Because I'm headed down the hill, and you're headed up it. I'm just glad we chanced to meet on the way." Bookshops & Bonedust takes the world of Legends & Lattes and weaves it into a universe. It does the impossible: showing us a character twenty years before her story, and making us hold our breath to see what happens next. It's the rare prequel that beautifully adds depth, power, and love to the lore. This is a book for those who were once young and pulled between fighting the world with all they had . . . or curling up in a dusty bookshop with a good story." - J R Dawson

Kira Muratova, reviewing the audiobook version in Booklist, notes that the "prequel ... answers several of its predecessor's burning questions, including how everyone's favorite coffee-loving orc learned to appreciate books. ... Read by the author, a talented and animated fantasy narrator who also voiced Legends, the book presents a colorful cast of new and familiar characters that is sure to ensorcell and delight listeners. [3] 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. Through meeting the right people at the right time, or maybe the right people at the wrong time, Viv will eventually realize there is more to life than just fighting and killing. And it is through the delight and escapism bestowed by reading great books that she feels this further. Yes, as the title says, many scenes in Bookshops and Bonedust will take place in a second-hand bookshop. And I loved the relationship Viv built with Fern, Potroast, Maylee, and Gallina. Gallina is a supporting character in Legends and Lattes, and I have no doubt we will see Fern, Potroast, and Maylee again in one or two future-to-be-written books in this world. Some readers can argue that writing a fantasy story about finding and savoring the joy of reading is cheating. It goes without saying that readers reading this book and Legends and Lattes will most likely be readers who love reading books. However, reading our unspoken emotions and words written by other authors eloquently, or feelings spoken by characters who feel the same passion about reading, can feel good. I actually think Bookshops and Bonedust had too many battles for a cozy fantasy novel. I wish we had more slice-of-life portions here like Legends and Lattes did. Reading Viv finding pleasure in reading for the first time put a smile on my face, and I wouldn't mind having more of her reading and eating delicious foods. Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes , Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books.Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree begins at the end. An orc by the name of Viv has just beaten what amounts to the Big Bad End Guy (BBEG) of her own adventure. And so… she decides to settle down and open a café in a city named Thune, where no one has heard of coffee (yet). She has a nest egg of gold that she’s saved up in her years of adventuring and a strong work ethic to make her dream a reality. It’s a far cry from her previous life, and a very different path than many of “her kind” take, as so many folks point out to her—but she’s determined to leave that past behind. What follows is the story of how the coffee shop comes into being. While I absolutely loved this book (as did many others—it was nominated for multiple awards and Baldree won the Astounding Award for Best New Writer in 2023), there are certain readers who will likely not enjoy it. In particular: if you are looking for higher stakes and extensive moments of tension—this book is not for you. Most challenges are vanquished almost as soon as they appear, which can give the feeling of a lot of stuff happening without much consequence (this is magically explained later in the novel, but that will not be satisfying for some, I presume!). The evolution of Viv’s café is also a big formulaic—from one type of coffee to two, from no pastries to one pastry to more, from tiny kitchen to large kitchen. If you’re looking for a book that goes into a realistic scenario of growing a food services business—this also probably isn’t for you (but I do highly recommend Anthony Bourdain’s Kitchen Confidential to scratch that particular itch!). I started the book worried about it not having my favorite characters and ended up falling in love with a whole other town! I cried at the end - a lot. There's no telling how long with book hangover will last. Read by the author, a talented and animated fantasy narrator who also voiced Legends, the book presents a colorful cast of new and familiar characters that is sure to ensorcell and delight listeners." — Booklist TL;DR: Legends & Lattes and its standalone prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, live up to their promise of being novels of “high fantasy and low stakes.” These books are the literary equivalent of a warm hug: simple (but never trite) stories of individuals triumphing over the mundane and heroic that inspire the reader towards kindness at every turn.

Gallina was initially a little bit annoying but, like the rest of the secondary characters, I grew to love her. She dreamed of joining Viv’s gang and while she annoyed her, they grew to be friends and equals. What I love about Travis Baldree is that set against an epic world of adventure, he writes about the small victories that make life worthwhile. Bookshops & Bonedust does this and it is glorious." - Ben Aaronovitch 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. 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. There was also some excitement - what food/drink would Travis Baldree describe in such ways as to make me visit the kitchen more often than usual? LEGENDS & LATTES had me consuming extra cups of coffee and cinnamon rolls - turns out BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST took a more savory approach - lots of breakfast foods and bread. As a Southern girl, I tell you that I treat bread as a dessert. ALL bread - I love it and the more butter the better!Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Travis Baldree's Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and secondhand books. And I think that’s MY “story beyond the story” that Viv experienced in her reading of others, that I’ve now experienced by reading HERS. Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveller in grey, 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.

I thought of Legends & Lattes and the review I’d been meant to write for it every week since—not just out of the haunting of guilt that I’d still not gotten to it, but also out of how applicable it was. I found myself recommending it to anyone who mentioned that they’d been having a tough time—and, in the “post-COVID” years where it doesn’t ever truly feel like the pandemic is over and during which many other troubles have surfaced… well, that was pretty often. Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn't what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together. Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together. Bookshops & Bonedust is a prequel that takes place 20 years before Legends & Lattes. In this book, we meet a much younger Viv who has just started her career as an adventurer. Her career gets waylaid (and potentially derailed) by an injury, and she's left behind in a small seaside village to recover. As Viv regains her strength and starts to move around town, we get to know the town and its inhabitants along with her. I fell in love with the place. 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?This is the premise of Bookshops and Bonedust. And I guarantee you whether you have read Legends and Lattes or not will influence your experience of Bookshops and Bonedust, even though this is designed to be a standalone novel in the series as well. Except maybe for the epilogue that would make more sense and impact if you have read Legends and Lattes. But if you have read Legends and Lattes first, there is the possibility the stakes of the plotline will feel even lower than it should be. That is the nature of this book as a prequel. You will know Viv’s fate in Legends and Lattes already, and the dangers she faces in this novel will feel more minimal. Every reader will have a different reaction, but personally, this is a cozy fantasy. Stakes and dangers were never in my mind when I started reading Bookshops and Bonedust. If Legends and Lattes is a story about starting something new, no matter how late it is in your life, then well, Bookshops and Bonedust is about planting the seeds of hope that the change in life is possible. Bookshops & Bonedust is the perfect follow up to Legends & Lattes; it's a pleasure to meet a Younger Viv and watch her grow slowly, stubbornly, into the orc we love so much. Some bittersweetness is inevitable, but Baldree reminds us that the past-even our mistakes-is the fertile soil where we plant the seeds of a beautiful future." - C L Clark There was a wee romance arc with the baker Maylee . Maylee was an ex warrior and instantly was intrigued by Viv. I liked their relationship and how they bonded over a shared past despite being in different phases in their lives. 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.

This book perfectly balances the cosiness and the adventure. It definitely has higher stakes and more conflict than in L&L yet it never loses that great sense of comfort that both books nurture. That is the one thing I could say over and over and over again about this book; it is astoundingly comforting. I loved all the community of Murk, every single character brought such life to it. And, for me, a bookshop is the ultimate place of comfort. There could have been no better setting for this story. Travis Baldree is the master of making his books feel like a warm hug. Bookshop was an exceptional read. We got to see another part of Viv's life, how she got started on her road to the character we know and love. How the friends she made made her.Legends & Lattes is a uniquely beautiful book. Its cast of endearing characters have no interest at all in killing one another. There is no Great Evil, no bloody battles, and yet the pillars of great fantasy—resilience, fellowship, and a desire to make the world a better place—are all here. It’s wonderfully wholesome, and I hope heralds the rise of a 'slice-of-life' sub-genre in modern fantasy.”—Nicholas Eames, author of Kings of the Wyld Set in the world of New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust takes us on a journey of high fantasy, first loves, and second-hand books. 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.