wyatt_ak 's review for:

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree

4.0

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Honestly my only real complaint here is that it wasn’t long enough. Baldree’s characters are immediately lovable and I absolutely relish the time I spent with them. Generally I’m not all that enthused by cut-and-paste stock high fantasy settings (too often it feels like I’m just reading a transcript of someone’s D&D campaign) but having worked several barista gigs in the past, I felt overcome by a deep nostalgia for coffee and community that I’ve only ever really felt while working in that industry. This novel is as much a love letter to the coziness of cafés (for both customer and worker) as it is to the fantasy genre, and I’ll be recommending it to anyone who will listen.