Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. Cozy fantasy is actually fun
I kept seeing Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree popping up in my Twitter (currently known as X) feeds and being recommended by my favourite BookTubers and other websites.
It was described as being a ‘Cozy fantasy’ about an orc who retires from adventuring to open a coffee shop. The book was also described as a ‘low stakes fantasy’.
I’ll be honest, this entire description put me off reading it. But I was wrong when I thought Lit RPG sounded a bit dumb, (thanks Dungeon Crawler Carl and others,) and I’m happy to say I was wrong here as well.
Cozy fantasy – or at least Legends & Lattes – is actually a lot of fun.
What’s Legends & Lattes all about?
The plot is refreshingly simple. An orc called Viv decides to retire from a life of adventuring and smiting monsters. Her plan is to open a coffee shop in a city called Thune. There are a few problems with this, including old rivals, local gangsters, and above all – the fact that no one knows what coffee is.
That is pretty much the entire premise.
Is it any good?
I’ll cut to the chase. Yes, it is. At least I loved it, and I’m a lifelong fan of fantasy series like Conan the Barbarian and the Lord of the Rings. So it’s certainly different from the kind of fantasy book I normally read, but despite being a cozy fantasy it does follow normal story beats. There are trials and tribulations to overcome, with highs and lows and so forth.
What really makes Legends & Lattes so good are the characters. In addition to Viv, there’s a hob carpenter called Calamity, a succubus called Tandri, and a ratkin baker called Thimble. There are others that make an appearance and are fun as well, such as a nervous bard and a huge cat.
The characters are well-written, although some arguably lack a bit of depth. That doesn’t really matter though, as they are all so damned likeable. Viv and Tandri, the two main characters, are fleshed out a lot better.
Final thoughts
I was genuinely put off by the whole low-stakes, cozy catastrophe idea. Yet that was the main selling point of Legends & Lattes. Somehow Travis Baldree kept me entertained and invested throughout, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
The only real negative is that I really love coffee, especially lattes, and pastries. I also live in a huge city with a superb collection of coffee shops. While reading, the frequent descriptions of the aroma and taste of coffee and things like cinnamon buns created a constant craving for them. I spent a small fortune on flat whites and pain au chocolats. It was totally worth it though.
Like so many others, I highly recommend Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree. Bandwagon jumped on.
You can check it out here. Enjoy.