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.”

Given that Baldree's first book's sub-title was "High Fantasy, Low Stakes", it is perhaps surprising to find that Bookshops and Bonedust has significantly higher stakes, feeling more like a traditional fantasy novel and a little less 'cozy' than Legends & Lattes . Even so, the story doesn't get too wrapped up in this and there are still plenty of quiet moments where the reader can just enjoy the characters interacting. The book has also done a great job of giving us a glimpse into a younger Viv in a way that really nicely builds on the character we already know. If you liked the first book, then this one is an easy recomendation. Lots of heart and humour.

I received this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely loved Legends and Lattes. So much so that I was probably as nervous to read this prequel as I was excited.

We meet Viv again, this time a little younger and a little less experienced. She’s injured and needing to recover before she sets back off on her adventures.

Cue cozy fantasy time.

Firstly, I’ll say that I will probably read anything released from this universe; I love the characters, I love the world and I love the introduction of pedestrian/commonplace things for us into their worlds (coffee and book signings to name just two)

I don’t think this instalment is AS good as the original, but honestly there’s not much in it; it’s still wonderfully enchanting.

I can’t wait to return.

Another enjoyable cosy fantasy! I loved the bookshop setting and quirky characters.

I didn't enjoy this quite as much as the first book, I think I was more attached to the characters in Legends and Lattes. But it was interesting seeing Viv in a different light, and even learning how some of her relationships in Legends and Lattes came to be.

The epilogue was my favourite part and if there are anymore instalments in this series I will certainly be reading them.

Bookshops & Bonedust is the prequel story to Legends and Lattes.
A cosy fantasy following the beloved orc Viv, as she deals with an injury that throws her from a life of high fantasy battle, to the small beach town of Murk.
What can Viv do to pass the time rather than dwelling on all the action her injury has caused her to miss? Read.
She stumbles upon a rundown bookshop and thus embarks on her journey of falling in love with reading.
If anything, this book is a love story to books under the facade of a cosy fantasy.
Viv experiences the joy and excitement that we all experience when first discovering reading, or a really good book.
The characters and the setting were good.
However, I can only give the book 3 stars because it is a bit too slow for my personal tastes. It is nothing against the wonderful book and characters Travis Baldree has created, but the slow pace just wasn’t for me.

Das Prequel zu Legends & Lattes schließt an das wohlige Lesegefühl an. Doch auch hier gibt es einen Gegenspieler, der die Spannung gekonnt in die Höhe treibt. Eine wirklich schöne Serie, die hoffentlich nicht mit Bookshops & Bonedust endet.

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.

I adore these books! Legends and Lattes was one of my favourite reads last year. And this will be high on the list this year.
If you want a cosy, fantasy built around an immensely loveable chracacter . Read this (and Legends and Lattes) asap!

This book was just one big warm hug that you never knew you really needed it. I enjoyed every moment, and when I read the epilogue, it was so satisfying to see where Viv once was and where she now is.

The book follows Viv, an orc. When she was chasing a formidable necromancer, she got injured. So she was sent to Murk to rest. She's forced to wait until her gang comes back so she can join them. However, her time here is everything but boring. Since she still embarks on a cozy but thrilling adventure.

I loved how you saw Viv slowly falling in love with reading, which really made me see why I also love reading so much. This book will truly touch your heart.

It was a perfect concoction of character, mystery, cozy vibes, and of course, bookshops! I loved to see how Viv grew and learned through this book. This was really highlighted through the light, airy, whimsical writing of Baldree.

Thank you, Pan Macmillian and Tor, for this cozy ARC!

4.5/5

E-ARC provided by Netgalley in exchange for a fair review.

I read Legends & Lattes over the winter and adored it. So when the prequel became available in ARC form, how could I say no?! We follow a much younger Viv who has to convalescence in a sleepy seaside town following an injury. She finds friendship with the local bookseller and, as expected, chaos ensues.

- I loved seeing younger Viv who is fiesty and impatient and, even in the short period of time this book covers, watching her grow and learn.

- The side characters are all so fun and well suited to the setting. The town of Murk was so vivid in my mind and I love how Baldree has created this amazing setting. Also Potroast the Gryphet was so cute!

- This book is cosy but poignant. I love how the books Viv is given to read become more relevant and the last one... My heart! I wish these books were.real and I could read them.

A very worthy prequel. If you loved Legends & Lattes, you'll love this too.