Title: Bookshops & Bonedust
Author: Travis Baldree
Series: Legends & Lattes #0.5
Pages: 339
After loving Legends & Lattes I couldn’t wait to get my hands on this prequel featuring a young mercenary Viv who is taking a forced sabbatical to heal in a sleepy seaside town. Viv is a woman of action and struggles at first to relax and heal but when she makes friends with the local bookseller Fern she finds herself spending her days reading, revamping the bookshop, and experiencing love with the local baker.
“Every book is a little mirror, and sometimes you look into it and see someone else looking back.”
Like the first book, this was a wonderful cozy fantasy. I really enjoyed watching Viv experience a different kind of life and find joy in reading. While we do see a few instances where Viv gets picked on for reading because she is an orc, I do love that we see her continue to read and help others find joy in reading as well. She really brought a new life to Fern’s bookshop and helped her friend reawaken her spark in being a bookseller.
While this does mainly focus on VIv’s day-to-day life healing and helping at the bookshop we do get a bit of mystery and excitement towards the end. The necromancer aspect was very interesting and made for a dangerous villain. Baldree did a wonderful job at creating very low angst dangerous situations that keep the story moving but never removed the cozy fantasy vibe this story has.
My favorite aspect of this book is all the wonderful friends Viv made. She may have started as an outsider in Murk but she really made some lifelong friends in this little town. Fern, Gallina, Maylee, Satchel, and cute little Potroast were all wonderful characters and friends who I just loved instantly. Viv definitely is a person who can make friends anywhere it seems. Also, I loved the epilogue and how we are seeing her old friends potentially meeting her new friends and family. I would totally love to see that reunion.
Overall, this was a wonderful book that I really loved. I didn’t expect to devour a book that mostly just talked about the simple day to day life of a bookseller and Viv’s progress healing but I really enjoyed all of this. If you are looking for a lowkey fantasy story, I highly recommend this series.
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