legends and lattes by travis baldree
"But why would you buy a horse stable for that?"
Viv didn't answer for a moment, but then she stared hard at him. "Things don't have to stay as what they started out as." She folded the deed and tucked it into her satchel.
I finally read legends & lattes! I bought this book for a dollar from word up books like two or three years ago, and it has sat on my bookshelf ever since. I actually did start reading shortly after I bought it, but I only got a few chapters in – I was not particularly engrossed in the construction of viv's coffee shop.
but when I picked it up again this january, it was exactly the right energy. everyone describes it as a low-stakes, cozy fantasy, and it absolutely is that. but it's also a story about someone in the process of resetting their life a little. choosing a new path. trying something different.
viv is basically a retired D&D adventurer. she's had enough of combat and treasure hunting. she experienced coffee for the first time during her travels, and now she wants a quiet life running her own coffee shop in a new town.
"I think I'd been looking for a way out for years. Adventuring, fighting, hunting bounties – you're either bleeding yourself slow from a hundred wounds or waiting on one deathblow. But you get numb to the possibility of anything different. This was the first time something else made me feel a way I wanted to keep feeling. So, here I am, and with some blood still in me."
as you can imagine, a goal like that comes with all sorts of challenges, and one of the things I love about legends & lattes is that travis baldree gets into those challenges, no matter how small they might be. everything from "how should I market this drink that no one's ever heard of?" to "how do I get people to try things on the menu?" to "how do I serve coffee to the people who don't have time to stay?"
I absolutely love how granular and business-oriented some of these challenges are. I love that these little things become plot points. that's part of the coziness factor, I think. little challenges that are true puzzles, but they become entirely surmountable with some collaboration and help from your friends.
it's really comforting to read these problems that could and absolutely do exist in the real world... and to see the way they're solved in this fantasy world. there's just a sense of rightness that you feel when you read this book. the solutions require effort – but they get results. and simply having that feels cozy in and of itself. the same is not always true for real life.
"For someone who don't know much about boats, seems odd you're expectin' to need much ship-wrightin'."
Viv dropped to her haunches, tired of towering over him. "Well, you're right. I don't. But wood's wood, and craft's craft. I watched you work. Live long enough, you realize some folks can be handed a problem and some tools, and they'll sort it out. And I never think twice about hiring that sort of fellow."
so this pattern of low-stakes obstacles resolved through the power of creativity and community... this was delightful to read.
but then, as I got deeper into the story, I became even more delighted to experience a slightly deeper plot involving an underground mob, and bribery, and threats. nothing overly intense, but just enough to bring a bit more intrigue to the story as a whole.
I enjoyed it! it's not that any one character is particularly compelling, or that the book is particularly well plotted – it's just that the overall package delivers a feeling that resonated with me in this particular season of life. just as viv was slowly resetting her parasympathetic nervous system in this new life, I felt like maybe legends & lattes was helping me reset my parasympathetic nervous system too.
it's so funny that I read this almost directly after finishing dungeon crawler carl. they're both D&D-adjacent, but on complete opposite ends of the genre spectrum. both comforting, but for wildly different reasons.
maybe I'll look into bookshops & bonedust (the prequel) and then brigands & breadknives (the second book in the series) someday.