Old Books and a Flat White

[doomsday_disco]

Dust-soft vellum, cracked leather, and yellowed pages exhaling their ghost of vanillin, a triple shot of espresso, and a deft swirl of warm, velvety microfoam.

[ghoulnextdoor]

Following the international bestseller KRAMPUS'S FORBIDDEN GRIND...
 

TRIPLE SHOT AT LOVE: GROUNDS FOR SUSPICION #1 in Rare Book Romance (CW: dangerous manuscripts, competitive bidding, caffeine as foreplay)
 

When rival rare book dealers Sebastian and Margot both find themselves at Café Arcana hunting the same impossible alchemical manuscript rumored to transform gold into the perfect cup, they agree to a temporary truce. The barista, fair Ophelia, has been counting on exactly this. The moment they trust each other, they're hers. She serves them a dark demonic brew roasted at temperatures summoned from the ninth circle of hell, and they settle in among brittle manuscripts and ravaged bindings reeking of forbidden knowledge and dust older than empires. As ancient pages whisper their mysteries and Ophelia's brews grow dangerously, addictively potent, they realize she isn't just making coffee. She IS the manuscript. She's been waiting 300 years for the right combination: two rivals stupid enough to think they could possess her, arrogant enough to deserve what's coming, and desperate enough to stop competing and start copulating. I mean collaborating.
 

"Finally, a love triangle where everyone WINS and also maybe loses their SOULS" (Occult Romance Weekly)

"The chemistry is UNREAL and so is the coffee and I haven't slept in 48 hours" (#BookTok)

[theredkilt]

I get a bitter espresso steam and leather bound books with the emphasis on the leather. It's somewhat dry and rugged. I expected more warmth and vanilic white paper notes.

[Invidiana]

This takes me right to a library where I'm warming my cold hands, breathing in the warm and bitter steam of espresso, poring over the pages of an old book whose cracked bindings and yellowed pages smell like centuries of history. The vanillic undertone of the paper adds another aromatic element to the espresso. I could get lost in those pages for hours. Of course libraries don't allow coffee, but bear with my fantasy here.