Title: Legends & Lattes Author: Travis Baldree
Source: Gift
Links: Bookshop (affiliate link) |Goodreads
Rating:
Summary: Too cozy for words! Just jump on the band wagon and read this gem of a novel.
I was intrigued by the description of Legends and Lattes as cozy fantasy, but finally picked it up because a friend insisted I borrow his copy. This delightful story of “high fantasy with low stakes” follows retiring bounty hunter, Viv. “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.” (source)
If the idea of cozy fantasy sounds wonderful to you, this book won’t disappoint. It was obvious within a few pages that this book is something unique. Even if this hadn’t been described to me as cozy fantasy, “cozy” is still the word the tone of the book would bring to mind. This immediately distinguishes itself from other fantasy novels by noting that our protagonist’s back pain is flaring up after a fight. This feels realistic, but not in the way many books conflate realistic with ‘dark and gritty’. It actually does immediately feel cozy that the reader is being asked to care about the heroine’s everyday aches and pains
The contrast between Viv’s fierce appearance and past as an adventurer with her current goal of opening a cute coffee shop and her kind way with people really highlights how charming her new role is. I was invested in her dreams right away and may have found myself a bit sentimentally weepy within the first 20 pages. Then weepy again about every twenty pages through out. It’s just so wholesome, lovely, delightful, cute… I’ve already looked up synonyms for cozy at least three times since starting this review!
The premise of this book is great start, but what really makes this cozy is, of course, found family. I love how Viv finds people to help her make her coffee shop dream a reality by hiring people who love what they do, regardless of personal quirks. The little technical details of what they each do, across cozy disciplines like baking, drawing, and carpentry was overwhelmingly cute. Again, the contrast between seeing the fantasy characters I’m used to in this quotidian setting adds an extra layer of delight. I also loved getting to know Viv’s regular visitors. Seeing her friends become friends with and stand up for each other could not be more heartwarming.
There is some conflict and a few obstacles to overcome. Even this tiny bit of suspense stressed me out a little, but only because I was so invested in Viv’s dream! It also becomes clear pretty quickly that this is book that will have a happy ending. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised by just how damn adorable the conflict resolution was. I would particularly recommend this to fans of GBBO, but I also just generally cannot recommend this enough.
PS – Having listened to a bunch of podcast reviews of this book and interviews with the author, I have two additional observations. First, most people who don’t like this seem to have missed the fact that this is not an adventure story, so definitely don’t read it with that expectation. And second, even the story of how this book came to be and the readers enthusing about it are a cozy delight. Here are some notes on podcast episodes I’d recommend:
- Cozy book origin story! – UpperPen Podcast
- Listening to people rave about this is also adorable – Words About Books
- Best interview so far with thoughtful questions – Desideratum
- Fantastic look at details of how the author got published – Currently Reading
- Heartwarming details of the efforts book sellers went to because they loved this book – AllBooked
- The episode was the coziest – The Book Report with Allie and Rach
- Fun, detailed conversation. More info on Seanan McGuire helping sales – Steve Talks Books
The post Cozy Fantasy Review: Legends and Lattes appeared first on Doing Dewey.
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