Notes from the Shelf

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Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree is a 296-page cozy fantasy book and is the first in a series. It follows Viv, a battle-weary orc, who hangs up her sword after a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed and aims to start fresh, opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune. However, old and new rivals stand in the way of success—not to mention no one knows what coffee is. If Viv wants to put away the blade for good and make her plans into a reality, she’ll have to find help along the way.

I wanted to love this book. It has fantasy and coffee, two of my favorite things, so what isn’t there to love? This was the first cozy fantasy I’ve read and it sounded intriguing with an orc doing the opposite of what orcs do, leaving battle to start a coffee shop in a place where no one has ever heard of coffee. I did end up liking Viv as a character and was rooting for her to have a successful coffee shop, and I also liked the technology explanation for the espresso machine, but it ended up being an incredibly boring read.

All of the conflict that came up throughout the book was solved almost instantly in such an unrealistic way, like the mob boss allowing Viv to keep her shop open if she gave her baked goods. Everything just seemed to be wrapped up too neatly too quickly, which made me lose interest. I only finished reading because it was for a book club; otherwise, I think I would’ve DNF’d it. I won’t be reading the others in the series.

Since this was the first cozy fantasy book I read, and I’ve read others since this one, I think cozy fantasy in general just isn’t my genre unless it has more tension and conflict. I think most authors make cozy fantasy such low stakes that I just don’t care anymore and it ends up being a bit of a dull read for me. This was definitely the case with Legends and Lattes.

I give Legends and Lattes 3 stars.

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