Status Updates From Running Close to the Wind

Rowland's previous book, A Taste of Gold and Iron, is 1000% my favourite book. This one is very tonally different, though it's in the same universe, and despite that difference I am already head over heels for this.

Guys idk if I’m going to make it. It’s hilarious, I almost lost it in the middle of silent book club but it is non stop, in a “what if Gilmore girls was about pirates?” kind of way. Like I need a little less witty dialogue and a little more story? Adventure? And apparently there’s a cake contest coming up somehow? Ridiculousness.

Avra detoured to the hotel's kitchen to beg for a tray or a large plate and trudged upstairs. The two suites Black Garda had lent them took up half of the top floor of the hotel. On the door of one, the crew had hung a sign that read QUIET PLEASE! THIS ROOM IS FOR SLEEPING ONLY (with a doodle of a bed and an angry shushing face for those of the crew who could not read), so Avra let himself into the other suite.

"You're popular," Viyan commented. "I hadn't realized, somehow."
"I pay my bills on time and I tip generously," Avra said. "And I'm a very easy customer. Sometimes I just ask for a cuddle and have my hair petted. Sometimes I get a handjob and then cry."
Viyan blinked at him and Avra remembered suddenly that they were not in fact part of the crew but a respectable member of society. He forced out a raucous laugh.