Brigands and Breadknives
Author: Travis Baldree
Reviewer: Sophia Rose
Rating: B
What I’m Talking About:
After an orc and rattkin meet and share an adventure in the prequel, Bookshops and Bonedust, the second book in the series, Brigands and Breadknives reunites Viv and Fern, only for Fern, a rattkin experiencing a personal crisis, goes on her own new cozy fantasy adventure in the company of new companions, a bounty-hunting elf and a roguish goblin.
Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes series is on book two though Brigands and Breadknives is the third entry if one counts – and one should- the prequel which ties the closest to this latest story.
Fern ran a bookshop that belonged to her father and now, in middle-age and off and on corresponding with her old pal, Viv, who has settled in Thule with a successful coffee and bake shop, Fern decides to take up Viv’s offer to help move her bookstore to Thule and be near Viv.
All this transpires, but Fern’s secret desire was to see this take care of the emptiness in life she has felt for some time. Being near Viv and having the bookshop be a success didn’t do for her ennui what she thought. She gets drunk and walks around at night trying to find a way to tell Viv, this isn’t working for her.
Getting drunk leaves her with a hangover and waking up miles from Thule in the company of a bounty-hunting elf, Astryx One-Ear the Oathmaiden, and her captured bounty, Zyll, a goblin with secrets. Not knowing what to say to Viv about her internal struggles that weren’t solved by moving to Thule, Fer decides she wants to stick with the others.
Fern feels revitalized in the company of a living legend in her eyes (Astryx) and gets Astryx to let her join them helping translate goblin. Little did the two know that Zyll is wanted by others and knows more than she’s saying about the quest they are all eventually on.
Breadknives and Brigands is full of a warm and vibrant fantasy world of magic, mythical characters, and a slow-burn building plot with a fantastic twist at the end. I loved this one and look forward to more adventures in the Legends and Lattes world.
My Rating: B
Sophia Rose
About the Book:
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.
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Publisher: Tor Publishing
Series: Legends and Lattes #2
Genre: Cozy Fantasy
Format(s): hardcover (336 pages), e-book, audiobook
Book Source: NetGalley