Author: Travis Baldree
Book: Bookshops & Bonedust (Legends and Lattes #0)
Published: November 2023
Publisher: Tor Trade
Genre: Fantasy
Source: Paperback
Rating:
Synopsis:
Years before Legends & Lattes, a young orc named Viv has started her career as a mercenary with Rackam’s Ravens. She ends up packed off to a sleepy beach town called Murk to recover from wounds received at the hands of a powerful necromancer’s minions. Recovering from her injuries, Viv is bored. After stumbling into a bookstore, a ratkin bookstore owner befriends Viv.
But her adventures are not just waiting in books. A gray stranger heralds the necromancer returning, looking for what belongs to her.
Review:
After enjoying Legends & Lattes, I decided to pick up the prequel novel. Did it live up to Legends & Lattes? After all, trying to take a successful story and spin a sequel (prequel, in this case) is difficult. Travis Baldree keeps his gift with interpersonal relationships and unlikely characters doing unlikely occupations. However, it doesn’t quite live up to Legend’s and Lattes. I cannot fault the conflict resolution. The author did the final conflict very well. However, it repeats a pattern of reading and repairs, bogging the story down. In this instance, the cozy nature of the story gets a bit stale.
It is still a fun read and “a wonderful bit of fluff.”
Kurt's Frontier 