Travis Baldree has done it again with this winner of a story. Bookshops and Bonedust was such a gem to listen to! Fun book and loved all the characters. I greatly appreciated how many times the word MOIST was used, hilarious.. Left me desperate for a third book. Interestingly, as this was a prequel, the epilogue teased the present (after book 1 L&L). The audiobook was read by the author which sometimes can be less than ideal, but in this case seems perfect with fitting and easy to distinguish character voices. It just made me want to re-read Legends and Lattes.

📚 BOOK REVIEW 📚

Bookshops and Bonedust @travis_baldree

Thank you @netgalley and @macmillan.audio for an advanced audio copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Publication date: 9th November 2023

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐/5

I absolutely loved this. I haven't read Legends and Lattes yet (about to start!) But I read the description for this and it sounded fab so I requested it.
First of all, the author narrates this himself and it's absolutely fabulous. Obviously nobody knows the characters better than him and that really comes across in the narration - the characters are so alive and developed.
I enjoyed the plot and its pace. Despite being a fantasy, it's a book driven by its characters and not by events.
I loved the profoundity to be found in Baldtree's writing - the way he describes books as mirrors, the way books bring people together, the idea of the way some relationships are a fleeting gaze through a window in our lives and the idea that it can be the right people and place but at the wrong time.

Bookshops and Bonedust is feel good, cozy, enchanting and fun read/ listen

Travis has done it again! Just like Legends and Lattes, this was a cosy fantasy set in a small town with many characters with distinct personalities that cross paths. It follows Viv after she has an injury and has to wait for it to heal in a small seaside town and ends up helping out a struggling bookshop.

Just like with Legends and Lattes it didn’t take me long to fall in love with the characters and really feel like I knew the town. I could picture it all and wanted to be there with them. I think my favourite character this time might be Satchel!

As this book follows the daily life of Viv as she recovers from an injury, it is fairly slow paced. However, I think this works perfectly for this kind of book and lends itself well to getting to know the characters and really feeling like you’re there with them. The epilogue was also just perfect and left me wanting more.

I will definitely be picking up anything Travis writes in the future! I can’t wait for more cosy fantasy in this world!

Listening to the audiobook narrated by Travis himself really adds to the experience! He’s such a great narrator.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan UK Audio for this advanced audio copy for review.

Headlines:
Cosiness wrapped in bookshelves
Small town fantasy feels

This was a bunch of cosiness wrapped in books, friendships with small town fantasy feels. Readers find Viv from Legends & Lattes a couple of decades earlier, recovering from some battle wounds in this small town. The town was an eclectic mix of characters and creatures going about their business.

All was initially cosy until some nefarious characters appeared to mess up the equilibrium. Viv's prowess as a mercenary was vital. The pacing was lovely, despite the dramas that popped up, this read kept the cosy feels throughout with smatterings of friendships, chemistry and characters to get invested in.

This was a more enjoyable installment in this series for me and I suspect I might have enjoyed L&L a little more with this book beforehand.

The narration was excellent and captured the vibes of the piece so well.

Thank you to Tor Books for the review copy.

3.5 but I rounded up
This book was fun… was it my cup of tea, not completely but it was still very entertaining. Took me a bit to get into as the characters were all new to me. Viv's career isn't going as planned. While healing up and hanging out at a bookshop, she isn't as far from action as she may think.
I'm not sure how I feel about the romance but I definitely enjoy the growth of Fawn and Viv’s relationship.

If you enjoy a quick easy cozy read this is for you...

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/5828755305

There is a fine art to creating a good prequel. The challenge of writing a story with enough surprise and intrigue to keep the reader entertained, whilst they already know how the story will end. Baldree succeeds in every way, and the insight into part of Viv's history maintains the charm and sense of adventure captured so perfectly in Legends & Lattes. The cast of new characters were as captivating as those in book one, and I hope the breadcrumbs (perhaps pastry crumbs?) laid out in the epilogue lead down a trail towards many sequels to come!

I enjoyed the cosiness of Legends and Lattes by Travis Baldree and when Bookshops and Bonedust was announced I wondered if those could be replicated. I'm glad it hasn't been because as similar as B&B is, this one hit home more than L&L.

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.
Still, adventure isn't all that far away. A suspicious traveler in gray, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling, and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

Baldree has a great sense of world-building even though there aren't many scenes here that require it. Although this is small-stake fantasy, we have necromancers and action scenes and descriptions of other inhabitants that open up the story and the world and this felt more classic cosy-fantasy than anything else. What Baldree has done here is appeal to the fans with the setting but also to my ravenous belly with the baking.

Each character is unique, Pitts and Satchel being the standouts. The narrator has done an amazing job of the voice work and it really gave them a personality that I wouldn't have gotten whilst reading. There are characters that I wanted to see more of and I would gladly take more in this world. The story itself is an experience about losing yourself in a book that seems right for you and that's exactly what this book has accomplished. This is Baldree stoking the fire of Legends and Lattes and encompassing the setting with more beautiful writing, intense scenes and an appreciation for the community as a whole.

Where Legends and Lattes flew, Bookshops and Bonedusts remains grounded and warms the stomach and heart of a well-developed story. I can't wait to see if there is more in store.

Well, wasn't this just a wonderful love story to Bookseller's everywhere? I don't know if Travis Baldree used to be a bookseller, or was just in love with one but this is such a wholesome homage to the entire reading industry. I've said before that I love when I can tell that the author writing loves their genre, but it's clear from this prequel that Baldree loves reading, loves writing, and loves bookshops.

Bookshops are magical, there's no doubt - so seeing one in such a cosy fantasy setting was lovely. Bookshops and Bonedust is such a great set up for Viv and her journey of stepping away from the classic Orc Barbarian tropes, before reflecting on how far she's come (aka, after her story in Legends and Lattes, so beware spoilers in the Epilogue!) in her new adventures.

I really enjoy the way Baldree takes those classic High Fantasy tropes, the DnD vibes of a chronological mystery and adventure with a great selection of secondary characters, just enough romance to make Viv blush, and just enough violence to keep it from feeling safe - and then makes something so familiar, fresh and cosy.

Because this is prequel, I'll forgive that the stakes weren't higher, nor the world massively expanded on since Legends and Lattes, as you would expect from a sequel - and some of the stakes (such as the romance) are lower because we know more about Viv's relationships from reading Legends and Lattes, but Bookshops and Bonedust is one of my favourite reads of this year, and I can't wait for more people to pick it up!

I loved the audio for thus book. The narration is on point and brings the story alive. Thank you NetGalley and the publishers for my eArch of this book.

"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."

Could this be even better than Legends & lattes? Very possibly! Bookshops & bone dust is a prequel and we follow Viv in another cosy adventure. This book reads like a love letter to the bookish community. We have romance, found family, friendships, a bit of adventure but also a bookshop and a Ratkin with a love of reading. I read this in a day via the audiobook and I cried at the end! Loved it!

Audio review: Baldree is a great audio performer. There’s no one better for narrating his charming, cosy fantasy novels.



Main review: Legends and Lattes was one of my favourite books of last year and I was super excited when I learned that Baldree was working on a prequel. With some books, it's one hit and then the moment can never be recaptured. For whatever reason, everything aligns for that one book - the author was in the right headspace, the reader is ready for just that book, the market is delivered something it didn't even know it was hungry for. And then nothing quite hits the same vein afterwards. I am happy to report that is not the case here. Bookshops and Bonedust has a slightly different feel to the book it prequels but that actually works in its favour.

The story is set twenty years prior to L&L and follows a much younger and more impetuous Viv who has just begun her career as a mercenary. A bout of recklessness sees her seriously injured and she is left by her comrades in a quiet seaside town to recover. Not much ever really happens in Murk - that's exactly how Gatewarden and general ballbreaker Iridia likes it. In pain and bored Viv accidentally befriends a despondent bookseller whose shop is on the verge of going bust. From there the story becomes the warm, cosy confection we've all been craving with a few good twists. It's partly a 'finding yourself' story, partly a fixer upper story. Partly a bittersweet coming of age. It's full of found family, delicious pastries, books and cosy vibes. Oh and there's a necromancer floating around who needs dealing with too. Can the injured Viv learn to lead with her wits rather than her brawn though? Find out when this drops in November (I pity everyone who didn't get an arc and has to wait). Great book. Highly recommend.