Legends & Lattes -- a review

Travis Baldree's new novel, Legends & Lattes, is a nice change of pace from the usual fantasy story. Viv is a battle-weary Orc who dreams of opening a shop in the city of Thune. In this fantasy world of orcs, elves and real magic, Viv's shop will sell something that is completely unknown in this realm: coffee. Having discovered coffee during her travels as a sword for hire, Viv now wants to just settle down and run the first coffee shop.

This was a very pleasant and fun read that runs against the expected fantasy trope of the characters having to drop whatever mundane thing they're doing to run off and save the world. It works very well in making the mundane interesting by deftly describing Viv's journey into settling down in Thune, and setting up her shop. And Baldree's attention to detail makes this whole process engrossing to watch. The characters are richly fleshed out to where you're cheering for them to succeed--not only in running the store, but also falling for each other, as in the case with Viv and Tandri, her engaging shop assistant.

Legends & Lattes is a very comfty and cozy book--it's just the perfect thing to cuddle up with on a chilly night with a cup of tea (or coffee). It's highly recommended. --SF

Legends & Lattes is available here.

Comments

The Running Men -- a review (of both)

The Running Man was another book written by Stephen King under the Richard Bachman name, like The Long Walk, which had also been released as a movie in the Fall of 2025. Like The Long Walk , The Running Man takes place in a dystopian future where the United States has become an authoritarian nightmare where the majority of the population is just barely struggling to survive. But there's a short cut to great wealth, and that's the Running Man, a reality TV show where contestants have to survive a crazed game where they must dodge trained killers who are sent out to get them. And if the contestants lose, they die. The Running Man was turned into a movie once before, back in 1987, directed by Paul Michael Glaser (who played Starsky on the 1970s cop show Starsky & Hutch). It starred Arnold Schwarzenegger in the lead role as Ben Richards, a former police officer who has no choice but to join the show to stay alive after being framed. The '87 Running Man was...

The Housemaid

The Housemaid (from 2025—not to be confused with the 2010 film of the same name) is based on the first book in a psychological thriller series by author Freida McFadden. Sydney Sweeney stars as Millie Calloway. a young woman down on her luck who’s struggling after being released on parole from jail. While living in her car, Millie applies for a live-in maid position with a wealthy family, Nina (Amanda Seyfried) & Andrew (Brandon Sklenar) Winchester, and their young daughter, Cecelia (Indiana Elle) and—to her delight—she gets the job. But, of course, once Millie starts working her maid gig, that’s when the real horror show begins. Despite acting like she was in Millie’s corner in the beginning, Nina deliberately creates problems for Millie that make her look bad. It turns out that Nina is a whack-job who’s served time at a mental facility for trying to kill her own daughter when she was a baby, and now Nina’s got Millie in her sights. If The Housemaid sounds like some ...

Logan's Run -- a review

I first saw Logan’s Run in a New Jersey movie theater fifty years ago, when I was a boy. The theater, somewhere in the suburban wilds of the Garden State, was packed to the gills with people. I wasn’t sure what to expect with the movie back then—all I cared about that it was a brand new science fiction film, in an age when big budget SF properties on both TV and the big screen was very rare (of course, Star Wars , which would be released the very next year, would change all of that). Based on the 1967 novel of the same name by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson, Logan’s Run is a futuristic tale about a man named Logan 5 (Michael York) who has a special job in a place filled with hedonistic leisure. Logan lives within the splendor of a Utopian society whose population dwells within large domes. The interior is presented as a vast, upscale shopping mall where its citizens want for nothing. Every need, every whim, and every fantasy is met. Of course, there’s a catc...

The View From The Mountain

Search This Blog