Legends and Lattes Review: A Cozy Fantasy That Didn’t Quite Brew for Me

Read time: 5 minutes

🎧 Listened in audio 📢 Narrated by Travis Baldree ⏱ Duration: 7 hours
Genre: Fantasy 🏷️ Publisher name: Macmillan Audio and Tor Books

Book blurb

After a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed, Viv the orc is hanging up her sword. She wants a fresh start, and that means opening the first ever coffee shop in the city of Thune, a place where nobody has any idea what coffee even is. Old rivals and new ones stand between her and that dream, and she quickly learns she can’t build it alone. Cal, Tandri, and Thimble join her along the way, and what starts as a business venture turns into something closer to family. It’s a quieter kind of fantasy, more about the people you gather than the battles you win.

Let’s talk about the book:

I came across this book in various recommendations that my reading log was generating. After seeing it so many times on so many different lists, I decided to give it a go. Unfortunately, it didn’t wow me.

A fiction audiobook narrated by the author is the first time for me, and I enjoyed it. When the person who has written it speaks about it, there’s a passion in the production that comes across in the narrative. That was the only thing I thoroughly enjoyed in this book. It’s not that the story is not good, it just didn’t capture my attention the way other books I consume does. Viv has a backstory, that is #0 on this series. For more on Viv, I would recommend starting from there.

Coming into Thune, wanting to start a coffee shop in a place where people haven’t even heard of coffee, she is joined by Cal, Tandri, and Thimble to set up a cafe. The narrative and the story line is pretty straight forward. There’s an aim, a goal where the story wants to go, there’s a conflict that needs to be solved, and then there’s the found family strength. That’s about it, but that’s usually how stories are. This one, even after following the formula perfectly, did not resonate with me.

I wanted to try a few more books before I call it quits, but I don’t think I have the patience right now to do so. For me, this is a temporary truce and backout from the Legends and Lattes series.

Would I recommend it?

Legends and Lattes has all the right pieces. A retired warrior, a found family, a cafe in a town that’s never smelled coffee before. It just never quite landed for me the way it seems to land for everyone else. Baldree narrating his own work is genuinely lovely, and that’s the part I’d point people toward first. But the story itself felt like it was following a checklist rather than pulling me in. I’m stepping back from the series for now, though I wouldn’t rule out trying Viv’s prequel down the line.

⭐⭐⭐

Recommendations

1. Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree This is Viv’s own prequel, and if the found-family cafe setup didn’t fully land for you either, her earlier story might be the better entry point into this world.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

2. Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne Two women leave danger behind to open a tea shop and bookstore in a small town, with a dragon landlord in the mix. Same cozy, low-stakes energy as Legends and Lattes, if that’s what drew you in.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

3. The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune If found family is the part of this genre you actually show up for, this one leans harder into it than Legends and Lattes ever does, and it’s the book I’d point people to instead.
Indiebookstores.ca | Bookshop.org | Goodreads | StoryGraph | Pagebound | Fable | Hardcover | Booktrovert | OpenLibrary | Litsy

4. A Psalm for the Wild-Built by Becky Chambers Another quiet, low-conflict story about a tea monk and a robot wandering together. If you liked the gentle pacing here but wanted more introspection, this is a good next stop.
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5. The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches by Sangu Mandanna A witch who’s kept herself isolated ends up building an accidental found family while looking after three magical kids. Same warmth, more emotional pull than Viv’s cafe crew gave me.
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What Do you say? Am I missing the hype?

This book shows up on basically every “cozy fantasy to read” list out there, so I know I’m in the minority here. Was there something about Viv’s story that clicked for you that just didn’t for me? Or if you also felt lukewarm about it, tell me I’m not alone. And if you’ve read Bookshops and Bonedust, does starting with Viv’s backstory change things? I’d love to know before I decide whether to give this series another shot.

Book Links

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