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furlowsu's review against another edition
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
martinelitdeslivres's review against another edition
5.0
How wholesome. I want more fantasy books like this.
lenconfetti's review against another edition
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
adamok_reads_af's review against another edition
emotional
funny
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
fozlandgirl's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
This book is lovely, but there are some awkward phrases and sentence structure that sometimes throw you out of the book. Could have used with a bit more editing, I think.
aclopez6's review against another edition
5.0
I don't have too much to say besides this was lovely, and I would probably die to protect Thimble and all of his creations. Every time I saw Madrigal mentioned, all I thought of was Encanto, so I envisioned the character as Bruno-esque.
mightyjor's review against another edition
3.0
3/5 stars
I know people love this book, and I certainly loved things about it. However, it ended up not really being for me. For starters, I think the real summary of this book is just "orc invents modern day coffee shop one menu item at a time", which is interesting I suppose. I know there's more to the characters than that and I'll get into it, but first I want to start with some of the things I liked:
- the prose: I think this was Baldrees first book? You wouldn't know based on the prose which was well done, descriptive but not over long. He does a good job conveying emotions and events that was never distracting. I've also never listened to an audiobook where the main POV character was a woman but the narrator was a man. It was a bold choice, but Baldree is a talented guy and I didn't find the voices distracting at all.
- the romance: the book also becomes a bit of a romance which I actually don't mind, and I think it's important to talk about this because the book actually uses several romance story tropes that I generally dislike but melds them together in a way that surprisingly worked for me. For one, you've got the employer/employee romance, not to mention the physically powerful one is in the employer role. I usually hate this, mostly because it gives way too much power to one side of the relationship. It works here though because on the employee side of that relationship we have a succubus who not only has a very dominant personality, but seduction is built into her DNA. What makes it work even more is we have both characters trying to shed their nature's, biological or otherwise, to try and go their own way on their own terms. I think it makes them work as a couple.
- the wacky fantasy stuff. There are random characters that pop into the coffee shop as time goes on and nothing about them is really explained except that this is a fantasy world and you just have to go along with it. I love that!
There's a few things I didn't like though, and I'll get into those here:
- the character arc. For one, we didn't spend much time with our main character before she gave up her old life. The time we did spend with her, it's not like she did anything that evil. She took down a monster, was fair with her contracts to her mercenary friends, and the thing she killed was just some monster that the world was better without. Without spoiling anything, the way the character talks about it, you'd think she was Logen Nine fingers or something. Her history does give the story some emotional impact, but not nearly as much as I would have felt if I had seen that past of hers in more depth. I know it's not Oathbringer, we don't need to see her setting fire to the Rift or anything, but it already starts out pretty gory and we've got multiple f bombs, you're telling me we couldn't have seen a couple flashbacks of her drop kicking a puppy or something? We need to know where she's coming from!
- the plot. As I said before, the main progression of the story is about her slowly discovering modern day coffee shops. I didn't think my dislike for coffee would matter in this story, but it kind of does. Every time a character tries a sip of it, they instantly become an addict and want to help our hero at any cost. We also get multiple pages of descriptions about how delicious the coffee or the biscuits are and every time I read them I think "is this the same bitter drink that we have here on Earth?" I guess the problem could be solved by just imagining coffee as a mystical drink in a mystical world.
- the characters. While I liked our main character well enough and some of the side characters, I just don't know anything about them and don't buy a lot of their actions. We get a back story about why Tawdree is here, but nothing from her past ever shows up. I never got to see the restaurant owner again who was worried about her competition. The mob characters just kind of fade into the background with no real resolution. Like, they're still collecting tribute from everyone else in this town, right? And our main girl is just friends with them? Maybe I missed something but that seems weird. Their whole deal with Viv in fact just didn't make sense to me. You don't threaten to burn down a coffee shop only to back down for a couple of croissants.
While I knew going into this it would be low stakes and light on the plot, I expected a lot more character development and less "person suddenly wants to help main character because coffee". Overall though, it was still a fun read. I'm not really interested in the prequel that just released, though if there was a sequel where she expands the restaurant chain and has to confront her nature to avoid becoming a ruthless business tycoon, I would absolutely read that.
I know people love this book, and I certainly loved things about it. However, it ended up not really being for me. For starters, I think the real summary of this book is just "orc invents modern day coffee shop one menu item at a time", which is interesting I suppose. I know there's more to the characters than that and I'll get into it, but first I want to start with some of the things I liked:
- the prose: I think this was Baldrees first book? You wouldn't know based on the prose which was well done, descriptive but not over long. He does a good job conveying emotions and events that was never distracting. I've also never listened to an audiobook where the main POV character was a woman but the narrator was a man. It was a bold choice, but Baldree is a talented guy and I didn't find the voices distracting at all.
- the romance: the book also becomes a bit of a romance which I actually don't mind, and I think it's important to talk about this because the book actually uses several romance story tropes that I generally dislike but melds them together in a way that surprisingly worked for me. For one, you've got the employer/employee romance, not to mention the physically powerful one is in the employer role. I usually hate this, mostly because it gives way too much power to one side of the relationship. It works here though because on the employee side of that relationship we have a succubus who not only has a very dominant personality, but seduction is built into her DNA. What makes it work even more is we have both characters trying to shed their nature's, biological or otherwise, to try and go their own way on their own terms. I think it makes them work as a couple.
- the wacky fantasy stuff. There are random characters that pop into the coffee shop as time goes on and nothing about them is really explained except that this is a fantasy world and you just have to go along with it. I love that!
There's a few things I didn't like though, and I'll get into those here:
- the character arc. For one, we didn't spend much time with our main character before she gave up her old life. The time we did spend with her, it's not like she did anything that evil. She took down a monster, was fair with her contracts to her mercenary friends, and the thing she killed was just some monster that the world was better without. Without spoiling anything, the way the character talks about it, you'd think she was Logen Nine fingers or something. Her history does give the story some emotional impact, but not nearly as much as I would have felt if I had seen that past of hers in more depth. I know it's not Oathbringer, we don't need to see her setting fire to the Rift or anything, but it already starts out pretty gory and we've got multiple f bombs, you're telling me we couldn't have seen a couple flashbacks of her drop kicking a puppy or something? We need to know where she's coming from!
- the plot. As I said before, the main progression of the story is about her slowly discovering modern day coffee shops. I didn't think my dislike for coffee would matter in this story, but it kind of does. Every time a character tries a sip of it, they instantly become an addict and want to help our hero at any cost. We also get multiple pages of descriptions about how delicious the coffee or the biscuits are and every time I read them I think "is this the same bitter drink that we have here on Earth?" I guess the problem could be solved by just imagining coffee as a mystical drink in a mystical world.
- the characters. While I liked our main character well enough and some of the side characters, I just don't know anything about them and don't buy a lot of their actions. We get a back story about why Tawdree is here, but nothing from her past ever shows up. I never got to see the restaurant owner again who was worried about her competition. The mob characters just kind of fade into the background with no real resolution. Like, they're still collecting tribute from everyone else in this town, right? And our main girl is just friends with them? Maybe I missed something but that seems weird. Their whole deal with Viv in fact just didn't make sense to me. You don't threaten to burn down a coffee shop only to back down for a couple of croissants.
While I knew going into this it would be low stakes and light on the plot, I expected a lot more character development and less "person suddenly wants to help main character because coffee". Overall though, it was still a fun read. I'm not really interested in the prequel that just released, though if there was a sequel where she expands the restaurant chain and has to confront her nature to avoid becoming a ruthless business tycoon, I would absolutely read that.
tayduffers's review against another edition
lighthearted
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0