An orc, Viv, doesn’t want to fight any more. She has abandoned her battling companions and decides to open a coffee shop in the city. She had encountered such shops during her travels and learned to love coffee and making it. The fact that no one in the city has even heard about coffee is not a deterrent for her. Viv finds a good place for her cafe and starts to renovate it... and renovates it... and renovates it. Little seems to happen in the first part of the novel – it seems that every movement of a paintbrush is described. She eventually recruits some help, a succubus called Tandri, and together they open their business. At first, no one comes. Slowly they manage to build popularity, but there are some awesome obstacles, including a local crime syndicate wanting payments for “protection” and Viv’s old companion who suspects that Viv short-changed him in their last campaign. There are some hardships, but the cafe manages to bring people together and to create firm friendships and more. A pretty loosely written book, which certainly would have seriously benefited from some editing and tightening. But it was light (oh, so very light) and fairly fun. This book would never have made it to the final voting without the endorsement of Seanan McGuire, who for some strange reason (which I really can’t understand – her writings are mostly OK, but not THAT good) enjoys very high popularity among fans nominating books for the Hugo Award.
296 pp.
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