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A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping 2: A Cozy Fantasy Slice of Life
For thirty years, Garron Pell was the last thing the monsters on the north road ever saw. These days he pours their ale.
The Last Lantern is open at last. A rebuilt inn on a feared road. House rules chalked beside the door, a garlic board worth the nine-mile walk, and a young gravewyrm that mostly believes the hardest of those guests are not groceries. New to the road? Start with Book 1: A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping.
Then a frost-rimed cart comes up the road in high summer, and Garron says yes before he knows what he has said yes to.
Under the canvas sleeps a hoar-elk calf, pale as a salt block, breathing four times a minute. Its keeper is Ivet Doss, a white-haired cold-drover with rules she does not explain and a deadline she the calf must cross the moor line before the first hard frost wakes it. Warm air spends the cold it sleeps on. And the storm-broken road will not carry a loaded cart for weeks.
So the Last Lantern digs a cold room into the hill and learns its trade backward. The hearth is a hazard. The lantern is a risk. A full, cheerful taproom is the worst thing that can happen to his quietest guest.
Meanwhile autumn calls in every debt the summer signed. Junia takes the north wall down to the frame to build it right. Mira lays in the winter stores and plants garlic for a July she already talks about. Marrow has grown all summer and no longer fits its own door. And something small and soot-colored has been drinking the road lantern dry.
Then the rains drown the village green, and Bellwether brings its fair up the sixty neighbors, a dozen cook-fires, a bonfire, and the warmest, stillest autumn night anyone can remember. Below the yard, behind a double door, sleeps one guest who cannot afford a single warm hour.
Garron spent his first season teaching a cold house to be warm. Now he has until the first frost to master the opposite, and the whole valley is coming to dinner.
A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping 2 continues the warm, clean, slow-living cozy fantasy series for readers who loved Legends & Lattes, Beware of Chicken, and The Tired Mercenary Just Wants to Farm in Peace.
What’s waiting at the Last Lantern this
A retired monster slayer learning to keep one guest cold in a house built for warmthMarrow the gravewyrm, grown too big for its own stable door and deeply offended about itA white-haired cold-drover with hard rules, and a soot-colored thief with no shame at allA village fair in the inn yard and an autumn garlic board sold by the plateLight LitRPG progression through the inn’s magical Welcome LedgerClean, low-stakes, no harem, closed-door comfort from the first page to the lastMissed the beginning? Start with Book 1: A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping.
Read free in Kindle Unlimited.
The Last Lantern is open at last. A rebuilt inn on a feared road. House rules chalked beside the door, a garlic board worth the nine-mile walk, and a young gravewyrm that mostly believes the hardest of those guests are not groceries. New to the road? Start with Book 1: A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping.
Then a frost-rimed cart comes up the road in high summer, and Garron says yes before he knows what he has said yes to.
Under the canvas sleeps a hoar-elk calf, pale as a salt block, breathing four times a minute. Its keeper is Ivet Doss, a white-haired cold-drover with rules she does not explain and a deadline she the calf must cross the moor line before the first hard frost wakes it. Warm air spends the cold it sleeps on. And the storm-broken road will not carry a loaded cart for weeks.
So the Last Lantern digs a cold room into the hill and learns its trade backward. The hearth is a hazard. The lantern is a risk. A full, cheerful taproom is the worst thing that can happen to his quietest guest.
Meanwhile autumn calls in every debt the summer signed. Junia takes the north wall down to the frame to build it right. Mira lays in the winter stores and plants garlic for a July she already talks about. Marrow has grown all summer and no longer fits its own door. And something small and soot-colored has been drinking the road lantern dry.
Then the rains drown the village green, and Bellwether brings its fair up the sixty neighbors, a dozen cook-fires, a bonfire, and the warmest, stillest autumn night anyone can remember. Below the yard, behind a double door, sleeps one guest who cannot afford a single warm hour.
Garron spent his first season teaching a cold house to be warm. Now he has until the first frost to master the opposite, and the whole valley is coming to dinner.
A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping 2 continues the warm, clean, slow-living cozy fantasy series for readers who loved Legends & Lattes, Beware of Chicken, and The Tired Mercenary Just Wants to Farm in Peace.
What’s waiting at the Last Lantern this
A retired monster slayer learning to keep one guest cold in a house built for warmthMarrow the gravewyrm, grown too big for its own stable door and deeply offended about itA white-haired cold-drover with hard rules, and a soot-colored thief with no shame at allA village fair in the inn yard and an autumn garlic board sold by the plateLight LitRPG progression through the inn’s magical Welcome LedgerClean, low-stakes, no harem, closed-door comfort from the first page to the lastMissed the beginning? Start with Book 1: A Retired Monster Hunter’s Guide to Innkeeping.
Read free in Kindle Unlimited.
441 pages, Kindle Edition
Published July 31, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
August 10, 2026
My reviews are my own. If you enjoyed this book, I'm glad you did. If not, I respect your opinion, so please respect mine. This is simply my perspective, so let's keep the discussion courteous. My review is honest and voluntary. As a reader, I read to escape the world and its issues, and my reviews reflect that.
I had a hard time liking this one. The woman who is supposed to be the guest was so incredibly unlikable that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the story. I understand that she’s trying to do something noble, but her constant arrogance and lack of gratitude toward the people trying to help her really rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of appreciating the support she was receiving, she kept acting entitled and difficult.
Sorry, but I just couldn’t care for this one.
Onward and forward to my next adventure. Happy reading!!!
I had a hard time liking this one. The woman who is supposed to be the guest was so incredibly unlikable that I just couldn’t bring myself to care about the story. I understand that she’s trying to do something noble, but her constant arrogance and lack of gratitude toward the people trying to help her really rubbed me the wrong way. Instead of appreciating the support she was receiving, she kept acting entitled and difficult.
Sorry, but I just couldn’t care for this one.
Onward and forward to my next adventure. Happy reading!!!
October 3, 2026
as entertaining as book one
The innkeeper has managed to host people and monsters without a disaster and gained the trust of the village. A strange guest with very different needs is a challenge to that goodwill, and the inn still needs to make a profit. Nice details about old style buildings, lamps and an entertaining gap about who is doing the inns laundry, and how.
The innkeeper has managed to host people and monsters without a disaster and gained the trust of the village. A strange guest with very different needs is a challenge to that goodwill, and the inn still needs to make a profit. Nice details about old style buildings, lamps and an entertaining gap about who is doing the inns laundry, and how.
August 7, 2026
An awesome read
Rarely have I read a book that creeps up on you like no violence whatsoever yet the tension is almost palpable I'm hoping there will be a third book to come Clay Whitlock is a fantastic author.
Rarely have I read a book that creeps up on you like no violence whatsoever yet the tension is almost palpable I'm hoping there will be a third book to come Clay Whitlock is a fantastic author.
September 28, 2026
A series you’ll remember for a long time
Please read my review on book 1. It says it all - amazing creative story plot, fantastic characters and gifted writing. I’m onto to hook 3!
Please read my review on book 1. It says it all - amazing creative story plot, fantastic characters and gifted writing. I’m onto to hook 3!
September 13, 2026
A vulnerable guest arrives at the inn at the start, and departs towards the end. Every problem is described in great detail, many of which are due to that guest.
September 24, 2026
good read
Enjoyable read. Not as lyrical as first book, story of the animal in ice house a bit long. Characters growing nicely. Looking forward to reading book 3
Enjoyable read. Not as lyrical as first book, story of the animal in ice house a bit long. Characters growing nicely. Looking forward to reading book 3
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews