Cover image from Goodreads.com
Fern, a rattkin, is dissatisfied with her life so she moves to Thule to be closer to her friend Viv. Viv helps her set up a bookshop right next to her coffee shop Legends & Lattes and Fern is successful, yet still feels discontent. In a drunken moment, she decides to hide under a tarp in an elf’s cart rather than talk to Viv about her dissatisfaction. The trundling cart wakens Fern and begins an adventure, alongside an elf and goblin, that she never dreamed could happen.
I admit, I was expecting this novel to feature Viv even though the cover art and inside flap description told me something different. As usual, I opened the novel without reading the flap (to see if I could sus out the plot and characters) so I was disappointed to find this story about a rattkin instead.
Once I let go of my expectations, I enjoyed the journey of the novel. Fern is sensible and delightful and her adventures are realistic, fun, and just enough tension to keep me turning the pages. The ending is neatly tied up with a delightful twist about the bounty on the goblin, but still left things open for a sequel involving the same characters.
While the author’s first novel felt too sparse on description, and the second novel just the perfect amount of description, I felt this novel inserted description in a way that took away from the story instead of adding to it. This novel felt wordier, somehow, without being as rich as the previous one. The plot in this one felt a bit too stretched out as well, with a lot of dithering from Fern in between stops on the journey. Having said that, I did enjoy it enough to hope the author continues the series.
Should Be Writing 