Til Death Do Us Bard

Til Death Do Us Bard (2025) Rose Black

Logan and Pie have been blissfully married for six months.

He hadn’t expected to retire – an uncommon outcome amongst adventurers. Logan had imagined his end in the form of slavering jaws in some gods-forsaken corner of nowhere. Now he had a cottage and a husband.

But after a stranger speaks to Pie, he disappears without a word and Logan sets off to find his husband–come hell or high water.

Logan “the Bear” was a renowned adventurer until an injury abruptly ended his career, but he picks up his axe and sets off to find the love that changed his life.

The journey had taken most of the day, and there was no disguising the limp. The pain that came with every step brought waves of nausea.

The problems in the kingdom quickly become apparent as he travels.

He’d heard the king had forbidden magic use a year ago, but the consequences hadn’t reached their tiny village yet.

‘How much?’

‘Half a sovereign.’

Logan laughed. ‘You’re joking, right?’

‘Not at all,’ she replied with a dismissive sniff. ‘Without magic, prices are on the rise.’

Along the way he meets a powerful necromancer (“with a CHARTER!”) and his ex-wife (now a ghost), and others join his question.

I loved the necromancer.

It reminded Logan of the way a cat licks itself after it’s been scolded, though few cats had skeletal henchmen. They probably would if they could.

There are bits of backstory interspersed, so we slowly learn how Logan and Pie met and fell in love (despite the fact that Logan hates bards).

I particularly liked how the characters that surrounded Logan (and Pie) were well-fleshed out, some with their own character arcs.

‘Ghosts still feel, Logan. But they have no body with which to dissipate those emotions. They cannot cry or stamp or break things. Those feelings can only build inside them until they overwhelm the personality, and all that’s left is emotion, usually negative.’

This was a fantastic cozy fantasy, and I highly recommend it.

Characters: Aloysius Montague/Magpie the Bard., Logan Theaker/Bear, Countess Ariadne DeWinter, Ophelia, Seraphina, Gary, Fredrick Onyx-Heart the Third /Freddy, Adella, Fix, Ivan, Liana, Kain, Captain Williams, Erin, King Ervin, Matteo Montague, Duncan the Butcher, Meg the Ogre

Cover Design by Mia Carnevale

Publisher: Hodderscape

Rating: 8/10

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