[Review] Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree

Retired mercenary orc, Viv, decides to open a coffee shop with the aid of a relic from her last mission that promises to bring luck and fortune.

This book follows the growing family among the workers and customers of Viv’s coffee shop, Legends and Lattes, and the echoes of unfinished business from Viv’s previous life that threaten her newfound peace and stability. With a side of tasty pastries.

Review

Full disclosure – I read this with two of my friends as a buddy read, and their opinions probably influenced mine as well.

There are three very specific things that I liked about this book, which is probably a bad sign – usually it’s hard to pick out specifically what is good about something… unless the general vibe is not-so-good.

Thing 1: Thimble!

Thimble is the quiet, coffee-loving master baker/patissier. Not only is he adorable, he also bakes the most delicious treats.

Thing 2: The menu!

I really liked the use of the menu as a sort of pacing tool in this book. Growth in the story and friend group is marked by the addition of something new to the menu of the cafe, and I just found this really sweet.

Thing 3: One really nice line…

The writing in general in this book is pretty decent – nothing to criticise, not much that particularly stands out, and easy to read. However, there was one particular line that I did really like.

Tandri recovered some of the pieces of a smile.

I just find this a really beautiful description.

Thing 4: Cats 🐈

The big cat that protects the cafe. Obviously, because cats.

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The biggest complaint that I have about this book is that it hits a bit flat. I just… don’t care? Except about Thimble. Nothing that happens to the characters makes me happy or sad for them, I’m not rooting for any of their relationships or desires. I just read the events and move on (except for Thimble who has…. limited page time, let’s say). I genuinely don’t care or really believe in the relationships between the main character and the love interest either, which is… not great, even if the romance isn’t the focus of the story.

The conflict is weak too. I know this is a cozy read, but if it’s supposed to be cozy and you don’t want too much tension, don’t introduce life-threatening high stakes situations. If you do, please develop them into something other than a formulaic issue to be ticked off a list within a couple of pages or so. There was no tension and no real depth of emotion – any internal conflict seemed to be solved simply by someone saying “it’s okay to feel like that”… which, how great would it be if that worked. It just left the book feeling a little bit surface-level and trite, in my opinion.

My final small complaint before we get into the potentially slightly problematic part of the book is the name they gave the cafe? Legends and Lattes? Really? The other options they suggested like “Calamity Coffee” or even just “Coffee” are better. Just saying. (No, this did not affect my rating of the book overall – I’m not that petty.)

Perhaps the biggest issue with the book was the way it dealt with the Madrigal and her mafia-adjacent organisation that demands Viv and her neighbours pay a protection fee. Light spoilers here but I think it’s important enough to mention anyway.

At the beginning, Viv is shown to be staunchly against giving in to this organisation and paying the fee, but in the end she accepts the existence of the organisation as the lesser evil compared to some of the other antagonists she faces and is happy enough to pay her fee in pastries instead. In the end, the Madrigal is even depicted as a positive influence on Viv, part of the community she has built around her in some way at least.

This might not have bothered me as much if I hadn’t been reading the book as a buddy read with one of my friends who is from Sicily, home of mafia, and who found this portrayal of organised crime very unsettling and problematic. I’m not an authority on the subject, but based on how upset/annoyed it made her, I do think it’s something to keep in mind – in the real world, the mafia are not your friends. They are not a force for good, and they certainly aren’t going to be appeased by a couple of free croissants, no matter how good they taste.

And it’s not like this is some soft mafia that doesn’t pose any real threat – Viv’s neighbours warn her to pay the fee or else. There is definitely a threat there, which is just ignored later on, despite Viv’s strong principles about not capitulating to such threats in the beginning. At the very least this is poor internal consistency, which irked me even

before listening to my friend’s concerns.

Verdict

In conclusion, a shorter version of this would make a great epilogue or novella as part of a longer book or series, where the time and tension is present to make me care about the characters, but by itself it just falls flat. Still an easy, quick, somewhat fun read, but not something I’m going to remember or purchase (I borrowed this from the library).

Based on that alone, I would give it three stars (or 3 coffee beans hehe), although I am really tempted to start giving 2.5 stars again solely because of my friend’s concerns about the “mafia” representation (I usually only do full stars except for 3.5). So somewhere between 2.5 and 3.

Hopefully my next cosy fantasy is a bit more to my tastes, but at least this was still fairly painless to read!