . . taking matters into her own hands
A time bomb, waiting to go off . . . Lucy Harris is on the run, not sure where she can turn to for help, or if help is even available. But even as her abductors chase her down, she realizes they don’t just want to recapture her, they want to erase her. When your very existence puts a planet at risk of war, there’s no choice but to do everything in your power to stay out of your enemies hands.
A predator . . . waiting for the chance to pounce The powerful AI battleship, Bane, is accompanying the United Council envoy to Tecra to mete out the punishment the Tecrans have earned for breaking UC law. He revels in the power he’s about to have over his old masters. But his mission isn’t only to rain down retribution on the people who kept him chained for years, he’s also looking for a human woman one of his fellow Class 5s mentioned in the final seconds of his life. Paxe admitted to taking Lucy Harris from Earth, and Bane has been looking for her ever since.
A warrior conflicted . . . Commander Dray Helvan thinks the Grih made a mistake in not pushing for war with the Tecran, but he’s had to accept the compromise, that he and the other envoys from the United Council will go to Tecra and dismantle its military from the top down. His mission is not one of his choosing, but when he and his team arrive, he’s handed a very different job. While he distrusts Bane on principle, when the Class 5 tells him there’s a woman running for her life on the planet below, he will do whatever he has to to see her safe. And if that means war for Tecra, well, then it means war.
Note: Dark Matters is book 4 in the Class 5 series.
Glyphs & Merit shows definitive maturity and character growth in the the small group and couples that have formed over five novels in The Glyphwright Chronicles.
Marcus and Felix are now in established relationships, with Felix and Katherine soon to return home from their honeymoon. Rose Fairwind, Marcus’ sister, an artificer works alongside them and others now in their own home and shop.
This story is about Marcus and Felix working through individual issues, both personal and professional. They obtain a brother and sister as interns which affects their group dynamics and business model.
And they also have to deal with their future work in the Guild and other partnerships.
It’s a lot. Plus there is an overall plot that involves an old enemy who is undermining their work in an “invisible” manner.
Sometimes it seems as though it takes forever for various characters and storylines to get the heft and information they need to feel interesting and relevant. Not just laid down and left behind in the narrative.
It all eventually comes together. And there’s an engagement as well.
Does this feel as satisfying or as well put together as the books that came before? No, but Jeremy Fabiano has under a health crisis while he was at a conference, and makes (in his own notes) an apology for the errors found in the book because it was rushed to release.
Swift hopes to the author and I’m looking forward to reading his next book in the series.
A great series and I’m in love with the characters, including the new additions.
Six weeks without Felix was supposed to be the hardest part of the season. Then the mayor walked into the shop with a problem the town had already failed to solve four times.
With Felix away and Erasmus at the capital, Marcus Fairwind is running the shop alone. He expected a quiet stretch of routine commissions and a partner home by month’s end. Instead, Mayor Weatherby arrives with a district that has gone twelve years without hot water and a budget smaller than the boiler it can’t afford.
The town has voted the replacement down four times. Marcus thinks Millbrook has been solving the wrong problem. The right one is a utility that serves every house on the line at once, and nobody in the region has ever built one.
Then a Senior Inspector asks him to take two apprentices on trial, and the Guild sends a board inspector to decide whether a shop this young has any business teaching anyone. Marcus has spent two years learning the craft. Now he has sixty days to prove he can explain it — while a quiet campaign against the mayor gathers somewhere he can’t see.
The Glyphwright Chronicles continues with civic infrastructure, first apprentices, small-town politics, one long-postponed question, and the lesson that the hardest part of mastering a craft is teaching it to someone else.
Pour yourself something warm, settle into your favorite reading spot, and discover that the work nobody sees is the work holding the whole town up.
op this young has any business teaching anyone.
Marcus has spent two years learning the craft. Now he has sixty days to prove he can explain it — while a quiet campaign against the mayor gathers somewhere he can’t see.
I’m just on my second short story in this amazing collection and already I’m sold. Every author is a new discovery and so far each tale is engaging, well written, and full of twists and surprising characters.
Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk by Travis Baldree, the first book of the Magic & Mystery collection, starts off with the murder of the unlikable Brother Gorm at the Order of Venerous the Petulant.
Yes, Baldree had me right there.
Then the desperate bishop has a friend call in a detective to help solve the mystery. And Miss Gentle arrives!
I will not spoil her unsettling and perfectly incredible appearance she makes at the monastery. She’s a mysterious figure herself and adds to the mystical aspect of the story.
It’s funny, sharply crafted. And has one last punch waiting for the reader at the end.
A peculiar detective takes on a monastic murder mystery in a darkly funny fantasy short story by the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Legends & Lattes series.
Nobody really liked Brother Gorm, but his untimely and abrupt descent from the abbey’s bell tower has the Order of Venerous the Petulant on edge. Desperate to settle the case before the bishop returns, the abbot enlists the highly unorthodox investigator Miss Gentle. As she clanks through the abbey in a full suit of armor, the cantankerous detective has no problem asking awkward questions—but will she get any answers?
Travis Baldree’s Miss Gentle and the Case of the Very Flat Monk is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting
I’m a fan of this author so I immediately picked up Twice Bitten, the beginning of S.E. Babin’s Fangs and Fur series. A paranormal tale about a hedge witch who gets mixed up with the politics of the vampire/werewolf conference by way of a traumatic encounter is off to a good start here.
Babin is excellent at establishing a complex plot that will keep expanding into ever greater detail and often wilder realms and storylines. I can definitely see this happening with Fangs and Fur and the main group of characters Babin is starting out with.
Hint. Thankfully, this author can take the main female character on quite the twisted path with regard to her final romantic partner, so just know it might not be one of the top two atm.
First there’s Alex, a hedge witch working as a barista with a black market apothecary business on the side. She’s an orphan with a “missing” mother and a father of unknown origin.
Alex becomes the object of an obsessive vampire, Beckett, and ends up in the middle of a mysterious species turf battle between vampire and wolf shifter. That brings in the next major characters and conflicts.
Alric, the Vampire Prime and Silas is the Wolf King, both working on an inter species conference. Until a traumatic event with Alex upsets everything.
I’m not a fan of Alric. He’s got major non consent issues, and frankly red flags plastered around him everywhere. And smacks heavily of another MMC in another series I despised.
Silas is running a close second.
Like Leo the chauffeur/bodyguard for Alric. He’s got great potential going forward.
And Babin, if she’s going to be as consistent as she has in her previous series, will make this an elaborate and exciting journey for Alex, magically and romantically.
So I’m not going to assume who it might be from the characters at the first story.
Very entertaining and a great start to this series.
I was bitten by a vampire AND a werewolf. Now everyone wants a piece of me.
I never wanted to be a powerful witch. I’m happiest pulling espresso shots at the Three Beans café and keeping my magic secret.
But trouble is brewing…
When a turf war between vampires and shifters erupts outside the café, I get caught between the irresistibly charming Vampire Prime and the ruggedly handsome Shifter King. As these two apex predators blindly tear into each other, I am bitten, clawed, and left for dead.
My magic flares just in time to save my life, but there are… side effects. Suddenly, I find myself staring at customers’ necks. And feeling suspiciously twitchy before the full moon.
It’s impossible but… am I transforming into a vampire and a werewolf?
The Vampire Prime finds me immediately. Captivated by my scent, he tempts me with danger and luxury. The Shifter King is equally obsessed, and determined to claim me for his pack.
I am caught between them once more—but this time it’s me that they’re fighting over. And since my new blood brings strange new powers, it won’t be long before I’m the most wanted prey in town…
A Labyrinth of Honeybees (Magic & Mystery collection) by Heather Fawcett is a fabulous short fantasy story and audiobook book, one of seven in the Magic & Mystery collection being offered by a selection of authors.
Heather Fawcett is another new discovery for me and this story delivers a richly crafted tale of hidden identities, a King whose throne is in peril, feuding gods and a beautifully executed universe. And the priestess who waits at the gates for the King’s Inquisitor to arrive.
It’s 44 pages of amazing characters, mysterious magical mazes, old and new gods, and a fabulous twist at the end. So so great and satisfying.
That you get both the ebooks and audio at the same time is a real bonus.
I grabbed this one first because of its description and that marvelous cover. Now I’m going back for the rest of this collection.
You’re going to want to as well. Highly recommended.
New rulers meddle with the whims of the old gods in a lush and twisty short story of devotion, intrigue, and murder by the New York Times bestselling author of the Emily Wilde series.
At a remote mountain temple, an inquisitor arrives to question a priestess about a pair of murders. The keeper of the sacred garden, its bees, and its ever-changing hedge maze does have her secrets. But what will protecting them cost her as she uncovers layers of conspiracy on both sides?
Heather Fawcett’s A Labyrinth of Honeybees is part of the Magic & Mystery collection, puzzle-box mysteries from top fantasy authors. They can be read or listened to in one enchanting sitting.
Found Objects is the latest urban fantasy romance by Mary Calmes and it’s exactly what we expect from this author. The old,settled rich location of a small town high in the mountains of West Virginia, an intriguing group of found family of town, and a great setup for a slow paced romantic journey.
Calmes’ plot lines includes a newly arrived werewolf pack that has brought with them to the town, pack dysfunction, mystery and loads of action packed moments.
I love Merritt Baker and the mystery that Calmes builds around his character. Merritt is the owner of the town’s restaurant, and a central figure in the community. A friend and someone who acts as a shield or protector when needed.
When a new shifter pack arrives in Coille, West Virginia to establish themselves in a new territory , they bring with them old problems along with a dysfunctional pack and history. And Cole Swann and his younger brother, Evan, nephews of the Alpha of the Swann pack.
The way this author blends the well known Appalachian mythology with other lore is intriguing and well done. It works well for the many other characters here and for adding some really great layers to this story.
It ends with a HFN, given the specific species of each character. And known life spans.
I will admit to hoping that Calme revisits this town and special community as I really enjoyed them and didn’t get enough of several of their storylines.
Merritt Baker is older than he looks. Quite a bit older, in fact. He knows all about the woods and where one should never wander at night, but the fact of the matter is, sometimes men are the scariest creatures of all, and Merritt makes it his business to protect the innocents caught in their wake. In the small town of Coille, West Virginia, where he makes his home, he takes care of quite a few people, and that’s always been enough. Or has been. Lately though, he’s felt a bit lost, as though he’s forgotten what it means to really live rather than simply exist.
Change arrives when a pack of shifters buys the land that borders his. He doesn’t think twice about them until his simple rules are ignored, and suddenly there’s conflict. One of the wolves, Cole Swann, is very interested in him, and surprisingly, Merritt can’t seem to get the man out of his head. But things aren’t what they seem, and between other packs, ghosts, and worst of all, love, Merritt might be in over his head. That’s the thing about being lost—it can be wonderful when you’re finally found, but is it worth the risk of losing yourself?
Scattered Thoughts and Rogue Words 