Book Review: Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

Hey all, Sam here.

It should not take reading a book four times to get a review written up….and yet here I am, a couple years late, finally getting a review written up and posted here. Clearly I enjoy this book. I’ve read it multiple times (and I own several copies). But I still want to talk about it…so then I can talk about the prequel and the sequel. Hopefully that is all right with all of you.

In the past couple of years we have seen the rise of cozy fantasy stories. These are stories with an overall lower stakes feeling to them, stories that focus on friendship and found family and maybe a bit of finding your place in the world. Some cozy fantasies are more action-packed than others, but they all have that cozy vibe to them.

So today I am finally reviewing one of the stories that sort of skyrocketed cozy fantasy onto the map, so to speak. There were other cozies before this one, but I feel like when it comes to getting the book community talking about the sub-genre, this is the book that made that happen.

Let’s get started.

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv is hanging up her sword for the last time.

The battle-weary orc aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. But old and new rivals stand in the way of success — not to mention the fact that no one has the faintest idea what coffee actually is.

If Viv wants to put the blade behind her and make her plans a reality, she won’t be able to go it alone.

But the true rewards of the uncharted path are the travelers you meet along the way. And whether drawn together by ancient magic, flaky pastry, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become partners, family, and something deeper than she ever could have dreamed.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

Oh, I should also point out that the audiobook for this is narrated by the author, Travis Baldree. I have listened to it, and can recommend it as well. Originally Legends & Lattes was written as a story for NaNoWriMo and then edited and self-published. Since then it has been picked up by a traditional publisher, been given numerous special editions, and has progressed up to hardcover first releases for the series. It’s been an incredible journey to follow overall.

I read the indie release of this book (that’s the cover shown up above), but have also listened to the audiobook, and read the trad pubbed edition as well–the cover is mostly the same; there was just a little bit of typography change.

I have loved reading this every single time. As someone who plays a lot of TTRPGs, this did very much feel like an adventurer who got tired of the battles and the struggles and the bloodshed and wanted to retire to something simpler. And I love that things work out for Viv throughout this story. Yes, there are still problems to solve and hazards to navigate, but none of it has that life and death steep stakes feeling of an epic fantasy or sword and sorcery fantasy.

Instead we get to watch Viv work out how to clean up and renovate her space to become a coffee shop. We get to see her hire additional staff and try to figure out how to get customers interested in her place. The stakes are important to Viv, but you don’t worry about if any of the characters are going to die.

As Viv cleans up the space and turns it into the coffee shop she’s been dreaming about, she builds a little found family of interesting people, and more than that starts to build a life and community in this space. There is still some danger, but nothing this group can’t figure out together.

Also, I should say that the romance plot is VERY minor in this story. I actually would have liked a little more with Viv and Tandri’s developing relationship, but it did work for a cute cozy simple story, so I can’t complain too much.

This is definitely a book I’m likely to revisit again and again in future.

Oh, and I should say that you may want to have some coffee and pastries while you read…because the descriptions of Thimble’s baked goods absolutely made me hungry while reading.

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And that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.