★★★★☆

This book embodies cozy fantasy. You slipped into a world of comforts, the world building is subtle yet familiar, reminiscent of many fantastical worlds we’ve seen before. There are surely adventures happening outside the walls of this story, but that’s not our focus. Instead we sit and observe as an orc decides to leave behind a life of murder and seek the quiet comforts of a coffee shop.

I worried this book would be dull or boring, it was neither. I was compelled to keep reading, there are smaller adventures than your typical fantasy. There’s excitement and intrigue and plot, it’s smaller, but no less significant.

I do wish we saw more of the romance develop, it kept leaving me wanting more and it felt unresolved at the end of the story. I wish we had gotten more depth in that relationship.
The ending resolution felt a tad rushed after the devastation of the climax, it read more as a montage sequence, which has its benefits.

Overall, I loved the story, and will be reading more of Travis Baldree’s work soon.