Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher Tor and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

So, here’s the deal, Bookshops & Bonedust is pure cozy fantasy. If you’re already deep into the genre and love the idea of low-stakes adventuring, charming bookshops, and lots of baked goods and banter, you’ll probably adore it. It’s sweet, warm, and full of heart.

Buuut… if you're like me and need a little more plot to chew on, it might feel a bit slow. I found myself zoning out at times, it’s not that it was bad by any means, just a little too mellow for my taste.

The narration was lovely, though, and I can totally see why die-hard cozy fantasy fans are eating this up. For me? It was nice, but a little boring. More of a gentle background listen than an edge-of-your-seat kind of story.

I was so incredibly excited for this book after loving the first one so much - it was really good but not quite as good as Legends and Lattes.

it was really nice to see a younger version of Viv, even though her character was a little frustrating at times. I really loved this town setting though and would love to see more stories with a younger Viv!

I was unbelievably excited for this book because well, I love bookshops and bones and utterly adored Legends & Lattes. Luckily, Travis Baldree delivered yet another delightful cozy fantasy that captured my heart and imagination and instantly became a comfort audiobook in my personal library.
This book truly had everything I hoped: a vibey setting, delightful characters and a small town community feeling, a magical mystery with more twists than I expected, some romance, and all the humour you'd expect. In short, it was fantastic and if you even had an inkling to give this one a try, you will not be disappointed! Travis Baldree narrates himself and, as expected, does a fantastic job capturing the atmosphere and the unique voices of all the characters. This is the perfect listen for a cozy winter afternoon in your favourite spot at home!

Bookshops & Bonedust is a charming and heartwarming novel that will appeal to fans of cozy fantasies and character-driven stories. This is a delightful prequel to the highly successful Legends & Lattes, and it continues to showcase Baldree's talent for blending cozy, slice-of-life storytelling with fantastical settings. This novel is a warm, engaging, and often humorous tale that provides a charming escape into a world where the mundane meets the magical.

The story follows Viv, an orc mercenary who finds herself sidelined in the small seaside town of Murk during her early adventuring days. After suffering a serious injury, Viv is forced to take a break from her usual sword-swinging activities and instead finds herself drawn into the quiet life of a bookshop. The plot centers around her relationship with the bookshop's owner, Fern, and a colorful cast of characters.

Baldree's writing is light and accessible, with a steady pace that makes the novel a quick and enjoyable read. The humor is gentle and well-timed, providing levity without detracting from the more poignant moments. While the plot is not action-heavy, it is rich in character interactions and small, meaningful events that build up to a satisfying conclusion.

In addition to being a talented author, Travis Baldree also serves as the audiobook narrator, and his narration of Bookshops & Bonedust adds another layer of charm to the story. Baldree's performance is both warm and engaging, bringing the characters to life with distinct voices and capturing the subtle emotions and humor of the text. His narration enhances the cozy, immersive experience of the novel, making the audiobook an excellent choice for fans of the genre.

While I thoroughly enjoyed Legends&Lattes, this one missed the mark for me if I'm honest.
It was a decent read and it had the same cozy vibes and endearing characters as L&L. But the story itself did not pull me in and di not keep me interested. I was not fully invested in the story and was just listening in my down time, when with L&L I'd sneak in a little listen every chance I got.

I can totally understand how so many people loved it, but it just felt a bit too repetitive to me.

I will say that Travis Baldree narrated this audiobook himself did make it so much better! He truy is a great narrator and I will continue to listen to his work.

Thank you NetGalley, the publisher and the author for this ALC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Macmillan UK Audio, Tor and NetGalley for sending me a copy of Bookshops & Bonedust to read and review.

I really enjoyed this prequel to Legends and Lattes. I’m a big fan of Travis Baldree’s work and was thrilled to read his latest book, having read both the self published and traditionally published versions of Legends and Lattes. The audiobook narration by the author was fantastic.

It was a joy to revisit favourite characters and meet a selection of new ones. I thoroughly enjoyed this book. This book was heartwarming, charming and a fun adventure to read. However, I found the pace a little slow at times.

If you enjoyed Legends and Lattes, this is well worth reading and is a lovely cosy fantasy reading experience.

Unfortunately this was a miss for me.

I absolutely loved Legends and Lattes - I gave it five stars with no hesitation - so I was eager to read this prequel. Although centering around the same character, there was none of the honed beauty and wit we got with L&L. This just really missed the mark on every count.

I wanted to try this book after having read the other book by the author: Legends & Lattes. This is a prequel, something that I do not usually read out of order, but I did not have much of a choice since that's how they were published.

I must admit to liking this book even better than the previous one. The friendships are stronger than the romance, although the latter has its own time to shine. The only thing that I continue to find weird about fantasy books is that the swearing mirrors ours rather than having its own vocabulary, especially since a lot of the world has its own contexts.

Our leading orc, Viv, is forced to rest due to an injury. This is not something she does willingly or in good spirits. As she wants around town trying to find something to do, she tumbles into a bookshop run by a foul mouthed tiny creature. This begins the foundation of the friendships since everything revolves around finding the right book for the right person ( something I wholly agree with).

This adventure tale works at many levels and I really enjoyed the way things come together little by little. In the other book there's a planned effort to create a community but here they fall in more naturally and with some protests on either side. The camaraderie is on point as was the realistic ending for several of the concerned parties. It provided a very good background for the Viv we meet later.

I highly recommend this book and even this format with the author having done the narration.

I received an ARC thanks to Netgalley and the publishers but the review is entirely based on my own listening experience.

Having loved Legends and Lattes I was extremely excited to join Viv for another cosy adventure and I was not disappointed. Following Viv as she stays in a small town to recover from an battle injury we are introduced to another fantastic cast of characters.

I loved that although there was more action in this book that the first it did not lose the cosy feel. The bookshop element was perfect as well with the descriptions transporting me there.

I loved that the epilogue gave us a little insight into post Legends and Lattes too and would love to see more from this world.

If you enjoy cozy fantasy, this is a must read. Viv meets new people and discovers her love for books.T hey develop all the many ideas bookshops use at the moment to sell (meta coming through). There are a lot of unusual creatures who need to work together and except their different ways. I wasn't as invested as when I read Legends & Lattes but I still had an amazing time with this and would highly recommend it

A prequel that stands on it's own as a great cosy - but not too cosy - fantasy read.

I read Bookshops and Bonedust before Legends and Lattes, despite hearing about and wanting to read Legends and Lattes for ages, this just came first because I really wanted to review it, and Netgalley luckily obliged. Thank you!

I primarily experienced Bookshops and Bonedust through the audiobook, which is masterfully read by the author, Travis Baldree, who clearly loves and understands his characters and reads with unwavering energy and affection, drawing the listener in to spend time with Viv and the friends she makes in the town of Murk while enduring a period of convalescence having been wounded at the beginning of the book.

After listening to this book, I immediately bought Legends and Lattes to listen to, and listening to that, did not feel like Bookshops and Bonedust either needed any prior knowledge of Legends, or that it spoiled what was to come, despite it being a prequel and knowing, ultimately where Viv was going to end up. Legends and Lattes felt a lot more slow paced, I preferred the plot in Bookshops, though maybe people who read Legends first think that about Legends too, it could just be the element of discovery in a new world and characters that leads me to think that way.

Bookshops and Bonedust just felt really nicely paced, a really great balance between character development, 'fantasy peril', danger and threat, a touch of romance, and just the feeling of being wrapped up in a book blanket. I loved the characters in Bookshops, they felt a little more vivid to me that those in Legends, though again, that could just be because Bookshops was the first book I read out of the two, but I really liked Satchel and Fern, and Fern's friendship with Viv. The world building was good too, just enough so that I could picture and feel the setting.

I would recommend the audio version, I really want to own hard copies of the books now, there's nothing like being able to see the spine of an old book friend on a bookshelf, like surrounding yourself with a found family, but I'll be listening to the audio over again for sure, loved it!

Okay, so I need to be honest. I started this book all the way back in the summer, but with the house move I just completely forgot it. And I so regret leaving it for so long.

This prequal follows Viv when she takes a (forced) break in the sleepy seaside town of Murk. Along the way, she makes a bunch of friends and helps to reinvent a book store.

I loved this. It was delightful and cosy and everything I wanted. This series is the ultimate cosy fantasy and Travis Baldree can do no wrong.

I also got an audio e-arc of this and the audio book was so well done! Really recommend reading it this way.

Thank you to Travis Baldree, Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for the free e-arc and audio book! I'm so sorry it took so long to review. All opinions are my own etc.

While I enjoyed Legends and Lattes as a cozy audiobook perfect for background noise, I found Bookshops and Bonedust had basically the same story as L&L. If that's your cup of tea, great! For me, I couldn't focus on the story and an hour of the audiobook felt like a day. Even romances tend to have more inciting incidents than B&B sadly had.

Nice cosiness, but with more fantastical elements. It does include a more solid reason behind the switch from Viv being a mercenary to living and wanting a more settled life and the struggles she went through to get to the place we see her at. There’s more romance in this book and at the end, it felt like it was a set up for a possible sequel, which I wouldn’t be disappointed in getting.

It’s not as good as the first one, but I did go into this book with such ridiculous expectations because of his previous book and the memories from reading that, that it was due to be a little disappointing. There were new characters to get to know and love, or hate, which was actually nice and I loved the bookshop set up.

Travis’ writing is still great with this one, adding to the world building and creating amazing imagery within my head while reading, with his words. However, I still need to read Viv discovering and trying coffee for the first time and knowing that this is her future. But, all in all, I did thoroughly enjoy this prequel and, with the added bonus of the narrator doing such a great job, while being compelling and dragging me straight back into this world.

I loved it so much. I could read books like this one forever.

I loved the setting. I already loved Viv but all the people of Murk were also lovely. The mystery with the necromancer was also nice. Just a great read!!

Travis is a lovely narrator as well.

I really loved the prequel to Legends and Lattes and found the world created once again thrilling and heart-warming in one. It was written really well and i feel like the characters all felt really distinct and memorable. The action was paced well and the writing kept me hooked throughout. I feel like the more i read of this series, the more i enjoy it. This is definitely the perfect cosy fantasy read!

Absolutely obsessed yet again.
I thought Travis Baldree couldn’t top Legends & Lattes, but I love the second book just as much!

All of the cosy vibes are still there, we revisit characters we love, meet new characters and new adventures! I thoroughly enjoyed being in the bookshop and wish I could hop into the world itself!

The prequel to Legends and Lattes we are following Viv's career with the renowned mercenaries. Rackham's Ravens. After being wounded on a job, Viv is left in a sleepy beach town to recuperate. Fighting boredom Viv finds herself at a failing bookshop will she be able to save the shop and will trouble follow her there?

After loving legends and Lattes I couldn't miss out on this instalment of Viv's adventures. An injured Viv, a bookshop and a cast of weird and wonderful characters gave me cosy, comforting fantasy vibes and I loved it. I both read and listened to the audiobook and loved both media. Having Travis Baldree read the novel was great and his narration is wonderful.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of the novel in exchange for an honest review.

to put it simply, low stakes and incredibly cozy!
What more needs to be said?
No matter if you are already familiar with the works of Travis Baldree or not, the Author invites the us into a world full of very lovable fantastical characters with real feelingsand solvable problems.

For this version of the Audiobook, Travis Baldree narrates Bookshops & Bonedust himself, and takes the listener on a journey to get to know Viv and her time helping out in the down on its luck Bookshop, in the sleepy beach town of Murk.