As the year comes to a close, the days are short, the nights are still long, and the chill might be creeping into your bones. This is the perfect time of year to grab a blanket, a hot cup of your favorite beverage, and a good book to snuggle up with. Bonus points if you have a fireplace (but if not, you can stream one on Netflix).
While some folks might like spine tinglers for their year’s end, for others, it’s better to curl up with a feel-good tale that leaves you with hope and happiness. This roundup brings together nine books from 2024 that you can finish with a smile.
Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree
Travis Baldree’s debut novel Legends and Lattes marked him as one of the leading voices in cozy fantasy—tales that focus as much on the relationships and day-to-day lives of fantasy characters as they do on traditional fantasy plots. In Bookshops and Bonedust, Baldree revisits his main character, an orc adventurer named Viv, but at a much, much earlier point in her career.
After charging headlong into battle against an undead army, Viv’s injured, and her company leaves her in a small port town to recover while they pursue the bad guy. Annoyed and impatient, Viv ends up making the best of her stay by getting involved with some of the locals—she befriends ratkin bookshop proprietor, Fern, and decides to help get Fern’s business off its feet. She also embarks on a romance with Maylee, a retired dwarf adventurer who has started a bakery in town, even though both of them know they have an expiration date. The sense of found family (and the perils of small business ownership) that made Legends and Lattes so fun are both here in spades, but a more traditional fantasy subplot weaves together this adventure with the Viv readers met in the first book, and gives Viv something concrete to triumph over. Definitely keep this one on hand for a cloudy day (and make sure to smell the pages of the book for full immersion).
A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey
Deri, an indentured servant in the Goblin Market, is trying to conduct enough of his own dealings (without his mysterer, Maurlocke, knowing) to buy himself out of his contract. He dreams of getting his own stall in the market, as well, becoming a true merchant, since the Goblin Market is the only life he’s ever known. Two chance meetings set him on a new path: first, he encounters Owain, a mortal also locked in an indentured contract—to unscrupulous human merchants in the above world; second, he meets the princess of an alternate Victorian England, and persuades her to sell her destiny for one that’s more her own liking.
But while the destiny of the heir to the throne is by far the most valuable thing Deri’s ever managed to acquire, it’s impossible to sell, especially when he has to keep it secret from Maurlocke. He’s given three tasks that will put him back on course—one of which throws him back into Owain’s path, and gives Deri pause. How could he get rid of not just his own contract, but those of Owain and his friends as well? Plans beget plans in a whirl of wheeling and dealing, populated by a cast of characters that include Aurelia, a lady knight searching for the runaway princess; Silvestra, an alchemist who has a preternatural gift for spotting flaws; Vimukti, a firebrand indentured servant willing to make her own deals for the cause; and the Graspars, a pair of Dickensian villains who run the workhouse. While there are some darker themes here—indentured servitude is certainly not a lighthearted theme—the sweet growing romance between Deri and Owain, and the overarching plot to take down a system of abuse, will leave readers with a glow of feel-good hopefulness. If you liked Neil Gaiman’s Stardust, this is a solid pick for your evening read.
