I have never read a series quite like this one. I am a serious adrenaline junkie and mostly read the types of books where I need to consciously control my breathing as I read through them, but this series has my heart. I'm going to wait closer to the actual release date to do my reviews on social media to help with marketing hype but needed to get on NetGalley reviews asap to give my thumbs up and to say that I look forward to Travis Baldree giving me endless sequels. :)

I just love that this book makes you feel an instant familiarity with both the characters and the world they live in. There's a type of nostalgia I get that really amplifies the coziness, which is a skill I really don't get from very many authors. He does an amazing job making you feel like you were there during the story and it's just one big memory of the past. What else can I say?! I loved it! Keep them coming!

Somewhere between 3.5 and 4 stars - This is a pretty darn successful follow up to the smash hit debut that was Legends and Lattes. Was it AS good? No, I think not because the nature of it being a prequel made the stakes even lower than the first book. In the first book, I was invested in Viv building a life for herself, but in this one, I knew she wasn't going to stay so I didn't care as much about her relationships that she was forming. This could have been solved by bringing the letter in the epilogue up as a prologue IMO
With that being said, this was still super charming and fun. I really enjoyed the bookshop element and seeing Viv being totally clueless with Maylee. Very enjoyable and makes me hopeful that the first book was not just a one hit wonder

as someone who was late to reading legends and lattes and only recently finished it, i knew i had to request this one! shockingly i found both books to be un-put-down-able lol. i am normally a huge romance / angst reader so smthe subtle romance (if thats what we can call it!) and relationship building within these stories is something to be savored. im not quite sure how baldree writes something so intriguing yet comforting at the same time but i do know im already plotting a reread for fall so i can enjoy this story all over again with a comfy blanket and hot cocoa

Bookshops & Bonedust is a mesmerizing love letter to the enchantment of bookshops, the profound impact of stories, and the serendipitous friendships that shape our lives. Travis Baldree has woven a tapestry of characters so vivid and captivating that you can't help but fall in love with each and every one of them. What amazed me most was the care and attention given to even the side characters, their backstories crafted with depth and thoughtfulness. It's a testament to Baldree's skill in creating a world that feels lived-in and brimming with authentic personalities.

In the beginning, I admit to feeling a tinge of apprehension as Viv, the protagonist, seemed different from the Viv I knew in Legends and Lattes. But then it struck me: this is a different Viv, an old chapter of her life. The contrast in her demeanor, the quicker reactions, and the subtle emotional shifts added a layer of intrigue. As the story unfolded, I found myself completely immersed in Viv's journey of self-discovery, witnessing her transformation and eagerly anticipating the path that leads her back to the person we all adored in Legends and Lattes.

What truly touched my heart in Bookshops & Bonedust was the poignant awareness of Viv's impending departure from Murk. It was a delicate dance between joy and sadness, leaving us with a bittersweet ache. Yet, Baldree masterfully guides Viv to embrace the present moment, forging new connections, and finding solace and love within the ephemeral beauty of her current circumstances. It's a testament to the author's skill that we can feel the depths of Viv's emotions and embark on this heartfelt journey alongside her.

Bookshops & Bonedust is an immersive and beautifully crafted tale that reminds us of the profound magic found within the pages of books and the power of human connections. Travis Baldree's ability to make even the fleeting characters feel unforgettable is a testament to his storytelling prowess. This book will linger in your thoughts long after the final page is turned, leaving you with a renewed appreciation for the stories that shape our lives.

Every bit as cute and lovely as Legends and Lattes. I read this is two days, flat, because I can’t get enough of Viv and the crew she assembles. I want to hug and kiss each and every one of them.

Full review to come

I thought it was great. Bring on more of the cozy fantasies. I love quirky side characters. And this one is about a struggling bookstore. Amazing.

If you read an enjoyed Legends and Lattes, you’ll definitely want to read this prequel! I was hoping for a sequel, but this satisfying prequel was just as cozy as the first book, and as much as I love reading about Viv, I hope we get more books set in this world. I would love a book focusing on Fern and Satchel in the bookshop.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the advanced reader copy of Travis Baldree's upcoming book "Bookshops and Bonedust".

For those who have not read his first novel "Legends and Lattes" I'd highly recommend starting with that and then moving onto his newest book - even though this is a prequel you will definitely appreciate it more if you get to know the character later in life.

Much like legends and lattes I'd describe this book as a cozy queer hug that fills you with feelings of love and happiness. It is a low stakes story in which you know something is going to happen to threaten the main character but nothing so awful that it will leave you in suspense.

Viv, an Orc who is part of a team of mercenaries tracking a necromancer, is out for adventure and glory but when she is injured in battle she finds herself trapped in a sleepy coastal village which boast little in the way of diversion except a sad looking bookstore and a surprisingly lively bakery. As she recovers from her injuries she befriends Fern, the rattkin who owns the bookstore. In exchange for doing odd jobs around the bookstore to make herself useful, Fern lends Viv books she has hand-selected which she expects Viv to finish and then discuss with her. As she spends more time in the bookstore Viv begins to offer suggestions on how to improve the look of the store and enlivens Fern to take control and make some big changes like painting the walls and changing the carpet which smells terrible. Viv also befriends the owner of the bakery, Maylee, and a buddy romance blossoms between the two despite their both knowing any relationship will be short lived.

When a suspicious clocked man appears in the bookstore one afternoon Viv senses and smells trouble. When the stranger turns up dead bearing the mark of the necromancer Viv is certain trouble is on its way and she is determined to protect her new friends at all costs.

A cozy and welcome addition to Legends and Lattes, Bookshops and Bonedust is the perfect read for a lazy weekend.

This is a wonderful addition to the world created by the author as we originally seen in “Legends and Lattes”. The prequel introduces us to a much younger Viv, having been injured in a fight, recouping in a small Oceanside town. Here Viv finds unexpected friendship, adventure, and romance in her newly found family in the setting of rundown bookshop. The story was beautifully written and had me laughing and crying because I am a sap. A wonderful cozy fantasy read!

I was so excited to find out that Travis Baldree was writing another book featuring Viv. I absolutely love Legends and Lattes and recommend it to literally everyone. Bookshops & Bonedust is set before Legends and Lattes and features young Viv at the start of her mercenary career. An injury during a battle with necromantic enemies forces her to spend time in the coastal town of Murk to recover. While there she discovers a struggling bookstore, owned by Fern. Over the course of her recovery, Viv helps the struggling Fern with her store and ends up involved in a much bigger adventure than she ever thought she would find in a sleepy coastal town.

Bookshops and Bonedust perfectly fills that cozy fantasy niche. To be fair, I may be entirely biased because this story features a bookstore, and I almost always love any story that features a bookstore. While it does feature its fair share of battles, the primary focus of the story is on the relationships that Viv forms and her own inner struggles. I really enjoyed reading about a younger Viv, and while this may be a prequel, I do think that readers should read Legends and Lattes first. I think that this was an excellent follow-up to Legends and Lattes and definitely leaves me wanting more. Especially after that Epilogue! This is the perfect cozy read for any time of year. Thank you to Netgalley and Tor for providing me with an E-ARC.

Thank you netgalley and Tor for providing a eARC
This book did not have quite the same magic as legends and lattes. We follow Viv as she finds herself stranded and injured in a small village, where she must step back from the battle life and take things slow to heal herself. She finds herself in a struggling bookshop and helps get business flowing there, among other misadventures. I found myself having a hard time staying engaged as I was reading, and I think that may have been because Viv was also kind of lost there didn’t seem to be any central thing bringing the story together. It may have been great as a shorter novella, but for me as a novel it just did not deliver and I was a bit bored. The characters were engaging and Travis Baldree does a great job with creating a cozy atmosphere, it was just the plot and lack of central themes that made it feel a bit lacking to me. I may try it again as an audiobook when it is released!

I absolutely loved this book! A fantastic "prequel" to the original. I loved Viv, the new characters and the bookshop setting. Such a cozy feel with comfortable excitement. This will continue to be a favorite and a frequent reread.

The perfect blend of a dnd campaign and curling up by the fire with a good book.

I thought I couldn’t love Travis’s work more… BUT THEN HE DROPPS BONESHOPS AND BOOKDUST!?? I think I loved this even more than legends and lattes. We get to see Vic in her prime when she is more bullheaded.

She is deposited by her gang in a seaside town after becoming injured during a battle with a necromancer. Headstrong and and not knowing how to relax Viv must let her leg heal while the rest of her gang goes on tracking the diabolical necromancer. She meets Fern ,the owner of a run down bookshop and her adorable gryphet pot roast.

Stuck in a town with little to do Viv ends up making her own adventure with new friends and old enemies.

I loved diving back into this world and learning how viv got her start. This book is a little more high stakes than l&l because of how young Viv is, but it absolutely fits the story so well. This is gunning for one of the top spots as my top reads this year. I loved all the side characters and getting to know Viv more. I was crying by the end of the book. TRAVIS YOU HAVE OUT DONE YOURSELF!

If you loved the coziness of Legends and Lattes then you will love this one too.

This prequel follows Viv as she ventures into a small coastal town while she recovers from an injury. While I know this series is suppose to be low stakes, there were numerous times where the story was very slow and would struggle to keep my interest. But I loved the idea of a bookstore and it was such an unlikely fit for Viv. The new characters were sweet, but I didn't get as attached to them as I did with the characters from Legends and Lattes.

The romance was unnecessary but I loved jumping back into this world and enjoyed learning more about Viv's life and how some aspects tied in to the first book.

This was the perfect sequel/prequel to Legends & Lattes. I enjoyed seeing more of Viv's journey. Loved the epilogue.

Thank you, Net Galley and Tor Books for this advanced Readers Copy.

This book had a lot to live up to, given my love for Legends & Lattes. It’s a prequel, following Viv when she was a young idiot, running with her first mercenary band and getting a massive injury. There’s a bit more action in this book, as a result, though the stakes are different because they’re not as deeply personal to Viv (though she does care very much).

It’s mostly a new cast, aside from Viv, though one particular character from Legends & Lattes gets a chance to shine. I didn’t latch onto them in quite the same way, except perhaps for one — about whom I shouldn’t say too much, except that I was deeply relieved they got what they wanted out of life. I wonder if I’d latch on more on reread, knowing what to expect.

Like Legends & Lattes, there are some very profoundly cosy aspects (such as discussion of books they all like! and how to sell more books!), and it’s very enjoyable to see the seeds of where Viv gets to later. I’d definitely recommend having read Legends & Lattes first, so that you can appreciate that, despite the fact that this is a prequel — plus, the epilogue of this book is spoilery for the original novel.

To call either this book or Legends & Lattes “low-stakes” is a bit misleading, I think. Life and limb are on the line in both, and loss of someone’s livelihood — not to mention a place full of memories of their family, for example — is not “low-stakes”, emotionally speaking. Sure, the world isn’t going to end, but there are things on the line here. I didn’t care quite as much as I did for Legends & Lattes, perhaps, but I did very much care about what was happening.

A perfect prequel to Legends & Lattes. I really enjoyed going back to Viv and finding more about her journey pre L&L. As a bookseller myself I really loved Fern and Thisleburr and her struggles as a bookseller. This book had all the heartwarming moments with a bit more dungeons and dragons-esque action. If you love books, baked goods and a necromancer as an enemy you’ll love this book.

A wonderful story and prequel to Legends and Lattes. I enjoyed seeing Viv during her warrior days and I think the friendships that were made during her short time in Murk were all very well written. I will say that this book didn’t feel as cozy or keep my attention as thoroughly as the first book did which is why I’m giving it a 4, but I did enjoy the more action focused plot. The epilogue tied up everything perfectly and honestly almost made me emotional because all the characters in the series are relatable and you can’t help but root for them. I highly recommend this!

This book made me feel SEEN! 📚🥐🦴🖌️🗡️

Bookshops & Bonedust is the perfect follow-up (but actually a prequel) to Legends & Lattes. ☕ I don’t know how he does it but Travis has a way of writing the coziest, most comforting characters.

We follow Viv’s journey to recovery after a battle injury in the small, quiet beach town of Murk long before she lands in Thune. Just like in L&L the found family and the friendships in this book were soooo good. 😭💖 This was all about the different paths we can take in life and the different people we meet along the way.

Books about book lovers >>>
Books about smutty book lovers >>>>> 😎

The stakes felt slightly higher than L&L but Travis still did a great job balancing Viv’s backstory before settling down with the “hug in book form” cozy fantasy story that he knew we all were hoping for.

My jaw was on the FLOOR with that epilogue!! (Side note, I feel like this would do soooo well as an animated series like The Legend of Vox Machina. That art style is what I was picturing in my head the whole time)

Thank you SO MUCH to Tor for an early copy of this incredible book!

I really enjoyed Legends and Lattes so I was excited to see that the author had written a prequel. If you liked Legends and Lattes you'll certainly like this book as well!

This book has a similar cozy feel as Legends and Lattes, but doesn't achieve it quite as well due to the higher stakes at play. In this book, Viv has been injured and is forced to rest and recuperate in a small sleepy town before she can rejoin her party. However, trouble stirs when signs begin to pop up that the very person Viv's party was hunting may be closer than they thought.

I loved all the characters in the book. Viv is a strong main character and I was happy to get to read another book with her as the main character. I also really liked all the supporting characters and the relationships Viv formed with them along the way. I'm hoping some of these characters will pop up again in further books the author writes.

I will note that it felt odd reading this book after Legends and Lattes as it felt like Viv lost character development since this book takes place at an earlier time in Viv's life. Yet, due to the epilogue, it doesn't exactly work to suggest that readers start with this book, as the epilogue gives away some major spoilers for Legends and Lattes. However, it was fun to see Viv at an earlier and more impulsive time in her life and get to see a few fight scenes.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book and eagerly look forward to the author's next book!