Under the Whispering Door

3.8 stars — oh I so love cozy Klune

Soo I read this back-to-back with Cerulean Sea and that may have been a problem. It gave me high expectations and they were not quite met. I still love this one, but I felt it could have been better?

It has all the right ingredients to make a five star rating and a place on my favourites shelf. There's a cozy tea shop, kind reapers, a queer romance, Klune's trademark humour and a wonderful character journey on finding a family and home...

But I think it just suffers in the execution. Klune has all the right elements, but it just doesn't impact in the way that Cerulean Sea does. It's a hard one to beat, and both books have similar themes, but frankly Cerulean Sea does it better.

I love the entire concept for this one with a tea shop before you pass on. There's also an adoring cast of characters that I grow to care for. Klune's iconic humour makes me laugh outloud. There are scenes I loved, cried at, laughed and more.

But man there are so many things I would change with this book! For starters, I didn't like the ending. It felt like the ending was too happy and perfect. And Wallace. He starts out as this asshole, but his development felt too quick? I love the idea of learning kindness, but it felt the character had changed drastically in only a few pages.

That being said, I still loved this one, and Klune is quickly becoming one of my favourite authors for his whimsy and heartwarming books. Keep at it Klune, you are amazing at doing cozy books!