A review by trinityb2021
Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree

2.5

2.5 ⭐️

This book just didn’t hit the way that I wanted it too. It was missing a lot of the fun coziness of the first book and it tried to have a more serious plot that didn’t really work. It was still light-hearted but it felt really shallow. I didn’t connect with the characters like I did in Legends & Lattes and there wasn’t much character growth. Prequels are hard. You have a limited time frame and a limited amount of growth because usually the character needs to be knocked down so they can have the growth that occurs in the next book (that has already been written). I think prequels usually don’t work and unfortunately that was the case here. Stick to sequels and spin-offs.

I did really like the world. A fun and cozy equivalent of the Forgotten Realms is a great idea for a setting and I really like it. I also liked the copyright friendly Owlbear it made me laugh.

I feel kind of guilty giving this book a low rating because there wasn’t anything really bad about it. As Abby Lee Miller would say “You just didn’t stand out to me”