Legends and Lattes was such a wholesome surprise of a novel.
Viv is an orc who's done with the fighting lifestyle after twenty-two years and wants to do something new. After one day trying a gnomish drink called "coffee," she decides to settle down and open her own coffee shop to share the wonder with others in her town.
This book is pretty slow, but in a good way. It's not boring at all, but it takes its time letting you get to know the characters. Viv goes through the process of procuring a building, fixing it up, hiring a few assistants, advertising to the people in the town, hosting events in her shop, and overall just watching her small business flourish. And watching her relationship with Tandri grow throughout the novel was adorable. The whole story is so inspiring and sweet.
I am not a coffee drinker myself, but I loved this book nonetheless, and I loved all the food descriptions that made me hungry while I was reading. I want to visit this coffee shop.
The perfect way to describe this book is that it's a cozy read. The original self-published cover had the tagline, "A novel of high fantasy and low stakes," which I think is a perfect description, and it's exactly what I wanted. As much as I love epic fantasy, I don't actually love action or battle scenes, so this book that still had that fantastical feel and setting while being a more day-to-day lifestyle story was a subgenre I didn't know I needed. All of the characters are creatures of some sort: there are orcs, succubi, gnomes, dwarfs, and elves, among other species.
I highly recommend Legends and Lattes if you want a cozy and wholesome fantasy that feels like a hug. We need more low-key stories like this because it was just the best, and I had such a fun time reading this.
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