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lightningmc_logyn's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
This is everything I want in a book. I’ve been curious of Baldree’s work for a while and am glad I finally borrowed this from the library.
Viv’s journey satisfies the promise of a slow, cozy development-and it delivers extra, with compelling mysteries woven throughout and pulled together into a beautiful climax of plot.
The culmination of this story is the characters, and they are easy to adore. Each character is rich with history and dreams that are revealed sometimes subtly and other times clearly as you get to know them. I have come to love each of them, they feel like people I know. Baldree has a talent for sharp yet tender renderings of his characters. Thimble was my favorite, as I found his passion and countenance charming. Viv has great complexity, and goes about life with a fumbling earnestness that makes her a wonderful main character.
Baldree’s prose is impeccable. His vocabulary is vast, and the way he describes even the simplest things often took my breath away. His writing style is something I can’t say I’ve ever seen before, it is fascinating. The way Legends & Lattes is written combined with the plot encourages a reader to sink into the story. I don’t drink coffee, but the love and tenderness for a cozy cafe seeps through the pages into one’s soul; this has me yearning to be in a lively cafe in winter.
I can’t sing my praises high enough for this. It was a delightful, enlivening, and thoroughly refreshing read that I know I will return to again. (I knew this would become a favorite only a couple chapters in.) In the mean time, I look forward to reading the next book and seeing more of the lovely main character, Viv.
A few spoiler-filled thoughts:
I loved that the romance between Tandri and Viv was subtle and slow. I often find secondary romance plots take center stage and the main character abandons their original direction. In this book Viv instead learns to hold her love alongside her dreams, settling them beside each other, complementary.
One of the main themes is about believing in yourself and those around you, widening your grasp to take care of eachother. It’s a testament to found family and leaning on others, a very heartwarming and fulfilling story.
I adore amity. I love cats and I wish she was real. I love the soft ending of the story, and how in the epilogue Amity gets revenge on Fennus.
The short story at the end, Pages To Fill, was satisfying and it was endearing to experinve the journey Viv often references in the book.
Viv’s journey satisfies the promise of a slow, cozy development-and it delivers extra, with compelling mysteries woven throughout and pulled together into a beautiful climax of plot.
The culmination of this story is the characters, and they are easy to adore. Each character is rich with history and dreams that are revealed sometimes subtly and other times clearly as you get to know them. I have come to love each of them, they feel like people I know. Baldree has a talent for sharp yet tender renderings of his characters. Thimble was my favorite, as I found his passion and countenance charming. Viv has great complexity, and goes about life with a fumbling earnestness that makes her a wonderful main character.
Baldree’s prose is impeccable. His vocabulary is vast, and the way he describes even the simplest things often took my breath away. His writing style is something I can’t say I’ve ever seen before, it is fascinating. The way Legends & Lattes is written combined with the plot encourages a reader to sink into the story. I don’t drink coffee, but the love and tenderness for a cozy cafe seeps through the pages into one’s soul; this has me yearning to be in a lively cafe in winter.
I can’t sing my praises high enough for this. It was a delightful, enlivening, and thoroughly refreshing read that I know I will return to again. (I knew this would become a favorite only a couple chapters in.) In the mean time, I look forward to reading the next book and seeing more of the lovely main character, Viv.
A few spoiler-filled thoughts:
One of the main themes is about believing in yourself and those around you, widening your grasp to take care of eachother. It’s a testament to found family and leaning on others, a very heartwarming and fulfilling story.
I adore amity. I love cats and I wish she was real. I love the soft ending of the story, and how in the epilogue Amity gets revenge on Fennus.
The short story at the end, Pages To Fill, was satisfying and it was endearing to experinve the journey Viv often references in the book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Racism, Violence, and Alcohol
The book starts with Viv leaving hee old life. The remainder of book is quite mild and calm overall. The racism is in the context of fictional D&D inspired races facing prejudice. It is mild, yet present throughout. Viv often modifies her behavior to be “less threatening.” Context on Fire/injury (big spoiler!):midsummernoodle's review
adventurous
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Love!!!! This is the kind of book I will be itching to reread the next time the weather is cooling. So sweet and relaxing, even the conflict feels gentle because the characters are so solid. If that makes sense. I trusted them all to get through it because I just trusted them to be there for each other? So sweet. So soothing. A beautiful bedtime book, or a book to have with a cup of coffee. 😌
Explanation about a content warning: I said that there is racism in this book, which I stand by, but I want to note that it is racism against fictitious races (hobgoblins, succubi, orcs, etc.). The allegory may still be upsetting to people, so I felt the need to mark it.
Explanation about a content warning: I said that there is racism in this book, which I stand by, but I want to note that it is racism against fictitious races (hobgoblins, succubi, orcs, etc.). The allegory may still be upsetting to people, so I felt the need to mark it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Racism and Sexual harassment
mistyfall's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Violence
vschrock's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.75
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
readwithkel's review against another edition
adventurous
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.75
Cozy fantasy, but I found it slightly boring.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Murder
meganlovespancakes's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
What a lovely, cozy read about the power of relationships and our ability to reinvent ourselves. I love every character, especially Thimble. I love the way that they invent a fantasy flavored version of every aspect of a cafe. I love the way Viv learns to value herself and trust her friends. It’s just sweet and nice.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
lindzboots's review against another edition
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
This book was so perfect. Low-stakes but you still cared. A wonderful, lively world that still felt familiar if you play D&D. It was a wonderful respite from a stressful and anxiety-inducing real world.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Body shaming and Violence
abbey_marie's review
adventurous
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
I really liked this book once I got into it. As the book jacket says, “High Fantasy, Low Stakes.” It fits that description perfectly and is an incredibly cozy, relaxing read and perfect for fall!
Things I Loved:
- The Food! Cinnamon rolls, coffee, chocolate - this book has all the cozy deliciousness with detailed descriptions that will make your mouth water. I’m not lying when I say that I am now craving a cinnamon roll as big as my head! (And I would LOVE to have a real Legends and Lattes somewhere to go get one!) I also loved that no one had ever heard of them before, because that was just charming and added a bit more magic to the story and the detailed food descriptions.
- The Characters! I loved how Viv was a strong female lead, Tandri too, and the diverse cast of characters that created a community around Viv as her cafe grew and thrived. Val and Thimble were perfect! Thimble especially with his soft-spoken demeanor and baking genius! Not joking - Baldree should totally make a stuffy of him because all the members of my book club would probably buy it lol.
- Slice of Life! This book is perfect for those readers who love slice of life novels. This goes relatively day-by-day and is slow-medium paced, picking up more in the middle. I’ll admit that at first it took me a while to get into it, but once I did it was a cozy book I really wanted to return to at the end of the day under a cozy blanket with a warm bevvie in hand!
- The Setting! Thune was so cozy! It feels almost like a rural, medieval-like Scottish or Irish village, but in a fantasy setting. I really enjoyed the descriptive writing style used by Baldree and the way it drew you into the story. I think it added an extra layer of warmth and coziness to the story.
- Queer Rep! 🏳️🌈 Just love the love story and how it unfolded. I honestly wasn’t expecting it at first and then really grew to love it as a smaller side plot. And the ending! 🥹🥹🥹 IYKYK
Things I Liked:
- The Fantasy. I’m not a high-fantasy reader, so this genre kind of caught me off guard in some ways since I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. I wasn’t familiar with many of the different types of characters (and am still not super well schooled on them now lol), but this book made me like high fantasy and want to learn more about it. I usually shy away from the genre because I don’t know a lot about it and it seems complicated, but this was a great introduction.
Things I Didn’t Like:
-This book is made to be low stakes, so I understand that, but I do feel like the main conflict with the Madrigal was resolved too quickly. I almost wish there had been more tension there and the conflict with Fennus had been cut, even though it did add to the story. I actually loved how the community rallied around Viv after that, but I still feel like the main conflict arc could have been developed more and the tension could have been held onto more before coming to a resolution.
- The beast killing scene at the beginning was a little too gory for me. Maybe it was expectations—I went into the book thinking it would be super cozy and start super cozy, after Viv had gotten the Scalvert’s Stone, and it kind of caught me off guard. I’m not big on gory fight scenes, so it just felt misplaced for me and I honestly skimmed it. (Had to come back to it later obviously lol, since I didn’t know some names.)
-I wish we saw more of the seemingly magical, time-traveling dwarf! My book club said this too and I totally agree, I would have loved to see more of the little guy because I feel like there’s a story there!
Overall, this was an awesome book! I would totally recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy readmaybe minus the slightly gory prologue lol or a relaxing book perfect for fall! Definitely for a lover of cinnamon rolls! 🧡🍁☕️ (Also, why is there no cinnamon roll emoji?! Someone needs to get on that!)
Things I Loved:
- The Food! Cinnamon rolls, coffee, chocolate - this book has all the cozy deliciousness with detailed descriptions that will make your mouth water. I’m not lying when I say that I am now craving a cinnamon roll as big as my head! (And I would LOVE to have a real Legends and Lattes somewhere to go get one!) I also loved that no one had ever heard of them before, because that was just charming and added a bit more magic to the story and the detailed food descriptions.
- The Characters! I loved how Viv was a strong female lead, Tandri too, and the diverse cast of characters that created a community around Viv as her cafe grew and thrived. Val and Thimble were perfect! Thimble especially with his soft-spoken demeanor and baking genius! Not joking - Baldree should totally make a stuffy of him because all the members of my book club would probably buy it lol.
- Slice of Life! This book is perfect for those readers who love slice of life novels. This goes relatively day-by-day and is slow-medium paced, picking up more in the middle. I’ll admit that at first it took me a while to get into it, but once I did it was a cozy book I really wanted to return to at the end of the day under a cozy blanket with a warm bevvie in hand!
- The Setting! Thune was so cozy! It feels almost like a rural, medieval-like Scottish or Irish village, but in a fantasy setting. I really enjoyed the descriptive writing style used by Baldree and the way it drew you into the story. I think it added an extra layer of warmth and coziness to the story.
- Queer Rep! 🏳️🌈 Just love the love story and how it unfolded. I honestly wasn’t expecting it at first and then really grew to love it as a smaller side plot. And the ending! 🥹🥹🥹 IYKYK
Things I Liked:
- The Fantasy. I’m not a high-fantasy reader, so this genre kind of caught me off guard in some ways since I didn’t really know what to expect going into it. I wasn’t familiar with many of the different types of characters (and am still not super well schooled on them now lol), but this book made me like high fantasy and want to learn more about it. I usually shy away from the genre because I don’t know a lot about it and it seems complicated, but this was a great introduction.
Things I Didn’t Like:
-
-
-
Overall, this was an awesome book! I would totally recommend it to anyone looking for a cozy read
Content Warnings
Minor: Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment
imscrem's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
relaxing
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
I found this book to be a way more of a slow burn than expected, where queer romance was involved. It also seemed to me that it could be a bit ham-handed with its inclusion of microaggressions and reflections of, essentially, mild fantasy racism. The plot and characters seemed a bit too simple to me. Overall, I really enjoyed reading the cozy fantasy novel Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, but found this one didn’t quite hit the spot for me as cozy fantasy goes.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Blood, Fire/Fire injury, and Injury/Injury detail
Frequent microaggressions based on fantasy races, although shown as something to quit doingnurr's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
lighthearted
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury
Moderate: Racism and Stalking