‡* BLURB
"Viv's career with the notorious mercenary company
Rackam's Ravens isn't going as planned.
Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she's packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk-so far from the action that she worries she'll never be able to return to it.
What's a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?
Spending her hours at a beleaguered bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted, but it may be both exactly what she needs and the seed of changes she couldn't possibly imagine."
# THOUGHTS
I was gifted this audiobook by @netgalley and @macmillan.audio Thank you so much!
This was such a cute and cozy read. I loved the characters! The plot was good. Unlike some fantasies, I didn't get lost in the details, it was really easy to keep up with the world building.
I also really appreciated the Igbtq+ representation!
This one is a prequel to Legends & Lattes...both narrated by the author and honestly I don't think anyone could have done it better. It was perfection.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre/tropes: fiction, cozy fantasy

I fell in love with 𝗟𝗲𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗱𝘀 & 𝗟𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲 earlier this year. Reading and listening to the prequel, 𝗕𝗼𝗼𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘀 & 𝗕𝗼𝗻𝗲𝗱𝘂𝘀𝘁 felt like donning a familiar sweater - all cozy comfort and warmth.

We get more insight into our favorite orc, Viv who has to recuperate in the town of Murk after sustaining a serious injury in battle. Not one to just sit around twiddling her thumbs, she makes her way around town getting to know it, and ends up befriending a bookshop owner, Fern. She encourages Viv to read, and you know what folks? It’s so awesome to see someone (fictional or not) fall in love with reading because someone has the magical ability to read that person, and know exactly which book to thrust into their hands. That’s Fern! She’s become one of my favorites. Since Viv is staying around, she helps Fern with her shop, gets close with a few more adorable characters, and also helps fight off a menacing threat.

I can’t express enough how much I love this book. Travis Baldree’s narration was absolutely delightful, and I loved hearing the characters come to life through his voice, the way he saw them. The story is heartwarming, and inspiring. The world within so inviting. It feels like a massive hug.

Of course, I had to obtain my own copy of the book which will go in the ‘happy section’ of my bookshelf. Read this if you love books about books. If you love stories set in bookshops. Read this if you want cozy good feels, and to warm your soul.

I want to start this by saying I dont normally read fantasy like this and boy have I been missing out. The a heartfelt cute fun cozy LGBTQ+ with action. this left me wanting to more. Can`t wait to read more like this.
The audio narrator was great kept me engaged.
thank you netgalley for the audio arc

This was another well done cozy lgbt fantasy book set in the world of legends and lattes. The story featured a younger Viv and would have been perfectly understandable as a stand-alone novel.

While there was a lot of action involving necromancers, injuries, romances, failing businesses, cursed books, and animated skeletons, it's all told in such a calm and reassuring manner that the reader knows it's all going to be okay, even during the most trying parts.

I listened to the audiobook and really enjoyed it. It was read by the author and his tone and pacing really contributes to the cozy nature of the story.

I enjoyed this book. Calling it a cozy fantasy is appropriate. The characters were adorable. Viv, the main character, is an orc who has been injured and is left to recuperate in a small town. She is surprisingly gentle considering her profession as a mercenary. Her dealing with the townspeople is lovely. She helps Fern, the ratkin bookshop owner, build her business. Her romance with the baker is cute. The characters are all so nice and fair. The storyline is very wholesome and interesting although I did find the ending slightly rushed. There is adventure but also life lessons. This is a prequel to Legends and Lattes and was a good introduction to Viv. I was hoping that some of the characters would be in Legends but the epilogue lets us know that they are not Sad as I was hoping to have more of Satchel the skeleton. I listened to the audiobook with the author as the narrator and Travis Baldree was wonderful with bringing the characters to life. It is a great palate cleanser from reading intense emotional dark fantasies.

Thank you to NetGallery for providing me a audio ARC for my honest opinion

Cute...

But I wanted more substance to the storyline. I guess I prefer a more elaborate storyline when it comes to my fantasy reads.

***Thank you to NetGalley, Travis Baldree, and Macmillan Audio for graciously sending me the audiobook to review. As always, all thoughts are my own.***

Oh I enjoyed this one a lot! I almost feel like Travis has created this new cozy fantasy genre, he just knows how to write a good story.

This was a fun look back at Liv's previous life that gave us a great insight into Viv's life and friendships. I look forward to the next book in this series!!

Of course Travis' narration is fantastic and he brings all the characters to life!

I Highly recommend this series!

4 stars

I received this audiobook from the publisher Macmillan audio for a fair and honest review.

With his impeccable atmospheres and lively characters, Travis Baldree has not only done it again, but done it beautifully -- this time finding the beauty in the temporary stories we live and the impact they carry through our lives in ways we might never imagine.

BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST stands tall on its own, but pairs even better with LEGENDS & LATTES by strengthening Viv's character and adding a new layer of depth to her story. There's a nugget in BOOKSHOPS & BONEDUST about how we all see the world (and, really, each other) through "little-bitty" windows, and what B&B does is take that little-bitty window that readers got to peer through in L&L and expand it unexpectedly, adding context and perspective that makes the story and its heart even stronger. I hope one day to see even more of these characters -- "in the story after the story".

Wow what an amazing story! To see Viv before Legends & Lattes was let’s say a wild ride. As some may not know this is set before Legends & Lattes. I can wait to see more from Travis Baldree. I Highly Recommend!!!

Bookshops & Bone Dust tells the story of Viv, 20 years before we meet her in Legends & Lattes. If you loved the magical blend of coziness and fantasy that Legends & Lattes had and you're a fan of dusty book shops and skeletons, Bookshops & Bone Dust is 100% for you. After listening to the audio book and Baldree read in person, it's amazing how consistent his performance is and its really fantastic to have him, the author, narrate since you really get an understanding of how he sees and hears the character interactions in his head.

This was just the kind of heartfelt 4-star solid read I was hoping for out of this Legends & Lattes prequel. I was fairly entranced by the cozy setting-up-a-small-business read from L&L, and like Andy Weir going back in Project Hail Mary to doing what he does so well in writing characters engineering out of sticky situations, I was glad to see Baldree going back to the well with the found family around a small business plot (but with a bit of a twist: helping a long-established but struggling business turn the ship around).

Baldree is absurdly good at this kind of plot, and if this is all we get from him I'll line up to buy them on release day every time. I have a suspicion that his stories are going to evolve (and indeed in the acknowledgments he mentioned that this was kind of a fallback book after his planned mystery book didn't come together), but at least I'll always have these two very particular cozy books to return to when I need an infusion of comfort.

Whether inside the musty bookshop that Viv takes on improving as her project or the busy bakery with all of its wonderful smells or walking by the beach and sitting by the sand dunes, Baldree is so immersive with his settings and sensory imagery -- he transports me to these cozy locales and makes me feel appreciative and almost wistful for the small and quiet joys in life. I also really enjoyed how we see Viv falling in love with reading as the insightful bookshop owner places books in her hands that she really connects to. The excerpts we got from her current reads were great little additions.

This book tells an important story from Viv's life during a temporary pit stop in a new location and where she formed short-term but powerful bonds with various people/beings she befriended. This theme around exploring temporary bonds at a point in life where you are on the move and still discovering yourself really resonated with me -- I had a bunch of these kinds of pit stops in my own young adulthood, and I think Baldree really hit the mark with the emotional beats around this.

In terms of my engagement, everything around the bookshop was just chef's kiss and worth the price of admission for me. However, the fantasy intrigue plot that gets woven in throughout was much less engaging to me and always just felt like it was taking me away from what I actually cared about. That being said, it didn't take up too much page time and did lead to the appearance of one of my favorite side characters in Satchel, so it wasn't a total loss but did probably prevent this from being a 5-star read.

Viv was once again a relatable and engaging center around which everything turned, and I enjoyed the new bunch of side characters that grew up around her -- Baldree injects them with so much personality and distinctiveness that they all popped off the page and felt real to me, including the adorable gryphet Potroast (the cute dog-like companion on the cover).

Once again I enjoyed doing this immersively with Baldree's fantastic narration and holding the book with its great cover art and surprisingly enjoyable deckle edges, which for once seemed justified and added to the old book-y feel of the read. Baldree is now two-for-two for me and I eagerly await his future stories!

Thank you to NetGalley and MacMillian for an ARC of this book. I really wanted to love this book. I read the original and this one back to back. I am not sure if cozy fantasy is not for me or if this series is not for me. I did not feel like there was enough action or enough cozy, so I was bored and my mind wandered a lot. It was also difficult to focus as an audiobook. My perception might have been different if ilI read the physical book

💌 Thanks to Netgalley for the ARC

I can't tell if I liked this more than Legends & Lattes. I listened to the audiobook, and whole entertaining, I often found it difficult to keep side characters straight and felt like I would miss large chunks of the story because my interest would wane. I started reading the ebook and quickly stopped due to Netgalley's only having a PDF format of the book, which looks terrible on the Kindle no matter what they say, and picked up the audio a few weeks later.

If you enjoyed the first book, this is a nice little peek into what Viv's life was like before her retirement from mercenary work and the people that helped plant the seed that she could do more than just run at her problems with a big sword all day. If you were so-so on the first book, you'll probably be so-so on this too. It isn't bad, it just didn't hit me the way it seems to hit other readers.

3.5 out of 5.

I was really excited to read Bookshops and Bonedust, especially since it is a highly anticipated cozy fantasy read. Unfortunately, it just wasn't for me. Although the writing was great and it hit all the hallmarks for its intended genre, I think that cozy fantasy is too cozy for my taste. Nothing really happened. Even the climax at the end felt anti-climactic. It's a shame since I really did want to love it.
That being said, I think that it would be more enjoyable to those who find satisfaction in a low stakes fantasy novel.

A cozy fantasy perfect for the wintertime. Bookshops and Bonedust is a charming and charismatic low-stakes fantasy novel filled with love and books. This is the perfect prequel to Legends and Latte’s and fans of Travis Baldree’s first book are sure to fall in love with this one as well. I enjoyed the audiobook, and my experience and level of enjoyment were fairly on par with the first novel.

Viv, an orc adventurer, is stuck in seaside village in order to recover from an battle injury. During her convalescence, she befriends the owner of the local bookshop and discovers a love for reading, as well as a growing sense of community in the town she assumed would be boring.

I am a fan of Legends and Lattes and I was really looking forward to this book. I really enjoyed the narrator, as well as the gender and sexual inclusivity of the characters. However, about a third of the way through, I started to grow bored. I think there was something about the pacing of the book, with Viv's reading and recovery, that didn't grip me in a particular plot. The line between "cozy book" and boring book started to blur. Things were episodic and it was hard to sense a plot building and invest in the audiobook, which I why I am unfortunately giving it 3 stars.

Rating: 4.5/5
I received an audioARC for my honest opinion.

This book is the prequel to Legends and Lattes, if you have read that book this one will be the topping to the cake for you. I loved that this book was still captivating to me as the first one, but with a little bit of a twist to it. If you like action, mystery, romance, and drama then please pick up this book.

This book you will be thrown into a world with a necromancer who is trying to take over, you will be right there, fighting with Viv and getting to know new characters and as well some that you might recognize from L&L. You will find yourself in a cozy (yet at the same time, not so friendly community) after Viv gets injured in battle and was left at this village to heal up. She finds herself very bored and starts to take an adventure around the town, where she finds herself at a bakery and then a bookshop. She doesn’t read much but after talking to the bookshop owner she takes a book and finishes it right away. Viv and the bookshop owner become friends and enjoy many days fixing up her shop so she can make money, but no matter what is going on good in her life at that moment she keeps getting the feeling that something horrible is just right around the corner.

I enjoyed getting to know the new characters in this book and the friendships that blossom. I thought all the characters were easy to connect with and relate with. I loved the scenes that Travis Baldree paints for the audience in his book because I felt as though I was there sitting in the bookshop listening to this audio. I could see the landscapes that he was painting to the emotions that the characters were feeling. I thought the pace of the book was done just right, not too many unnecessary details, and just the right amount of feeling like this mystery was not going to be figured out, so it left you wanting to know more and more until it was all wrapped up beautifully.

I loved that I was taken away to a beautiful village, I was able to meet some amazing characters, read some great books with them and have some amazing bakery treats. I cannot wait to read another book from this author or even be able to listen to another audio book from him. I thought this book was just right for the start of the series. It will leave you with a heart-warming, cozy, mystery that you will get to solve with them.

I want to thank NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the opportunity to review this audiobook.

This book is the cozy hug that I didn’t know I needed. The audio narrator was fantastic, and I just love the low stakes of it all.

So happy we got another book in this series.

This prequel to Legends & Lattes is set 20 years before the events detailed in that book.
Viv is still younger full of fight but injured and this novel covers the time Viv spends in a seaside town recovering.
Yet again this is high fiction with a cozy feel to it - a tale of rest, recuperation with visits to the most delightful bookshop that Viv starts helping at. It is about the joy and community of reading and friendships that are not concerned with outer appearances or being of the
"right kind". This was just lovely!
The way these books are written they can be read as standalones especially with this new one being a prequel there is no necessity to have read Legends & Lattes before diving into this one. Just a fun Easter egg kind of allusion to coffee that Viv hasn't discovered for herself yet.
I love these wonderfully quiet heartwarming and moodboosting books so much.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an arc of this title in exchange for this honest review.

A wonderful story that i honestly found even better than the first book. It was fun, cozy, had slightly more action than the original and was overall a great read.