Bookshops and Bonedust
By Travis Baldree
Blurb
A standalone cosy fantasy about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way from the bestselling author of BookTok sensation Legends & Lattes.
First loves. Second-hand books. Epic adventures.
Viv’s career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk – so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted. Even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t far away. 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.
Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together . . .
Our Review
I read Bookshops & Bonedust without realising it was part of a series but I don't feel like it had a negative impact on my experience of the book.
"Every breath sang clear and pure in her lungs, her muscles bunched and released in perfect rhythm, her blood roared in her veins. She was youth and strength and power, and she meant to push all through as far as they would go."
Viv is a young Orc who finds herself stranded in the desolate town of Murk after being to rash in battle and badly injuring her leg.
"Let me be the first to welcome you to Murk, jewel of the Western Coast! A very small part of the western coast."
Viv quickly finds herself bored within the confines of Murk and ends up becoming friends with the owner of a small bookshop a rattkin named Fern. Despite having no prior interest in reading she is need of a project and the bookshop becomes a relief from her intense boredom.
"Then a bookshop of some sort. Through a pair of narrow front windows, she spied chaotic piles of books, charts and miscellaneous junk. She could almost see the smell of mildew. The door had once been red but was now streaked with nothing but a memory of colour.
A little sign to the left read Thistleburr Booksellers."
Unfortunately for Murk, Viv unknowingly attracts trouble in the form of a mysterious stranger, and she finds herself having to protect the people of the town from a great danger.
I loved that Viv was a reluctant reader who transformed into a bookworm and hauled a few other reluctant readers along with her.
"It felt like giving in to even consider reading it. A tacit admission that she was now a different sort of person. Weak. Soft. Sleepy, someone who idled and studied, rather than fought and won."
This was a simple, slow-burn fantasy, but one that was worth reading.
Our Final Rating...
Read & Shared 43 Times.
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