Title: There Be Dragons Here
Author: S.L Rowland
Genre: Cosy Fantasy
Rating: ★★★★☆
Source: ARC from the author
Blurb: At 182 years old, Hilda Rockfall thought her adventuring days were long behind her.
For over seventy years, she roamed the realm as a ranger with the adventuring party Stone & Splendor—taking quests, slaying beasts, and collecting monster teeth like trophies from the boundless sea to the edge of the wilds. But for the past eight decades, she’s traded her sword for slippers, living the quiet life of a proud grandmother nestled in the mountains, telling tales no one quite believes and baking a mean honey crumble.
That peace is shattered when an old friend—and former party member—passes on and leaves Hilda one final quest: scatter his ashes at a secret location marked on a map they looted back in their glory days.
Hilda figures it’ll be a nice little hike. Maybe a nostalgic trip down memory lane.
But then she opens the map.
And scrawled across the bottom in faded ink are four unsettling words:
There be dragons here.
Review: I want 2026 to be slower, cosy, and more mindful, and I got all three things in this book! There’s no good vs evil or fate-of-the-world plot here. The stakes are low, but meaningful – Hilda the dwarf choses to accept the dead-bed wish of a dwarf she considered a brother, even though that means adventuring into dangerous territory.
But Hilda is no ordinary dwarf. She was once a great adventurer who went on many quests before falling in love and settling down to raise a family. As an older woman, I loved her and her resilience. She shows readers that a story’s hero doesn’t have to be an orphaned teen to get the job done.
Another aspect of the book that I loved was Frida, Hilda’s granddaughter, and the passing on of knowledge. Enamoured by her gram’s fireside tales, she sneaks out of the house (leaving a note) and joins Hilda for a REAL adventure. She understands that it isn’t all fun-and-games, though, and proves to be a fast learner.
While cosy, there are a couple of high stakes moments, but can you venture into dragon territory without encountering one? Not in any good story! It’s a reminder that Hilda’s past was a dangerous one, and that those dangers still exist.
There Be Dragons Here was my first voyage into Aedrea. It won’t be my last.
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