Legends & Lattes
{4.5/5} “She ducked under the lintel and entered, and there was a momentary drop in the conversational volume, but Thune was pretty cosmopolitan, and orcs weren’t unknown, just a little unusual. The noise picked right back up. She took a deep breath and tried to relax her face into a non-threatening expression, something she’d been practicing.”
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, published in 2022
Viv is an orc who has retired from many years of adventuring. She takes care to find the right spot, and moves to Thune to open a coffee shop. She buys an old livery, and hires a man named Cal to do woodwork. He usually works on boats, but says he can do what she wants. She buries the Scalvert’s Stone she obtained on her last adventure and hopes it will help.
This novel is about starting fresh, friendship, and figuring out how to deal with a thorny problem.
With the fantasy land of Peter S. Beagle and the friendliness of Becky Chambers, it’s a delightful story. I hope to read more books by Baldree.
This is the 1st book I’ve read by Baldree.
My edition also contains the story “Pages to Fill,” set in the same world before the events of the novel — it is similarly fun.