{ "item_title" : "The Retired Knight Opens an Inn", "item_author" : [" Arje Fennick "], "item_description" : "The war gave her a knighthood, a bad hand and a mule. The peace gave her an inn.Dame Hesper Tallow spent twenty-six years holding a mountain pass. Now the pass does not need holding, her left hand will not close, and her whole pension is in the deed to a shut-up levy-house nine miles above the nearest town: cold hearth, leaking roof, a ward-post nobody has walked since the war, and a blank ledger with the Crown's stamp on the cover. She has a mule with opinions, a rule she brought home from the garrison (nobody sleeps outside), and no idea how to make change for a crown.One small problem at a timeA cook who will not say she is staying, and leaves her knife on the boardA stable boy who cannot finish a job, and a roof mended one-handed in the rainA child who counts the eggs, and finds the ones being thrown awayAn old sergeant who rearranges the furniture and sleeps upright by the doorA brewer who will not bless a cask until he has tasted the waterA rival innkeeper nine miles down the road who is not wicked, only frightenedAn Assessor of the Roads who arrives on a Tuesday with a straight-edge and shows her, over a supper he insists on paying for, that a ledger has two columns and the difference between them is the truthWhat kind of book this isA slice-of-life cozy fantasy in a small valley kingdom at peace after a long war. Low, practical magic: a hearth-charm that keeps the fire while someone is awake, a road-ward that keeps travellers on the road in fog, a brewer's blessing that keeps the ale. The stakes are a leaking roof, a sour cask, a levy on beds not yet sold, and a count that will not add up. Every chapter ends with something set down, not a cliffhanger.What it is notNo romance plot. No game stats, levels or skills. No villain, no quest, no on-page cruelty; nobody dies. The knight's hand stays as it is, and that is allowed.Who wrote itArje Fennick writes slow, warm fantasy about people who fix things. The inn is invented; the two columns are not.Book 1 of The Ninth Milestone. Book 2 follows the inn into winter.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/9/79/817/467/9798174679672_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "12.99", "online_price" : "12.99", "our_price" : "12.99", "club_price" : "12.99", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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