Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Length: 296 Pages
Format Read: Library ebook
Published Year: 2022
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I picked “Legends & Lattes” out at my local public library’s ebook listings when I needed a calmer fantasy to read. It was mentioned by Chase or @write_old_friend on Instagram and his recommendation made it sound like the perfect read for the stress I was experiencing. It was what I needed for the most part, as it was still a bit more adventurous and had more fighting than I expected. The coziness of the life that the main character, an orc named Viv sets out and achieves for herself is the millennial dream.
When we meet Viv, she lives a hustling, busy life with lots of travel and she fights as a mercenary. She decides that she doesn’t want to stay in that lifestyle and business, so she goes to a new city, buys a property, and builds a coffee shop to start her new small, cozy life and run the shop. As I said, the millennial dream: to retire and run your own small business.
Along the way, Viv meets additional people who help run and continue to grow her business and it is the perfect little cozy community. She runs into some difficulties, which is where I had not expected for the story to have as much conflict as it did since I was expecting all cozy, warmhearted, Hallmark-movie-esque feelings. As far as the fantasy genre goes, it is relatively calm and cozy all the way through. There is a romance side plot as well, which I enjoyed, but I also wanted more of that relationship growth to show. It wasn’t as emotionally connecting as I prefer romance subplots to be.
Overall, it is a cute, encouraging little story about starting over in more ways than one, finding your people, and building the life and community that you want to live in.
