Cozy atmosphere and kind people in a fantasy setting.
For the last few years, this book would remind me of its existence. Updates from friends on Goodreads. Walking by a bookstore window. A guy reading it in an airport terminal while I fail to stop my two year old from diving under a chair to eat a dusty peanut M&M. Every time I saw it, I would see the cover and think that it was definitely not for me. I am no puritan of fiction, I love me some genre. I read lots of genre. Definitely more sci-fi than fantasy, but I like fantasy just fine. Okay, not high-fantasy or the fantasy where it’s written like the King James Version of the Bible, but some fantasy is good.
The cover is definitely fantasy, but a domestic kind of fantasy. It wasn’t that that pushed me away, I don’t need the promise of big epic action on a cover. I mean, I don’t even need anything to really happen in a book to love it (I’m looking at you, Psalm for the Wild-Built). I think the cover just gave me the impression of something AO3. Fan-fiction.Someone’s Dungeons and Dragons character that they decided to write a story about. I write that and it gives the impression that I look down on AU writing. I know the memes about AO3 tags, but beyond the humor, I am jealous of their ability to write. I’m here, every now and then writing these reviews about how I feel about other people’s writing and other people are actually writing stories. Creating, adding to, changing worlds. Jealously aside, I’ve never had a desire to read fan-fiction. The cover of Legends & Lattes I guess lead my brain to associate it with something that I think I wouldn’t enjoy. Well, it was wrong.
In 2023 I discovered cozy fiction with Becky Chambers. Now, Travis Bladree welcomes me in, gives me a heavy blanket, a warm mug, and tells me there’s bread in the oven. After finishing my first cup of Legends & Lattes I dug in to the more recently published prequel, Bookshops & Bonedust, which was even more enjoyable. Guess I need to read more fantasy. And I guess I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.