Seeing the "other side" of adventurers, when the main characters have grown weary of battling monsters, fetch quests and escort missions, the sleeping on the cold hard ground and just want a change of pace in their life. What is an adventurer to do when they retire the adventuring life? They open up a business of course!
The trials and tribulations of starting a business, especially one no one has heard of in a new town and seeing the world from the eyes of a shop keeper who has hung her sword up (quite literally) over the bar, instead of from the battlefield.

The Monster I Love is written by Shannon Clifton by the same publisher as myself Fortis Publisher and it is the true story of this beautiful young woman who was subjected to the worst abuse from the very person that should have been looking after her the most, her father. 

He stole her innocence and childhood and even took her on the run with him whilst heavily pregnant with his child. She paid the ultimate price for loving her dad who became the ultimate monster in her life. This young woman is the strongest woman with the most resilience I’ve ever come across. To go through such abuse at such a young age and yet empower herself to be the best version of herself today made me incredibly proud to be a woman. After her father got sentenced Shannon took back her power and has become a fabulous champion for… show more.

A dystopian novella that seems confusing at first but makes sense as you continue along. It requires piecing together broken memories, broken friendships, and flashes of emotion that are rarely understood. Each glimpse lasts only eight minutes and thirty-two seconds. It’s quite an incredible feat of storytelling. I read this in one sitting with the sun setting outside and me barely even noticing that time existed. I was fortunate enough to know and work alongside Salomon before his recent passing and this was a book I was privileged to provide a blurb for. I was blown away by the story that unraveled before me. I promise you will be too. 

Sometimes, you just want to retire and have a nice, quiet cup of tea. And world-ending magical plots keep getting in the way. Adoulla Mahmoud, once the best Ghul hunter alive, is just trying to retire. Unfortunately, the world has other plans for him. Alongside the pious warrior Raseed bas Raseed, and the shapeshifting Zamia Badawi, Adoulla faces the greatest threat yet. One that could destroy not just his favorite teahouse, but the world. 

While there is some good-natured humor within this book, Saladin Ahmed establishes right away with a torture-scene prologue that Throne of the Crescent Moon will be dark and gory. I love the magic system and the Arabia-inspired world. The only downside to this book is that Ahmed doesn’t seem to be working on the sequel. 

I love weird humor. I always have. These guys are like the Monty Python of kids books. 

Four monsters from an alternate world of cheap real estate and donut trees run around terrified of bubbles. They have fangs and claws and huge horns (the monsters, not the bubbles).

The bubbles are so delicate, they are almost too much for the beasts. But the narrator urges them to fight back. They do. And they win. The bubbles pop, and they feel like heroes. Until they learn the terrible truth about butterflies. 

Fetch the soft cushions and the comfy chair. This book will terrify you (no, it won’t).

Its an amazingly hilarious experience of Doomsday shenanigans. Even after more than half a year of reading this masterpiece, I still think about some of the scenes and comedy of the storyline. THE best book out of the Dungeon Crawler Carl series in my opinion and absolutely a blast to read! (Or hear if possible. Jeff Hays elevates the whole thing to even higher heights with his telling and Character impersonation)

Did someone say monsters? As much as I love the stories about the dark sides of human souls, there is nothing quite better than actual monsters. And this anthology packs them in, I’m talking the literal stuff of nightmares! Creatures designed by writers who obviously love monsters as much as the readers; demons with frames and features that only a mother could love. This parade of monsters was a lot to absorb in one sitting, which is the whole point of my list – collections that give you so much to dig into that it leaves you breathless. Short of being an all-out gore-fest, Monster Brawl! is so well curated that you might be surprised to find that you care about a few of them. 

There are many terrifying monsters, but few were as feared as the beast of Gévaudan, which terrorized the French countryside in the 1760s.

Said to be, variously, a werewolf, a dog-hybrid, a hyena, or some unknown beast, it was blamed for killing many dozens of villagers. The French government sent top hunters to kill the beast, and conspiracy theories ran rampant. I recommend Monsters of the Gevaudan because I love the way it blends history, folklore, and investigation into a compelling mystery.

Don’t believe the mystery-mongering TV shows offering wild theories: the truth is in this book—and it’s stranger than fiction. 

A thoroughly enjoyable romp that is still relevant today, Prophecy is a story of mankind’s decimation of the environment and the disasters that can result from this neglect. It can be a little draggy at times, but with a monster mutant bear chowing down on everyone, it makes for an entertaining novel to while away the time on a camping trip, if you dare. I saw this first as a movie, starring Robert Foxworth and Armand Assante, and then read the novel shortly thereafter. It’s definitely worth checking out if you’re a monster completist like me, and as always, great fun to see the film adaption of a story you’ve enjoyed and how it compares to what you imagined. 

I can’t say enough about how dark and foreboding this book is the entire way through. The gods are not kind in this book and yes, it plays with exactly how awful living in such a world would be. It’s such an atmospheric book that I swear I pictured it as being cloudy and rainy the entire way through.

I couldn’t stop thinking of it as a heavy, dark episode of a police procedural but far more critical of the powers at play.