Becky Chambers · 2021
A Psalm for the Wild-Built
A monk named Dex abandons their comfortable city life to find something undefined — and stumbles into the first conversation between a human and a robot in centuries. It's a book about asking what you need, and being honest when you don't know. Quiet and warm and it doesn't overstay its welcome. Becky Chambers writing at her most distilled.
Travis Baldree · 2022
Legends & Lattes
An orc barbarian retires from adventuring to open a coffee shop. That's it. That's the whole pitch and it absolutely delivers. The stakes are: will the regulars come back? Will the scone recipe work out? Will she let herself be happy? Perfect hangout fiction — the fantasy equivalent of a Sunday morning with nowhere to be.
Travis Baldree · 2023
Bookshops & Bonedust
A prequel to Legends & Lattes — a younger Viv, sidelined by injury in a seaside town, discovers a small bookshop and the people who orbit it. The charm is watching her encounter books (and readers) for the first time and not fully understand why any of it matters yet. Cozy in a more melancholic key than its predecessor.
Janice Hadlow · 2020
The Other Bennet Sister
Mary Bennet, the overlooked middle sister from Pride & Prejudice, finally gets her own story. Hadlow asks: what happens to a person who has been told their whole life that they are the plain one, the serious one, the one who doesn't count? A thoughtful and patient novel that gives Mary a full interiority — and a richly satisfying arc that Austen never thought to give her.