Legends & Lattes

I don't think I've cried this much at a book in a long time, which is surprising when this book mostly concerns the development of a coffee shop. This book is an easy read, with concise chapters and endearing characters. You really get invested in the characters, whether it's Cal the hob (goblin?) sighing contentedly over his mug of coffee or Thimble the rattkin developing chocolate croissants and dreaming of a bigger kitchen.

The crying came in the last 1/4 of the book, as the protagonist Viv recovers from a tragedy with the help and support of her friends and community. The simple depictions of a community coming together in the wake of tragedy was beautifully handled and finished with a satisfying conclusion.

Go on, give it a read! The time flies by when you're reading. Just be sure to have some coffee on hand to enjoy as you flip through.

Maybe it's time to accept that fantasy as a whole just isn't for me. I've tried grimdark fantasy, comedic fantasy, folklore fantasy, and even eastern Wuxia fantasy. Apparently cozy coffeshop fantasy (apologies in advance) isn't my cup of tea neither.

It also feels strange to attempt a review here. I feel like I'm being asked how I liked my sandwich when I was only served a single slice of bread. There just wasn't a lot going on here. Well over half of the front end of this book felt like it could have been a montage and I routinely remember thinking to myself, "okay sis, but we're gonna need a plot at some point..." When an inciting incident threatens to occur however, it's resolved almost immediately, and then we're back to trucking along with vignettes of daily life.

Also feel like I was teased with one aspect; our protagonist, Viv, is an experienced adventurer who wants to get out of the life before she winds up dead from it. Routinely we are reminded of her physical prowess and skill as a fighter, but we never see it for ourselves beyond the opening paragraphs of the prologue. I know she was making an active effort not to fall back into her old ways, but it still felt like a Chekhov's Gun that I was waiting to go off and it never did.

I don't feel like I came into this with any unrealistic expectations beyond, "low-stakes DnD-esque mystery with lesbians", which is essentially what's here, but I found it to be a very watered-down version of that. This is the literary equivalent of homeopathy.

Unrelated, and this doesn't impact my overall score, but this is one of those books where the last 20 or 30 pages are an excerpt for the next book in the series, but I didn't know that. So here I was physically holding a good-sized stack of pages thinking I had that much plot to work through, and instead met with an unexpected ending. I hate when books do that.

Der Untertitel "A Novel of High Fantasy and Low Stakes" ist sehr charmant und war mit der Grund zum Buch zu greifen. Der andere war die Hugo-Nominierung. Vom Typ her geht das Buch in Richtung der Bücher "The Magical Bookshop" oder "The House Witch" die ich ebenfalls dieses Jahr gelesen habe. Sie bieten dem Leser ein ziemlich gefahrloses Lesevergnügen.

Gefahrlos und für mich auch ein bisschen langweilig und anstrengend. Am Schlimmsten aus dem Trio der "Cozy"-Fantasystories war für mich "The Magical Bookshop" ... (eine Rezension folgt früher oder später). Dort habe ich nach Buch 1 aufgegeben obwohl ich die Trilogie als günstiges Gesamtpaket erworben hatte. Auch "The House Witch" wird es wohl nicht zu Buch Nr. 2 schaffen. Eventuell gebe ich dem 2. Teil von "Legends and Lattes" "Bookshops & Bonedust" eine Chance ... eventuell auch nicht, weil ich das Thema mit dem "Magical Bookshop" schon mehr als durch habe.

Im Prinzip funktionieren diese "Cozy"-Bücher alle nach einem ähnlichen Strickmuster.

Der Hauptcharakter erfüllt sich einen lange gehegten Traum. Raus aus dem blutigen Abenteurergeschäft oder dem hektischen Alltag einer Analystin und hinein in einen sicheren, gemütlichen, unhektischen Job in einem Buchladen oder einem Coffeeshop.

Warum Einzelhandel oder Gastronomie hier als "gemütlich" verklärt wird, ist mir persönlich unerklärlich und an diesem Punkt bekomme ich schon ein Problem mit meiner "Suspension of Disbelief". Vielleicht habe ich zu oft auf LARPs gekocht, um zu ignorieren, was es für eine Kraftanstrengung bedeutet.

Egal. Im Prinzip verfolgt man also, wie der Hauptcharakter sich seinen Lebenstraum erfüllt und das in jedem quälenden Detail. Von der Suche nach dem richtigen Ort, bis hin ins letzte Fitzelchen der Dekoration. EIn bisschen was darf schief gehen, damit es nicht ganz langweilig wird, aber nicht zu viel. Es soll ja "Cozy" bleiben.

In Legends & Latte geht ein bisschen mehr schief, deswegen ist das Buch ein bisschen interessanter als andere des Genres. Aber so richtig Spannung kommt an keiner Stelle auf, denn das Buch ist komplett vorhersehbar. Und soll es auch sein. Es ist exakt die Art Story, nach der Menschen suchen, die nach "Cozy Adventures" greifen. Ein Genre das in einer Zeit der Krisen durchaus seine Berechtigung hat, von dem man aufgrund seiner Süßlichkeit aber auch schnell zu viel bekommt.

Für mich wird es vorerst das letzte "Cozy Adventure" bleiben und ich brauche jetzt mal etwas Hard Science Fiction oder eine bitterböse Fantasystory als "Gaumenreiniger".

This book is a very refreshing change of pace in the fantasy genre, just as advertised. It is well written and has a lot of nifty nods to modern culture but couched in setting-appropriate ways. The phrase "Technology, when sufficiently advanced, is indistinguishable from magic" comes to mind when thinking of how the gnomes, being technical savants of their time, could make versions of the various coffee-making apparatuses that are commonplace to us today. The "magic" of sufficiently advanced technology relative to the time period and setting in which the story is told makes it easy to accept.

The characters are all interesting in various ways, well thought out, and easy to identify with. There are one or two mysteries left unexplained by the end, although not major plot points, which leaves just enough desire for the next tale in the series without being a cliffhanger. This book is (hopefully) just the first of several in this world, but is a self-contained story that doesn't need a sequel in the sad event that it never gets one.

The paperback version that I picked up also included a short prequel vignette called "Pages To Fill" that was a nice set piece to fill in some of the back-story after finishing the main story.

L&L is a short, relatively fast read but is so rich with characters, world-building, and details that you will want to savor it as if it was one of Thimble's cinnamon rolls!