Side Quest Row

The Side Quest Row trilogy is a three book series of "cozy" fantasy novels by R.K. Ashwick.

In a fantasy world filled with magical beasts and adventurers out fighting them, Ambrose Beake is a "potioneer"— an alchemist who specializes in brewing magical tinctures that he sells to the adventuring bands that frequently pass through town. Despite the Close-Knit Community of shopkeepers on Rosemond Street— most of whom have known him since he was a child— Ambrose fancies himself an aloof figure, abiding by his old master's mantra that "he who brews alone brews fastest." Things are looking up for Ambrose; the 200th anniversary of his inherited shop is coming up, and he has big plans for some celebratory renovations and upgrades once the lucrative adventuring season hits.

Unfortunately for him, a new shop opens up right across the street: Eli's Elixers.

From there, the series follows the doings of Ambrose and the other shopkeepers of Rosemond Street as they deal with the challenges that come from being skilled artisans in a fantasy world, from having unwelcome competition opening up shop next door, to exploring dangerous, monster-infested caverns, to being kidnapped by the criminal underground for their in-demand abilities.

Books in the series

• A Rival Most Vial (2023)
• A Captured Cauldron (2024)
• A Draught for a Dragon (TBA)

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Tropes in this series:

• Allergic to Routine: Eli has gone through a number of different careers (including tanner, farmer, and griffin keeper), each of which he starts out with gusto, only to eventually become bored and move on later. This becomes a problem when he realizes that, after all the fuss between him and Ambrose about their competing stores and the mayor's commission has settled, he's actually become bored of running a potion shop.
• Aloof Ally: Ambrose is this in the first novel to most of Rosemond Street. The other shopkeepers all have known him since he was a child, and they've tried their best to care for him as he was growing up (except for Dawn, who is his age), but he's grown up taking his master's insistence of working alone to heart, believing friendships to be distractions. The only exception is Dawn, who is the only person he regularly leaves the shop for in order to have their weekly tea.
• Bad Boss: Cassius is The Dragon to Aphos' leader. He's a violent egotist, hated and feared by everyone beneath him, from the guards, to the servants, to the archivists. A random bar catering to low-level Aphos' members clears out in terror when they hear Cassius might be on his way.
• Berserk Button: Ambrose doesn't even realize he has one until Eli calls him out for spending "twenty years alone in a cauldron." The next thing he knows is that he's decked Eli and gotten into his first ever fistfight.
• Blissfully Horrific Backstory: Even after sharing how Pearce wasn't the best guardian growing up, Ambrose is still surprised when Eli is horrified to learn that, until Pearce moved out, Ambros had been literally living in the supply closet, sleeping on a cot.

  It hadn’t occurred to [Ambrose] that he was supposed to be embarrassed by it.

• Close-Knit Community: The Rosemond Street shopkeepers all know and look out for each other, occasionally running each others' shops or otherwise taking over each other's duties when there's an emergency. Grim, Sherry, and Banneker in particular look out of Dawn and Ambrose, as they've watched the two grow up.
• Cynical Mentor: While we don't see Pearce in the novel (which itself is telling), what we do learn of him from the other characters paints his as an extremely cynical, antisocial, and unkind man. He did genuinely teach Ambrose the art of potion-making, but he also nearly let him die from sheer neglect and doesn't even spell his name right when rejecting Ambrose' invitation to attend the shop's anniversary.
• Dangerous Phlebotinum Interaction: Many potions don't play well together, and so it takes careful skill to create mixtures that carry multiple different properties. The side effects of combining different potions ranges from physical illness to blowing up a building. This is also why the Potioneer's Guild forbids consuming different potions that have overlapping effects.
• Defrosting The Ice King: Eli's initial plan for trying to befriend Ambrose, despite the two being business competitors. Doesn't work initially.

  Lily: Okay, okay, I’m thinking, [he's] like…a waify iceberg. You could take him in a fight.

• Desperately Looking for a Purpose in Life: Eli in the first novel is trying so hard to find something to do with his life. He's gone through a number of random careers, each time realizing too late that he can't stand the thought of doing them forever and jumping into something new. Despite his family's unending support, he feels like a burden for his inability to settle down.
• The Dragon: Cassius is Mina's right hand man and her enforcer in Aphos. not to be confused with the literal dragon she has trapped in the caverns below.
• Extraordinary World, Ordinary Problems: While adventurers go off fighting monsters and saving villages, Ambrose and the other Rosemond Street shopkeepers mostly deal with mundane issues like managing their stores.
• Family of Choice: The shopkeepers of Rosemond are all Ambrose (and later, Nat's) family of choice. Dawn has been his best friend since childhood and is akin to a sister, while the other shopkeepers have been watching over him since he showed up at Pearce's at the age of eight. According to Grim and Banneker, they tried for years to get custody of him when it became clear Pearce was unfit, but little-Ambrose was determined to learn potions. A turning point in the first novel is Ambrose realizing how much they've looked out for him over the years, an how much they care for him.
• Friendlessness Insult: How Eli gets the normally outwardly-stoic Ambrose to attack him. It's not until later, where he learns about Ambrose's family situation that he realizes how deep a cut it was.
• Flower from the Mountaintop: The near-mythical Star Shine Moss Dawn needs for her work is found only in two particular places: one is deep in a monster-infested tunnel system below the Scar, the other is in a sinkhole miles away— which is also monster-infested and deep below the earth.
• Functional Magic: Most of the magic seen in the series comes from the shopkeeper's trades, and so they all follow the different rules of their craft. Ambrose makes magic potions from equally magical ingredients, Dawn crafts wands with sigils and enchanted materials, Grim and Sherry are a jeweler and armorer respectively and can cast complex enchantments into their creations, and Viola can enchant food to affect the emotions of her customers. While there's plenty of talk of people using wants and enchanted devices to do magic, there's no mention of people casting spells from pure magic/energy/will alone (though it's unclear if this is because it's not possible, or if it's because our viewpoint characters are all craftsmen/women).
• Good Parents: Eli's parents are loving, encouraging, and supportive of him, regardless of what new interest or career he's jumped into.
• Gratuitous Laboratory Flasks: Ambrose's lab, like most alchemists, is full of assorted flasks, alembics, bottles, and other tools needed for brewing, distilling, and packaging potions. His lab is spotless and meticulously organized, while Eli's is a chaotic mess.
• Half-Human Hybrid: half-elves are around and are either directly half elf (one elfin parent, one human), or had parents who were both half-elves. There's apparently a sizable community of them up north, though Ambrose doesn't know anything about that.
• Hates Small Talk: Ambrose, who is antisocial with anyone who isn't already his friend.
• I Work Alone: Ambrose's previous mentor, Master Pearce, adhered to a strict mantra that "he who brews alone brews fastest," something that Ambrose in the first novel has taken to heart.
• Jack of All Trades: Eli had job hopped a lot over the years, meaning that by the time he's hit "potion making," he's got a variety of eclectic skills and knowledge. This proves to be useful when he decides to become an adventurer, where his random knowledge and skills comes in handy.
• Magic Potion: Ambrose and other "potioneers" make their living by crafting different magical potions for adventuring parties and other prospective customers. Potions are classified by their level of difficulty to craft and the rarity of ingredients needed to make them; amateurs like Eli have no problem with low level healing potions, while Guild-trained Ambrose can craft high-tier level eights.
• Master-Apprentice Chain: Master Pearce taught the art of potion making to Ambrose, who later teaches it to Nat, the orc girl from Aphos. One of the side-plots in the second novel is Dawn trying to find an apprentice to start her own chain.
• Master of Illusion: Aphos, the literally-underground criminal empire, pride themselves on being the masters of powerful illusion magic. Ambrose notes that they're apparently so many illusion enchantments that they can afford to stitch illusions into their clothing, making members seem taller or more intimidating. This becomes a problem when they realize that the source of a key ingredient for their illusions is tapped out, and they need a new method to replace it.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: Cassius isn't above starving and beating the servants in Aphos, including children, so when Ambrose is kidnapped by Aphos, he finds an ally who's willing to help him spite Cassius fairly quickly.
• My God, What Have I Done?: When Ambrose returns from the sinkhole, he finds Dawn crying and panicking that she's left him behind. In Cauldron, she's shown to still feel extreme guilt over this.
• Non-Action Guy: Ambrose has spent his entire life devoted to academic/alchemical pursuits, and it shows. In Cauldron, Eli has apparently been trying to teach him self-defense, but even with that, it's specifically stated that Ambrose is better off running than trying to fight.
• Our Elves Are Different: Aside from pointy ears and unnatural hair colors, elves don't seem particularly different from humans. In the first two books at least, there's no mention of them having substantial longevity, or innate prowess with magic, or any if the other standard elfin tropes.
• Parental Abandonment: Ambrose's parents left him with Master Pearce when he was eight years old and never looked back. He has no idea who they are or what happened to them, and the only vague memories he has of his old life are of a garden and a donkey. When Ambrose turned eighteen, Pearce retired, left him the shop, and also hasn't been back, feeding into Ambrose's abandonment issues.
• Parental Neglect: While he apparently did a good job of teaching Ambrose potion-making, Pearce was disastrously neglectful in raising him. The other shopkeepers recall how an eight-year-old Ambrose nearly died of fever his first winter there, and how they took turns caring for him since Pearce couldn't be bothered. Another time, Pearce went out of town and left Ambrose locked in the shop. He was there for three days before the other shopkeepers noticed Dawn throwing food to him through a window. This carries over to the modern day where Pearce not only won't visit for the shop's 200th anniversary, but also misspells Ambrose' name in the rejection letter.
• Rivalry as Courtship: Eli and Ambrose really do start out loathing one another: Ambrose because he thinks Eli is some upstart trying to muscle in on his business and malevolently ruin his cozy life, and Eli because he thinks Ambrose is a smug, privileged classist who looks down on him for his lack of formal training (he isn't wrong). However, after being forced to work together on the mayor's commission, the two begin to warm up to one another and thensome
• Rivals Team Up: Eli and Ambrose in the first book. The business rivalry between the two is driving both of their shops into the ground, and the only way out is to accept an impossibly difficult commission from the mayor with a spectacular price tag. When each man tries to argue who he should get the commission, the mayor can't decide who to go with and declares they can work together and split the payment. Despite the two loathing each other at this point, they accept because they both need the money so badly.
• Technician vs. Performer: Eli doesn't have Ambrose' extensive training, deep framework of knowledge, or ability to make extremely difficult potions, but he's a much better salesman.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: In the first novel, this is how Eli and Ambrose begin their work on the potion for the mayor. At first, they try to do their parts completely alone, but by the end the two are driven to ask each other for assistance and working together in earnest.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: Ambrose has shades of this towards Pearce, and desperately wants to show him how well the shop is doing under his care.
• World of Technicolor Hair: Several characters have unnatural hair colors, and while some of it may be due to their non-human origin (Ambrose is a half-elf with blue hair), some of it is unexplained (like the human Rory having purple hair).
• Wrote the Book: Eli realizes partway into his spat with Ambrose that the latter literally wrote some of the alchemy books Eli is studying from.
• Quantity vs. Quality: What the economic arms race between Eli and Ambrose devolves into in the first novel: Ambrose starts sinking more money into rarer ingredients to make fewer, but extraordinarily powerful potions, while Eli mass produces simple healing potions and sells them in bulk at a low cost. The result is that both of them are going broke while trying to compete with one another.
• Standard Fantasy Races: The world is full of elves, half-elves, orcs, gnomes, and dwarfs. The monsters get more creative, with things like "river kraken" and "fey raptors" alongside dragons.