My letter “B” pick for this year’s A to Z challenge was BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST by Travis Baldree. Fresh off last year’s success with LEGENDS & LATTES (my Book of the Year for last year’s challenge), Baldree once again delights and enchants with another installment of a genre he seems to have invented: cozy fantasy.

In this prequel to LEGENDS & LATTES, we once again meet Viv, but this time our favorite orc is in her younger days, running with a mercenary group known as Rackham’s Ravens. In the course of their hunting down an evil necromancer, Viv is injured and is forced to convalesce in the tiny port town of Murk until Rackham and his group can swing back around and join up with her again. Used to battle and adventures, Viv gets stir-crazy pretty quickly and roams the town only to find a run-down bookshop and its rattkin owner who has a knack for choosing just the right book for each customer.

Viv ends up – to her surprise and ours – becoming an avid reader, and taking an interest in the renovation of the shop and the attracting of new customers. All of this occurs in a town straight out of a tabletop role playing game, with a colorful, quirky cast of characters, loads of humor and charm, and a touch of danger with the necromancer. The ending was warm and heartfelt, and once again, I felt like I’d just been hugged and given a cup of hot cocoa with extra marshmallows when it was over.

This book was an easy, cozy five stars.