4/5⭐️

I’ve never heard of “cozy fantasy” before this book but it just might be one of my new favorite genres. Sapphic D&D fantasy book about coffee? Sign. Me. Up.

This is a book about an ogre-like creature who leaves behind her life of blood and fighting to achieve her dream of opening up a coffee shop. There she meets many like-minded innovative and creative friends, including a girl she just can’t stay away from, who help her bring her dream to life.

This story was so cute and heart-warming. I love fantasy but sometimes fantasy books are just too intense and difficult to read for long periods of time. This innovative take on the genre, coined “low-stakes” fantasy, is refreshing for anyone who loves stories set in other worlds but gets mentally worn-down from the intensity of them.

This is the simple but intriguing story of a woman who opens and runs a coffee shop in a city that’s never heard of coffee before. Oh, and falls for her coworker along the way. What’s not to like?

My only critique of this book is the same cause for why I like it so much. Because the book is relatively low-stakes, compounded with the fact that the romance doesn’t pick up until over halfway through the book, it can get a bit boring at times.

That being said, I immensely enjoyed this book nonetheless and look forward to exploring other similar books in the genre.

Thank you to the publishers and NetGalley for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review! All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

I had no idea what to expect with this one, but after all of the rave reviews I'd seen, I decided to go for it! I'm not usually a fantasy reader, and that hardly mattered. This book was incredible! I highly recommend it to reluctant fantasy readers; it's just feel good and enjoyable!

Absolutely charming and whimsical! It's pitched as "high fantasy, low stakes"... and even though the stakes may be "low" for the D&D-esque world at large, the stakes are still high and personal for Vin and her found family of coffee coworkers. I would read infinite books in this world!

This book was so cozy and perfect. Since I've finished reading this wonderful book, I've been looking for another to fill the hole that finishing this one has left and none has delivered.

What a wonderful book.

Cozy fantasies are the best!!

I've been searching for a book like this -- something that you want to just read by the fire in a coffee shop and transport yourself to another world, but a chill one. Dare I say, a cozy one.

Legends & Lattes delivers on that, no question. I definitely suggest it for a light and comforting read, and I Hope we see more books like this in the future!

It wasn't what I expected but high fantasy, new life or really starting over, having to prove yourself, and found family.

Cozy, cute, and fun. This was a slice of life where the stakes felt low but still important since the plot was all about self-identity and doing things other than what might be expected of you. And coffee!

Something about this book felt so cozy and for a fantasy book that is often hard to accomplish. Baldree does a great job of describing the mundane in a way that you long for the simplicity of Viv's life now. I loved the juxtaposition of Viv's old warrior days and her now coffee-shop-owning life.

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.

It is a cozy fantasy where an orc abandon her career of fighter and open a coffee shop where nobody knows what coffee is. She starts from crash her business and in the process she establish connections with new people.

Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree, is my favorite book that I’ve read in some time.
It is so special, unique, heartwarming, and amazing—like a warm hug of a book.
I loved this tale of an orc setting out to find her permanent place in the world and create a home and maybe even a found family. Viv is my hero!
This book is firmly and favorably in the category of comfort read, but there’s also plenty of action and plot if you’re as big of a fantasy fan as I am.
Legends and Lattes has a permanent place on my bookshelf and on my re-read list.
5 BIG ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Thanks to the publisher and to NetGalley for the ARC. All opinions are my own.

4⭐️

Viv is an orc who once fought in many a battle and has achieved her goal of obtaining the Scalvert’s Stone, which is supposed to bring good fortune. Viv puts down her sword and sets off on a new and unfamiliar adventure: opening a coffee shop.

Coffee is a gnomish beverage that few have heard of let alone tasted. Viv buys all the supplies and builds her coffee shop, and hires a succubus names Tandri to assist her with the shop. They give out free samples, and soon enough have regular customers. They add food courtesy of their new baker friend, Thimble who creates all sorts of delicious baked goods, and slowly expand their menu. Some trouble begins to brew when Viv encounters the Madrigal’s goons who try to get her to pay a tax, and one of Viv’s former associates pays her a visit seeking the Stone he knows Viv has. But has all of Viv’s good fortune been the result of the Stone, or her own hard work?

This book is certainly unlike any others I’ve read. It’s more if a slice of life kind if fantasy than an action packed ride. It’s much calmer, and cozier. It’s interesting that so much of modern coffee shops was put into this book, and it made it hard to remember that this is supposed to be high fantasy. Viv and Tandri were very cute, but I wish we could have seen a bit more between them. Their relationship felt almost out of the blue. Overall, this was cute, but if it did not have the fantasy elements and were just a story about people starting a coffee shop, I probably would not have read it. The additional short story absolutely should have been how this book started, and gives the reader a better idea of Viv’s life before the coffee shop, as well as the moment that started her dream.

What to say... firstly thanks to netgalley for a copy in return for my honest review.

This book what not what I expected. It was so so much more. I loved it. I mean really loved it and by the end didn't want to stop reading.
I loved our main character Viv, her side kicks and every other character in the book.
It will be a yearly re read.

Several friends were so excited about this one so I was happy to grab a widget for it. It was a very cozy mystery. If you've ever wondered how the restaurants in fantasy novels got started and operated while your hero is running through a city street, this is the story of one of those.

The main character puts her violent past aside and tries to find a slice of peace by opening a coffee shop in an area where no one knows what coffee even is. After some false starts and operational difficulties, they get up and rolling and turns out, it's just what this community needed. Typical fantasy corruption happens around the main character's shop but it's not a huge part of the story. This was low stakes/low angst.

I was dismayed to see that even coffee shops in fantasy aren't immune to open mic nights.

Thank you to Tor for a copy in exchange for an honest review. My opinions are my own.

This lived up to all the hype- cozy, warm, low stakes, queer, and found family. Thoroughly enjoyable and obvious why people reread it! A great comfort read!

In this book you get exactly what you ordered ;)
This is the book for everyone who ever wondered what happened to the fighter after the battle was won and after the treasures were found. This is the book where we settle down, where we learn to trust people, where we solve conflicts zhrough talking, where good things happen to those who ask for them.
This is a book for coffeelovers and bakers and people who snuggle up to read.
True, not everything is realistic (try and built a business in 2 weeks) and the pacing is rather slow but this book is about the feeling of sitting in a cozy spot and feeling at home.
So if you crave cozy, come in and order, the menue is on the board ;)

If you need a good comfort read that is cozy and feel-good, I cannot recommend this enough! Legends and Lattes is a cozy slice-of-life fantasy and I need more of it. I loved all the characters and the wholesome feel of the story. If you like this read So This is Ever After by F. T. Lukens.

This is a unique fantasy novel.

With so many books trying to be Game of Thrones copies, or politically complex narratives, it's nice to sink my teeth into a cosy fantasy novel with low stakes.

And I love it. I love this type of fantasy, and it warms my heart to see it coming back. Baldree created a warm and welcoming story that focuses on the opening of a little cafe in an epic fantasy background. I think he wrote this during NANOWRIMO, and it gained popularity independently, which shows that people are craving this type of story. We love that variety.

But the message and the characters are what keep people invested. The building of friendships and letting go of your past are portrayed brilliantly, and I hope we get more stories like this to come.

I’m going to be honest, I haven’t actually finished reading this yet. So this review is just what I think so far and how I think I’ll feel by the end of the book. I’m just under two-thirds of the way done so I feel like I have a good feel.

I love that this book is fantasy, but not a story that you have to read pages upon pages of build up or introduction to understand the world or the types of characters that are present. Very much a “world of Warcraft” style world but with more modern twists and turns. I love the writing as well; it’s simple yet magical! Also a huge fan of short chapters.
The characters are very diverse in their types, talents, and how they are presented throughout the story. Unfortunately, I find so far there hasn’t been a great amount of fleshing out for Viv or some more important secondary characters like Tandri. I feel like I barely know who they really are.
My other issue comes from the fact that I feel like the plot hasn’t really progressed. There has been a ton of small side plots that have come and been mostly resolved. But there doesn’t seem to be a consistent main plot connecting it all together. I’m hopeful that this might change in the remainder of the book because I really love the world and the concept, just not sure if it was executed correctly with this storyline.

Absolutely fantastic. I bought a copy for the library before reading it KNOWING I would fall in love with it. Two chapters in I bought a special edition for myself. This book is a warm cup of coffee on a cloudy morning. Fans of D&D/fantasy will love this book, but it goes beyond just that. It's a beautiful book about new beginnings. I cannot stop gushing about Legends & Lattes to everyone.

If you read any amount of fantasy and haven't heard of this book, I assume you're living under a rock. This high fantasy, low stakes novella is a nice break from heavy war-laden fantasy with the flavor of a D&D campaign with your great friends, where everything feels familiar and everyone will come out alright in the end.