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4.31 AVERAGE
4.31 AVERAGE
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
A story of Fern, a bookseller turned reluctant adventurer looking for personal renewal, purpose, and peace - finds herself caught up once again on an adventure with some rather eclectic travel companions. I'm sure Fern would raise a glass to the themes of bravery, nostalgia, and finding yourself again.
Redwall meets D&D in this nostalgically descriptive adventure of unlikely heroes. Another entertaining installment to Travis Baldree's "Legends & Lattes" journey, most assuredly worth the read if you enjoy adventure campaigns.
I had the opportunity to listen to Macmillan Audio version and I loved it. Travis Baldree's voice is a unique blend of soothing and abrasive (trust me it worked for the characters) and I felt myself be lulled into the adventure, the moments of contemplation, and the action. The narration was very well done, clear and articulate at varying speeds. It was a pleasure to listen to.
Redwall meets D&D in this nostalgically descriptive adventure of unlikely heroes. Another entertaining installment to Travis Baldree's "Legends & Lattes" journey, most assuredly worth the read if you enjoy adventure campaigns.
I had the opportunity to listen to Macmillan Audio version and I loved it. Travis Baldree's voice is a unique blend of soothing and abrasive (trust me it worked for the characters) and I felt myself be lulled into the adventure, the moments of contemplation, and the action. The narration was very well done, clear and articulate at varying speeds. It was a pleasure to listen to.
adventurous
emotional
lighthearted
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
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
2/5 stars - I enjoyed the first book, the prequel less so, and this one least. The "cozy" element of this series for me came more from the initial set-up of the shop and the interactions with the townsfolk. This one was just mostly adventuring, fighting, and wallowing. I'm not sure it was a necessary addition, maybe just not something I like after the first book.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
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
This book was just what I wanted
- third person
- adventure
- Romance
- Cosy
- Battles
- non human characters
The stakes in this book I would rate as similar to Bookshops and Bonedust if not a bit higher.
For those Potroast lovers you'll be happy to know he is in this!!!
I really enjoyed watching the characters develop in this book and the adventures they go on. Plus the sentient objects in this were funny and I'd love some bonus content of them. and who doesn't want to see a new character where the main character can only understand their swearing!
I highly recommend this for anyone who loved the first two books it was so fun being able to see Viv again and old friends reconnecting.
This book even though it features snow at some points felt like a wet spring.
I am going to re-read this in a more cosy setting and then I think my rating of this will improve as I read this at work which is not the ideal environment for a book like this.
- third person
- adventure
- Romance
- Cosy
- Battles
- non human characters
The stakes in this book I would rate as similar to Bookshops and Bonedust if not a bit higher.
For those Potroast lovers you'll be happy to know he is in this!!!
I really enjoyed watching the characters develop in this book and the adventures they go on. Plus the sentient objects in this were funny and I'd love some bonus content of them. and who doesn't want to see a new character where the main character can only understand their swearing!
I highly recommend this for anyone who loved the first two books it was so fun being able to see Viv again and old friends reconnecting.
This book even though it features snow at some points felt like a wet spring.
I am going to re-read this in a more cosy setting and then I think my rating of this will improve as I read this at work which is not the ideal environment for a book like this.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
adventurous
lighthearted
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
This installment isn’t as cozy as the other books, but that made me love this even more. We follow our favorite bookseller Fern, who has a little bit of a midlife crisis, and decides to move to the big city to start a new bookshop right next to her old friend Viv’s coffee shop. One drunken night, she accidentally ends up in the travelling cart of a legendary elf and an imprisoned goblin with a large bounty on her head. Will Fern finally reconnect with the person she actually is during this adventure?
Honestly, this book felt like a D&D-campaign. It’s the perfect amount of adventure, humor and heartfelt moments. All the characters have such a distinct personality. Fern, in particular, was a fantastic main character, but I also really adored Zyll.
Overall, this was a fun, entertaining and heartfelt story. I can definitely recommend it if you liked Legends & Lattes and Bookshops & Bonedust.
Thank you, Netgalley and Pan Macmillan for allowing me to read this e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
reflective
fast-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:
Complicated
Brigands & Breadknives takes up a couple years after Legends & Lattes, but this time the protagonist is Fern, the rattkin bookseller we met in the prequel novel, Bookshops & Bonedust.
Fern has sold up and decided to move to the city to open a new bookshop beside her old friend Viv, the Orc who gave up a life of mercenary marauding to open a coffee shop. She is hoping that a little of Viv’s act of reinvention will rub off on her, but things don’t quite go according to plan.
Unusually for a cozy novel (or any commercial story structured by a writer shaped by the western creative-writing-industrial-complex -- and MFA-holding or not, aren't we all?) Fern doesn’t have a simple want that drives the plot: she has a massive but undefined need, a desperate ache for a renewed sense of purpose, an unfocused desire for reinvention that she can’t articulate. At the macro level, Fern is undergoing a mid-life crisis, something we don’t often see approached sensitively or even addressed in fantasy fiction.
The story takes place more than two decades after we last saw Fern in Bookshops & Bonedust, and Fern is looking for her second act. She thinks moving to a new city and setting up a new bookshop beside her old friend will fill the void of meaning in her life. Viv and Tandri seem to think that introducing her to their rattkin baker, Thimble, might cause romantic sparks to fly and Fern might then find the same happiness that they have. But, instead she gets drunk, takes an ill-advised night-time wander through the still-unfamiliar city, and finds herself many miles from civilization and in the company of a famous elf warrior, her mischievous chaos-goblin prisoner, and a talking sword.
A series of trials and tribulations follow as Fern comes to care for her new friends and discover that despite the cold, the damp, and the pretty constant risk of death or dismemberment, she rather enjoys life on the road!
It’s an interesting departure from the cozy fantasy template of characters taking pleasure in pursuing a relatively mundane dream in the face of bureaucratic and/or emotional hurdles. It’s hard to convey cozy vibes when your characters are cold, wet, or wounded, miles from any semblance of home, and unsure of who to trust, but somehow Travis Baldree manages it (from time to time, anyway). Perhaps this book should more-accurately be labeled plain old fantasy, if labels are required at all?
Unlike the western (character-driven) tradition, this is more of a picaresque adventure, where our heroes meet a series of colorful adversaries and conquer various challenges. It is perhaps a more ambitious novel than typically found in traditional fantasy; concerned with self-actualization as much or more so than sword fights — although there are plenty of those! That the novel still barrels along at a fast pace and entertains wildly is a testament to the author’s light touch and sense-of-humor.
It’s an interesting turn for cozy fantasy to take. A lot of the appeal of cozy fantasy has been the low-stakes escapism; readers seem to be attracted to tales of self-determination and reinvention — something that seems to be very much on people’s mind over the last few years. Author’s like Sarah Beth Durst have charmed us with characters reinventing their lives in the face of chaotic revolution and instability; Travis Baldree initially focused on an individual radically changing their situation, daring to do more than dream of a better life; and Rebecca Thorne followed that impulse to take the story of individuals pursuing their dream one step further, to using that dream to change society itself. Brigands & Breadknives explores the despair that people face, the ache felt when they realize the life they lead, despite its physical comfort, is not fulfilling, but without a clear sense of what they should be pursuing instead. In other hands this would be a downer of a story, but Baldree, with his empathy, compassion, and ability to evoke wonder, turns Fern’s dark night of the soul into a warm tale of found family, adventure, and expanded horizons.
Read the full review here: https://wordhoarder.wordpress.com/2025/11/04/review-brigands-and-breadknives-travis-baldree/
adventurous
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Thank you Netgalley for the ARC! I had just finished Bookshops and Bonedust so I was itching to get my hands on it!
First and foremost, I want to give Travis Baldree a huge shout out for creating a side character in each book that I absolutely adore. I find myself looking forward to any scene with them throughout the book, first with Thimble in L&L, then Satchel in B&B, and now Zil. I'd read a whole series about each of them.
I was excited to see the plot reversed from an adventuring character learning to settle down to a settled character learning to adventure. Fern is such a fun shift from Viv and her midlife crisis was very relatable. Her navigating through her own wants and needs was compelling to follow.
As with all of his other works, Brigands and Breadknives supplies you with a new cast of characters, each with such distinguishable characteristics and voices (both literally and metaphorically). I enjoyed watching Fern as she went on this unplanned adventure with Astrix and Zil.
There was a point about 75% of the way through where it almost cozied a little too close to the sun and I kind of forgot what the plot was working towards but it pulled me back in pretty quickly.
Overall, such an entertaining book to listen to!
First and foremost, I want to give Travis Baldree a huge shout out for creating a side character in each book that I absolutely adore. I find myself looking forward to any scene with them throughout the book, first with Thimble in L&L, then Satchel in B&B, and now Zil. I'd read a whole series about each of them.
I was excited to see the plot reversed from an adventuring character learning to settle down to a settled character learning to adventure. Fern is such a fun shift from Viv and her midlife crisis was very relatable. Her navigating through her own wants and needs was compelling to follow.
As with all of his other works, Brigands and Breadknives supplies you with a new cast of characters, each with such distinguishable characteristics and voices (both literally and metaphorically). I enjoyed watching Fern as she went on this unplanned adventure with Astrix and Zil.
There was a point about 75% of the way through where it almost cozied a little too close to the sun and I kind of forgot what the plot was working towards but it pulled me back in pretty quickly.
Overall, such an entertaining book to listen to!
What if the life you've always lived started to feel... itchy?
Oh, how I loved this one! Bookseller Fern (of Bookshops and Bonedust) is a delight, and very relatable, as she searches for the missing piece in her supposedly wonderful life.
What starts as an accidental adventure becomes more purposeful, and dangerous, when she and bounty hunter Astryx road trip to deliver a bounty.
I adored watching this opposites attract friendship develop throughout. In an added bonus, the adorable goblin Zyll, the bounty in question, steals every single scene she is in. She is my favorite forever.
Though slightly less cozy than his previous books, Baldree adds just the right amount of battles, danger, demon chickens, and talking swords to a charming story of friendship and finding happiness in life. I loved every moment of Fern's journey, and the ending is ::chef’s kiss::.
Oh, how I loved this one! Bookseller Fern (of Bookshops and Bonedust) is a delight, and very relatable, as she searches for the missing piece in her supposedly wonderful life.
What starts as an accidental adventure becomes more purposeful, and dangerous, when she and bounty hunter Astryx road trip to deliver a bounty.
I adored watching this opposites attract friendship develop throughout. In an added bonus, the adorable goblin Zyll, the bounty in question, steals every single scene she is in. She is my favorite forever.
Though slightly less cozy than his previous books, Baldree adds just the right amount of battles, danger, demon chickens, and talking swords to a charming story of friendship and finding happiness in life. I loved every moment of Fern's journey, and the ending is ::chef’s kiss::.
lighthearted
medium-paced