Over the past year or so, Jessie Mihalik made her readers happy by offering a couple of short fantasy/romance stories for free on her website: Books & Broadswords in early 2023, and then later, in early 2024, Rocks & Rapiers. These were web-serials, both set in the same world, but not really linked other than that. And as you can tell from my mini-reviews (see here and here), I enjoyed both of them a lot.
Now she has taken the stories off her website, and instead is offering the two together for sale in a single volume. It’s titled, optimistically, Books & Broadswords, Volume One, and came out at all the usual e-book retailers a couple of weeks ago, on June 11. (I say “optimistically”, since the presence of a “Volume One” in the title implies that there might someday be a “Volume Two“. And in fact, in her blog, Mihalik has mentioned that she has at least one more story in mind, although the time to write it might be a bit lacking 😊.) Oh yeah, and there’s also some bonus material at the end of Volume One that didn’t appear in the online versions.
Anyway, now for my review, which will be short and sweet – buy the book and read the stories! Both are quick to read, with apparently mismatched/grouchy characters who eventually find their way to each other, with a fun twist or two along the way. And the two extra epilogues, one for each story, introduce at least one new character that (I hope) might form the basis for the next story in this world. But be forewarned – as Mihalik also mentioned in her blog, the epilogues have a bit more heat than would have been suitable to be posted on the web. Of course, you can also skim over those parts if you wish.
And I still keep hoping for merch – I would love a Books & Broadswords t-shirt or tote book that looks as if it’s from a real bookstore…
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