When’s the last time a book made you feel like you were transported to a comfy, cozy café, warm drink in hand, surrounded by all your favorite people? Because that’s exactly what Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree did for me! I finished this book a month ago and am still telling all my friends about it.

This book is blurbed as “high fantasy, low stakes” and reads like a slice of life about Viv, an Orc, who decides to retire from her adventuring life to open a café. It was absolutely perfect and we need more standalone fantasy books like this ASAP.

Baldree did an incredible job of creating a high fantasy world and building out enough character backstory and atmosphere to carry through a single book. It’s rare to find a standalone story that does this so well with high fantasy, and I was impressed the entire time.

If you’re like me and love fantasy stories but don’t want to commit to a multi-book series, Legends & Lattes is one I’d highly recommend! You get incredible world building, multifaceted characters, and an engaging storyline that’s wrapped up nicely in under 300 pages.

My favorite part of this book was how no one except Viv knew what coffee was, and she explains it to them as being “like tea, but not tea,” so they affectionately refer to it as “bean water.” It showed how kind the characters were, but also made me think, how the hell would I explain a café and coffee to someone who has literally never heard of it before? These small quips throughout the book made me laugh, and appreciate the setting and characters so much more.

If you’re in the mood for a cozy, soft, slice of life high fantasy, with found family and queer characters, please pick up this book! It was an instant favorite and I can’t wait for more people to read it.

A huge thank you to the author for sending me a copy in exchange for a review. Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is available now through Amazon and can be read on Kindle Unlimited. It’s also been picked up by Tor UK and will be published traditionally in December 2020.