Legends & Lattes
Travis Baldree, 2022
Fantasy RomanceContemporary fiction
A battle-weary orc retires from adventuring to open a coffee shop, and finds that building a gentle life is its own kind of adventure. Warm, low-stakes and gently funny, it moves at the pace of a slow morning, in a voice fond of its characters.
Feels like hope and wonder. About home and freedom.
Who it’s for
You may like it if you want a fantasy that trades battles for coffee, cinnamon and small daily kindnesses. Do know the stakes stay deliberately small and the story ambles rather than builds, so a reader craving danger may find stretches slow.
Why read it
It is a book about setting down something exhausting and building an ordinary life instead, and it gives you that satisfaction plainly, without irony.
A page from the book
What contentment smells like when it catches you off guard.
The combined aromas of hot cinnamon, ground coffee, and sweet cardamom intoxicated her, and as she brewed and smiled and served and chatted, a deep contentment welled up. It was a glowing warmth she’d never experienced before, and she liked it. She liked it a great deal. Travis Baldree.Baldree is a prolific audiobook narrator (Will Wight's Cradle series) who self-published this cozy fantasy before Tor acquired it.
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Questions readers ask
- Is Legends & Lattes for me?
- You may like it if you want a fantasy that trades battles for coffee, cinnamon and small daily kindnesses. Do know the stakes stay deliberately small and the story ambles rather than builds, so a reader craving danger may find stretches slow.
- What is Legends & Lattes like?
- Warm, low-stakes and gently funny, it moves at the pace of a slow morning, in a voice fond of its characters. Feels like hope and wonder. About home and freedom.
- What should I read after Legends & Lattes?
- If you liked Legends & Lattes, try The House in the Cerulean Sea (T.J. Klune), Life’s Too Short (Abby Jimenez) and The Alloy of Law (Brandon Sanderson).
A taste of the feed
The difference between the posters on the wall and the laughter behind the door.
He was about to leave through the front door when he paused at a bright burst of laughter coming from the kitchen. Against his better judgment, he tiptoed toward the sound. He passed by posters nailed to the walls, the same messages that hung in all the DICOMY-sanctioned orphanages he’d been to. They showed smiling children below such legends as WE’RE HAPPIEST WHEN WE LISTEN TO THOSE IN CHARGE and A QUIET CHILD IS A HEALTHY CHILD and WHO NEEDS MAGIC WHEN YOU HAVE YOUR IMAGINATION?
The House in the Cerulean Sea · T.J. Klune
A life philosophy delivered as a list of permissions.
Don’t ever forget the things I taught you. Life’s too short, Adrian. It is too fucking short. Eat the cake, take the vacation, dance in the rain. And don’t do anything that’s going to break your heart. I’m just sorry that in this case, that thing was me.
Life’s Too Short · Abby Jimenez
Some evenings the only way to breathe is to leave the ground behind.
He smiled, then flared his steel and Pushed off the top of the streetlight to send himself in a wide arc through the air. Mist streamed past him, swirling as the wind rushed against his face. It was thrilling. A man never truly felt free until he’d thrown off gravity’s chains and sought the sky.
The Alloy of Law · Brandon Sanderson
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