Sometimes I aimlessly scroll through Amazon’s section of queer romance books to see if there’s anything noteworthy that I haven’t discovered in the book shop yet and that doesn’t scream „SPICE“ loudly and clearly. During one such scrolling sessions, I stumbled across Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes and I was intrigued immediately. When I found it in the local bookshop, I bought it – and then it rested for a while in my bookshelf before I finally made a move to read it.
The plot
Orc Viv is somehow sick of her life. After hunting beasts and doing quests for years, she feels like she needs to do and see something else. So after accomplishing yet another mission, she leaves her party behind, takes a mysterious Scalvert’s Stone with her and heads to a quiet, unspectacular town with one aim: Viv wants to open a coffee shop. Only that most people don’t even know what coffee is, so basically her plan is yet another voyage into the unknown, as she has no idea if her business idea will be successful – or how to run said business at all.
Good for her that the people in town are mostly kind and supportive, so that she quickly gathers a new party around herself who help her set up and run her own coffee shop. But the peaceful quiet is an illusion – danger is lurking behind the next corner.
… and that’s basically about it. Yes, this is – more or less – a cozy fantasy about an orc opening a coffee shop. On top of it, it’s queer, although the romance plays only a minor role in this book. The plot itself is hence not very outstanding. If you’re looking for cozy, it’s your story. If you’re looking for fantasy (or romantasy) – not so much. The characters might be fantastic (we have an orc and a succubus running a coffee shop supported by a rattling and their coffee machine was made by dwarves), but that’s about it. The setting is as mundane as it could be and magic only plays a minor role in this book. So if your personal focus is on fantasy, the book will probably not speak to you as much.
But it is definitely cozy. Cozy up to the point that I personally thought it was dragging on a bit. We watch Viv and her new found friends build her coffee shop, work her way peacefully through the threat of the local … neighbourhood watch, one could say, and then almost be defeated by a villain. And even that is peaceful and somewhat disheartening and heart-wrenching at best. But the entire book is just cozy and peaceful, there’s no real threat and no real tension and for me, personally, that was a key reason why it took me quite a while to finish the book. Not because I didn’t enjoy it, nope. It was nice and relaxing to read (except for the part with the villain, which honestly pissed me off because I read it while I was ill and already upset and damn, I was getting only more upset because of the book). But there was nothing to drag me on. It was lacking something that keeps you from putting it away. That something that forces you to read through the night.
And especially in the beginning, it felt a little dragging in general and I needed a while to get into the story. All in all, reading the book felt more like playing a cozy game in which you have to build your own coffee shop and learn how to make that business bloom.
Yet, the book had one major strength that only added to its coziness:
The characters
As I have already mentioned, the cast of characters is what makes the book fantastic to some extent. Our protagonists Viv and Tandri are an orc and a succubus. And both of them are written absolutely lovely. So is Cal, a helping hand Viv meets quite early in the new town and who lends her a hand while building her shop. The coffee shop’s neighbour Laney only shows up occasionally, but she’s just as lovely as every other inhabitant of the city. And let’s not talk about Thimble, the quiet rattling that turns out to be the best damn baker the world has ever seen. The way Thimble is characterised is just purely adorable.
Then there’s Amity, the Dire Cat, which was another character with „favourite character“ potential. At least until Pendry the bard (the rockstar bard!) shows up and climbs that throne. Only to be kicked down by the next character. And the next character. And the next.
Even Viv’s old party members are lovely. They’re not even particularly angry at Viv for leaving them behind without saying a word. Instead, they’re understanding and nice and help her out when she needs it. With only one exception, and that’s basically the villain of the book: Fennus is the literal only character in the entire book that is not just unlikeable, but straight-forwardly despicable.
But other than that, every single character in this story is pure joy and love and oh so positive! I can’t. I honestly can’t.
I like fantasy stories, I like queer romance and as a former fanfiction reader and writer with an affection for the coffee shop AU trope, I definitely fell for that book when I found it. I loved every single character, I mostly enjoyed reading the story, yet I still have to admit that I was disappointed. My expectations were high, probably because I had also read so many positive remarks about the book which might’ve hyped up my expectations. I don’t know. It was a nice read, but not the kind of book I’d finish being sad that the story was over. For my liking, even a cozy book could have at least a little more tension.
And also I am personally offended that there was somehow no closure with whatever outcome for the plot line of Pendry and his fangirl. And also that I never fully understood the thing with the chess game.