Legends & Lattes
is a novel that by all means shouldn’t be nearly as charming as it is. Sold as high fantasy, low stakes, it was
originally self-published by author Travis Baldree through Cryptid Press before
being picked up by Tor Books for a second edition and prequel novel to be
published in late 2023. It’s a simple
story about a woman who opens a coffee shop and slowly builds up her staff and
clientele with the stakes being if the titular Legends & Lattes is going to
succeed but set in a fantasy world. Baldree’s
world, if there is one criticism with Legends & Lattes is that it is
perhaps a touch generic, mainly being a parallel of modern day Earth just in a
high fantasy setting, the technology being magic based through not explored (though
that is clearly not the point of the book).
Viv is an orc who has spent her life up to settling in the town of Thune
as a mercenary for hire with her own adventuring party, a party that clearly reflects
your standard TTRPG party in the beset ways, but clearly she wants more from
life. Coming across coffee on her travels
and purchasing a machine to brew her own, it is her enraptured by its taste and
since Thune only has taverns it’s the perfect market for success. The novel is less than 300 pages, but Baldree
does a great job of utilizing the lower page count to its full effect, the
passion Viv shows for coffee and just wanting a new life is what really makes
the novel work, from renovating a livery into a café with the hob Calamity, to
hiring the succubus Tandri, and slowly expanding the menu from a coffee and a
latte to iced drinks and various snacks, with live music and an in house baker.
Baldree does include some personal stakes and fashions
the climax of the novel around those stakes, Viv has a magic artefact that has mystical
powers for success (or so the legends say) which one of the members of her
original crew is out to steal. This is
the major conflict outside of Viv’s self-doubt and the general hardships of
building up a business with no business experience which is a very fun conflict,
it tests Viv’s resolve and allows her to prove that she’s not just magically
earning the success, but has surrounded herself with good and interesting
people that are the key to that success.
At her lowest point, it is those around her who pull her back to reality
and begin the process of healing.
Perhaps Baldree could have extended that progress of healing to more
than just the final third of the novel, but it’s still a great journey for the
character. In parallel is the clear
romance between Viv and Tandri, a relationship built around complimentary
personalities, longing glances, and the desire for Viv to finally get herself a
proper bed and not just sleep on the floor.
Baldree subverts expectations for Tandri, as a succubus there is a clear
parallel to taboos involving sex and sexuality, being subverted as she is not
portrayed as a temptress nor is she fighting her nature. Tandri and Viv are both on some level
fighting the perceptions of society, something subtly explored throughout the
novel that brings them together as a couple.
Baldree’s romance is also incredibly well written as this aspect that creeps
up so the reader does not notice it until Viv finally notices it near the
climax of the novel, it's a romance of two people trusting one another
implicitly.
Overall, while Legends & Lattes is a book
with very low stakes that does not mean it is a book with no or bad stakes. The stakes are incredibly personal and
focused on our point of view character trying to make her way in a world that
is sadly not entirely built out completely being the one thing holding the
novel back from being absolutely perfect.
It’s still a book that just flies by as you read it and is a contender
for being one of my new favorites. 9/10.
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