The books can be counted. Probably. Whether they’ll stay counted is another matter.
Winter has settled over Briarwick, and Mara Vale is finally beginning to understand the strange old bookshop she inherited.
Then the Preservation Board asks for something that should be simple:
A complete inventory of the Spindle & Quill.
Mara knows inventories. She spent years at the Registry counting, classifying, reconciling, and making unruly collections behave.
Unfortunately, the Spindle & Quill has never been especially interested in behaving.
Books wander between sections. Shelf imps reorganize history according to categories of their own invention. Comma mice eat the punctuation out of her records. Some books are only visiting. Others are waiting for readers who haven’t arrived yet.
And behind the poetry section is a room that only exists when the weather is just right.
With the Board’s deadline approaching, Mara becomes determined to produce one perfect, defensible number.
But the harder she tries to make the bookshop fit neatly inside her ledger, the quieter its magic becomes—and the more she risks losing sight of what the Spindle & Quill was meant to be.
The Winter Inventory is a warm, whimsical cozy fantasy novella about magical books, impossible bureaucracy, quiet romance, community, and learning that some things can only be understood once you stop trying to control them.
Return to Briarwick and the Spindle & Quill in this cozy standalone adventure from the world of Tales of Eldermere.
Genre: General Fiction
Winter has settled over Briarwick, and Mara Vale is finally beginning to understand the strange old bookshop she inherited.
Then the Preservation Board asks for something that should be simple:
A complete inventory of the Spindle & Quill.
Mara knows inventories. She spent years at the Registry counting, classifying, reconciling, and making unruly collections behave.
Unfortunately, the Spindle & Quill has never been especially interested in behaving.
Books wander between sections. Shelf imps reorganize history according to categories of their own invention. Comma mice eat the punctuation out of her records. Some books are only visiting. Others are waiting for readers who haven’t arrived yet.
And behind the poetry section is a room that only exists when the weather is just right.
With the Board’s deadline approaching, Mara becomes determined to produce one perfect, defensible number.
But the harder she tries to make the bookshop fit neatly inside her ledger, the quieter its magic becomes—and the more she risks losing sight of what the Spindle & Quill was meant to be.
The Winter Inventory is a warm, whimsical cozy fantasy novella about magical books, impossible bureaucracy, quiet romance, community, and learning that some things can only be understood once you stop trying to control them.
Return to Briarwick and the Spindle & Quill in this cozy standalone adventure from the world of Tales of Eldermere.
Genre: General Fiction
Used availability for Justin Greathouse's The Winter Inventory