Recipes for the Copper Snake

Post Host Cozy Fantasy Series #1

by Susan Ruff, John Ruff

Cooking, magic, and scandal. Will this talented artificer’s move to a cozy village leave her in a stew?

Dana Everett is taking a risk. To save her best friend from disgrace, the celebrated magical inventor abandons her career and moves to a remote village to reopen her grandmother’s old restaurant, certain that her grannie’s recipe books contain the perfect formula for delighting the local humans, centaurs, minotaurs, and satyrs. But the surefire plan turns out half-baked when a search for the books turns up nothing but crumbs.

Struggling to shed their city folk status and unable to find the missing cookbooks, the two friends work to keep their new eatery afloat. When a snake portent appears in the sky and the town gossip goes missing, Dana fears that her companion’s secret past has caught up with them at last. With her supernatural power running low, Dana must rely on her ingenuity to hunt for answers and prevent her pal from ending up in hot water.

Can Dana whip up a happy ending, or will she be left with burnt offerings?

Recipes for the Copper Snake is the charming first book in the Post Host cozy fantasy series. If you like big-hearted protagonists, low-stakes fantasy, and slice-of-life adventures, then you’ll love J.S. Ruff’s smorgasbord of fun.

Buy Recipes for the Copper Snake to dish up some tasty fun today!

Genres: Cozy

263 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 5, 2024

Reviews

[Joan Verba · Rating 5 out of 5]

Plot: Dana, an artificer (a person who can make magical devices) returns to her grandmother's home town with her friend Charlotte (who needs a fresh start after a scandal). Dana has been hired to run the town's post office. Charlotte wishes to run Dana's grandmother's now-abandoned restaurant. However, Dana's grandmother's prized recipe books have been stolen, and they want them back. Then the town gossip disappears while trying to help them. Soon, they are both involved in the town's happenings. They meet and make friends with all sorts of magical beings (centaur, minotaur, etc.) as the story progresses. I found the novel delightful and well-written.

[JL Henker · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cozy tale of loyalty and friendship, with a mystery surrounding missing cookbooks. A lovely blend of fantasy/mystery in a town for new beginnings. Quirky town folk, including centaurs, satyrs, and a fuzzy mascot of unknown origin named Bullfinch. I especially loved the emphasis on the importance of the missing recipes and the town, first suspicious of newcomers, banding together to defend a woman unjustly condemned. Cozy and compelling.

[Julie-Ann Amos · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve just read these and they are Amazing! Wonderful fantasy, with an unusual type of magic, great world building and characters, and a mystery plus a lot of smaller side mysteries to keep you guessing. I can’t recommend them highly enough. Available on Amazon, JS Ruff is a pen name for Susan Ruff writing with her husband John

[A.A. Abbott · Rating 5 out of 5]

A cosy mystery in a fantasy setting, this is a charming story that I read in one sitting. The descriptions of cakes at the Post Host bakery are truly mouthwatering, and a twisty mystery makes it impossible to put the book down.

[Viola Kate · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was super cute and super cozy and I really enjoyed it. It was a great palette cleanser since there was no romance, no high-stakes anything, no suspense or murder, and a new fantasy world to get absorbed in - full of small-town charm, retired knights, and missing recipe books. I really enjoyed that a strong friendship and a strange-animal-turned-beloved pet were the focal points of the story.

There was a strange moment where the two friends were suspected as being a same-sex couple, which was not the case. But in an otherwise completely clean story, that felt a little out of place and I'm hoping that does not become a part of the series because I'd really love to continue this one.