Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife was exactly what I needed to read this month. This cozy fantasy about found family and the magic of food warmed my heart. Keep reading this book review of Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife for my full thoughts.
Summary
Rottgor is worn out. Literally. Barely held together by dark magic, he has protected the Necropolis for centuries. When he’s forced into retirement, he’s faced with a new to forge a future guided not by obligation, but by passion.
Following his heart (and stomach), he decides to open a restaurant where the city’s undead and living residents can share food and community. He’s helped in his quest by an unlikely assortment of neighbors, including elves, skeletons, vampires—and a young orphan girl named Astra, whose ancestry, if discovered, could put her and the entire Necropolis in danger. To protect Astra and the life he’s building, Rottgor must face his past and form new alliances built on friendship, loyalty, and love. As comforting as warm pumpkin bread, this gentle fantasy traces how even a dark history can rise into a bright future.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife begins a story about losing our sense of purpose. What happens when we are adrift and searching for our purpose again. We have to go back to the basics and figure out what motivates us, what we want to do. For Rottgor, he’s forced into retirement and robbed of the choice of never having a choice. Now that all his choices are his own, what will he do with them? He’s so used to being a protector, but he finds out he can also protect and nurture with food, with community, with friendship.
Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife is a process of beginning again. It’s the effortlessness of being kind being balanced with the necessity to be kind even when it’s hard. It’s about knowing we could have something different and fighting for that. To carve out a life past what we (n)ever dreamed. If you love precious friendships between mentors and father figures, this is for you! At the same time, Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife examines the hatred that is thrown upon the undead for their existence. Their utter gall at being forced to live and their audacity for wanting a life of their own. There are these moments of realness, of themes which feel so similar to our lives, that ground this book.
Find Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop. org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.
Tour Schedule
| Tour Date | Tour Hosts | Type of Post |
| October 10th | @karisbookclub | Bookstagram feed post + Reel |
| @bookish.apothecary | Bookstagram feed post + Reel | |
| October 11th | bookswithmana | Bookstagram only |
| Ilovebooksandstuffblog | Bookstagram + Blog | |
| October 12th | Jbooksndreams | Bookstagram only |
| @kmartbooks | Instagram + Tiktok | |
| October 13th | @escapinginpages | Bookstagram only |
| Utopia State of Mind | Bookstagram + Blog | |
| the bookwormscorner | Bookstagram + Blog | |
| October 14th | @fairytalesformoms | Bookstagram feed post + Reel |
| Shesreadingagain | Bookstagram only | |
| October 15th | @midwestmoodyreader | Bookstagram only |
| @booksrn_rashi | Bookstagram only | |
| MagnoliaPigeonBookBlurbs | Bookstagram feed post + Reel | |
| October 16th | Myfictionaladventure | Instagram + Tiktok |
| @whenreadingattacks | Bookstagram only |