re: cozy fiction (not to make your blog a message board lol), i agree with you (peak of cozy being small business ownership lol) and also dont think its just a matter of personal taste i think its worth critiquing. & asking questions like, when people imagine a world without conflict, what does that look like? if it looks like current day life in the imperial core, is it truly conflict-free or does the author just live a life where they can ignore the presence of the suffering that is foundational to that "conflict-free" existence? etc.
i remember seeing this review of legends&lattes floating around that i think is really good & related: https://www.superdoomedplanet.com/blog/2023/02/26/on-travis-baldrees-legends-and-lattes/
I have read this review actually, and its one of the things that always haunts the back of my mind when i see cozy fiction get talked about. This book (with full disclosure that I haven't read it and will likely never read it, and the blindspot that does give me) sounds fucking wild to me. The part about offering the crime lord cinnamon rolls instead of protection money but then letting her continue to shake up other people for money boggles the mind especially lmao, because I don't even see what's supposed to be comforting or pleasant about that situation. It kind of feels like it wraps around to be a fantasy that's only escapist in that the protags are out from under the boot themselves. But the boot's still there. Weird stuff.
