“Viv buried her greatsword in the scalvert’s skull with a meaty crunch.”
Have I ever mentioned that my retirement plans are to open a bookstore? In my old age, I’d want to just sit behind a counter and advise customers on what book they should add to their TBR — much like I’m doing now. Carry books that are hard to find elsewhere. Have carte blanche to tell the customer to fuck off if needed.
After years of questing and adventuring, Viv is ready to hang it all up. After her last big journey, the orc barbarian retires to run a coffee shop, the first and only in Thune. But as her business grows and prospers, unfinished business from her adventuring days start to haunt her.
Legends & Lattes was an adorable and lighthearted read for this Pride. I was really in the mood for something quick and this had come highly recommended by some of my Book Twitter friends. If you like fantasy, magic, DND, coffee shop aus, this book is the one for you.
Every single character—apart from the villain, of course—was adorable in all their quirks and there are definitely times where you can’t help but aww at their interactions. This book does feature queer characters but the story is not centred around their love story. Rather it is carefully brewed—hehe get it?—into the pages as Viv tries to save her coffee shop. So if you were looking for a story that is not centered on the queer experience, this book might be your cup of tea coffee.
(I’ll stop now.)
I really liked that for fantasy, this book is extremely accessible. I always struggle at times with books that have their own terminologies, but this book was super easy to follow. If they did use a term I wasn’t familiar with, it was often contextualised so you could still understand. But if you’ve ever played DND, the vocabulary is likely one you know already.
Hopefully if I ever do get to run that bookstore of mine, there will be no enemies sneaking about and praying on my downfall. And if you ever come by, I’ll recommend Legends & Lattes to you then too.
4/5 stars
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is published by Tom Doherty Associates and was released February 22nd.