NetGalley Review: Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree

Hey all, Sam here.

I am kind of on a roll at the moment with getting posts up on my blog in a decently regular schedule. I can almost guarantee that it will not last. The last time I was on a rather regular blogging schedule was back in 2021 before I burned out big time and needed to step back for a while…and I’ve never fully stepped back up. While I do miss having posts up 3-7 times a week because it felt like I was a semi-successful book blogger, I don’t miss the pressure to always be creating content.

I’m working on trying to set myself up for better blogging habits, and currently am trying to figure out what kind of blog schedule I’d like to do for 2026. Of course, I’ve also toyed with the thought of trying out short-form or long-form videos. But I’ve thought about trying videos since about 2016 and I still haven’t done it yet, mostly because I haven’t become comfortable on camera.

Anyway, for today’s review, I have another new release for you. This third installment in the Legends & Lattes series just came out on Tuesday, and it’s a fun one, so let’s go ahead and start the adventure (or the review, technically).

Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller, Fern.

Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!

If only things were so simple…

It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.

A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.

As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the way.

My Thoughts

Rating: 5 stars

The first thing I’m going to say about this book is that while it has some cozy elements that we recognize from the other books in the series, this book is a bit more exciting and action-packed. As I keep mentioning to the readers around me, Viv needed to slow down, so the books following her are a bit more centered on one location and a more easy-going cozy community building story. Fern has lived her life in a slow more cozy setting, and what she needs is to speed up, to have excitement and an adventure…and she certainly gets that here.

What I will also say is that while I personally am of the opinion that you should read both Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust before venturing into this story, I think you technically only really need to read the prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, to really follow what happens here, because Fern is the main character in this one, and we only interact with Viv for a few chapters. But I still definitely recommend reading both. They’re quick easy stories to follow.

Fern having basically a mid-life crisis moment that ends in a night of far too much drinking is what really starts this adventure off. She ends up passing out in a cart and waking up miles away from the new life she had just set up next door to her friend Viv. And rather than turning around and heading home, Fern decides to take a chance and see what happens next.

The cast of characters we meet in this one are certainly an interesting crew. I really loved seeing Fern’s interactions with legendary warrior Astryx and Nigel, her talking sword, but the real winners for chaos, fun, and hilarity were Breadlee the breadknife and Zyll the chaos goblin because they were absolutely the most entertaining.

So yes, this was a wild adventure with more fight scenes and a bit more danger than the previous two, but I couldn’t help but root for Fern to find her path…even if I was also frustrated by her inability to finish a letter to tell her friends that she was alright.

I understand other reviews that lament not having enough Viv and Tandri in this story, but I feel like it has been clear since we got the book synopsis that this was Fern’s story, that we were following Fern and Viv would only be a side character. Perhaps at some point we’ll get a novella or a novel of everyone being together, but that’s not the story that needed to be told right now, and that’s fine with me.

---

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