Bookshops & Bonedust
Jul. 5th, 2024 06:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLegends & Lattes by Travis Baldree was one of only two or three books I rated five stars last year, so I'm not sure why it took so long for the prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, to reach the top of my listening schedule.
It's read by Baldree himself again, which is excellent, since he's a professional audiobook narrator and does a fantastic job with his own work.
This instalment tells the story of a young Viv (the orc who open the coffee shop as a retirement plan in the first book) getting injured on her first mercenary campaign and being forced to recuperate in a sleepy seaside town where there's nothing to do...
She befriends the owner of the bakery and the owner of the bookshop and forms a delightful found family, while discovering she likes reading and helping renovate the bookshop.
It made a brilliant contrast to have a young Viv, horribly frustrated by inactivity and desperate to get back to fighting, compared with the much older Viv of the other book, who is desperate to hang up her sword and find some boredom.
All the detail about running shops and all the amazing descriptions of the bakery food were very reminiscent of the previous book and I loved spending time with the characters - especially the animated skeleton homunculus, Satchel.
The book is basically a love letter to reading, which is always a good thing. And there was an amusing nod to the challenges of being a writer when Viv and Fern went to see a local author and were told, "You're in luck - she's not writing, so she's in a good mood today!"
It's all just so damn cosy - until it's not - as, very much like in the previous book, there's a massive ramp up to a very dramatic conclusion, which seems much more so in contrast to all the slow, lovely mundanity of what comes before.
I would have recommended that people read this one first (despite it being published second as a prequel) but there's an entirely unnecessary epilogue that would ruin certain things about Legends & Lattes, which is a shame.
Still - a fantastic audiobook that I thoroughly enjoyed.
It's read by Baldree himself again, which is excellent, since he's a professional audiobook narrator and does a fantastic job with his own work.
This instalment tells the story of a young Viv (the orc who open the coffee shop as a retirement plan in the first book) getting injured on her first mercenary campaign and being forced to recuperate in a sleepy seaside town where there's nothing to do...
She befriends the owner of the bakery and the owner of the bookshop and forms a delightful found family, while discovering she likes reading and helping renovate the bookshop.
It made a brilliant contrast to have a young Viv, horribly frustrated by inactivity and desperate to get back to fighting, compared with the much older Viv of the other book, who is desperate to hang up her sword and find some boredom.
All the detail about running shops and all the amazing descriptions of the bakery food were very reminiscent of the previous book and I loved spending time with the characters - especially the animated skeleton homunculus, Satchel.
The book is basically a love letter to reading, which is always a good thing. And there was an amusing nod to the challenges of being a writer when Viv and Fern went to see a local author and were told, "You're in luck - she's not writing, so she's in a good mood today!"
It's all just so damn cosy - until it's not - as, very much like in the previous book, there's a massive ramp up to a very dramatic conclusion, which seems much more so in contrast to all the slow, lovely mundanity of what comes before.
I would have recommended that people read this one first (despite it being published second as a prequel) but there's an entirely unnecessary epilogue that would ruin certain things about Legends & Lattes, which is a shame.
Still - a fantastic audiobook that I thoroughly enjoyed.
