In Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain by Lorin Morgan-Richards, Richard-Lael Lillard is a warlock planning a bed and breakfast for visitors fascinated by the supernatural. To finance it, he considers an offer from Madame Malice, who insists that he build on Fellowship Hall, a school destroyed by fire twenty years earlier when its students disappeared. At the ruins, Richard-Lael hears disembodied voices echoing through the school's abandoned rooms. When Malice admits that the school experimented on students, he refuses to build there. His former professor, Wigworm, funds the purchase of a secluded mansion elsewhere, but demands a locked room for himself one night every month. During the grand opening, Wigworm's mysterious condition threatens Richard-Lael's plans and draws him back to the students' unexplained disappearance.

In Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain: The Lillard House, Lorin Morgan-Richards delivers a brilliant, wonderfully unconventional Gothic fantasy. The author's imagination shines during a séance where an opera singer’s ghost mourns her final aria, then again when Richard-Lael introduces hotel guests to portraits of ancestors the warlock has “adopted.” I love Richard-Lael’s kindness beneath that grand theatrical manner, and the sheer pleasure he takes in welcoming his peculiar visitors makes the character especially likable. The humor is intelligent and witty, with polished writing that turns even a grandfather clock into a joke when Richard-Lael explains that it stops when someone dies, though it also needs winding. The setting is, frankly, a character in its own right, and the story sparkles as a result, from the university in the underworld, reached through a midnight passage beneath towering bridges, to the mansion’s winding corridors where portraits peer through eyeholes plugged with olives. Well written and immersive, readers who enjoy eccentric Gothic fantasy will adore this.

Richard-Lael Lillard is a warlock and professional eccentric with a flair for the dramatic. He quits his occult society when it gets too modern and fluffy for his liking, resolving to build his own sanctuary of authentic (and sufficiently gloomy) mysticism. Alas, conjuring great sums of money isn’t part of his magic repertoire. Fortunately, a wealthy patron shows up. Less fortunately, that patron is Madame Malice, an old acquaintance with a disposition about as pleasant as her name suggests. She insists that the establishment must operate on top of the ruins of Fellowship Hall, which her husband founded. A suspicious deal, to say the least, but one worth checking out. Thus begins Lorin Morgan-Richards’s Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain, one of Richard-Lael’s many occult adventures.

Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain is a masterclass in quirky gothic humor. This is a fairly short and straightforward story, but it’s more about the whimsical world and characters than the plot. Look forward to Victorian-era gentlemen, witches, and modern gym bros. You’ll have a hard time making sense of your surroundings in this mishmash of clashing elements, and that’s part of the surreal charm. But the story isn’t just odd for the sake of it; Lorin Morgan-Richards’s writing is sharp and clever, delivering witty dialogue, interesting characters, and even some social commentary. A lot of thought and care went into the book, and this extends to the illustrations: they’re simple and doodly, but the characters are very distinctive and expressive despite the simplified features.

Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain: The Lillard House by Lorin Morgan-Richards opens with Richard-Lael Lillard deciding to open his own haunted bed and breakfast for the morbidly curious. Times were changing, and his occult society had turned its back on dark rituals and now preferred chakra circles and positivity stones. Poor Richard-Lael had no choice but to start from scratch if he wanted to keep the original way they did things. Where could he possibly find the money to open his own bed-and-breakfast? Not only that, but will he be able to achieve such a big feat on his own? Find out in this book!

Lorin Morgan-Richards’ Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain is unique, quirky, and well-written. The story is fun to read, but my favorite part was the humorous and playful illustrations occasionally found in the middle and at the end of every chapter. It perfectly matched how I imagined the characters and the setting of the story. I adored Richard-Lael because he is quite a funny character and always knew how to turn serious situations into a witty joke. I would love to have a friend like him in my life. The story was also unpredictable, especially the ending. I was honestly surprised and didn’t expect that’s how the story would go. There’s a certain magic in stories that end unexpectedly. I would really love to read more adventures of Richard-Lael. It is something I would enjoy reading again just to lift my mood. Overall, it was a magical and amazing read. Well done!

It’s 1865, and Richard-Lael Lillard, fed up with the direction the Society of Phi Hexa Theta is taking, quits and decides to open his own bed and breakfast. He has a small issue: he’s rich in knowledge and skills, but poor in money. He needs to raise funds to buy and develop his dream. His first option comes from Madame Malice; she owns Fellowship Hall and all its land. She’s prepared to pay him to take it off her hands, but something seems fishy, and he’s reluctant. His eventual benefactor comes from an unexpected place, and he soon finds himself wealthy and buys a rundown mansion that he renames Lillard House. It’s dilapidated, dusty, and filled with cobwebs; it’s totally perfect as a “refuge for the morbidly curious.” His benefactor has one stipulation: once a month, he needs to be locked in a room that he cannot escape from as he undergoes a hideous change—hehehe, it’s not what you think. The mystery of Fellowship Hall still attracts Richard-Lael, and he intends to uncover its secrets. Can he figure out what’s going on at Fellowship Hall, make a success of his B&B, and protect his benefactor’s secret? Find out in Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain by Lorin Morgan-Richards.

It’s hard to pinpoint an actual genre for this entertaining novel; the closest I can come to is paranormal fantasy with a side of satire. I giggled my way through the pages and delighted in Richard-Lael’s antics and discoveries. The cast of supporting characters is equally as engaging, from the rather revolting Madame Malice to the unusually named Prof. Professor P. Wigworm. There are ghouls, malevolent spirits, taxidermy that may not be deceased, and an overabundance of mice, which are pivotal to the plot. For lovers of paranormal fantasy that don’t take this genre too seriously, Richard-Lael Lillard and the Great Mountain is the perfect book for you. It’s book three of Lorin Morgan-Richards’ Great Mountain series, and I’m very keen to go back and read the first two.