This book is perfect for people who enjoy cozy animes like Delicious in Dungeon or cozy books like Legends & Lattes! There were so many high fantasy elements present here (also great for D&D fans), in addition to a story about friendship.

Thank you to Bindery Books/Cozy Quill for this ARC!

This was such a fun, cozy read! Undead orcs, gargoyles, elfdwarves, necromancers all set in a rich high fantasy world. A heart warming story of self reflection, going back to your roots, and discovering your passion. Of finding a family of your own and building a community in the face adversity. If you liked Legends and Lattes, this is definitely a good one to add to your TBR!

I’ll be doing a full review over on my blog soon!

For Fans of Legends and Lattes and with the vibe of a LitRPG, this cozy fantasy is all about found family, learning to live life, and dealing with both trauma and uncertainty. this book was so sweet and cute, and filled with a cast of unique characters. there were several scenes that made me laugh, and a few that made me feel a little too seen. learning how to move on when you've been stuck in a routine for so long can be insanely hard, and i loved the representation of anxiety and panic attacks in here. it all felt a little rushed, but overall i had a fantastic time and ended up finishing it the same day i started. if you like cozy fantasy, brutal warriors learning to live a normal life, and a happy ever after for everyone involved, then this is an absolute must read.

Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J. Munden
Rottgor is an undead orc who retires as a soldier to go after his passion when he was alive: cooking. Through his journey of rediscovering who he was in the past and what he is now, he will learn the power of friendship, family, and good food.
The book's cover inspired me to read this fantasy tale. I imagined the whole book as a mix of the cover and some of my favorite cartoons, like Adventure Time and Hilda, making it a thousand times cozier for me.
The character arc that Rottgor/Razgaif went through was fulfilling. I hope this eventually becomes a series and Tyltli finds her peace.


I got to read this advanced copy thanks to Netgalley.

Rottgor is forced into a very late retirement and now has to figure out what to do with his (after)life. When I saw this show up on NetGalley I immediately applied for an ARC because this book is SO up my alley: cozy fantasy, found family, tasty food. Unfortunately the book just didn't deliver for me. It was such a struggle to finish this one and if this wasn't an ARC and I wasn't determined to give it my best I would've DNF'd for sure. Is it all bad? Of course not, there's actually some really interesting world building. But unfortunately it was not the cozy fantasy of my dreams.

The Good:
- As I said I really like the worldbuilding. It takes place in a city built by Rottgor and his undead buddies after defeating their necormancer overlord. Now, centuries later, the living and undead live side by side. The whole idea of the undead finding new purpose in life is really sweet.
- The magic system: I love how everyone has magic that is very unique to them and their personality. I also love how the magic has an aura of its own that you can even hear and smell.
- I loved reading the flashbacks of the MC's previous life. It's a very unique view on Orcish society and culture.

The Could be better:
- The writer used new terms for races or entirely new races (I'm not quite sure which), but didn't quite manage to describe them in a way that made it really hard for me to picture them or understand really what they were. (Though props for introducing half elf half dwarf combos. Why do combinations like these not appear more often in fantasy?)
- Some plot holes in the story that challenged my suspension of disbelief. Like the orphans are too poor for food or shoes, but they live in a literal mansion and the city government takes good care of its orphans? Also the dialogue as was just not believable at times. Astra sounds more like a 15 year old than a 9/10 year old.

The Bad:
- The most important part of a book to me are the characters. While I liked Rottgor and all the side characters well enough on their own, the interactions just didn't add up. How is Calfe basically willing to kill/die on behalf of Rottgor just after meeting him and having one lunch together? One meeting with Astra and Rottgor immediately has deep paternal feelings for her (not in a creepy way mind you, it never went there). The employees are all hired/introduced at the same time and there's an instant back and forth between everyone. It was overall way too sweet even for me. And I love cute and sweet stories.
- The pacing was way off. Too much of the story was spent on Rottgor second guessing himself and despairing. It took 20% for him to even settle on opening a restaurant. At about 40% the restaurant opened. There is no time really spent on actually trial and error because the restaurant is an instant hit. And let me tell you something: I devoured 4 long books on magical farming life. I can handle a slow pace. But I cannot stand if the slow pace is filled with navelgazing instead of doing something, really, anything at all. I'd rather read the MC trying out twenty soup recipes rather than doubting themselves over and over again. The book isn't even that long, but felt at least twice as long than it was.

Now I did get a very early ARC, so I don't know, maybe there's going to be another round of edits. I really hope it will, because I had such high hopes from this premise. Thanks NetGalley and Cozy Quill from Bindery Books for granting me this ARC. All opinions are my own.

If you're a fan of Legends and Lattes, this might be the book for you. Cosy fantasy setting with a clear passion for the love of food, Munden really captures the flavours of what makes a good hearty meal and narrative. I wanted to give this a higher rating but there were some elements which didn’t sell it for me. Sometimes the lack of descriptions of creatures but the over explanation of internal monologues, and I wasn’t convinced entirely by the younger characters voice. I found it difficult to place her age or even her language to be believable as a child. But, saying that, I do love the element of found family, healing trauma, the political storyline between living and dead. There was enough for me to keep wanting to turn the page.

I am a sucker for a cosy fantasy and this book does not disappoint! Deston J Munden includes all of the key things for me that make a great cosy fantasy - dragons, orcs, elves etc. A fab read that includes characters you instantly care about and a plot that keeps moving but still keeps it cosy :)

Let's talk about Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife by Deston J. Munden.

What do you get when you mix the afterlife, good food, a touching story, and a chance to re-live your life? Why you get this cozy fantasy from Deston J. Munden. This wonderful tale takes you into the world of Necropolis, with it's wonderful characters ranging from the living to the unliving to the not so undead...we have orcs, elves, dwarves, and even dragons!

And we also have wonderful, glorious food that always brings people together.

In following the end of his service, we meet Rottgor - an Dark Knight who has been serving for centuries and has finally retired. Now the question is - what should he do? When bits and pieces of his former life come back to him, he realizes that food has always held a huge spot in his heart and in his livelihood. Taking upon by a set of characters who would become his found family, Rottgor endeavors into bringing his love of food alive all the while balancing an unexpected newcomer into his world - Astra. The little girl, with her canny words, and go lucky attitude gives Rottgor the will to move forward with an outstanding idea - to open a restaurant for the living and the unliving! But things are afoot, and people want to bring harm to those who are different (not alive) and also there is something, something...just a bit different about Astra.

If you like a good cozy read, a world of fantasy, wonderful characters, and good food - you'll enjoy this little treat.

✨ Found family
✨ World building
✨ Magical creatures
✨ Magic wielding

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Thank you to NetGalley and Bindery Books/Cozy Quill for the chance to review.

This was such a cozy read! There’s enough depth to the characters, plot, and world that it doesn’t feel like an “fluffy” mindless story. Every character was interesting and unique. It took me a while to get through the first 10% because of all the dense lore and world building, but once I got past that, I couldn’t stop reading. The character’s past was a little difficult to figure out with the different titles, names, and alive/deadness but if you keep reading it eventually makes sense. My one piece of advice if you read this is to power through the beginning because the story gets really good once “retirement” begins. I think the plot was very balanced between action and character development. I highly recommend if you want a fantasy book that’s character driven and full of cozy cooking vibes.

For some reason I just couldn’t really connect with the book. Maybe it’s just that cozy fantasy isn’t for me apparently. Pretty sure I’ve never read one before but the synopsis got me hooked. My issue was that there is a lot of description but I felt it took a while for me to be given the actual story. And while there are some interesting elements in the worldbuilding and the characters I couldn’t get invested with them to the point that didn’t really care at one instance.

Now, If you like cozy fantasy definitely give it a try. I think if you know what to expect from the genre this would be a smooth sailing.

4/5! ⭐⭐⭐⭐

<b>Cozy fantasy</b> is my go-to when I need a break from the world, and this was <i>exactly</i> what I hoped it would be.

We get to follow the undead orc, Rottgor, who spent most of his undead time in servitude as a knight. After being forced into retirement, he paves way to find his own happiness and decides to open a restaurant. If you love <i>yummy food, found family, incredible world-building and overall cozy vibes</i>, you need to pick this up.

I was genuinely surprised at how much I loved the writing. It was vivid, descriptive, and kept me intrigued. The characters were so wholesome, and over all this was just a really unexpectedly, fun adventure. Rottgor is a gem, and his story is one to be enjoyed next to the fireplace with a warm cup of tea.

<b><i>Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this e-arc in exchange for an honest review!</b></i>

When I first heard about the cozy fantasy genre, THIS is what my heart was wanting. I've loved so many other cozy fantasies, but to me, this is the king of the genre by a mile. An absolute triumph of a story filled with such heart in ways that our world needs now more than ever!

An absolutely perfect book in every single way.

Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife was a book rich in its world and delicious descriptions! Munden brought brilliant and emotional citations to such a bittersweet story. I am a big fan of food descriptions because I find them very warm and cozy. However, I found the author to be very objective. His tender feelings were undoubtedly for the character's background and development.

In my opinion, the first aspect that made this story stand out was its elaborate world-building. The author had a wide variety of characters and I'm pretty sure he created a very detailed backstory for each one. It was obvious that Munden knew what, how, why, and when things happened to each of his characters. I have to admit that I was a little lost at first, as the reader was thrown face-first into this vast and overflowing world. But as the story progresses, it's still quite cozy in all its vivid descriptions and variety.

I must also say that this was such a lovely and warm read, as I'm sure many readers will agree. The gem of this story was, besides healing trauma, the depiction of love from a father-daughter perspective. It was so pure, yet as deep and fulfilling as any other kind of love (romantic or otherwise). In a context where Romantasy has already established itself as an entire genre, this was such a sweet twist, as was the determination of the main character.

Even though I knew that the author was very sure and deep in his knowledge of this world, there were times when I wished that secondary things were explained to us readers. I know this can sometimes come across as forced, and that an 'ignorant' character is often used as a propeller to explain the lore to the reader. However, I felt that some terms lacked context or were just thrown at us.

I also found the pacing a little uneven. I felt that the first few chapters were quite long to get to the main point of the story, Rottgor's afterlife. However, we didn't get there until several chapters later, and we were exposed to a lot of information that, while giving us context, didn't need to be fleshed out as much given the plot that followed. Later on, we were introduced to a handful of characters and it was a bit hard to keep up. In a way, I think it took away a bit of the coziness of it all.

My rating system is as follows for any ARC book:
1 star = DNF, wouldn't recommend this to anyone and found significant flaws in it
2 stars = Finished, not something I would recommend but some may find it good
3 stars = This is a good book, nothing too spectacular but I enjoyed the read
4 stars = This was a fun and intriguing read, would talk about it and look for other works by this author
5 stars = An amazing book, would re-read

Overall rating: 3 stars
Love the world, and premise.

Specific feedback:

If you liked Legends and Lattes but wanted grittier characters and more world building, you’ll be right at home here!

This was a sweet story about an undead orc’s second life opening a restaurant, finding family, and healing from a very difficult past. There was more world-building than I typically expect in cozy fantasy, which was a nice surprise. The world was very engaging and the author did a great job of weaving all the characters together.

I would have loved to hear more about the magic system, I honestly think the world built here would have been great for a high fantasy novel, and I’d be excited to read if the author wrote more things in this universe!

Thanks to Deston J. Munden, Bindery Books, and NetGalley for the ARC!

I greatly enjoyed this story. It is a wonderful found family story that follows an undead orc as he finds his passion for his second chance life. You get to see Rottgor go from a life of duty as a night to discovery his long dormant passion for food and the family that discovering this brings him. He also helped a friend from his ling service to his kingdom find a happier life path as well.

This world is also wonderful. Full of a wide array of fantasy characters. Everything from magic wielders to orcs, dwarves, vampires, elves, fae, and a dragon. All set in a city that was built for the commingling of the undead and living. Rottgor being one of the founding members who is entering retirement. I will say the one thing I was not a fan of was the fact that the author would describe the city as a large place, but when scenes were happening it felt like they moved very short distances to get to their destinations. It just made it a little difficult to get the lay of the city at times.

I really enjoyed this cozy fantasy! I liked all of the characters and the world building. I'd be happy to read more set in this universe! If you enjoy cozy fantasy, definitely give this one a try!

Recipes for an Unexpected Afterlife is a cozy fantasy book detailing an undead orc's retirement as he tries to carve out his happiness after years of servitude as a knight. Filled with yummy foods, found family, fantastic worldbuilding, and amazing vibes, this book was the definition of a hug you didn't know you needed. Words cannot fully describe how much I enjoyed reading this book! The characters are incredibly well written, the vivid imagery made my stomach grumble, the relationships made my heart swell with happiness, and this entire book was a delight to read from prologue to epilogue. I recommend this book to anyone who enjoys cooking, fantasy, found family, coziness, and happiness. The quotes are profoundly impactful and contain a plethora of wise advice that everyone can appreciate. I love this book so much...now go and read it yourself!

This is exactly what I'm looking for in a cozy fantasy! The found family was so sweet; the main character's self discovery and new life journey/discovery; the unique and interesting world building. I had a hard time putting this down!

I think the worldbuilding, the politics and magic and how it affects the main character are what sets this out from other novels in the genre. It is easy to understand for those new to the fantasy genre but still complex enough to not feel boring or unnecessary to the story.

The characters are what make this novel shine. Astra in particular was my favorite.

I highly recommend this for anyone who enjoyed Legends and Lattes or other cozy fantasy.

I need more and more of this ✨💖🍄🧌
If you’re a Cozy Fantasy fan this is a MUST. I literally just finished the eARC and I’m already craving for this to eventually have tons of SE’s just like legends & lattes 😂
It’s cozy, wholesome, interesting, deliciousss??? Make sure to keep snacks close for this one!