When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn't always what we seek.

Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.

Viv's career with the notorious 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 beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine.

Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, 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.

Viv is a young orc mercenary. Injured in the search for a necromancer, she is recuperating, impatiently, in the small seaside town of Murk. Looking for a way to fill her time she ends up befriending a local bookshop owner, helping her rediscover her passion for selling books while also discovering her own love of reading. But trouble is on its way to Murk as a magician fleeing the necromancer arrives in town and the necromancer and her army follow.  Viv can only hope she can manage to kill the necromancer before the people she has come to care about get injured or worse.

This was a pleasant book, sort of a cozy fantasy. We have many different types of characters, orcs, dwarves, and elves among them. It is as much a slow character study as it is a standard fantasy. It is a prequel to Mr Baldree’s first book,  Legends & Lattes, an origin story  for Viv that will have me both acquiring that book and hoping for more stories of Viv and her friends. Recommended ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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