Legends & Lattes

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is a low stakes fantasy book, based a bit on the world of DnD. We follow Viv, an orc, who’s had enough of adventuring and wants to open up a coffee shop. Which might be a tiny bit problematic when no one’s even heard of coffee. It might be even more problematic when the building you buy is crumbling down and a criminal organization is trying to get you to pay monthly “protection” fees.

I absolutely adored this book! It’s just so wholesome. This is a very character based story, aka my favorite type. The characters are amazing, as you slowly are introduced to very wonderful and colorful people. I loved the diversity and acceptance, it’s an important theme to the book and to me. It’s so hard to write a book with low stakes yet keep it interesting, and honestly I wasn’t bored for a minute, I just wanted to keep reading. We have a word in Dutch, “kabbelen”, that means to move peacefully yet bubbly like rippling water, and that’s exactly what this book embodies. Of course there is some conflict, as no story is complete without that, but I loved how it was all about the characters and their hopes and fears. There is also a lot of humor for me, in the modern inventions (like a gnomish sorta air conditioning), and a slowburn queer romance. I do wish we saw a bit more of that. The revelation in the end was perfection though. The world is one of the things I loved a lot, it felt like I was walking in a DnD world, but it also had it’s own quirks and felt very rich and elaborate.

This book is perfect when you feel a little disheartened. When you lose faith in humanity once again. When you just want to have a quiet time with a mug of coffee and a good book. To be honest I really wish Legends & Lattes was a real coffee shop, it sounds like the best.

Many thanks to the publisher for granting me an e-arc of this book. It hasn’t influenced my opinions. I also want to mention the new cover is so epic, love it!