Cursed Cocktails and Sword and Thistle by S.L. Rowland

Peace can look like a warm barstool, a well-made cocktail, and a quiet town by the sea. But if you’ve ever hit burnout, carried guilt for too long, or wondered who you are after the job that defined you ends, you know comfort is never just comfort. We step into S.L. Rowland’s cozy fantasy world of Adria to talk about Cursed Cocktails and Sword and Thistle, two novels that swap constant war for something harder to face: healing.

We unpack what “cozy fantasy” really means, why low stakes fantasy can still feel substantial, and how character-driven writing creates that rare sense of found family. Rorin’s story asks what happens when a legendary blood mage retires in pain and has to build a new identity as a bar owner. Dobbin’s story follows a dangerous “one last quest” for a dragonfire mushroom, but the real journey is through grief, survivor’s guilt, and the courage it takes to seek forgiveness.

We also get into the books’ LGBTQ inclusion and why it lands so well: relationships unfold naturally, without stereotype or a spotlight that makes anyone feel like an exception to the world. Along the way, we talk second chances, the harm of labeling people as “bad,” and the way community can keep heroes from being worked into the ground.

If you love Legends and Lattes style vibes but want deeper themes, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who needs a softer kind of fantasy, and leave a review with your favorite cozy read.

Transcript

Welcome To Cozy Fantasy

SPEAKER_00 0:44

Welcome back. Tonight we're stepping into the warm glow of S. L. Roland's Cursed Cocktails and Sword and Thistle. Two cozy fantasy novels that trade epic battles for crafted drinks, quiet towns, and the kind of healing that doesn't come with a prophecy attached. But let's not get too comfortable because beneath the cinnamon smoke and polished bar tops, there's a question brewing. Is choosing peace an act of courage or an act of escape? We're talking about retired adventurers, chosen families, magical burnout, and the cost of laying down your sword in a world that might still need it, or picking up your sword, but providing protection and healing for yourself and for others, providing second chances where they are needed most. So pull up a chair, sit down with your favorite cocktail or ale, and let's talk cozy fantasy. So, Peter, what do you think of cozy fantasy in general?

SPEAKER_01 1:49

So some of our listeners may have no idea what cozy fantasy is in the first place. Good point. Basically, what cozy fantasy is, it is a story with all the trappings of fantasy that you would come to expect, except with very low stakes. They typically have to do with finding your purpose in life or finding what your next purpose in life is going to be after having done one thing for a long time and now you gotta face the next chapter, or healing from something emotionally. That is the usual thing that a cozy fantasy deals with, that kind of journey. And overall, I'm loving the genre. Many people might be familiar with Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldry. That series is very popular right now. That is a perfect example of cozy fantasy. And if you have read that series and you like it, then you will love Tales of Adrian. I'll say that up print.

Two-Book Synopsis And Reading Order

SPEAKER_00 2:36

And the low stakes can make it sound like there's not a lot of substance there. We're used to fantasy with high stakes and potential tragic outcomes and deep subject matter. But the truth is there is a lot of substance to the cozy fantasy books. And I am becoming a fan rapidly. I wasn't sure what I was going to think, but I am very much impressed, especially with these stories that S.L. Rowland has been able to develop. And on that note, why don't you give us a short synopsis of these two books?

SPEAKER_01 3:09

So Cursed Cocktails is exactly about what I said before. It is about a person trying to find out what the next chapter of their life is going to be. In this case, an umbral elf and blood mage of the Northern Guard called Roim Bloodbane, who is a legend in his own right. He has been serving the Northern Guard for 20 plus years, protecting Adria from dragons and behemoths and other beasts that come down to try to wreak havoc on the kingdom. And it is time for him to retire. And so he is retiring to the south in a city called Eastbourne by the coast because his body is racked with pain from using its magic for so many years, because blood mages do wreak havoc on their body when they use their magic. So he retires down there, he makes a friend with the bartender, and because he has this journal that he carries that his father wrote with all of these travels and drink recipes from all over Adria, he gets the idea to open up his own bar with this person. And that's the basic gist of Cursed Cocktails.

SPEAKER_00 4:02

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

Thorden Thistle kind of picks up from there where Cursed Cocktails leaves off with a different character that you meet briefly, and that is Dobin Thornhill, who works for a secret society in Eastbourne called the Eastbourne Dinner Cult. And he finds rare things for these rich people to eat. And he has come to Eastbourne to get his latest quest from the Eastbourne Dinner Cult. And because he absolutely hates these noblemen, he stops into the bar to get a drink and he briefly meets our main character from Curse Cocktails, Roarin of Bloodbing. This dinner cult sends him on a quest to find this dragonfire mushroom that can only be found under the charred, scorched earth of dragonfire attack. And there is this city called Hellscrag that was destroyed many years ago by a red dragon, and no one ever goes there because it's infested with ghosts and spirits and other apparitions that are dangerous, and it's just been abandoned. And he knows that he's gonna have to go there to find this rare mushroom in order to complete this quest. And it's such a big payout because it's so dangerous that it can very well be his last quest. And he really wants that because he wants to be able to settle down from his life of adventuring and finally provide for the widow of his former adventuring partner who was tragically killed years earlier and left behind his wife and son. And he's been secretly giving them money a little bit at a time, but now he knows he can finally set them up for good if he can complete this one last quest. And that's a that's his journey. He also is dealing with a lot of grief and survivor's guilt. And those are the two books.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

Awesome. So we're gonna go through the copile routine here. And to start off with the characters, I think one of the things I love most about these cozy fantasies is the way in which you get to know characters in this very calm, kind of relatable situation that you meet them in. I loved in Cursed Cocktails getting to know Rorin and Callum, getting to know him after the big battles and the crises and the death-defying moments, and you know, all the pain and agony that came with him fighting the behemoth. And you meet him as someone who's tired and who's injured and who really has been told you need not to do this anymore because you could die because the magic is taking too much out of you, because that's what happens with blood mages. I love seeing that side of things because we often fail to ask what happens to a hero after they can't do that anymore. And we see Rorin in that light. So we really get to know him. We see him struggling with that to reconcile, to find his place. We see the relief he has, and then we see him just kind of go about this method of figuring out who he is and the people he meets along the way. And I love the normalcy in which we get to know these characters, because it's very normal in cursed cocktails. And some people might go, well, that sounds boring. It is not, because we can take these fantasy people and we can get to know them in a very human way. And that's what I loved about cursed cocktails. And for Sword and Thistle, it's very much the same, even though Dobbin is still adventuring and there's still going to be some of those fantastical elements. We also meet him in those vulnerable moments in the beginning. And we'll talk about some of those as we go along. But you get to see that human side of him as opposed to this adventurer that's swinging the sword every place.

SPEAKER_01 7:33

Yeah, I would say that above all else, characters and character development is key to cozy fantasy writing. And it's not so much what they do, but who they are you come to love. And that is the real heart of the story is how we learn who these people really are that is not reflected in what they have done, what really drives them. And they develop these relationships with other people so organically, you really feel like you're making new friends along with them. And it's just this building of a found family, and it's really cozy.

SPEAKER_00 8:05

Right. And that goes right into the atmosphere because they develop this atmosphere like you want to sit down and have a drink with these people.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

I love the recurring theme of of coming together around something. So in this case, it's coming to together around a good cocktail, right? Or coming together around a good wine or a story or a song or a fireplace. But it's all of this coming together as human beings to be human beings with each other and to see each other for who we really are.

SPEAKER_00 8:32

And really, even when they're on a journey like in Sword and Thistle, it's still coming together around that fire. And there are still those stories to be told. And it's probably for me, looking at Sword and Thistle, even though Dobbin is often traveling in a relatively solitary state, he still meets these people along the way that he talks to. And in that way, to me, it becomes almost Canterbury Tales like in that he's traveling on this journey, and there are these stories and these events that happen along the way, and you get very much that journey storytelling feeling with it. And they're not throwaway encounters either, they're genuine encounters with real people, with meaningful moments and second chances and moments of healing. And those things are happening, and they're not throwaway moments. In the end, like I want to be in cursed cocktails, the bar. I want to have one of the drinks that Callum is mixing, and I want to like go out with them and hang out. Like these are people I want to spend time with. You get to know characters and the atmospheres in Cozy Fantasy in that way. And I think you want to be in this book.

SPEAKER_01 9:42

Yes, I agree. And we really already covered writing style and plot with the discussion that we've already had. I think we have a good sense of that, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Intrigue now, of course, because it's low stakes, you may think that there is no intrigue, but that's not true. There's always some sort of obstacle to overcome, whether it is physical or emotional, that these characters have to eventually deal with and they come head to head with. Like, for example, with Roar and Blood Bang, it's his fear that he will be judged if people know that he is a blood mage because blood mages are so powerful. A lot of people are fedulous and very fearful of them. Even though they know that they owe them their security and their safety, no one really wants to know they know a blood mage. So he's gotta got this sort of shame, even though he's done these great things, about letting people know who he really is and opening up. Also, he knows, like you said, if he ever uses his magic again, it could mean his life. His body has come that close to being absolutely done with this. And so there's that going on. And then with Daubin, of course, he's lost this adventuring best friend of his. And where does his guilt come from? Why is he so torn? Why does he feel it's his obligation to support the widow and son? And will he be able to ever let this go and forgive himself and actually heal?

SPEAKER_00 10:55

And be able to live his life and move on with his life and find happiness outside of this constant burden.

SPEAKER_01 11:01

And is he going to get killed on this last quest, which no one in their right mind, everybody who says I'm going to Hell's Crab, they're always like, Why?

SPEAKER_00 11:08

You're gonna get You're gonna die.

SPEAKER_01 11:10

Yeah, you're finally doing something that's gonna get you killed. Your luck is gonna run out, buddy. And so there is that. What is he walking into? Are these ghosts real?

SPEAKER_00 11:17

The intrigue on both of these is life intrigue. It's real life drama that we face. It's in a fantasy context, but I find that to be, again, very relatable as you deal with the intrigue that's there.

SPEAKER_01 11:32

And I think that's where the logic in the story comes from. Yes, that's what I was gonna say. Because these relationships do come across so real and organic, it feels very true.

SPEAKER_00 11:41

Yes. And so the enjoyment level for me is really in a self-help kind of way. You know, if you are reading this novel, you can identify with these characters and all of us search for our identity. All of us have felt a void in our lives that we're trying to fill, all of us have searched for a new relationship or opened a new chapter in our lives as we've closed another. So my enjoyment level on this was really feeling the journey along with the characters. And it ended up with me fully absorbed, even when they're describing shaking up a cocktail or any of those other things. Like, I'm like, I'm down. Like, can I make this cocktail? Like, are we using real alcohol here? Because I'm going for it.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

That is a constant thing that happens in every single cozy fantasy that I have read. They constantly make me hungry or thirsty for something because they take these moments to describe the process and just pull out all of the savoriness of it and the taste and the textures and sounds and smells, and you're just like, oh wow, I'm gonna have to have fish tonight.

SPEAKER_00 12:50

Yeah, or I'm gonna have to have wine. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:52

Exactly. Exactly. So and then and then there's also sometimes romantic elements to these stories, too, which was very enjoyable as well.

SPEAKER_00 12:59

Yes. And it's not overt, this isn't spice level that you're looking for with cozy fantasy.

SPEAKER_01 13:05

No, it's real, it's awkward, it's slow.

SPEAKER_00 13:08

And it's real. That's right. And I can appreciate that too. So enjoyment, I'm here for it. I want to hang with these people. And I was completely pulled in. So these are good, good, enjoyable books. If you don't want, if you want to set down the tragedy for a second and push aside the high drama and get to know some characters, sit down with a cozy fantasy. It's worth your journey. And S.L. Roland is especially worth your journey.

SPEAKER_01 13:36

And before we get to the part where we tell you all to go away because we're going to talk spoilers, I want to just say one last thing. These technically are standalone novels that exist in the same world of Adria. However, I have found that it is wise to read them in chronologically published order because he throws back to characters and events from previous books. And if you have not read them in that order, you will miss out on those kinds of moments. So I do think you should start with Cursed Cocktails, Sword and Thistle, Halfling Harvest, and There Will Be Dragons.

Spoilers Start And Author Connections

SPEAKER_00 14:03

Okay, awesome. Well, this is the point where you go away if you don't want spoilers, and you turn this off and then you come back later because we are going to enter the spoiler section of our podcast.

SPEAKER_01 14:13

So, first off, let's address the elephant in the room. If the name Steve Rowland sounds familiar to you, there might be a reason for that. If you have read Dutch and Crawler Carl, that is probably the biggest shout-out this author has ever had from a fellow writer. He is indeed the inspiration for the troll stripper author Steve Roland. I love that. In the Desperado Club. So that is his shout out from Matt Dinneman. And I yeah, I absolutely love that. And SL Rowland is an amazing author in his own right. And I'm so glad that that little shout-out got me to come in contact with him and his writing. Right. So that's that's great. Writers supporting other writers, that is one of the best things about the lit RPG community, honestly, because they constantly do that to one another.

LGBTQ Romance Without Othering

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Right. So one of the things I want to start with is really talking about something that I think is so important, and that is the LGBTQ inclusion in these novels. A lot of times I feel like we read novels that are purely heterosexual, obviously, and then we read novels where there may be a slight nod to an LGBTQ character, but it's really not thematically important. Steve Roland really gives this center stage in a lot of ways. And I absolutely love the development of it, the sincerity of it, and the just beauty of that. So, for instance, in Cursed Cocktails, you can tell from the very beginning that there is a very special relationship between Rorin, who is our retired blood mage fighter, who has this reputation as Blood Bane, who is this famous warrior in the realm who is feared and revered by so many. And now he's living incognito in this town as a bar owner. And then you have Callum, who is this bartender, and you can sense this growing relationship between the two of them, the entire book, that really doesn't blossom until we get a little further in. But it's such a beautiful relationship that turns into a beautiful romance and long-lasting partnership, not just in business, but life partnership, almost reminding me of watching Shits Creek and watching that relationship develop between David and Patrick.

SPEAKER_01 16:41

Yeah, what I love about these relationships is that they're completely devoid of stereotype.

SPEAKER_00 16:45

They are.

SPEAKER_01 16:50

A best friendship turning into something more, an attraction, something that is romantic, and that and it just happens so subtly and organically, and it's not treated as unusual either.

SPEAKER_00 17:00

No.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Fantasy authors are doing better and better about this, but just throwing in queer relationships as though they are part of the world. And it's just whatever way you go, hey, love is love. This love is love attitude. It doesn't do it in any kind of awkward way. It's just very organic.

SPEAKER_00 17:16

Right. And I love that. You know, I think some people can throw it in very awkwardly and it can feel very contrived. This is very beautiful and real. And like I said, I want to sit down with Rorin and Callum and like have dinner with them, and I want them to be one of my couple friends and hang out. That is the type of relationship development you witness.

SPEAKER_01 17:40

Yeah, I think the way that I feel about it is that there is just no sense of otherness.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

No, there's not.

SPEAKER_01 17:46

You get the sense that there's not an LGBTQIA community because it's just human beings.

SPEAKER_00 17:52

It's just community.

SPEAKER_01 17:53

Yes, it's just community. We're just human beings living together.

Second Chances Over Snap Judgment

SPEAKER_00 17:56

And we were kind of talking about this off record earlier, but what I love about Steve L. Roland's writing and I guess the cozy fantasy genre in general is that to a certain extent, you can start to feel like this idealistic world is being created. What I think though is that the fantasy genre that this is situated in allows us to aspire to what could be. So as you said that the relationships are very natural and this is just community and it's just part of the world, the same thing could be said about these characters and the choices they make. When we talk about the character in Sword and Thistle and some of the choices he makes along the way, the next right choice and the good things that he does. I feel like just like with the community thing, we have these examples that were given by Steve L. Roland that suggest this is what should be. This is what the world should be. Like if we could all make these choices, this is what things could look like. And I love that about the cozy fantasies. So it's not to me low stakes like this is just fluff, and you're just reading fluff. It's not because for me, I read it and I see a moral compass at work. You see these ethical choices that these characters are making, and you also see the ethics and the morals of the author embedded in the work, and you see what is trying to be said about community and society, and it's a beautiful picture that's being painted, one that I wish we could aspire to more.

SPEAKER_01 19:44

Right. I see a lot of, as a Buddhist, Buddhist philosophies in these stories, because on the one hand, Rorin is trying to learn that he isn't so different from everybody else, and he can be himself and he can learn to lean on other people and be accepted and not worry about how other people will see him as other. Right. And Dobbin is learning to not see those that have been his traditional enemies or people that he would usually give a snap judgment to, like the bandits that he meets on the road, or the goblins that he meets that he used to be sent on out on quests to kill. But then he meets this group of goblins that he sees he has to see as other living things that are just trying to survive, that have suffered just like everybody else, and the commonality between all living things and the interconnectedness of all living things. And so then the theme of everybody deserves a second chance. Everybody deserves a second chapter in their life, no matter what they have been before, there is always time to live for something better.

SPEAKER_00 20:47

There is. And I love a couple things with Daubin. You mentioned the bandits along the way. Let's talk about that moment for a second because Daubin goes on this journey to go find this mushroom in this wasted land from all this dragon fire and all these people that died. And along the way, there are these three young men who decide they're going to try to rob him and the man who's traveling with him. And Daubin recognizes the youth of these three young men. And he recognizes the fact that even though he's got a crossbow pointed at him and these other two young guys have swords, that they have no idea what they're doing. And when the one kid fires a crossbow, he shoots it way wide. And Daubin knows these kids are amateurs and he whoops them pretty quickly. Oh, yeah, he whoops them right away. But instead of killing all three of them, like we might see in some action film, Dobbin just subdues all three, and the next thing you know, they're all three sitting with their hands bound, and he sits there and looks at them and says, You're just kids.

SPEAKER_01 21:53

What were you thinking?

SPEAKER_00 21:54

What were you thinking? What is the story here?

SPEAKER_01 21:56

It takes the time to get their stories. And the iron irony is that they became bandits because of bandits.

SPEAKER_00 22:04

Right. And because they didn't have anything, and because they needed money so that they could support themselves, so that they could protect themselves. And he goes, Well, you guys are gonna get yourselves killed because you have no idea what you're doing. And so he sends them to the adventurers' guild with his name and says, Listen, you're gonna have to put in the work. If you want to make your lives better, it's not about taking a shortcut like robbing someone on the road. It's about putting in the work to get there. But if you are wanting to put in the work, you go here, you give them my name, you put in the work, and you can come out on the other side prepared to handle the world. And he does that for them. He cuts. Them all loose and he sends them on their way to potentially have a better life if they choose it. And it's a beautiful moment. It's not this gruff, tough adventurer takes out the bad guys on the road. This adventurer realizes they're not bad guys, they're just kids, they're starving people, they're people who don't have, they're the have nots. And he provides them with something else, something else to live for. My other favorite moment with Daubin is when he stops at the tavern along the way and they're doing the storytelling contest, and everyone wants to tell the grandest story of fighting and being in some kind of death-defying situation. And they look to Daubin because he is an adventurer and they realize that he's part of a troop that is, he was part of a troop that's done all this famous stuff. And they're like, oh, you have really grand stories to tell. You're clearly going to win this contest. Yeah, you need to jump in here and tell us one of your great adventures. And he tells a story of when he was a child and his father took him to the library for the first time and he fell in love with reading. And he tells this incredibly heartwarming story, and he kind of gets the booze from the crowd, like, no, no, no, we wanted a story of adventure. And he's like, no, I think this is the most important story I could tell. This is more meaningful to me than all the other adventures. So you see these really conscious choices on the part of our author and on the part of these characters as they begin to recognize what's really important in life.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

And it helps me as a reader think to myself, you know, like going back to the bandit moment is how many bandits have beget more bandits, have beget more bandits because they never had somebody step in at that crucial moment where it wasn't too late to give them a second chance. Right. And that's so important to think about when we judge people, especially young and foolish people.

SPEAKER_00 24:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

But anyone really, because evil's a disease that gets passed on to other people.

SPEAKER_00 24:49

I think about that all the time as a high school teacher. We are too quick to look at kids and label them as bad. We joke around about the ISS all-stars, the in-school suspension all-stars, the ones whose names are up there all the time. And you end up labeling them the bad kids. And when you see them pop up on your role, teachers will go, Oh dear God, I have that kid in this class. This is going to be a horrible semester. They are just kids. They are just kids. And it all depends on how you approach them. Do you approach them with a clean slate initially? Listen, this is your chance to start fresh and set a different tone for the semester. I'm here for you. Do you give them that chance or have you already condemned them before they start? And it's a conscious choice you have to make. And I think that is something that we're being asked as we read this book and as we as we look at those choices he makes along the way and the choice with the goblins and so many of the other moments he comes up against. That's what we do as human beings. We judge people. So we're asked to peel back that judgment and consider where those people come from, consider what the background is. Are there evil people out there? Yes, there are evil people out there. But things are created. Like you said, evil begets evil, and things are created a certain way. And we certainly throw people into one pot more often than not and don't distinguish what's going on and what are the factors causing.

SPEAKER_01 26:27

Yeah, yeah. Labeling people as bad is just another kind of othering.

SPEAKER_00 26:32

Right.

SPEAKER_01 26:32

So even if what they've done is objectively bad, it still makes them into a thing instead of a human being.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

That's right.

Grief, Burnout, And Sharing The Load

SPEAKER_01 26:39

And that's what we have to watch out for. Another big theme for both of these two books that we probably should talk about is how you deal with grief. Because that's a factor in both of these books. So Rorin is dealing with not only the grief from all the battles, the trauma from all the battles that he's been in, and grieving the loss of friends and the sacrifices that he's had to make, but initially the loss of his father, who sacrificed himself to defend a city against a behemoth, but it took his life instead of him coming out of it alive. He had to give it all. And he has been trying to reconnect in so many ways with his father after that tragedy, which is why he became a blood mage in the first place. But you kind of see at the beginning of the book that that really never really helped him connect with him. Right. And the way that he ends up doing that is through this journal that he's kept and cherished. And going in to kind of live the dream that his father had, but it becomes his dream genuinely.

SPEAKER_00 27:34

Right. So he deals with that grief, and it is finally, I think, owning the bar and going through that process allows him to really grieve for his father for the first time and really walk through some of that trauma.

SPEAKER_01 27:49

And in the end, I think he really gets to understand firsthand why his father put it all on the line for the people that he loves. Even though he lost his father at that moment, he comes to a moment where he's willing to give himself for the person that he loves and the people that he loves.

SPEAKER_00 28:03

Right. And that happens at the end of Curse Cocktails. Again, we talk about this being low stakes, but Roring does put himself in a situation at the end where he could very well die. He's not supposed to use blood magic anymore to the point that he would need to to take down a huge monster. But when the town that he loves now, the man that he loves, these children that he's been taking care of, when all of that comes under threat, he does put his life on the line, just like his father had done when he was a child. And fortunately it ends up being okay because this is low stakes and it's cozy fantasy, and we want the happily ever after. But it's that beautiful choice that he makes, realizing that when you love someone, when you love people, when you have devoted your life to a place and to a family, you are willing to make that ultimate sacrifice. I think that is a beautiful moment. But it also begs the question, with him in particular, when do you lay things down completely? And when does someone else have to step up to make that sacrifice? And I'm so grateful in the end that he does survive that and he's able to live his life with Callum and that we know he's going to have that happy ending. Because at some point, the heroes that were deserve to be able to be happy. And the new heroes that will be step up to take their turn. And I think that that is another thing that should be mirrored in our society, that as we move generation to generation, we don't use up. We don't use up people and spit them out. It has to be that the burden is shared, that generation after generation, there are new people that rise up to bear that burden and rise up to speak up for what's right, that rise up to do the hard work. Because the truth is, for those of us that rise up to do the hard work, the world will let you burn yourself out. And in America, we value that. Like we value working yourself into the grave. That is like the American work ethic. We do not rest, we do not take time to take care of ourselves, we work ourselves to death because that's how you prove your worth and that's how you achieve, right? That's what we do. And if you are one of those people that steps up and you are protesting and you are leading people in rising up and pushing back against things that are wrong, you're a teacher who is passionately believing in the youth and you are taking on all the extra responsibilities. Not that I'm speaking from personal experience. People will let you do that. They will let you do that to your detriment until you have a heart attack, have a nervous breakdown, can't get out of bed anymore. They will let you work yourself to death. And there has to be a handoff at some point. There has to be another wave of people that bear the burden. And I think if we created more of a community, like what S.L. Roland is imagining for us in these books, if we created more of a community, then we would have community to help us carry that burden. And that's what Roran really finds in Cursed Cocktails.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

Lastly, I think we need to talk about Daubin's journey. Daubin's journey from dealing with this grief of losing his partner in their last big adventure together. It was supposed to be their biggest payout, and it was supposed to be his partner's opportunity to provide for his family finally and give his wife this opportunity to open her own bakery. Which since his death she has been able to, but only because Daubin has been secretly depositing like 25% of all of his earnings into her bank account.

SPEAKER_00 31:55

Right.

SPEAKER_01 31:56

And he has been struggling for almost a decade now with shame, guilt, and anxiety over the idea of confronting this widow because he's afraid she's going to blame him because he blames himself. And he's just kind of always avoided it by going on to do the next thing that he can do, the next good thing that he can do, the next thing he could do for her. And I think that that is where a lot of his journey towards kindness, acts of kindness and seeing people differently comes from. It comes from a place of guilt. And sometimes a place of guilt can change us a lot internally and force us to take a good deep look at ourselves. But he has no way in at this time to escape from that cycle of guilt and actually come to peace, to find his own peace, even as he's doing all these good things for other people and giving so many second chances to other people, he won't give a second chance to himself.

SPEAKER_00 32:46

Right. He eventually has to reach that point.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

He realizes through this journey that it is time to face his worst fear, and that is being rejected, not given the second chance, which he believes he does not deserve. He has to find the courage to put himself in the position of facing that fear and find out if this friend's widow is willing to forgive him.

SPEAKER_00 33:10

Right.

SPEAKER_01 33:10

So he can forgive himself.

SPEAKER_00 33:12

Right. Which is a very human journey and something we all have experienced on some level in some way is that fear of rejection and that need for self-forgiveness. So I think to sum all this up, there is a lot more to cozy fantasy than just some kind of fun, simple story. There are wonderful characters to get to know. There are human, very human themes and human lessons to understand, and there are beautiful ideals and aspirations to rise up to. So I think in the end, reading a cozy fantasy can not only be heartwarming, but it can be encouraging. And it can be something that can lead you to make some better choices in your own life or at least to consider and reflect on some things.

SPEAKER_01 34:02

Or find your own healing.

Why Cozy Fantasy Matters Next Read

SPEAKER_00 34:03

Or find your own healing along the journey with these wonderful characters. All right, Peter. So what are we talking about next time?

SPEAKER_01 34:10

So actually, next time we're gonna do basically episode 18, part two, and talk about the last two books in the Tales of Adrias series, Half Lane Harvest, and they're the dragons here, which are just as good but different than the two we've talked about before. I think we're gonna have a good time.

SPEAKER_00 34:27

So I get to live in Happyville for a little while longer before we get back to high stakes stuff. Yes. Awesome. All right, we'll look forward to talking to you then.