Thanks to Pan Macmillan, Travis Baldree and NetGalley for this ARC, in return for my honest review.

4.5 stars rounded up.

This book was the perfect prequel to Legend and Lattes! Set 20 years prior to Viv setting up her coffee shop, this book explores her days recovering from an injury in the seaside town of Murk. This book had the same feel as L&L, a cosy read that you can easily fly through! We had a cute little bookshop that Viv helped revive, a mouth watering bakery, found family and a hint of adventure.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book and the little update on Viv and Tandri at the end was perfect. I will be keeping my eyes peeled for that third book!

I was pleasantly suprised to find that I got accepted to read an eARC of Bookshops and Bonedust on Netgalley! Bookshops & Bonedust is the upcoming prequel to Legends & Lattes, a cosy fantasy novel by Travis Baldree. I loved Legends & Lattes and so was excited to get straight into the prequel! Here were my thoughts! ☕️

Bookshops & Bonedust takes place 20 years before Legends & Lattes, and so we get to see Viv in action in her younger years! After a mission gone wrong, Viv finds herself alone in a quiet beach town nursing an injury that means she can't do much but wait. But we all know our Viv, and she ends up on a mysterious journey, filled with blossoming friendships, crumbling bookshops and even potential romance 👀 And with a mysterious foe, there's also an element of danger that threatens Viv's newly found happiness...

When I saw this was a prequel, I was excited to get a chance to see parts of Viv's past but also nervous because I didn't to leave the characters that I had gotten to love behind. Of course, I shouldn't have been worried because if there's one thing Travis Baldree does really well, it's write friendships! I loved the relationships that Viv built with her new friends, and I loved the added aspect of danger that raised the stakes!

I preferred Legends & Lattes as I did find this harder to get into initially. It was a slow start for me, but I soon got into it and found it a delightful addition to Viv's story! My absolute favourite character was Satchel and I would devour a spin-off based on him (cough cough @travis_baldree 👀). An excitingly charming tale that ended on an epilogue with much promise 👀

I would recommend this book for anyone who loved Legends & Lattes, who wants to read about beautiful friendships, the love of books and a brief but impactful romance 💕

4/5 ⭐️‘s

Thank you to Netgalley, Pan Macmillan and Tor for allowing me the opportunity to read this eARC in return for a fair and honest review 🤍

Bookshops and Bonedust will release on 09/11/23.

Many thanks to Pan Macmillan and Travis Baldree for the advanced copy of Bookshops and Bonedust via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

Oh, this book was simply delightful. I love this new (to me) genre of cosy high fantasy and I hope Travis Baldree keeps giving us more.

This book came at exactly the right time for me. Having had abdominal surgery, I was on a minimum of two weeks’ bedrest. I saved this book for the first day that the drugs had worn off enough to be able to read a paragraph and not have to go back and read it again 30 seconds later. There was only one problem…I finished it by day four of bedrest. Had I not needed a nap, it would have been day three. But it was exactly the right thing for being stuck in bed. It’s happy, it’s cosy, it’s all wrapped up by the end of the book.

I had not expected this book to be a prequel but Baldree pulled it off really well. If being really picky and comparing this with Legends & Lattes, I would say that L&L is still the better of the two, written with slightly more heart and soul. When reading the author’s note at the end, you can see the journey Baldree took to write the book, which may explain why B&B maybe lacks some of the depth and heart, but it does contain more adventurous spirit.

Whether this means that this diverges a little from the ‘cozy’ genre, I don’t know, but I loved it all the same. More please!

Moods: adventurous, funny, lighthearted, happy, cozy
Pace: medium
Character development: medium
Plot or character driven: 50/50
Diversity: high
Spice: 1/5
Trigger warnings: None

Rating 5/5

This was just as cosy as the first book with similar enjoyable themes. However, a sequel may have been better than a prequel as this being a prequel made the stakes even lower for an already low-stakes premise. It also made it difficult to get invested in any relationships our MC was forming as we knew she wouldn't stay.

<i>Legends and Lattes</i> was one of my favourite books of last year and I was super excited when I learned that Baldree was working on a prequel. With some books, it's one hit and then the moment can never be recaptured. For whatever reason, everything aligns for that one book - the author was in the right headspace, the reader is ready for just that book, the market is delivered something it didn't even know it was hungry for. And then nothing quite hits the same vein afterwards. I am happy to report that is not the case here. <i>Bookshops and Bonedust</i> has a slightly different feel to the book it prequels but that actually works in its favour.

The story is set twenty years prior to L&L and follows a much younger and more impetuous Viv who has just begun her career as a mercenary. A bout of recklessness sees her seriously injured and she is left by her comrades in a quiet seaside town to recover. Not much ever really happens in Murk - that's exactly how Gatewarden and general ballbreaker Iridia likes it. In pain and bored Viv accidentally befriends a despondent bookseller whose shop is on the verge of going bust. From there the story becomes the warm, cosy confection we've all been craving with a few good twists. It's partly a 'finding yourself' story, partly a fixer upper story. Partly a bittersweet coming of age. It's full of found family, delicious pastries, books and cosy vibes. Oh and there's a necromancer floating around who needs dealing with too. Can the injured Viv learn to lead with her wits rather than her brawn though? Find out when this drops in November (I pity everyone who didn't get an arc and has to wait). Great book. Highly recommend.

I absolutely adored the first book, but this one was hard to get into. I didn't love the swearing, it didn't feel cosy, and the characters weren't as likeable as in the first book.

I had heard a lot about this book, so I decided to try it,

This was a really fun fantasy read, with plenty of talk about books and bookshops. The world created by the author felt like an escape while I was reading. I believe this is the sequel to a previous book - Legends & Lattes, which I hadn't initially realised. I would have liked to read that one first, but I still liked this a lot.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publishers for a free copy to review.

Thank you netgalley for gifting me this ARC in return for an honest review. Firstly there is some aspects I absolutely adore and some I didn't care for. Starting of strong is the character work. Every character in this book has such a presence about them. They fit so perfectly within the story. The different fantastical creatures and how they all just worked together. I am a character driven reader so liking character is a must and connecting with them personally is something I always love to feel while reading. And although I haven't been in the same situations as these characters, you really get attached to them and how they feel. The writing is great, all flows Really well and I never felt disjointed from the story. Really easy but great writing style especially for a cozy fantasy. The only small issue I had with this was the actual plot. I loved the bookshop aspect and helping out and the reason why they were in town in the first place, but I was bored with the plot. Luckily I love the characters and vibes of the book but I wouldn't expect a huge plot in this one. Overall really enjoyed my experience and the little chapter at the end that tied it all together made me tear up. I love the world and if there are anymore books within this world I will definitely be reading.

I didn't think I would enjoy another book as much as Legends and Lattes but boy was I wrong. I loved this book just as much. I really hope Travis writes more of Vivs stories and travels as the writing is just so magical and cosy. One of my top 2023 reads:)

Perfect vibes, absolutely cosy and just the best read for a rainy summer day (at least when I read it, it was a rainy day!). Really enjoyed knowing more about this fantasy world and its characters!

We follow Viv before the opening of her coffee shops, so it is a good amount of nostalgia if we take it this way. There are new sets of characters, new low stake challenges and all in all, amazing found family bonds!

It can be read with L&L, perfectly works as a standalone too!

I was worried going into this as I found Legends & Lattes slightly lacklustre but this was so far improved. It still manages to encapsulate the cozy-fantasy vibes of the first book but the stakes even being marginally higher made the book much more enjoyable.

This felt very much like the middle act of a book which is exactly what it was designed to be. Unlike L&L I thought there was so much more plot here and that made the difference between the two. I loved all the different plots - the reviving of the bookshop itself, Viv's romance with Maylee, and the whole plot with Varine and how that developed. It still managed to stay low stakes as a prequel but there was something to keep you interested the whole way through. I also hugely preferred the relationship between Viv and Maylee than with Tandri in L&L - you could tell from the first meeting that their relationship was romantic and it developed nicely throughout the book.

I also really enjoyed the unhappy ending and thought it was an interestingly compelling ending to a cozy fantasy book. Knowing from the start that Viv is going to leave and go back to Rackham before settling down and opening a coffee shop actually added to the relationships she built throughout this book and made you feel them much more keenly throughout.

My biggest issue with this book was that none of this is ever mentioned in L&L to my recollection and it very much feels like a prequel that's been written for the sake of it and not because it was built into the original story. For a period of time that changed Viv's life so much, the fact that she never mentions Fern, Maylee or Satchel feels wrong, and it also feels like Murk would have been a much likelier place for Viv to settle down and open her coffee shop.

Overall, a much improved story from Baldree and I think anyone who found Legends & Lattes slightly lacking will really enjoy this and should definitely give it a go.

This was such a cosy and lovely book - I enjoyed it so much!
The story follows Viv, an orc mercenary when she is injured and stays in a seaside town called Murk to recuperate. Here she befriends the local bookshop owner and steadily helps her to renovate her bookshop, with a bit of adventure and sapphic summer romance on the side. This is the first cosy fantasy book I have read and I was never bored as the plot is well paced and the characters are instantly lovable!
The heart of this book is the friendships that Viv forms and how she steadily matures as a character.
I haven't read legends and lattes but I don't feel like I needed to to enjoy this story and it works perfectly well as a standalone.

Bookshops & Bonedust find Viv stranded in the small town of Murk when she is injured on a job with the mercenary company Rackam's Ravens. Here she is annoyed to find herself stuck recuperating until they come back. Spending her time in the struggling bookshop with Fern the colourful proprietor. It is the last place Viv would have thought she would be but could be exactly what she needs. Things are not quiet for long, a strange man in grey, a Gnome with an attitude, and a dwarf running the local bakery. Her recuperation could be a lot more eventful than she thought.

This book had a lot to live up to, I read Legends & Lattes in a day and loved it. My first entry in the genre of cozy fantasy. This prequel shows Viv when she was more headstrong and in the prime of her mercenary life. It's a good way to get a look at how Viv came to be the way she was in Legends. Baldree does it again building a group of ragtag people that we can adventure with. There is more action in this book and the stakes are higher. The new cast is interesting and left me feeling connected to each of them. One of them, in particular, I recognised from legends. This book plants the seeds that lead Viv to seek out a new life in legends & lattes.
The action is paced really well in this one and there is still the "cozy" feeling with a fantasy book that isn't a 5 book series or about the end of the world as we know it, but still has some really good conflict and higher stakes than in the first one.

I really enjoyed this book. Great character development and a satisfying story arc. I will definitely be buying it as soon as it comes out to put it in my library next to Legends and I would recommend you do the same.

If you like cozy fantasy with interesting characters and setting, this is the book for you. 

If you would like to read more reviews/book news please visit www.hardbackpaperback.co.uk

It was nice reading about Viv’s life before Legends & Lattes and I thought that this was a pretty nice book. I did love L&L more though!

Bookshops & Bonedust - 3.75⭐️

Bookshops & Bonedust follows Viv’s life before she sets up Legends & Lattes, a prequel to the coffee loving orc we all know and love.

In this book, we follow Viv’s journey to recovery after a battle injury in the small, quiet beach town of Murk, way before she lands in Thune. Just like in L&L we have the perfect found family trope going on and the friendships in this book were so lovely.

I was worried when I first began this that it was very similar to L&L and we’d just have a carbon copy. Cal and Pitt’s characters in particular were very similar. However, once it got going, it soon became more of an adventure and I found myself falling in love with potty mouth Fern and Satchel in particular.

The stakes felt slightly higher in this one, something I feel that L&L lacked a little. Don’t hate me, I LOVED L&L for the cute, cosy, nostalgic, ‘felt like a hug’ kinda feel, but it was a little slow in places. Travis still did a great job of balancing Viv’s backstory before settling down with the cosy fantasy story that he knew we all were hoping for.

My fave part was the epilogue! I loved seeing how Viv and the other characters of both books came together. Looking forward to reading more from @travis_baldree in the future.

Thank you to @netgalley and @panmacmillan for a copy of Bookshops & Bonedust. It was a pleasure to read!

This author has done it again - a light-hearted fantasy read with mild romance and some light action.

Everything about this book reflects the scenery. Bookshops and Bonedust is set in a sleepy seaside town called Murk. And because of this I felt like the pacing of this books was slightly slower then the last but I enjoyed Vivs prequel all the same. In this book she is at the start of her mercenary journey, fit keen and raring to go, she's in a completely different headspace to the previous book. And I think it's great to see that.

I love that we meet some characters/objects and nuggets from the last book.

Viv whilst injured helps the local bookstore get back on its feet and again finds good friends and forges great bonds with the people she meets along the way. She also discovers a love of stories, and I loved reading about a non reader falling in love with books.

This is a warm hug in book form. Again, will it change your life...? No, but if you're looking for something light, this mild fantasy is for you!

What a treat to spend time with a younger Viv, and find out a bit more about her life before she settled down and opened up a coffee shop. The stakes are higher in Bookshops and Bonedust, with a dark magical threat inching ever closer to the sleepy seaside town of Murk, where Viv is holed up after sustaining a nasty injury while on the road with the mercenary company, Rackham's Ravens. (But, as this is a prequel, there's a good chance things will work out for Viv and her friends). To pass time as she recovers (and to distract her from her anxiety that Rackham won't come back to get her), she befriends the local bookseller, Fern, and we get to spend time in the bookshop, which is a joy - Baldree's description of the somewhat disorganised second-hand bookshop made me want to head straight down to my local store and just hang out with the books for a while. Even with the impending threat, It's sweet and funny (Viv discovers romance books, which made me giggle), and a great prequel.

It was so lovely to be back in this cosy little world with Viv & new friends!

Honestly I went into this with some trepidation, I loved Legends & Lattes a lot so I was quite concerned that this prequel wouldn’t live up to my somewhat high expectations, however Travis has met these with ease!

Does it give you the same warm fuzzy feelings that L&L gave? No, but it comes pretty close!

The stakes feel higher in this book which I actually liked, the plot was well paced & the new cast of characters were delightful!

My only small criticism is the overuse of the word “moist”, it’s just a word that grates me & it was used quite a lot!

Thank you to Tor/Pan Macmillan and Netgalley for the opportunity to review this ARC.

I didn't think I could love a sequel even more than the first book. But Travis Baldree as usual exceeds all expectations.

Legends and Lattes was the perfect introduction into the universe and the characters, and I loved that the sequel was actually a prequel because once you love a character, even though you do want to see what lies next for them, you also want to see how they turned out the way they are now. And Bookshops and Bonedust does exactly that. Travis Baldree has consecutively hit the mark on my (and possibly most readers) two favourite things in the world: coffee and books/bookstores.

Love, love, love the book.

Also, who else desperately needs a plushie of Satchel, like yesterday?

”So you want to do battle with the bookselling business?"

Thank you to Tor for providing an arc in exchange for a review.

After storming through The Poppy War, I needed this. A lowstake, dungeons-and-dragons-esque, cozy fantasy all about a recovering orc and a debilitating bookstore that needs a bit of a fixer upper.

”You know, books are what brought me to you.”
“Mmm. Not coffee?"
“Long before that."
“I guess I'm thankful then."
Viv thought about that for a moment. "Actually, it was probably getting stabbed in the leg that did it." And as Tandri laughed, waiting for the full story, Viv was grateful for all the wrong times that had led to this right one.

Fern is who I aspire to be in life. She is keen to recommend books tailored to a customer’s tastes. She’s primed and ready and loves hearing what others think of books, characters, and themes to provide even better books the next time around.

"Every book is a little mirror, and sometimes you look into it and see someone else looking back."

Baldree is a cultivator of atmosphere and location. I just wanted to curl up in this quiet seaside town with a book with a steaming bag of sweet cinnamon buns from the bakery next door.

Fishing boats nibbled against the pilings like minnows after bread…

Whilst this didn’t live up to my nostalgia and feelings of warmth and comfort of Legends and Lattes, this was a two-sitting reading perfect for the drizzly morning I picked it up on!

”It got me through a rough day and then some. I've never really read like that… just to read.”