Legends & Lattes; Travis Baldree

I’ve never read a purely cozy fantasy before. I didn’t know that such a genre existed, but it was a nice departure from the high stakes “the hero has to save the world from destruction” narrative that most high fantasy stories adopt. “Legends & Lattes” follows Viv, an orc who has retired from the adventuring life in order to open a coffee shop in an area where coffee and lattes are foreign words and abstract concepts. Can she do it? Will her little café survive? Those are the stakes. They are low and endearing and, even though a good portion of the book is just Viv and her friends literally building and setting up her shop, it was never boring and surprisingly sweet and engaging.

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The author did a great job narrating his own book, giving each character a distinctive voice, and of course the emphasis was perfect because the author intimately knew when and where to go all out with his voice work. But that aside, I loved Viv as a character and how she desperately wanted a new, fresh start where blood and bounties weren’t the sum of her being. I loved the dynamic between her and the friends she meets while setting up her shop, and the slow burn that comes along with it as well. The friendships were powerful, the romance tender without being the sole focus, and the little twists this short book takes helped make the story exciting even with such relatively low stakes in a high fantasy setting. Even though this book was a standalone, I eagerly await more cozy fantasy set in this world, which is why this cute little book gets 5 stars from me. It was such a genuinely comforting read, one I didn’t know how badly I needed while being up late at night with a newborn until now, either.