I want to first express my gratitude for being able to be a part of the arc reading team for this and look forward to sharing my honest review.

This book came into my life at exactly the right time, I am absolutely convinced fate had a hand in this. Our MMC Harkul is struggling and trying to escape his past and finds himself working at an alehouse, meeting some interesting characters who help him on his way into this new life he’s found himself. To be sure it isn’t without its own struggles and challenges, but seeing him navigate all this and see how those characters aid him was just incredibly well done.

The worldbuilding was great, we got a nice snap shot of the town bit by bit, without it getting overwhelming or a large exposition dump, it happened organically as the story needed. I adored the unique characters from the minotaur to dwarves, and especially the goblins (shout out to Josi, my almost-name twin). It wasn’t something that was made a big deal, it’s just a part of who those characters were and added a bit of fantasy flair.

The characters themselves were incredible, hands down my favorite part of this story. I felt like I had just sat down and started watching a movie with how smoothly things went between characters, nothing felt awkward or stiff in the dialogue or interactions. With the characters being so well done it made it so easy to connect with them and find so many aspects of each relatable. The advice some of the characters imparted are going to be kernels of wisdom I save for myself. My favorite thing that got brought up is that, we have seasons in our lives and each season brings something new, new gifts, new challenges, and new opportunities and it’s up to us to decide how we will go into these new seasons, what will we get out of them? As someone who is currently going through a big life change and having some difficult times with adjusting as well as other hiccups along the way, this story gave me some amazing insight and advice.

The story itself was well done, the plot never lagged, it moved along with a steady space with a good amount of breathing room between the higher tension parts. How it all wrapped up was satisfying and I wasn’t left wondering what or why something happened. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to see things and how they developed after the main conflict. I feel like not enough cozy stories give us a look into the ‘after’ portion.

Overall this was a wonderful story, though it’s a cozy fantasy it doesn’t fall into the trap of being too slow or too low stakes. The writing is well done and is thoughtful especially when concerning the dialogue and character interactions.