Synopsis:
BEHIND EVERY HERO, THERE’S A HISTORIAN
An ambitious young scholar is sent to research the mysteries of an adventurer’s inn – only to uncover a centuries-old secret in this heart-warming and poignant fantasy.
Mount Vengeance is legendary, a monumental climb with a dragon at its peak.
For most, it’s an adventure, or a quest to prove themselves worthy of fame and glory.
For Ainsworth, it’s perfect thesis material.
Ainsworth Gladsly, ambitious young scholar, research fellow and up-and-coming historian is finally ready to make his mark on the world. When his supervisor learns of a rustic inn at the foot of the legendary Mount Vengeance, she sends him to be the first to document the exploits of the bold adventurers who face the perils of the mountain – and the dragon said to inhabit it.
But the inn is far from the sophisticated city life he’s grown to love, and even as he grudgingly warms to its rustic charm – and its lovely innkeeper, Honey – the mystery of the mountain refuses to reveal itself. Worse, Ainsworth can’t find evidence that anyone has ever undertaken the climb – every adventurer comes to the inn, stays for a single night, and then returns home.
And with Ainsworth’s reputation as an academic on the line, it’s a mystery he can’t allow to remain unsolved – even if he has to push the adventurers up the mountain himself.
Review:
If you aren’t new to the cozy fantasy genre, Chiara Bullen’s The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance will feel familiar in many ways. Bullen dips her toes in works you’ve probably already read from T.J. Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea, Travis Baldree’s Legends & Lattes, and Sarah Beth Durst’s The Spellshop. The tropes are there, but hey…this is a cozy. It’s supposed to feel like a warm blanket on a rainy day and Bullen accomplishes this to a T. There are the hallmarks of cozy fantasy that you’ll find in most cozy fantasy books, but Bullen offers up her own fresh takes with a unique inn, giving travelers one last place to rest before taking on the most treacherous mountain in the land.
Bullen tackles this from an academic standpoint — with Ainsworth Gladsly traveling to the fabled Misnich Inn which lies at the base of Mount Vengeance. The mountain has a well-earned reputation as the home of a dangerous dragon and Ainsworth discovers word of this mysterious inn from old family writings. He definitely fits into the stuck-up urban scholar at first, but we slowly find that the persona he puts out is one that he struggles with and has come about in many ways due to a toxic relationship that he may or may not have just gotten out of before his travels.
Now, I can’t relate from the toxic relationship standpoint so much, but I grew up in the suburbs and around larger towns. But after meeting my wife, we’ve lived in smaller towns surrounded by hard-working farmers. The “know-it-all” personality is hard to shake off and sometimes is exposed through slightly embarrassing situations and we see Ainsworth go through his share of “learning” about himself, others, and the world now that he’s alone at Misnich Inn.
Ainsworth meets the inn’s owner, Honey, and from the jump you can tell the relationship between Ainsworth and Honey is the foundation this book is built on. She is willing to go along with his sometimes silly research ideas, even as you can tell she knows more than she’s letting on. The feelings they have for each other slowly build over the course of the novel as they both chip away at each other’s walls and defenses.
The toxic relationship that Ainsworth ran away from comes back in a big way. It’s heartbreaking to see the controlling partner from the inside and how little power Ainsworth feels he has. But, Honey and the entire found family at Misnich Inn play a major role in giving Ainsworth the confidence he needs.
If there was a downside for me, it was the length. I think Bullen’s novel could have been about 10-20% shorter without much loss in terms of narrative or stakes, but in the end, I had a wonderful time regardless.
The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen is a wonderful addition to the cozy fantasy genre with both familiar settings and characters, but with unique locations and stakes. I definitely recommend it for cozy fantasy fans.
The Inn at the Foot of Mount Vengeance by Chiara Bullen will be released on July 7, 2026.
Thank you to Del Rey Book for providing this for review consideration. All opinions are my own.
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