Chanterelle Solace | Happy release day to Recipes for a...

Happy release day to Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife!

What would you do as a second chance in life if you’ve been brought back from the dead and have protected your city for many centuries? 👀

Happy release day to Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston and published through Meg’s Imprint with Bindery! I finished this book a few weeks ago and it was SO cozy and wholesome! It is truly a book that feels like a hug and talks about so many important aspects in life while still focusing on food, found family and building a community and you can read my full review in here.

I’ve shared a full review in my blog post and in summary, I think this book shows us a strong growth in Rottgor through a beautiful journey and when we met Astra, aww what can I say about her? It was truly adorable to get to know Astra and see her become part of the community. I think the book also dives into deeper themes like division between different classes of people in the book and how resentment can build up in the community. We talk about hate and how easy it is to spread it in one community, how it poisons minds and turns people against each other! And honestly? This book is a must read in your cozy fantasy with a bit of heavier topics!

AND this cute PR box from Bindery? Guys the spoon is adorable, the cover of the book is beautiful and the tea is SO good (which is from @clichetea).

Review: Genre: Cozy Fantasy (With darker elements)
Would I recommend to others?: Yes! This is perfect for those of you who enjoy cozy fantasy with darker elements in them

Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife is a lovely story, one with a wholesome feeling in it. It feels like a hug in a book and like the author poured his heart into it. Cozy fantasy that features food and centres around recipes and food always has my heart and this book is no exception to this rule!

I love that we get an insight into who Rottgor was in his past life and we get to see the way food and making it played a role in his life, how it built his relationship with his family and shaped his role as he got older. And the growth Rottgor goes through is amazing; the way he sheds his worries and learns that it is okay for him to take space in the world is a beautiful journey. He builds a community and finds love, comfort and the right people around him.

"If you have a good foundation, you tend to find people who want to see it grow."

And Astra? What can we say about Astra except that she is adorable and so thoughtful as a child! It is said in the story that Children have a way of peering into your soul and seeing what adults no longer see and I think Astra reflects this so well. The way she is brought into Rottgor's life and becomes an essential part of it is so wholesome.

"Children always had this way of seeing through a person, deeper than adults ever dared. Only the luckiest kept that when they were older."

I think another thing that is done well in this Cozy Fantasy is the way we get background information about Rottgor, Necropolis and the world building. It is done in a way that doesn't feel like it is stealing thunder from the coziness of the story, and yet it provides essential information for us to get to know each character.

And I think Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife touches well on the reality of things, the way society is when you have a division and classes from different backgrounds and the resentment this builds in the community. The way this is addressed in the story is that there is a faction of the living that is not happy that the undead and the summoned are taking from their own resources and it is said that:

"They have overstayed their welcome here. Their kind, the undead and the summoned - this is not their land. Why should they know happiness, love, and comfort when they aren't capable of any of it? Why should they take ours?"

Rottgor goes on to say that "Hate is easy. I found that its the easiest and most contagious evil. A simple drop can poison a well." and I think this is done well in the book, the exploration of how a hateful group utilises their hate against another group. In fact, I think it touches a lot on how one person can spread hate and misinformation so quickly, that it comes to harm others. I know we see this in reality a lot and I think this was explored in a gentle way in this book.

I could go on and on about this beautiful book but I hope you consider reading it and I hope it welcomes you in its arm, feels like a hug and opens your eyes to the world in a cozy and wholesome way.

Thank you to Bindery, Deston and Meg for the Arc in exchange for my honest review.