Youth and advanced age combine in Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife, Deston J. Munden's cozy fantasy novel of second chances and self-forgiveness that's bursting with stunning, satisfying plot twists and characters that steal readers' hearts.
Rottgor Onyx-Ax is a millennia-old undead orc resurrected by the Worm King, the evil tyrant whom Rottgor then helped take down after being forced to commit terrible horrors in his name. Together with five other Death Knights (they're known as the Six Shadows), he founded the city of Necropolis, where necromancers could work and the undead could live in safety, but he's spent his centuries there in service of the castle. Now Lady Cleo, the heir apparent of Necropolis, forces Rottgor into a retirement in which his decaying body is restored just enough to be able to experience the pleasures of living. Tapping into his first life as Razgaif the Younger, champion and war chef of the Onyx-Ax orc tribe, Rottgor builds a restaurant with the help of a motley crew including Calfe, a shady elf-dwarf benefactor, and Astra, a young magician orphan girl with necromancy powers. When Astra's safety is threatened by those who believe the undead don't deserve the same rights as the living, Rottgor rallies to her defense and confronts his misguided beliefs about his own unworthiness.
Rottgor's self-recrimination and Astra's youthful confidence and belief in good lead readers to root for their success and happiness. A novel of found family and fierce love, Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife is full of comfort and hope. --Dainy Bernstein, freelance reviewer