Synopsis:
Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller, Fern.
Fern has weathered the stillness and storms of a bookseller’s life for decades, but now, in the face of crippling ennui, transplants herself to the city of Thune to hang out her shingle beside a long-absent friend’s coffee shop. What could be a better pairing? Surely a charming renovation montage will cure what ails her!
If only things were so simple…
It turns out that fixing your life isn’t a one-time prospect, nor as easy as a change of scenery and a lick of paint.
A drunken and desperate night sees the rattkin waking far from home in the company of a legendary warrior surviving on inertia, an imprisoned chaos-goblin with a fondness for silverware, and an absolutely thumping hangover.
As together they fend off a rogue’s gallery of ne’er-do-wells trying to claim the bounty the goblin represents, Fern may finally reconnect with the person she actually is when there isn’t a job to get in the way.
Review:
I’ve had a little while to think about this book now and I think…this might be my favorite Travis Baldree book yet? Maybe?
Probably. As I learned by reading Brigands & Breadknives, it’s okay to be uncertain.
Baldree, of course, found literary gold back in 2022 with his debut novel Legends & Lattes, a cozy fantasy featuring Viv, an orc who chose early retirement from the battlefield to find peace and contentment (and maybe love?) in owning her own coffee shop. I really enjoyed it and found a lot to like about Viv’s story, but it felt a little incomplete to me at the time. A year later, he put out Bookshops & Bonedust, a prequel that sets up Viv’s mental state by the time L&L starts. Again, I appreciated the book (although I generally don’t like prequels in many cases), but the best thing about that book is what leads us to Brigands & Breadknives.
In the prequel, Baldree introduces us to Fern, the owner of the bookshop where Viv discovers her life doesn’t have to revolve around death and killing. As this book opens, Fern is relocating herself and her book business to be near Viv and her shop and new friends. But the audience quickly discovers that Fern is restless — she is unhappy and can’t figure out why. Maybe moving will help…maybe being near Viv will help…maybe…maybe.
Even as her new bookstore opens to instant success, Fern isn’t happy. A night with too much alcohol leads her to stowing away in a wagon and before she knows it, she’s off on an adventure she didn’t intend to join with Astryx, a legendary elf warrior.
Baldree hasn’t left cozy behind, but it definitely takes a different shade in Brigands & Breadknives. While the previous two works mostly took place in one town or village, Fern’s journey has more movement and action thanks to the ever-changing locations and rotating antagonists. The mainstay theme of the series – found family – is still here with different characters and a different tone.
The stakes are low in cozy-fashion, but there are no easy answers for Fern. In fact, I think that’s ultimately why I related to this one more than the other two. Fern isn’t given a magic pill that solves her problems, whether that’s a new romance, or a new coffee shop, or a pastry, or whatever. Fern struggles and it doesn’t magically get cured in just a few pages, and I appreciate that.
Of course, Baldree also made a name for himself as an audiobook narrator prior to his first novel and his writing style is easy to read and even easier to listen to as he narrates his own works. He has a fantastic reading voice and gives his characters distinctive and interesting voices as well.
In the end, I really liked Brigands & Breadknives and the different take on the cozy genre with both familiar and new characters in his ever-expanding series.
Thank you to Tor Books for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
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