{"id":46415,"date":"2026-06-08T22:38:33","date_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:38:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46415"},"modified":"2026-06-08T22:38:33","modified_gmt":"2026-06-09T02:38:33","slug":"review-of-legends-and-lattes-by-travis-baldree","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?p=46415","title":{"rendered":"Review of Legends and Lattes, by Travis Baldree"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/legends_and_lattes_large.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/legends_and_lattes_large.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-46599\" srcset=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/legends_and_lattes_large.jpg 250w, https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/legends_and_lattes_large-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><em>Legends and Lattes<\/em><\/p>\n<p>by Travis Baldree<br \/>\nread by the Author<\/p>\n<p>Macmillan Audio, 2022.  7 hours, 19 minutes.<br \/>\nReview written April 15, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.<br \/>\nStarred Review<\/p>\n<p>I discovered Travis Baldree from an interview in <em>Writer&#8217;s Digest Magazine<\/em>.  When they described his books as &#8220;cozy fantasy,&#8221; I decided to try them, and I am completely delighted.  When I read this one, I wished I had started with it, instead of the prequel, <em><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/bookshops_and_bonedust.html\">Bookshops and Bonedust<\/a><\/em> &#8211; which in the Epilogue gives away a bit of how things turn out, so I wasn&#8217;t in as much suspense.  But it was a minor thing and didn&#8217;t ruin my complete delight with this book.<\/p>\n<p><em>Legends &#038; Lattes<\/em> is about an orc woman named Viv who gives up the sword-for-hire life and settles down to start a coffee shop &#8211; in a city that&#8217;s never heard of coffee.<\/p>\n<p>In her last adventure with the band of mercenaries, her only payment was an artifact that is supposed to bring good fortune.  But she&#8217;s got a lot of obstacles &#8211; an old shop to renovate, some way to drum up business, and people to work with.  The people she does find are what make the book especially delightful.  There&#8217;s a gnome who does construction, a succubus to help run things, and a ratkin who makes amazing pastries to go with the coffee.<\/p>\n<p>But Viv also has to deal with the syndicate running the city and someone who seems to be after her artifact.  Will everything fall apart if she loses that token of good fortune?<\/p>\n<p>I enjoyed the way the gnome called coffee &#8220;bean juice&#8221; and Viv&#8217;s explanation that &#8220;Latte&#8221; was named after the person who invented it.  Viv&#8217;s got some insecurities trying to be a business owner after years of using force to do things.  And definitely has to deal with other people seeing her as a stereotype.  Getting to know all the characters in this book was as delightful as eating a chocolate croissant.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.travisbaldree.com\/\">travisbaldree.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/exec\/obidos\/ASIN\/B0B3G97QY1\/sonderbooksco-20\" target=\"outside\">Buy from Amazon.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Find this review on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\">Sonderbooks<\/a> at: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/legends_and_lattes.html\">www.sonderbooks.com\/Fiction\/legends_and_lattes.html<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Disclosure: I am an Amazon Affiliate, and will earn a small percentage if you order a book on Amazon after clicking through from my site.<\/p>\n<p>Disclaimer:  I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/?page_id=23\">Subscribe<\/a> for more reviews and talk about books.<\/p>\n<p>Join the conversation: What did you think of this book?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree read by the Author Macmillan Audio, 2022. 7 hours, 19 minutes. Review written April 15, 2026, from a library eaudiobook. Starred Review I discovered Travis Baldree from an interview in Writer&#8217;s Digest Magazine. When they described his books as &#8220;cozy fantasy,&#8221; I decided to try them, and I am [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39,9,5,42],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-46415","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audiobooks","category-fantasy","category-fiction-review","category-starred-review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=46415"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46415\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46600,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46415\/revisions\/46600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=46415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=46415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sonderbooks.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=46415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}