A Cozy Fantasy
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is the second cozy fantasy book that I’ve read, the first being The Spellshop by Sarah Beth Durst. I absolutely loved The Spellshop, so I was excited to try another cozy fantasy. I love action and adventure as much as the next sci-fi/fantasy reader, but once in awhile it is nice to slow down and drink in the sights and sounds instead of crashing through them. Since I’m in the middle of writing a more action-oriented story myself right now, I figured reading a cozy fantasy would be a welcome relief.
Did Legends & Lattes deliver? Mostly, I think. It promised no major conflict, and I can attest that there was no major conflict. The main tension of the story came from Viv, a retired orc warrior, learning how to reinvent herself as a coffee shop owner instead of an adventurer. She collects friends around her and introduces them to the idea of coffee, a drink previously unheard of in this little town. The premise was solidly cozy.
And yet, for me, this was kind of a meh sort of book. It wasn’t bad at all, just not really spectacular either. In my reviews, I always try to find something that I think they did really well when there’s something that didn’t work for me. With this review, I felt like I was grasping at straws—not that anything was bad, per se, but just unremarkable.
My Favorite Part: Thimble
I enjoyed the characters that Baldree created. Viv’s friends and the various patrons of the cafe really reminded me of the sorts of people you find in a real world coffee shop.
But my favorite was a ratkin by the name of Thimble. He really hit home with me—not only because he adores baking like I do, but like him, I struggle to speak. For the first sixteen years of my life or so, I really struggled to say anything to anyone outside of my immediate family. I’ve learned how to get by in life, but I still have a hard time speaking to people I don’t know, people who intimidate me, or large groups of people (groups larger than two is big for me). Putting myself out there on social media, as small a presence as I have, has been incredibly difficult. I ask myself all the time if it’s worth it. So I really loved that somebody wrote about a character who is incredibly shy and struggles to speak. I don’t see that in any sort of media.
Biggest Pet Peeve: Lack of Description
When I started, I was expecting rich descriptions like those in The Spellshop. Cozy fantasy often replaces action and tension with a slice of life descriptions. Instead, I mostly got “it smelled like coffee.” That’s great. I love the smell of coffee. But what else? If you’re going to give me a slice of life in this little town, you’ve gotta give me a bit more. More weather, more temperature, other shops, smells, sights, and such. Regular fantasy writing needs to bring in a world to life, but cozy fantasy should wrap me in sensations so rich and delicious that I wish I could be there. Legends & Lattes didn’t quite do that for me.
I was also unfamiliar with a lot of the races, being unfamiliar with DnD. That’s a bit of a blind spot for me, I’ll admit, and not a failing of the book. I wouldn’t have minded if Baldree had given me just a touch more description to the characters. The most visually well-developed characters were Viv, the succubus Tandri, and the dire cat. It would have been nice to see the others a bit more clearly since they aren’t human and that’s one of the most distinctive parts of this story. Almost everything else could have been pulled out of Generic Medieval Town, so leaning into the races could have helped.
Conclusion
Readers looking for a cozy, slice of life fantasy will probably love Legends & Lattes. While this book felt a bit generic to me, it also didn’t take very long to read and was a pleasant way to spend a few hours. If you’d like an easy fluff read, Legends & Lattes is a great book for that and I wouldn’t mind picking up its sequel, Brigands and Breadknives, sometime in the future.
If you’re interested in some of my other book reviews of fantasy and sci-fi books, here are a few:
