I first saw Legends and Lattes advertised on Audible. I found it notable because of the author, Travis Baldree, as I had been listening to a solid nine or more books narrated by the man over the course of the past several months. I had, however, a pretty large TBR at the time, so I tucked it away in the back of my mind and recommended it to a friend instead.
I’ve always expressed affection through entertainment recommendations, and I especially love to recommend books to my friends. I feel that when I finally find the right voice to show them a new point of view from which they can work through their own struggles, or at worst a mindless adventure they could use to pass the time; it gives a unique satisfaction I’ve never really gotten anywhere else. Over the years my friend had shown interest in the sort of stories that use the aesthetics and tropes of fantasy but without the world-ending stakes and unrelatable problems, and I hoped Legends and Lattes would be exactly what they needed.
At time of writing they haven’t gotten around to reading it past the first page, but it was with them that I stumbled across a paperback copy in person (alongside a copy of Elliot Page’s memoir, Pageboy, currently on my TBR) in the Women/Gender Care room at my local college.The cover stands out with beautiful work by Carson Lowmiller and Peter Lutjen, and it seemed like a very comfortable read I could start and cleanse my palate after far too many isekai novels.They let us check them out, and I began reading it later that day.
I’m working on my first novel myself (just past eight thousand words if we don’t count outlines and worldbuilding, don’t get excited,) and I decided to start looking more closely at the books I read in order to improve my craft. I swear this isn’t just a cheeky way for me to generate blog content while reading genre fiction. How dare you. This is the first novel I’ve chosen to read through with this much effort since high school, so I’ve chosen to essentially do a book report to begin my “blog.”
Legends and Lattes details the low-stakes misadventures of Viv, an orc who “after a lifetime of bounties and bloodshed,” strikes down her roots in a new city, brought to life with efficacy by Baldree’s prose. In a modern twist, she builds the city’s first cafe from the remains of an unloved stable with the help of unlikely friends. Included with the copy I borrowed was also the “bonus prequel story” Pages to Fill, which I’ll cover as my next post to this blog.
The story begins with our intrepid hero, Viv, tearing a fabled Scalvert Stone from within the skull of a deadly monster. Fabled to bring good fortune, the Scalvert Stone is subject of some sort of riddle or prophecy:
Well-nigh to thaumic line,
the Scalvert’s Stone a-fire
draws the ring of fortune,
aspect of heart’s desire.
Following this scrap of knowledge and her research, and done with the deadly life of adventuring; she buries the macguffin at the nexus of ley lines in the city of Thune, and atop the flagstone creates what any retiring adventurer sick of the life of slaying monsters, schlocking through tunnels, and slitting throats: she opens the city’s first cafe. The only problem? She’s an orc, in an unfamiliar city, and no one there has ever heard of a latte. Legends and Lattes is a story about people, whether or not their pasts define who they can become, and the twists of fortune that bring them together.
Baldree does good work at quickly breathing life into the city of Thune and its inhabitants, and those inhabitants are where the novel truly shows its worth. Tandri, the succubus, who has to overcome the prejudice and assumptions levied at her because of her race; Cal, a hob woodworker with unbreakable work ethic; and even Pendry, a metalhead bard with social anxiety, make up only a few of these inhabitants, and their time spent with Viv in starting to get her new business up and running makes up the primary portion of this novel. With the help of her ragtag group of allies, Viv turns the shell of an abandoned livery into a wildly successful cafe that draws attention of residents all around the city of Thune. Alas, not all is well—the titular Legends and Lattes also draws the attention and suspicion of less savory characters, organized crime and old friends alike.
-Spoilers Ahead-
The primary conflicts of the novel revolve around Viv’s efforts to let go of her violent past, questioning whether it’s worth it to maintain her pride at the cost of the new life she holds dear, the question of whether the success of the cafe is really hers when the Scalvert’s Stone that brings good fortune is responsible for their luck, as well as a suspenseful back and forth with Fennis, a member of her old adventuring party. Fennis has suspicions in regard to the Scalvert’s Stone and wants to claim it for himself. After being caught in the act of trying to steal it, he turns to an age-old solution to not getting what you want: arson. After setting it aflame with magical fire, Fennis steals the Scalvert’s stone from Viv as she retrieves what she can from the blaze.
With her business burnt to the ground, Viv is left with nothing, but her friends drive her to build back up again. It’s revealed, ultimately, that the Scalvert’s Stone buried at a nexus of ley lines does not, in reality, bring good fortune- it brings people together, like to like. This is capped off with a wonderful sequence of rebuilding, physically and emotionally for the cafe and its cast of characters, who all come together to fix what was lost, and finally a humorous epilogue showing how Fennis’s dickish nature causes the Scalvert’s Stone to simply surround him with more shitty people.
There’s also a well executed will-they-won’t-they sapphic romance between Viv and Tandri that develops late in the novel, which Baldree had the respect and foresight not to sexualize in the slightest.
Overall, I greatly enjoyed and recommend Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree, and it was also a really good help in examining how I might try to portray more lighthearted characters and scenes within my own fantasy work. It also appears to have inspired other authors to create similar works, like the cozy LGBT novel Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea. Personally, I can’t wait to read more of Baldree’s work in the future.