I wanted to love this book as much as the first, but it didn't grab me as well. The world is enjoyable and the characters delightful, but the magic of the previous book was missing a little. This is a solid 4-star book, but Legend & Lattes was a 4.5, almost 5-star book for me. I was surprised because, as someone who loves books and not so much coffee, I thought I would love this one even more.

Viv, this time, is a headstrong new adventure instead of a wisened one, and I think that makes a difference. She isn't trying to reinvent herself but instead wants to go straight back to the adventuring life after an injury. I did love her relationship with the townspeople, especially with the baker and the bookshop owner. I like Viv slowly falling in love with books, though I think it doesn't capture the magic of discovering a book, as well as the previous book captured the feeling of coffee. The fantasy adventure plot was more prevalent throughout the story, which made sense, with Viv still adventuring in her prime.

Overall, it was very enjoyable but not as wonderful as the first.

4.5/5, rounded up.

In Bookshops & Bonedust, we see Viv before she opens her legendary coffee shop in Legends & Lattes. She's new to the mercenary industry, and Rackam's Ravens, and gets injured on her first mission. Rackam leaves her to heal in a seaside village called Murk. Viv fears she won't be able to return to the life she'd always wanted, but she makes the best of her situation by making friends with the local bookshop owner, Fern.

Fern is a foulmouthed rattkin whose shop has seen better days. Viv decides to use her skills and free time to help revive the old shop. Meanwhile, Fern gives Viv new books to read in exchange for the help. All is going well until a mysterious traveler in gray shows up in town and causes a ruckus.

Viv suspects this traveler's appearance is connected to the necromancer she and Rackam's Ravens were hunting, so it's up to her to take her nemesis down.

If you loved Legends & Lattes, I hope you'll feel the same about Bookshops & Bonedust. I could read a dozen books set in this universe and still feel entertained. This is the perfect book to pick up on a chilly day, so grab some coffee and pick it up when it's released on November 7!

Thank you to NetGalley and Tor Books for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was a pretty great sequel, though it didn't quite live up to 'Legends and Lattes.' I really loved the new characters introduced, particularly the bookshop owner and her little creature. He was adorable! The cozy vibes were pretty immaculate, but (like with 'Legends and Lattes') I wanted even MORE cozy and less action, much as I know that puts me in the minority.

Bookshops and Bonedust is the prequel I never knew I wanted, but needed in the end. When I heard another book was coming out in the Legends and Lattes world I was instantly hooked. And the vibes of this one were just what I was hoping for. It offered a fresh story with Viv and brought about more enchanting characters for us to fall in love with. The pacing and story are still similar to L&L and unique at the same time. The ending now has me hungry for a 3rd book in the L&L universe. I need to know if Fern does comes back and opens shop next to the cafe!

As a huge fan of Legends & Lattes, I was worried about what book 2 would be about. Viv and Tandri seemed to have their happily ever after at the end of book 1. I hated to see anything bad happen to them.

Bookshops & Bonedust was a wonderful surprise! Filling in the beginning of Viv's time with Rackham's Ravens. The book opens with the Ravens going after Varine the evil necromancer, chasing her across the countryside and fighting wights. Viv in her youth charges recklessly ahead and is wounded. She is saved at the last minute by Rackham. Forced to recuperate in the town of Murk while the rest of the Ravens hunt for Varine, Viv is pouting and depressed. She is worried Rackham will not return to collect her in Murk and she is also bored out of her mind. Viv has always been a doer and a fighter. Her muscles have done the talking for her and to be laid low and weak with such an injury is humbling.

Once Viv is well enough to venture out from her inn she haltingly explores the edges of Murk and finds a bakery and a run down bookstore. Fern the ratkin running the bookstore challenges Viv to try a book in such a way that Viv can't refuse. Fern has a talent for suggesting just the right book that will hook customers, unfortunately she has no customers. A bored Viv decides to help Fern by fixing up the shop, the activity will also keep Viv in shape.

As Viv gets better she explores further and discovers a man in Murk that smells like Varine. She chases him and they come to blows. Both of them are thrown in the jail by the gatewarderns. When the man escapes and then is found murdered, they know Varine is close.

Bookshops & Bonedust was so much fun, I hated for it to end. Can't wait for another from Travis Baldree.

Thanks to NetGalley & Tor Publishing Group for the early copy in exchange for an honest review.

I'll have to admit, I was a bit bored by the action and intrigue. I wanted more cozy fantasy, ha. I wanted more of the bookstore and I felt like it kept taking a backseat to the fight scenes which is fine and all....but I liked the first one for its coziness.

✨BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST" by Travis Baldree✨

Huge shoutout to @TorBooks for granting me access to the E-ARC via @NetGalley, and to @LibroFM for the ALC! Baldree's written storytelling is immersive in itself and has the same cozy vibes with an adventurous twist as Legends & Lattes but as with the first, the real magic is in the narration, folks! 🎙️🎧

Bookshops & Bonedust exists in the same world as Legends & Lattes, taking us on a journey before Viv's retirement as a barista. Viv is sent to recover in the sleepy town of Murk, encountering new faces (and a summer fling), a weathered yet charming book store, heavenly pastries, and some insight on how some familiar friends came to be!

This tale has a major focus on community and friendship, and the importance of slowing down to honor your needs. Fair warning: it's totally binge worthy. The pace is a bit slower, but delving into Viv's backstory amps up the intrigue. And learning the importance of the word "MOIST" is a must 💦🤣

Cozy low stakes mixed with epic high fantasy? For you L&L stans, this one is for you – mark your calendars: dropping on Nov 7, 2023! 🗓️🎉

"Bookshops & Bonedust" is a prequel to the adorable "Legends and Lattes". While there's much of the same vibe to be found here as in its predecessor (small stakes, endearing characters, slow-pacing), this one didn't land quite as perfectly for me. It's going to be a "it's me, not you" thing - the issue with being a prequel is, of course, you know exactly how it ends up. It minimizes plot, it makes characters that don't appear in the "sequel" feel less consequential. I enjoyed this one, but didn't love it as a result. However, I encourage anyone who enjoyed L&L to give this one a shot - maybe I'm just going to be the odd one out, here.

3.5 out of 5, rounded up!

Another cozy, comfort-centric book in the world of Legends & Lattes, this time set in the early days of Viv the orc's adventuring career, when she's much more action-oriented and spoiling for a fight, which in the opening pages of this book gets her badly wounded and laid up in a convenient nearby small town where there isn't much to do. This time around, the shop she winds up focusing on is a bookstore, where a different ratkin from the one in L&L (and pretty much his polar opposite — garrulous instead of near-mute, profane instead of shy) is depressed over watching her late father's business go downhill, and Viv starts to make suggestions and changes.

Just as with L&L, the comfort elements here are from the sense that every character in this book has an unmet need that gets fulfilled in some way, often in ways they weren't expecting and couldn't predict, but that they find satisfying and life-changing. And then there's the sense that this is a renovation game, where the bookstore gets a makeover while Viv herself learns satisfying new things about herself and other people. It isn't hugely complex or in-depth, but these all seem like fundamentally nice people with straightforward yearnings, and it's pleasant to see them all having their lives improved.

The biggest difference here is that the book's threat is a lot keener and its action is more intense, thanks to an evil necromancer who's lurking in the background and whose decisions keep looming into Viv's life. There's a real "When will the shoes drop?" tension to this book that L&L only barely had, and when the shoes come, they're pleasantly unnerving, with higher stakes than L&L's focus on one of Viv's less pleasant companions-in-arms. All in all, a satisfying read that goes darker than the first book, but not so dark as to lose the cozy "Watching people improve each others' lives and their own" feeling.

If you found 𝘓𝘦𝘨𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘴 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘓𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘴 to be a thoroughly cozy comfort read like I did, then you will not be disappointed with 𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐬 & 𝐁𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐬𝐭 (Pub 11.07)

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

A charmingly diverse cast comes together to rebuild an adorable bookstore while experiencing first loves and adventure all while unsuspectedly soaking up life lessons. It made me smile, giggle and warm on the inside. I guess cozy, low stakes fantasy is this non-fantasy reader's cat nip.

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃: Print and Audio. Thank you to @tor for the ARC and @macmillianaudio for the ALC.

𝐀𝐔𝐃𝐈𝐎: I knew that author Travis Baldree was an audiobook narrator but this was my first experience with his narration. WOW & OMG. All the stars. I would like to request that he record 𝘓𝘰𝘯𝘦𝘴𝘰𝘮𝘦 𝘋𝘰𝘷𝘦 for a re-release. Please and thank you.

𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄: While this is technically a prequel, I would read them in publication order. L&L first, then B&B.

Okay I am probably going to start a riot with this but I was a little disappointed in this book.... hear me out before you freak out! I still really enjoyed this book i did but I felt it just wasn't as good the Legends and Lattes. The first book was so warm; it felt like the first sip of coffee on a cold morning or reading a book during a gloomy day. It was absolutely perfect in its comfort. This book was lacking some of that. It was still good. I will always adore Viv with all my soul and young Viv is just was loveable. I just didn't feel this book in the same way I felt the first one. Please don't let that stop you though cause this book is still absolutely amazing!

I so wanted to love this book as much as I did Legends and Lattes, but it just didn’t hook me in like the last one. It still has the same cozy, meandering vibes but felt much slower than the last one. So much slower. I’ll probably give this one a try again later in case it just wasn’t the right time. Maybe the second time is the charm.

In Travis Baldree's sequel (prequel), to Legends and Lattes, we find a younger Viv healing from a battle wound and finding love and herself. This book was a little slower at the start than Legends and Lattes, but I felt that the action was better as well as the mystery. As Viv has to investigate a stranger in the town connected to the necromancer she was hunting, she uses both her wits, strength, and network of friends to save her new town.

Always the restless soul, Viv also finds love, but knows it will be a short-term plan. I thought the epilogue did an excellent job of tying Baldree's world together and building this larger universe he has created. Like Legends, his characters are well-written and give this story so much heart.

oh friends, this is for sure one of the best books of 2023. this first prequel in this adored world won me over even more than legends & lattes itself. this book starts out with viv and rackam (and their mercenary group - the ravens) in battle against a necromancer’s skeleton army! viv has wanted to prove so much these last two months finally being a part of warband, but a leg injury leaves her alone in a small seaside town called murk where she must do a lot of waiting alongside a lot of healing. But she quickly gets to exploring this town, and meeting all the locals and their businesses, and soon enough viv finds many different kinds of adventures that will keep her busy while she waits for rackam to come back for her.

i feel very obliged to make this comparison dot in this review, and it truly means a lot to me and my heart: i started to read this when baldur’s gate 3 was dropping, and i couldn't help but really see the connection of how these characters we are kind of recruiting based on trust and friendship and how these explorations with them feels like discovering this seaside town’s map completely with each new quest. the levels of happiness and comfort and warmth both of these things have given me this year is truly unmatched and both are just something so rare and beautiful that it truly feels like finding the best treasure in all storytelling. but no one, and i mean no one one, is writing the level of imagery that travis baldree is writing. everything is so beautifully described and depicted, with the most exquisite details, that i can see everything so easily in my mind that it is as if larian studios and wizards of the coast is giving me my own personal decision based experience themselves. (nerdy niche bonus: gloomstalker ranger 5, assassin rogue 4, battlemaster fighter 3 is so strong + reminds me of the stealth archer build in skyrim. but maybe next playthrough, i’ll make viv herself because i am feeling very inspired!)

and this town and these characters? oh where do i even begin? a bakery with the most swoon-worthy dwarf, a high elf doctor who will win you over much quicker than he won viv over, an orc carpenter who i personally want to give all the books of poetry to, a gnome rogue who has already stole my heart in legends & lattes, a rattkin bookseller who loves swearing and who is now a forever favorite character for me, and their gryphet who is the cutest owldog i’ve ever read about!

fern (the rattkin bookseller) really felt like a once in a lifetime character for me, because she really embodies the feeling and the power of seeing someone fall in love with books and reading and how special it feels when maybe you played a little part in that. giving book recommendations and discussing books is one of my favorite love languages. i am sure you guys know this about me, but seeing how travis created fern to describe these things in this book really hit me so unexpectedly hard and right in my very heart and soul. and this book perfectly depicts the joy of so many bookish things! like blind date with a book, book signings, even book clubs! we even get to see little parts of the books that viv is reading because of fern’s recommendations and i was obsessed every time! like i said, my new favorite bookseller.

but this book also talks about how there will never be an age limit on figuring out things you want to do in life. there will never be an age limit on things you want to change in life. and how sometimes, we really aren’t at the right place in our lives for something, but that never means that door is shut forever. and if we do decide to close that door and lock it, it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy the moment of living inside that room for a tiny bit of your life - and that doesn’t make anything lesser, or greater, but it can create happiness and memories that you really can take with you during every adventure in life. and sometimes, if we are lucky enough, a door of friendship that seemed to be behind a locked door, can open once again, along with new joy and new adventures.

i just loved this book completely, and, the epilogue of this book is a six star read all on its own. It made me cry, it made me swoon, it made me kick my feet and giggle uncontrollably. i dont want to give too much away, but if the author is setting up things the way i think he is, i am going to be begging tor every time for an arc because truly this series will probably become my favorite setting of all time. i know this whole review is a big gush, filled with big praise with big words, but i truly do mean them all. this story, these characters, these settings, they deserve all the praise because they truly come together to make something magical that i’ve never read before. me and fern highly recommend this book and all the unapologetic joy that comes along too!

trigger + content warnings: battle, blood, medical care descriptions, pain depiction, stalking, hurt animal, animal death (sheep), captivity, anxiety, nightmares, death, murder (off page), slavery, abandonment in past

Thank you thank you thank you so much Tor for sending me an early copy of this one, I’m so freaking glad I got to it before release!

So I went into Bookshops & Bonedust actually skeptical because I’m not very much a prequel girly as I am a spin-off girly, and when I realized I was entering into a prequel I was a little less interested.

Of course now, I want to slap previous me for even having doubted Travis for a SECOND.

This book was just as good as the last, a little less cozy and a tiny bit more plot heavy but SO SO very good! I loved seeing Viv in a different place in her life, a place that forced her to slow down a realize there were other things in life that could bring you joy: friendship and books, and maybe an adventure that didn’t necessarily involve violence. Viv is such a good character and I love seeing her slowly grow into the person that would eventually be seen in Legends & Lattes!

I was very wary of Fern and the other new characters who show up, but once again I was proved wrong as they grew on me VERY quickly. By the second mention of Fern I was hooked!

The plot was also very good and very easy to follow. Ugh. I’m so glad I got into these books, they’re absolutely amazing, and so freaking cozy!

This lovely prequel to Legends & Lattes manages to capture the cozy nature of a bookstore and combine it with the fun of a D&D adventure.

In Bookshops & Bonedust, we learn more about Viv’s life before Legends & Lattes. Injured after a battle, Viv finds herself healing in a seaside town with a bookshop that could use a little help. Making new friends and romancing the local baker, Viv learns more about herself and life.

I really enjoyed the vibes of this one. It was comforting and engaging without being stressful. The characters were cute and there was moments of humor. While the stakes weren’t high, I enjoyed the high fantasy and pure aesthetic of Bookshops & Bonedust.

This is a lovely prequel to Legends & Lattes, but that book doesn't need to be read first to really enjoy it. Viv is a young overconfident orc mercenary working for a professional outfit currently chasing down a necromancer. When she is hurt she is left behind to heal and wait for the company to come back and pick her up after they complete their campaign. Her leg injury has her slowly going about town where local law enforcement keeps a wary eye on her for trouble. But she soon makes friends with a bakery owner and also a the owner of a failing bookshop. Viv finds herself helping out more at the bookstore and discovers a mysterious book hidden in the shelves by a grey cloaked that is soon found dead. A little mystery, some light romance, and new friendships give Viv the chance to blossom into a more thoughtful person. The book was a a delight to read and I can’t wait to see more stuff from this author. Digital review copy provide by the publisher through Netgalley

Any time a book expresses the joy and wonder of someone discovering the joy of reading for the first time so beautifully, I'm all in. As a bookseller, I loved all the true to life book store issues (in such a different world), such as too little space, series needing so much of the space, waiting for shipments, and never knowing if people will show up for a book signing or if a more than overflow crowd will appear. Readers who loved Legends & Latte will love it and being a prequel, it is perfect for those who haven't experienced Baldree's magic yet.

This was such a delightful book to read! I loved the first book and was so excited for the next story, and it did not disappoint. Reading more about Viv's backstory and what made her find her passion was amazing. I fell more in love with Viv, her story, and the friends she made in this book.

Bookshops & Bonedust is an adorable prequel that complements Legends & Lattes while telling a complete story of its own. This installment takes place an unknown number of years before Legends, when Viv is just beginning her adventuring career. Unfortunately, her inexperience and over confidence leads to a major injury in one of her first big fights. Her captain leaves her behind to recuperate in a small seaside town, promising to be back for her eventually. Viv is understandably upset at being left behind, frustrated with the limitations her injured leg impose, and bored out of her mind. She's so bored in fact, that she wanders into the local bookshop; dark and run down, with stacks of books everywhere, and a proprietor (a rattkin named Fern) who knows that her shop is in trouble. As Viv reluctantly befriends Fern, she is also drawn into relationships with a want to be mercenary named Gallina, and an adorable baker named Maylee.

Like Legends, this is a soft story. There is some action involving the necromancer that Viv's group was chasing at the time of her injury, but that plot is secondary to the story of Viv healing and making connections in the town. However, the connections are rather bittersweet, since everyone involves knows that Viv will be leaving town when her captain returns.

Seeing this earlier version of Viv was great. She's the same character we saw before, but obviously younger and not at all ready to settle down. One of the big threads throughout this story is that it's possible to meet the right people at the wrong time, and that even when you know something will end the journey is still worth it.