Sincerely, Shannon

This book nearly became a DNF.

I started reading Bookshops & Bonedust many months ago, and it took me forever to finish it. Choosing two books with a similar slow pace one right after another wasn’t the best idea. There were moments when it was really hard for me to get through this book, it actually stopped me reading for about a month because it was so slow. There were things I liked about it, like the romance subplots, but it was difficult for me to read it due to its pace.

Though Bookshops & Bonedust was released after Legends & Lattes, it is actually a prequel featuring Viv during her adventures’ years. After sustaining an injury, she finds herself in the seaside town of Murk and has to spend her time recovering while the rest of her adventuring party moves on without her. And it doesn’t surprise us that Viv is quite pissed about it. But sometimes, it happened that I shared her frustration.

I was attracted by the plot in the beginning, it only lasted the one partial chapter though. The fighting and the interesting new characters I thought we were going to learn about was a big draw for me, however, the story calms VERY quickly after Viv gets hurt. Viv discovers the city, its people, and visits a bookshop managed by Fern, a rattkin. The name of her pet is Potroast, which, to tell you the truth, is a great name for a pet and that actually gave me enough hope to keep going.

I personally like the concept of Viv falling in love with books, I think it shows a softer side of her as we watch her develop a hobby outside of her adventuring. I know that this was written after Legends and Lattes but I would have appreciated something about Viv still reading books somewhere in the Legends and Lattes book because it was SO prevalent in this book. Also the fact that Viv reads smut was a 10/10 for me, but the whole thing is implied, we get to see the little excerpts from the book Viv is reading and it always fades before anything. The fact that there is no smut in the book but it is implied in the books Viv is reading is kind of disappointing. I am not looking for this book to be nothing but smut but if you are advertising the book as an adult fantasy and not a YA book we can be a little more explicit about things even without getting into full on smut and sex scenes.

There were many things I liked about this book. For example, the light romance between Viv and Maylee was really appealing. A giant orc adventurer and a little dwarf baker? I liked this combination a lot. Maylee being an adventurer herself added some special flavor to this relationship. I particularly liked that they both knew their relationship would not last forever. Maylee gave up adventuring, but Viv was still dreaming of going back on the road. They decided to explore their connection anyway and it really showed that you don’t need a lifelong romance to change your life, sometimes even the short term can change you for good.

It was also fun to see how Viv met Gallina, who is featured in Legends & Lattes for just a brief time. Gallina is actually one of the adventurers Viv was with for years between this book and Legends and Lattes. That helped me with the timeline a lot too. Bringing Gallina in made this book more interesting to get an origin story of someone else we already know in a town full of unknowns. I thought that was a really nice touch to add in.

This being a fantasy story about an orc, who becomes obsessed with books, seemed to fit me perfectly. However, the long intervals of reading, working in the bookstore and living a day to day routine did not always keep my attention. There was just too much of the day to day in ‘now lets paint the bookshop’ and ‘lets fix a stair’ and in the end, this was precisely what ruined the book for me. I felt like it didn’t move the plot anywhere. It was just too much of daily life. I put the book down for several weeks before I could bring myself to continue, since I did not feel motivated anymore. I love reading character-driven books, but I just was not invested enough into this particular one to keep going through the boring parts.

I think we did pick up in the middle of the book for a little bit with the introduction of the character Satchel, who is a skeletal being brought to life with magic, connected to the big bad so we had some tension there. We also had the tension between Iridia, who is the gatewarden of the small town of Murk, and Viv but it felt like just surface level tension which resolved itself quickly when actual fighting started.

I would say that finishing this book was more of a relief than anything. After so much trouble with the pace of the book, I would have liked to see the ending developed a bit more.

The epilogue brings us back to the Legends & Lattes timeline, with Viv receiving a long letter from Fern asking how she’s doing and whether she’s still reading. I liked that reading came up in the context of Viv in her coffee shop, since Viv’s love of books was such a big part of this story. It also hints at another book when Viv asks Tandri, her shop assistant in Legends & Lattes, whether the building next door is still for sale. Viv even tells Tandri a bookshop would fit perfectly there. That was a nice connection between the books and gives room to add on another story, but I still wanted a little more closure for the story I had just finished.

If you like fantasy which focuses a lot on friendship, books and routine every-day life, then you’ll find this one appealing. It has good moments but I feel that the good moments were dropped into the slow day-to-day life.