Legends & Lattes By Travis Baldree

One of the best books I’ve read in a while! Loved the low stakes, the cozy vibes and lovely relationships and friendships

In this fantasy novel, our lead character is Viv, an orc barbarian who has gotten tired of the adventuring life. After one last job, she’s able to kill a giant spider-like monster called a Scalvert Queen, and the only treasure she takes from its hoard is a Scalvert’s Stone, a magical organ the monster has grown in its skull. The Scalvert’s Stone is rumored to bring fortune to its owner. From there, Viv travels to the city of Thune, where she buys a run-down livery stable, buries the Stone under the building, and gets to work to realize her fondest dream: owning a coffee shop.

Yes, a coffee shop.

And almost no one in Thune has any idea what coffee is. Ale? Yes. Tea? Yes. Coffee? Crushed-up beans mixed with hot water? Sounds weird, yo.

But before you can have a coffee shop, you need to have a shop — and a busted down livery isn’t inviting to customers. So she hires a hob named Cal, and they get to work renovating the property. While that’s going on, Viv hires an assistant to help run the place. Tandri is a succubus — but not the “horny demon that screws you to death” kind of succubus. In fact, she keeps herself severely buttoned-down and works at being as emotionless as possible. Still, she’s helpful, creative, and artistic, and takes over maintenance and updating of the shop’s signage and menu, along with working at the front counter. And finally, she hires Thimble, a very quiet ratkin who is an absolute genius baker, and who keeps customers stuffed with delicious pastries.

Once the shop opens — under the name “Legends & Lattes,” of course — it enjoys slow but steady growth, particularly as new items are added to the menu, and it attracts a host of regulars, including an aspiring musician with an experimental guitar, a wizard student who really just wants somewhere to study, a chess-playing gnome who may exist outside of time, and an extremely large and extremely useful dire cat.

But the success of the business brings other problems. The local crime boss, the Madrigal, sends bands of thugs to pressure Viv to pay the protection racket, and Fennus, an elf who used to be part of Viv’s adventuring party, figures out that she has a Scalvert’s Stone and has decided to steal it from her, no matter what the cost.

Can Viv figure out a way to keep her shop afloat in a world of cutthroat thieves and crooks? Can she keep her customers and her employees happy? Can an orc barbarian find love in a world of iced lattes, ley lines, and cinnamon rolls?

So what the heck with this thing, huh? A fantasy novel where there’s relatively little swordplay or magic, where the action sequences are few and far between, where there’s more emphasis on coffee, baking, carpentry, and feeeeelings? How is that supposed to work?!

Well, the thing is, it works a peach. The plot and characters are engaging, it’s a fast-moving and fun read, and it’s absolutely a pleasure to read a fantasy novel where you don’t have to constantly worry about assassins and dark mages and quests and chosen ones and dragons.

You always hear stodgy old-timers complaining about these cozy fantasies, but it’s not like it’s a new upstart sub-genre overthrowing True Fantasy. Elements of cozy fantasy have appeared in dozens of established classics. A major element of Tolkien’s work was the detail and love he put into descriptions of feasts and the joys of living in a homey community like Hobbiton. Almost every Studio Ghibli movie has strong elements of coziness running through it. Authors whose books regularly explore cozy fantasy include Terry Pratchett, Neil Gaiman, Brian Jacques, Becky Chambers, T.J. Klune, Diana Wynne Jones, T. Kingfisher, Katherine Addison, and many others.

Still, cozy fantasy didn’t really become an important sub-genre until this book came out and proved to be extremely popular. Cozy fiction in general seems to be enjoying a surge in popularity. Basically, we live in interesting times. We can’t afford houses. Prices on food keep going up. We can’t afford many luxuries. We can’t trust politicians, judges, the media, the police, or much of anyone else. The environment is absolutely falling to pieces. Our rights as human beings are being attacked on multiple fronts. Nazis march in the streets, and no one does anything to stop them. Everything is stress, stress, stress, and more stress.

But a cozy fantasy like “Legends & Lattes” gives you access to a warm, welcoming coffee shop in an entertaining setting, where you can imagine yourself sitting quietly, enjoying an iced mocha and a biscotti, watching an orc brew coffee, an oversized mouse baking cinnamon rolls, a giant cat curled up in the corner, and a gnome playing chess with himself. It’s comforting, and fun to read, and that’s a fine way to spend a weekend.

When I heard that one of my favorite narrators, who also happens to be a talented game designer and story writer was publishing his first book, I knew I’d have to check it out. Legends and Lattes is that book, and I will tell you upfront, this is one of my favorite books of the year. It’s not shocking to me he wrote such a good story, but I was amazed at how much I came to really care for the characters and the world he creates.

And what a world it is. Anyone who has ever played a game Travis wrote and designed knows he creates a world you can sink right into, and this one is no exception. Taking place mostly in the city of Thune, you are drawn into how this city resembles a medieval city. The various craftsmen and women and their businesses feel so real, and you can almost see the various sights, especially as Legend’s and Lattes the business comes into being. The neighborhood feels warm and inviting, but we still get a good look at the other districts of the city as well, both good and bad. Its a world with magic and adventurers, and yet it feels like a fully realized world where you can step into a locally owned coffee shop and buy a latte and a pastry. It’s the coziest of worlds, with a real intimacy that is surprisingly pleasant and heartwarming.

The characters are such a treat. Viv is the orc warrior who gives up adventuring to take a chance on opening the first coffee shop in Thune, introducing it’s denizens to the wonders of this gnomish treat. 22 years of adventuring were enough, and Viv wants to do something orcs don’t generally do, which is live peacefully to a ripe old age and die peacefully in her sleep, not by an ax blow to the skull. She is such a fun character, because she has is the best kind of fish out of water story, wanting to put her violent past behind her to try and find peace for herself in something she thinks she’ll truly be happy doing. She really could solve a lot of problems in the book by resorting to “Viv Smash”, but she is dedicated to not being about that life, and its really heartwarming to see. How the story for her plays out is really unexpected, with a lot of twists and turns up until the very end.

The secondary characters are excellent as well. The most important of these is Thandri, Viv’s assistant who is actually more a second main character. She is a succubus, although she doesn’t use her inbred abilities, and actually sees them as a hinderance more than anything else. She is a talented artist, and is a lot of help to Viv in growing the business. She too is trying to escape her past, which was much different than I expected, and she really plays a pivotal role in Viv’s life. They have such great camaraderie, and they work together seamlessly, really enhancing each others strengths.

There are quite a few other characters as well, such as the ratkin Thimble, who makes up for his silence, with a great work ethic and amazing ability to create sinfully delicious pastries. He is another vital part of the growth of Legends and Lattes, and his silent presence in felt throughout the story. The other characters are a fun bunch, from the nosy but nice neighbor to the shop, to the young wizard student who comes in to study, and is actually the cause of a new drink in the shop, created in a hilarious way. They all play so well together that you can’t help but to want to go hang out with them yourself.

The antagonists shift throughout the story. The initial antagonists ended up becoming friendly with Viv, so they became what I’d call more neutrally aligned. The antagonist who causes the most harm is actually a blast from Viv’s past, and knowing Viv, has ideas how to ruin what she’s worked so hard to build for herself. While he may have some insight, his own narcissism may be his downfall, without Viv having to resort to a life she swore to avoid again. It was very intriguing to see how this played out.

The narration was handled by the author himself. Being a narrator by current profession, this was a logical choice, especially considering he knows the characters and story better than anyone. You can tell he poured his heart and soul into this one, and an already talented narrator puts on his best performance to date. The characters already had life, and he just enhances that even more, bringing all the character to life in new and exciting ways. You can feel the emotion throughout, and I’ll be honest, you get hit right in the feelz several times. I highly recommend this format, although paper and ebook are excellent as well.

It’s not often a book about a slice of life, with characters building lives, friendships, love and a coffee shop would be first pick of mine to read, but I may have been missing out. The term cozy is thrown around a lot, sometimes as a pejorative, but this book kind of embodies the best of what a cozy kind of story can be. With some fantastic characters, interesting relationships and fun world building, you have the recipe for the best kind of story, the ones you re-read time and again. This is definitely one that will get an annual re-read at least, and is the best kind of comfort read. I highly recommend picking this up in whatever format you prefer, you won’t be disappointed.

Reading this thing made me extremely giddy about a cat sitting on a bed and a goblin drinking a mug of coffee. I hate what this book does to me…
10/10 would recommend