Book links: Amazon, Goodreads

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: John Hornor Jacobs' first novel, Southern Gods, was published by Night Shade Books and shortlisted for the Bram Stoker Award for First Novel. His second novel, This Dark Earth, was published in J2012 by Simon & Schuster. His young adult series, The Incarcerado Trilogy comprised of The Twelve-Fingered Boy, The Shibboleth, and The Conformity, was described by Cory Doctorow of Boing Boing as "amazing" and received a starred Booklist review. His Fisk & Shoe fantasy series composed of The Incorruptibles, Foreign Devils, and Infernal Machines has thrice been shortlisted for the David Gemmell Award and was described by Patrick Rothfuss like this: "One part ancient Rome, two parts wild west, one part Faust. A pinch of Tolkien, of Lovecraft, of Dante. This is strange alchemy, a recipe I’ve never seen before. I wish more books were as fresh and brave as this."

His fiction has appeared in Playboy Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Apex Magazine and his essays have been featured on CBS Weekly and Huffington Post. Jacobs resides in the American South and spends his free time when not working on his next book thinking about his next book.Visit him at www.johnhornorjacobs.com.

Publisher: G.P. Putnam's Sons (October 7, 2025) Length: 304 pages Formats: audiobook, ebook, hc

FORMAT/INFO: Brigands and Breadknives was published November 11th, 2025. It is 336 pages long and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats.

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Fern needs a change. Running a bookstore doesn't bring her the same joy like it used to. The answer is clearly to move to a new town and start a new bookshop, just to shake things up. But when the dust has settled, Fern realizes she still feels completely unmotivated by her life. One drunken bender later, she finds herself in the back of a wagon with one of the most legendary warriors of the ages, days away from her home. Her only choice is to keep traveling with the elven warrior and their odd prisoner: a goblin with a rather large bounty on their head. Across a dangerous journey, full of other warriors hoping to claim the same bounty, Fern has to grapple with the big question: what DOES she want out of life?

Brigands and Breadknives is an adventure-filled quest with a scene-stealing chaos goblin. Let's be clear at the start here: if you're looking for a quiet, low-action tale similar to the original Legends and Lattes, you won't find that here. That doesn't make this story any less heartwarming, but it is a decidedly different kind of story than its predecessors. There will be danger and there will be deadly sword fights. But underneath it all is still the theme of finding yourself, especially when what used to bring you joy is no longer fulfilling.

The theme of reinvention is an old one, but I liked the different approaches the story took with it. Fern is burdened not just by a desire to find a new purpose, but also by the guilt that she is somehow letting all her friends down by going against their expectations for her. They put so much effort into helping her - will they hate her if she admits that she's realized being a bookseller isn't what she wants anymore?  Meanwhile Astryx, the legendary elven warrior, is trapped in a monotony of her own making. She does the same thing over and over because she fears doing anything different will have her utterly lost.

Fern and Astryx help each other work through their respective conundrums, but it is Zyll the goblin who steals the show. Zyll is a goblin of few words, but their actions manage to captivate regardless. Ever mercurial, their antics had me chuckling at every turn and were definitely a highlight of the book.

Brigands and Breadknives is a story of reinvention that manages to be a rousing adventure from start to finish. I thoroughly enjoyed the various adventures of the party on their quest. Though this story is decidedly more action-packed than the others set in this world, it never loses sight of its heart-filled message, making it another worthy entry in the Legends and Lattes series.

 

FORMAT/INFO: The Entanglement of Rival Wizards was published on August 26th, 2025 by Bramble Romance. It is 336 pages long and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats. 

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Sebastian and Elethior absolutely can't stand each other. Grad students working for the rival departments of Evocation and Conjuration, their rivalry comes to a head when they both submit proposals to win a prestigious research grant. But then the university does something unexpected: it declares there's enough overlap between Sebastian and Elethior's proposals that it's been decided that the grant will go to both of them. The catch? It has to be a joint project. Now this human and half-elf will have to figure out how to set their differences aside if they're to find any way of merging their research together. But as complicated family relationships push old wounds to the surface, Sebastian and Elethior realize they may have more in common than they realized.

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards is a rivals-to-lovers fantasy romcom that completely melted my heart. Take some STEM academia, add a splash of D&D flavor, and mix in two men who bicker incessantly but who slowly become closer as they let their barriers down, and you have this book. The setting essentially takes our world and mashes it with D&D elements. So while our two lovers attend university on the East Coast of the U.S., their commute might be diverted because an adventuring party is fighting a troll on the bridge, football has been replaced with a competitive magic based game, and elves and orcs are a normal part of society. Overall I really enjoyed the setting, though occasionally references to things like ZOOTOPIA jarred against the sense of this story taking place in a vague Anywhere urban city.

But the real stars here are our two rival grad students/wizards: Sebastian, a constant prankster human who hides a traumatic past and Elethior, the taciturn half-elf who wants to escape the machinations of his elven family. Over the course of the story, circumstances cause both Sebastian and Elethior to reveal hidden parts of their lives. As they each become vulnerable and help each other work through their traumas, they grow closer to each other. It's a true falling in love story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

And a note about these darker elements: there is a subplot about one character's past that references abuse, and both characters are dealing with complicated relationships with their parents. This is, however, a queernorm world and absolutely zero conflict comes from homophobia or disapproval of Sebastian and Elethior's sexuality.

The Entanglement of Rival Wizards hit all the right notes for me and left me grinning like an idiot. I was so happy to watch these two bloom into a full on romantic couple, with a pitch-perfect happily ever after. I am thrilled that there will be more books set in this world and will absolutely be back for more.

 

FORMAT/INFO: The Lost Reliquary will be published by Saga Press on October 21st, 2025. It is 464 pages long and available in paperback, ebook, and audiobook formats

OVERVIEW/ANALYSIS: Since she was a child, Lys has been magically bound to Tempestra-Innara, the last living goddess of the Devoted Lands. She is one of Tempestra's most faithful servants. But Lys also has a secret: she dreams of killing the goddess and freeing herself from her servitude. When a heretic almost successfully assassinates Tempestra, Lys's daydreams suddenly become a realistic goal. Even better, Lys is tasked with hunting down the heretic's network and securing their god-killing weapon. If only she hadn't been paired with the utterly devout Nolan on her quest....

The Lost Reliquary is a sprawling story of a quest to end divinity that had me captivated from start to finish. Lys and Nolan's journey takes twists and turns, as revelations are made, secrets uncovered. It is a bit of a slower paced travel story, as Lys and Nolan track clues to figure out where the heretics hide but I was impressed at how much the tale kept me constantly wanting to find out more. Whether it was the small reveal of how Lys came to work for the goddess or the bigger mysteries behind the lore I had a constant itch to read just one more chapter, just to learn a little bit more.

I also very much enjoyed the dynamic between Lys and Nolan. They are reluctant coworkers at best, cutthroat enemies at worst. Lys is as irreverent a paladin as she can get away with, whereas Nolan is utterly devout in all things. Lys has a dry humor, Nolan is serious. Best of all, this relationship is not on the usual predictable plot railroad. Even as walls come down between Lys and Nolan and their bond grows, I truly never knew which way Nolan would fall in any given situation. Would he stick to the letter of divine law or bend in the name of expediency for the mission? Would he follow Lys over another potentiate? Lys and Nolan have a complex relationship made even more complex by their mission and their goddess, and figuring out where that relationship stood always kept me on my toes.

And oh, that ending. I am so excited to see where things go in the sequel because the cliffhanger was so juicy. Best of all, even though I had a guess as to where the story was going, things did not play out like I thought, the author always just oooone step ahead.

The Lost Reliquary is a compelling tale of an irreverent divine knight on a quest to find her freedom. The characters made me root for them, the mysteries kept me hooked. I highly recommend this, and will be eagerly awaiting the sequel.