travis baldree | The Obsessive Bookseller

Title: Bookshops and Bonedust

Author: Travis Baldree

Series: Legends and Lattes #0.5

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 2.5/5 stars

The Overview: When an injury throws a young, battle-hungry orc off her chosen path, she may find that what we need isn’t always what we seek. In Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel to Legends & Lattes, New York Times bestselling author Travis Baldree takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books. Viv’s career with the notorious mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk—so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do? Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn’t possibly imagine. Still, adventure isn’t all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected. -Goodreads

The Review:

I’m glad for more time with this author’s works, even if I enjoyed Legends & Lattes a bit more.

My biggest draw to Bookshops & Bonedust was the opportunity to settle in with the delightfully mundane aspects of running a business that was so prominent in the first book. And the business was a bookshop!! What could be more ideal?

As it turns out, more bookshop stuff, less necromancy.

We didn’t get that same level of commitment to focus on the business as we did with L&L. It tried to bring in too many other elements and sort of forgot what made this type of story special in the first place. I can read about necromancers and magic swords anywhere. What I can’t get is book organizing, quirky customer service, and sales reports (I need it). I wanted to see them get their hands dirty turning the store around, of which it provided only glimpses.

I did like the chronology of the tale – set in the pre-L&L days where it provided insight as to how a battling orc would even consider becoming a coffee shop owner. Overall it was a great enrichment to the saga as a whole, even if it didn’t land quite the same way. The parts I liked, I REALLY liked. I just wish there had been more of them.

Recommendations: Pick this up as a fun snack between other books, but don’t expect it to move you like the first one.

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by Niki Hawkes

Title: Legends & Lattes

Author: Travis Baldree

Series: N/A (<-This is being hyped as a stand-alone but I heard rumor that the author is planning a second book set in the same city with a different character focus)

Genre: “Cozy” Fantasy

Rating: 4/5 stars

The Overview: High Fantasy with a double-shot of self-reinvention. Worn out after decades of packing steel and raising hell, Viv the orc barbarian cashes out of the warrior’s life with one final score. A forgotten legend, a fabled artifact, and an unreasonable amount of hope lead her to the streets of Thune, where she plans to open the first coffee shop the city has ever seen. However, her dreams of a fresh start pulling shots instead of swinging swords are hardly a sure bet. Old frenemies and Thune’s shady underbelly may just upset her plans. To finally build something that will last, Viv will need some new partners and a different kind of resolve. A hot cup of fantasy slice-of-life with a dollop of romantic froth. -Goodreads

The Review:

I expected to like this one, but didn’t expect to set it down feeling all the warm fuzzy feelings so many have experienced. No wonder it has gained such good momentum in the Booktube community.

The book was a match made in heaven for me when it comes to the types of shows I consume outside of reading. I love renovation shows (Fixer Upper, Fixer to Fabulous, Good Bones… give me all the things), and I also love cooking competitions (Top Chef, Tournament of Champions, etc.), and while this didn’t go into a ton of detail for those aspects (and it didn’t involve a competition), I found my cravings for those types of shows satisfied by this book. I also love seeing things grow from the ground up and the day-to-day monotony of running businesses. Add to all of that a fantasy twist and charming characters, and you have yourself a winner.

Aside from loving the type of story, I also appreciated the overall writing style. There were a lot of slower, poignant moments that worked well because they were written well, and I think that’s where the sentimentality of the book shined.

And among all of that, there was actually an interesting external conflict not related to running a coffee shop that I wasn’t expecting. It added more depth to the story and made me feel like I was getting something of substance despite it being generally more lighthearted than most fantasy novels.

Recommendations: this was a completely satisfying and fun read that I’d highly recommend if you need a break between denser books. Everything about it worked for me.

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