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Good Neighbors #1
Good Neighbors
When a grumpy inventor meets her outrageous new neighbor in the big black castle down the road...more than one kind of spark will fly! Meet: Good Neighbors, a new series of fantasy rom-com short stories.
20 pages, ebook
First published March 1, 2020
About the author
Stephanie Burgis
77 books1,126 followersI grew up in America, but now I live in Wales with my husband, fellow writer Patrick Samphire, our two sons, and our sweet (and extremely vocal) tabby cat, Pebbles. I write fantasy rom-coms for adults (most recently Claws and Contrivances and Good Neighbors) and fun MG fantasy adventure novels, too (most recently The Raven Crown duology). My next series will be the adult romantasy trilogy The Queens of Villainy, published by Tor Bramble, starting in 2025 with Wooing the Witch Queen.
To get early sneak peeks at new stories and novels, sign up for my newsletter here: stephanieburgis.com/newsletter.
To join my Dragons' Book Club and get early copies of every ebook that I put out myself (so, all of my novellas, short story ebooks, etc!), check out my Patreon page, where I also published a series of fantasy rom-coms (Good Neighbors) across 2020-2021.
I only rate and review the books that I like, which is why all of my ratings are 4 or 5 stars.
To get early sneak peeks at new stories and novels, sign up for my newsletter here: stephanieburgis.com/newsletter.
To join my Dragons' Book Club and get early copies of every ebook that I put out myself (so, all of my novellas, short story ebooks, etc!), check out my Patreon page, where I also published a series of fantasy rom-coms (Good Neighbors) across 2020-2021.
I only rate and review the books that I like, which is why all of my ratings are 4 or 5 stars.
Ratings & Reviews
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
September 30, 2023
O.o not sure what to say . There wasnt much of a story to review . Even for a short story it could have been .. well .. MORE . It felt like I was thrown right into the middle of already exsisting story and suddenly i was cut short. Like a snippet of story , a teaser for the main story .. but that was all there was .
Will still read the next novella and see how it goes .
Will still read the next novella and see how it goes .
July 15, 2020
Good Neighbors is the first in a series of fantasy romance stories, centering on the romance between the introverted inventor Mia and her next-door neighbour, flamboyant necromancer Leander, which Stephanie Burgis is releasing as exclusive ebooks for Patreon subscribers. (The whole series will be available to purchase as a collected ebook or paperback once all four stories have been released on Patreon later this year, if you're interested in reading it but don't want to subscribe.)
Good Neighbors, is a short story which covers Mia and Leander's first meeting (the second and third in the series are novelette- and novella-length). Mia is a delightful heroine - clever, resourceful and more at home in overalls and workboots than dresses - and they are funny, charming and perfect comfort reading.
Good Neighbors, is a short story which covers Mia and Leander's first meeting (the second and third in the series are novelette- and novella-length). Mia is a delightful heroine - clever, resourceful and more at home in overalls and workboots than dresses - and they are funny, charming and perfect comfort reading.
November 29, 2020
Just a taste of a longer story involving necromancy and disagreeably hot neighbors. What's not to like?
March 10, 2020
In such a low mood lately and this helped SO much. I can't wait to read more!
February 1, 2022
This is one of those books that I think I like more on reflection than I did while reading it—I liked the exploration of the main characters’ relationships with their families, how the concept of being a good neighbor is explored, how Mia (the heroine) does and does not use her powers, and a bunch of the secondary characters. I didn’t quite like the relationship between the hero and heroine because it felt a bit pat—Burgis has a tendency to write books that I always wish were longer and when she’s writing about characters with a shared past, it totally works for things to be more abbreviated. When there’s a new relationship to develop, it doesn’t work quite as well. That said, highly enjoyable.
April 1, 2020
Short story that introduces a new series. Cranky inventor who uses metal magic just wants to be left alone but the necromancer in the dark castle next door has other ideas.
October 8, 2020
A wonderfully whimsical, sweet and funny short story that promises an amusing romantic fantasy series ahead.
An inventive girl, a necromancer guy, a mob with torches and pitchforks... It hardly sounds like the basis for a blooming relationship, but just maybe these two social recluses have something in common.
One word: adorable. Ms Burgis writes the most enchanting prickly characters I've ever read. Combine that with the historical fantasy settings and you have cutesy gold. My only real problem with it is it's too short! Just a tiny tiny bit longer to flesh out the characters and the world would have made this even better, as it felt a little bit much of a rush for my personal preference. Darn, but it's so cute and clever in the way it plays on the fairytale/fantasy tropes. A sugar-rush short story that I hope develops into something more - and being part one of a planned anthology series, I'm looking forward to finding out what that is.
-I received a free copy of this e-book from the author. This does not affect my review-
An inventive girl, a necromancer guy, a mob with torches and pitchforks... It hardly sounds like the basis for a blooming relationship, but just maybe these two social recluses have something in common.
One word: adorable. Ms Burgis writes the most enchanting prickly characters I've ever read. Combine that with the historical fantasy settings and you have cutesy gold. My only real problem with it is it's too short! Just a tiny tiny bit longer to flesh out the characters and the world would have made this even better, as it felt a little bit much of a rush for my personal preference. Darn, but it's so cute and clever in the way it plays on the fairytale/fantasy tropes. A sugar-rush short story that I hope develops into something more - and being part one of a planned anthology series, I'm looking forward to finding out what that is.
-I received a free copy of this e-book from the author. This does not affect my review-
January 2, 2023
After moving to a cottage in the countryside, Mia just wants to be left alone to do perfectly normal, respectable things. Unlike the local villagers, she’s not phased by having a necromancer’s giant black castle as her closest neighbor, until she finds a badly mangled undead minion outside her cottage one morning.
Mia and her father are working through some heavy stuff, to put it mildly. Ever since the incident that had them fleeing their last home, her father hasn’t been interested in anything except doing puzzles by the fire. Mia, on the other hand, is busy tinkering away in her hidden workshop. After all, the only way to stay safe is to stay under the radar, right? While the necromancer neighbor barely makes an appearance in this one, there’s a bit of cute flirtation via zombie. This is more of an amuse bouche to start out the series.
Mia and her father are working through some heavy stuff, to put it mildly. Ever since the incident that had them fleeing their last home, her father hasn’t been interested in anything except doing puzzles by the fire. Mia, on the other hand, is busy tinkering away in her hidden workshop. After all, the only way to stay safe is to stay under the radar, right? While the necromancer neighbor barely makes an appearance in this one, there’s a bit of cute flirtation via zombie. This is more of an amuse bouche to start out the series.
November 15, 2020
This was such a fun read, and so tantalizing that if the next book had already been in stores I would've bought it in the next second. I appreciate what the author is doing, but unfortunately I am not (yet) in a earning enough to comfortably give away a portion of my income for books - I'm slowly working towards that! In the span of a few pages, Ms Burgis has sketched out characters who are vibrant and oh-so intriguing, and I'm definitely going to get my hands on the rest of the story someday.
July 9, 2020
An absolute joy from start to finish!! Witty, instantly likable characters doing surprising and wildly magical things? SIGN ME UP. Plus the magic is unlike anything I've seen before -- so creative and awe-inducing. I gobbled this up in two seconds and will return to re-read for comfort and fun many times.
January 29, 2024
Cute little snippet. This is the first short story in a series. And it's super cute. A father and daughter have fled their previous residence after the nosy townspeople turned against them for the daughter's unique inventions. But here, they've moved in next to a necromancer. That suits them just fine. Until that neighbor gets nosy too...
August 14, 2024
A short cute novella told from the pov of a mechanically-inclined heroine as she moves next door to a necromancer. I feel that sometimes stories labelled as cozy tend to get very verbose, describing everything to get you feeling cozy somehow. This novella does not suffer from that and is concise in a satisfying way.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Want to read
June 18, 2020Just joined the Patron to try this book--looking forward to reading it!
October 11, 2020
Cute short (very short) story.
November 5, 2020
Cute.
July 1, 2022
I love these collection of stories. They are fun and challenging and such a great read. I would thoroughly recommend this series.
May 16, 2023
DELIGHTFUL.
October 1, 2023
Not bad; really obvious it was put together from more than one novella
February 9, 2024
Cute, but not fleshed out.
Content Advisory:
some violence, some adult thematic conversation, references to sex, lgbt
Content Advisory:
some violence, some adult thematic conversation, references to sex, lgbt
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews