The slowest of burns plus a long discussion about weaponized incompetence in marriages with men. Also, dragons.

Work buds/neighbors go to work in FantasyLand wilds and enforce some laws. One falls for a nerd. The other makes faces about it. She has a bunch of shitty kids. He adopts a wee dragon.

Single POV, 3rd person past tense, both MCs are early/mid 50s parents/grandparents, widowed/divorced, semi-contemporary small town/country fantasy, low spice (implied)

This was a rough one. Twyla's got a lot of body image issues. There's not a lot of action. [Relationship 80% in]

And we don't get any romantic movement in the main characters' relationship, so it feels like it's a little out of nowhere- the relationship has 3 beats - one kiss between friends, one sex between friends (maybe with an orgasm?), together forever(?).

Pacing-wise, it's not doing a lot of "I like this person and I want to put my face on them." Or "our platonic relationship is not as it appears/is changing." It just hits a couple of physical beats and then Twyla is harassed by her kids.

If this had ended with them as

platonic BFFs

, that would have been fine and totally believable. I think the things Bannen wanted to talk about (marriage & parenthood subjugating women to the weaponized incompetence of men [legit] and the horrors of aging [what?]) may have required Frank chapters to move the chains on the relationship. He spends a lot of time off screen.

Overall, it's fine and has some moments. But the heavy lifting is being done by an older, interesting demographic couple and not the intimacy of the couple or the adventure.

Good setup for the next book tho- Rosie the Immortal seems rad as hell. Big Karlach energy.

Sex scenes - Bannen writes interesting sex, but she doesn't do detail (closed door), discuss orgasms, and uses a shit ton of euphemisms.

Narrator - Nicol Zanzarella is a good fit for Twyla's voice and does a good job with the world's characters.