Legends & Lattes - Travis Baldree

💜

Travis Baldree’s debut fantasy novel is not one to miss. I found this title through TikTok, from a fellow librarian I follow who couldn’t recommend it enough and I finally bit the bullet and ordered myself a copy. And let me just say, one of the best purchases I made. Ever.

I saw one person describe this as a cozy fantasy and I couldn’t agree more. It is everything one could want in a low-stakes, slice-of-life fantasy story. It hits all the buttons and then some.

The story follows Viv, a retired orc barbarian, tired of the adventurer life and looking to settle down and open a coffee shop in a little town that had never even heard of coffee. And while at first glance it looks like this will just be another coffee shop story with a fantasy background, it’s not. It is so much more.

Baldree gives us elements of found family, the importance of old friendships, and building new relationships. And oof the relationships. I loved the quality of characters Baldree gave us. There weren’t many characters which made you feel a little more attached to the few we had.

And as we follow them through the rest of the story and watch Viv build the life she always wanted for herself it also starts to give the ready an urge to build the life they want for themselves as well. If she can do it, why can’t we? She gave up everything she knew to start something she had only the basic knowledge of and on a hunch. It inspiring.

One of my favorite reads of the year so far.

5/3/22

*This review was previously posted on my google site.

Comments

The Family Plot - Megan Collins

4/5 ⭐ A family brought up learning about everything through the lens of true crime. Murder, mayhem, and death are the Lighthouse family's close companions. I was looking forward to this book since reading the summary. I have a mild interest in true crime and was interested in seeing how this story would incorporate such a widely talked about topic. For some, true crime is overdone and saturates media. And if anything, I think Collins does a fantastic job of acknowledging that fact and takes on true crime in a new and unique fashion. We are immediately introduced to the main setting, Blackburn Island, home to a serial killer who was never caught and the home of the 4 Lighthouse children and their... peculiar parents. I thought that Collins did a good job with the characters introducing them one right after another without it feeling rushed or like we were missing something. If anything it felt as though we learned a lot about the family within just the first few chapters. Without

Up All Night - Laura Silverman

4/5 ⭐ Thirteen short stories exploring what happens at night. A perfect summer read for when you're not ready to go to sleep just yet. This anthology features a wide variety of stories all focusing on high schoolers/young adults and certain events or predicaments that they must deal with. Added with the I am not the most familiar with anthologies but I did enjoy the variety and that they were diverse in their characters and representations. I think a lot of teens would enjoy this one. I do think that some stories were better than others, but that is just my opinion. Overall, I really enjoyed this anthology. Thanks to Algonquin Young Readers & NetGalley for the early copy in exchange for an honest review. 6/22/21 *This review was previously posted on my Google Site.

Certain Dark Things - Silvia Moreno-Garcia

5/5 ⭐ A fresh take on the old classic, Silvia Moreno-Garcia manages to reimagine vampire lore into something completely unique. Take whatever previous notions you have of vampire stories and toss them out the window. She managed to introduce such an interesting take on vampires, ones that take on aspects from their cultures like Alt with ties to Aztec mythology and so on. All of these subspecies of vampire builds on the richness of the world Moreno-Garcia created. Alt flees to Mexico City, a closed nation free from any vampire after her family is killed by a rival gang of Necro vampires(a deadly European subspecies of vampires). With only Cualli, her loyal and deadly dog, and a garbage boy named Domingo helping her, she has to flee both the Necros and human gangs who wish her dead. Vampire gangs are definitely a new one for me. The characters come to life on the page within the excellent worldbuilding. You just get lost in the story, captivated until the very end. The diversity of t

In The Solarium

Search This Blog