Oh boy. I'm convinced I read a different book to you all. Because surely this book that bored me to tears and had the most unengaging characters I've read maybe all year isn't the book you're all giving 5 stars to.

Something to know about me is that I adore D&D. Two of my top three obsessions of this year have been directly related to D&D (Critical Role and Baldur's Gate 3). I ran my first one-shot as a GM this year. I adore D&D. So I was really excited that there was a fun, cozy fantasy about a sapphic former-adventurer-turned-cafe-owner orc and her building a little found family while her business grows. So imagine my surprise when, within the first 30%, I'm bored to tears, and I stayed that way for the entire book. 

I understand that this is a cozy, low-stakes fantasy, that's fine. I've read plenty of books where "nothing happens" and have loved them. But if you're going to have a book as plotless as this one, you need engaging writing and characters, and this had neither. The writing wasn't bad; it was simple and pretty non-descriptive, which I can enjoy but didn't suit this kind of book at all. It's the kind of writing style that works much better with a more action, plot-oriented book with a faster pace. I truly couldn't care less about a single character. All of them were so devoid of personality. It felt like when you have a pre-written D&D story and there are pre-written characters made up entirely of a race, class, stats and a backstory, and it's up to the player's to fill in those gaps to make them three-dimensional, except there were no players bridging the gap here. This also meant I didn't care at all about the found family or romance. 

I'm a little interested in the prequel just because it seems like there's going to be more happening in that, but I certainly won't be in any rush to read it. The only reason this isn't going any lower than a 2 is because it wasn't too long and wasn't, like, horrendous or anything, just deeply boring and underwhelming. This is probably my most disappointing read of the year, especially because my sister got a copy for me for my birthday because she knew how interested I was in it :(