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Legends & Lattes Review

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Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Published by Tor Books (an imprint of Macmillan)
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree Published by Tor Books (an imprint of Macmillan)

Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree is one of the quintessential cozy fantasy books of the last 5 years. Baldree is a videogame designer and audiobook narrator who was inspired by COVID to write something escapist with themes of fantasy romance. 

While this book was originally self-published, I read the Tor Books paperback edition. If you love this book/series, there are plenty of special editions out there now and the latest book in the series (Brigands & Breadknives) had its initial release in hardcover. 

Adventurer Viv retires from her bloody profession to open a coffeeshop in a new city. If only her new neighbors knew what coffee was. 

The book explores themes of friendship as Viv slowly gets to know her new community, moving on from a past self that no longer reflect who you are, and following your dreams while overcoming adversity. Plus a little romance is thrown in for good measure.

Everyone is introduced in a way that eases you into the community the same way Viv is getting to know the whole town. Despite her meeting so many people for the first time, the list of core characters remains fairly small. Her (former) adventuring party, her neighbors (including a nosy but well-meaning woman across the street), a small group of regulars, and her coworkers/friends who help her toward achieving her dream coffee shop. 

This book is part of a series but they can be read in any order. Legends & Lattes follows Viv, Bookshops & Bonedust (book 2) is a prequel and covers a younger Viv and her friend Fern, while book 3 (Brigands & Breadknives) focuses on Fern in the same or similar time period of Legends & Lattes. 

While I don’t read a ton of fantasy, I would say this book sticks to the familiar high fantasy of Dungeons & Dragons lore, so if you are at all familiar with some of that worldbuilding, this setting and these characters might feel comfortingly familiar. 

It takes the expectation of grandeur, violence, and adventure and turns it into something quieter and intimate, allowing for the focus to be on the small moments. I do love the chance to see these characters in low stakes moments and under (some) stress and how they deal with that. I especially liked the complexity of Viv making conscious choices against her more actionable instincts and think her way into alternative solutions. 

This book is a great comfort to get you out of your own head and into a fantasy world when the current one is falling apart. This book had higher stakes than I expected while also being a slow-paced story of building community. I thought it was cute and perfect for high fantasy fans who are craving that day in the life feeling from their high fantasy settings. I enjoyed Viv, recently retired from adventuring, and her determination to reinvent herself, Tandri’s steady presence alongside her, Cal’s unwavering support, and Thimble’s understated excitement. The side characters throughout this book were so fun and seeing them become lovable regulars and even friends after seeing them through Viv’s initially wary gaze was both excellent development of Viv learning to trust and great storytelling revealing more to the reader little by little. 

While I don’t think I am the audience of this book, it’s well written, heartfelt, and fun to read. It’s perfect for fantasy lovers, DnD fans, and those who need a little more whimsy in their lives.

Book Review Confessions Kanae Minato with book cover on the right featuring a single chair surrounded by white desks on a black background

Book Review Confessions

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A single chair surrounded by white desks against a black background

Summary

Confessions is an impressive debut by Japanese author Kanae Minato. Originally published in 2008 and translated into English by Stephen Snyder, Confessions hit the U.S. shelves in 2014. It was also adapted into a film in Japan in 2010. 

Confessions is told in six parts and recounts perspectives following teacher Yuko Moriguchi after she learns two of her middle school students were possibly involved in the death of her four-year-old daughter and decides to take their punishment into her own hands.

There is so much to say about this novel, and I will get into it soon while avoiding talking about the actual plot as much as possible to avoid spoilers; however, one of the most interesting parts of talking about this novel is describing the genre to others. My friend who is interested in horror recommended this book to me under the guise of it being a psychological horror. After reading it myself and attempting to describe it to a coworker, I described it as a mix between mystery and psychological thriller. Wikipedia calls it a suspense novel while the genres on its publisher page on the Hachette website include Mystery & Thriller, Fiction, Mystery & Detective, and Women Sleuths. It was also nominated for a Shirley Jackson Award which covers “literature of psychological suspense, horror and dark fantasy.” 

Let me know what genre you think best fits this book!

Evaluation

Treating this as a psychological thriller, this book does fit the genre in terms of twists and plot progression that you might expect; however, it isn’t as fast-paced or heart-racing as “thriller” might suggest. It is also very introspective and character-driven, so it fits literary fiction expectations as well. 

I think one of the reasons that it can be described as multiple genres is it hits multiple genre expectations while also adding dimensions that reach across genre lines. 

The main character throughout is the teacher Yuko Moriguchi. Her four-year-old daughter also plays a major role as the catalyst to the whole novel. Then there are three students who feature prominently and each gets their own chapter to share their own side of the story.

What really makes this story unique is that each main character gets their own chapter to share their side, something that Moriguchi would probably argue against when it comes to children who commit crimes. Crime committed by children is also a big theme in this book. Confessions poses and considers what drives children to commit serious crimes and how should society treat cases of such crimes when it comes to reporting on them—and the risk of copycats and privacy in sensationalizing such stories. It also covers mental health and the phenomenon of Hikikomori or severe isolation. The final prominent themes fight stigmas of single motherhood—and motherhood in general—and HIV/AIDS.

While there were moments I found slow in comparison, the more quiet, introspective narrative parts made the plot twists even more shocking. As soon as you settle into the voice of each new part, more information is revealed. As soon as you think you know everything, you are shown that there is more to this story. 

Each of the six parts is told in a different form, the first in Moriguchi’s retirement speech to her middle school class in which the reader only gets her side of the conversation, no thoughts, no description other than what she verbally describes. It’s a very fitting introduction to a story that takes perspective and sharing each side of the story individually so seriously.

This is extremely effective in my opinion. 

My Rec

I absolutely loved this book and just as it was recommended to me, I will continue the chain and recommend it to anyone interested in a little literary psychological thriller. To put it simply, I highly recommend it to everyone.

It is truly unique and I honestly have not read or experienced anything like it. Despite this, I do see some similarities to other stories. After reading this book, I watched the Netflix show Adolescence which follows the investigation of the death of a 13-year-old girl and the 13-year-old boy accused of killing her. It has a similar insight and exploration of the teenage/preteenage mind and a desire for power, control, and attention that young boys can have. While these take different forms in each piece of media, I find it interesting to see the similarities. Both Adolescence and Confessions also explore the impact that a few moments can have on the people who make such decisions as well as the families involved who are forced to deal with the aftermath. 

Shelf Talker and social caption

A teacher decides to take justice into her own hands when she suspects two of her students of killing her four-year-old daughter.

 

Published by Mulholland Books

Book cover of The House in the Cerulean Sea with the words book review on the side

The House in the Cerulean Sea Review

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The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune Published by Tor Books (an imprint of Macmillan)
The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune Published by Tor Books (an imprint of Macmillan)

After my productive January of reading—thanks to Storygraph’s January Pages Challenge to log at least one page or minute read every day in January—my February has been a little slower to get into. While I have slowly been working my way through a couple different books, none have been successful in capturing my attention—until this one. 

I was lucky enough to find a skip the line copy from my library for The House in the Cerulean Sea while poking around Libby on my day off. My friends told me that listening to it was the way to go, so I was excited to finally find a copy. Let me just say, my friends were right. While I have a feeling this book would have ruined me in the best way no matter the format, I can picture characters and settings more easily when I hear books aloud; so, for me, listening to this book was the best thing to do.

Shelf Talker

I saw that Shelf Awareness has a shelf talker blurb for some of their reviews, and as I work at a bookstore, I thought this would be a great element to have as well as good practice.

Shelf Talker: A cozy fantasy with high enough personal stakes, The House in the Cerulean Sea follows Linus as he evaluates the safety of a magical orphanage, but he finds more than he expects. 

Summary

The House in the Cerulean Sea is a triumph of cozy fantasy with high stakes and perfectly lovable characters. Linus, the main character, is a wonderful example of the mundane, a government employee whose job it is to ensure orphanages for magical children are treating those children well. He is sympathetic from the jump, and as the book progresses, his straightforward and “objective” way of viewing the world means that the reader often has the opportunity to read into things that he accepts at face value. 

After 17 years at the same job, he is selected to evaluate an orphanage that is hidden from the rest of the world and full of magical children that are slightly more magical than others. Linus is assigned the task of objectively observing and reporting the goings on of the orphanage to “Extremely Upper Management” despite an endearing cast of characters in both the children as well as their mysteriously alluring leader of the orphanage, Arthur. 

A heartfelt story with themes of found family, flawed systems, and prejudice. In addition, it has queer characters where queerness feels less like a theme and more a foundation on which the story is built. Their queerness is incidental and not commented on, which is refreshing when coming out and being out have such a focus in the real world.

While this book does have a sequel that I have yet to read, this book wraps everything up in a satisfying way. I think many would be perfectly content to exist with just this book, but as I’ll get into, this world is one I would never complain about revisiting. 

Evaluation

I don’t normally read fantasy, and cozy fantasy sometimes gets bumped down my list in favor of more fast-paced books, but this one is enough to get me to dive into the genre at full speed. From what I have heard from others about cozy fantasy books, they usually want to savor the settings and characters, to get lost in the world building and bask in the quiet warmth. The House in the Cerulean Sea fits most of those elements. While it is cozy, and to me it was predictable for it to have the ending it did, the stakes seem surprisingly high. The fate of children is in the hands of a slightly apathetic, dreary governmental department that is led by people who might have a hidden agenda. In the face of prejudice and experiences that don’t immediately impact Linus, the darker reality of the world is slightly more obvious to the reader than it is (initially) to Linus, which propels the plot.

Beyond the quiet comfort of Linus, the characters are lovingly quirky in the way many kids are, from one kid with a quiet passion to write to another with dream to be a bellhop, and others with a slightly more sinister interest in death. They feel like real kids with niche interests and dreams, and they have an optimism paired with the bite of the knowledge that there are mean people in the world. The master of the house, Arthur Parnassus, just wants to ensure the children are safe. He has the most history to uncover and every bit revealed adds embers to the slowest-burn romance that I have read recently and that I savor. 

The prose itself is, at times, rather simplistic but with a sense of whimsy and matter-of-factness in the face of absurdity that tie everything together. The content itself would almost read as though for a younger audience if it wasn’t for Linus’s age (40). It is a perfect storybook for adults. I personally felt like it was similar to Welcome to Nightvale in some of the descriptions and fantastical elements that were treated mostly as normal within the confines of the island that houses the orphanage.

My Rec

The blurb on the hardcover is “This book is very close to perfect” and I wholeheartedly agree. I want to climb inside the pages and live between the words, pulling them over me like a warm blanket on a cold night. It is the perfect escapist novel for a difficult time. I am not ashamed to admit that I teared up a time or two because of the wholesome moments. 

A maybe too niche comparison would be Welcome to Nightvale meets Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School.

I finished the audiobook in two days and stayed up later than I should have to stay entranced in the world just a little longer. I also bought this book and the sequel so that I have the ability to relisten to it and have the sequel on hand for when I have time. Since finishing it, I have told almost everyone I’ve encountered to read it. 

Two thumbs up, five stars.

Book Review: Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen

Patricia Wants to Cuddle: Book Review

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Patricia Wants to Cuddle by Samantha Allen book cover

It’s October, which means it’s time to highlight horror/thrillers! I don’t read a lot of horror, but this one was recommended to me in a class, covers multiple elements that I love to read, and was the perfect spooky book to start while camping.

If you’re anything like me and watch reality TV but constantly think about how much producers interfere with and create the narrative and treat these shows like a guilty pleasure, the first half of this book will carry you through until the horror hits. Samantha Allen does a great job of making unlikable characters in the form of the handful of final contestants and the love interest in the Bachelor-esque reality show. She also nails the derisive, better-than-you crew member stuck wrangling the contestants. Amid the interpersonal conflict of fighting for—or waiting out—a man, the book includes forum feeds and blog posts of fans and a many-year-old mystery, which amplifies the tension. I love how she builds interest so that even though you know something is going on, you are forced to get to know the reality stars as the underlying drama builds. This makes the action and horror hit harder. 

Again, it’s the perfect book to start while camping in the woods, but as someone who doesn’t sleep well after reading horror, I would avoid reading the second half at home with lockable windows and doors. And as a warning, there is gore; it’s described as horror for a reason.

If you are still on the fence, here’s what convinced me. This book has bigfoot and lesbians. It’s not a secret that the big bad of this book is bigfoot, and as someone who lives in the PNW, I always love a good bigfoot story and have a lifelong interest in cryptids, so this element was definitely a draw for me. Also, the setting of a small island in Washington makes for the perfect backdrop. In addition, as a queer person, there are lesbians in this book, and that was enough knowledge to get me invested. All you need to know can be encapsulated by the shelf talker I wrote for a bookstore: Dating reality TV show. Bigfoot. Lesbians.

Published May 30, 2023 by Zando Projects

Find it here!

headphones on purple background

Listening to Poetry . . . Through Audiobook?

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Recently, I picked up the audiobook for Instruction for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan on Libby. I had been interested in this book since it came out, so I decided to try something new and download the audiobook. This was the first and so far only poetry audiobook I have ever read, so I have more thoughts on the format than the content, especially because I really enjoyed the content. 

I initially started this book when I had a migraine. I find that sometimes when I can’t use my phone or a physical book to entertain myself during a migraine, audiobooks are the perfect way to distract myself. When this happens, I aim for shorter, more lyrical works so I can enjoy the beauty of the language without following a complicated plot. Poetry is apparently great for this.

There were a couple of elements that took some getting used to when listening to poetry compared to when I listen to long form prose audiobooks. Because of the short length of the poems, sometimes I was a little more distractible and would find my mind wandering more frequently. Even though I kept the audiobook slow, I would have to re-listen to whole poems. However, when I visually read poetry, I also like to reread lines or whole poems to ensure I grasp the full meaning, sit with the content after, or reflect on anything that I may feel about the poem. This rereading is more complicated in an audiobook, but not enough to really dissuade me from relistening or rewinding the audiobook.

A downside that was more impactful on my willingness to listen to a collection of poetry again is the erasure of the physical intentionality of poetry. As an art form, poetry can rely on form and spelling, so listening to the audiobook removes some of the artistic intention from formatting to spelling including potential homophones or double meetings.

There were also a couple of elements of this experience that I really enjoyed. First, I loved that it felt more like I was at a reading or live performance. Instructions for Traveling West was narrated by the author, Joy Sullivan, which made it feel like I was listening to it the way the author intended and not based on my own mental voice. I also enjoyed that it made me slow down. I tend to rush through poetry, to skim the words and not take the time to internalize them, hence the need to reread. Being able to set the speed of the audiobook to a slower setting made the reading experience more intentional and allowed me to give each word the focus it deserves.

Overall, this was an interesting learning experience with an excellent collection of poems. I would love to learn more about the process of recording poetry versus prose. I know it’s different at the editing stage, so I would love to learn more about the audiobook process as a whole and to know more about scripting or directing. In addition, how is directing an author narrating an audiobook different from directing a professional voice actor? 

To end, I want to take a moment to talk about the content of this book. Joy Sullivan has such a way with words, and her poetry made me reflect a lot on growing up in California and what “the west” really means to me. In a larger context, it made me reflect on “the west” and its larger reputation among the American experience and conversation of American stereotypes. I loved being pushed to confront something in me that felt so embedded in my personal history. It also made me reflect on how living in a different part of “the west” alters my relationship with “the west” and evolves my feelings on a sense of place.

Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan published by Dial Press
Instructions for Traveling West by Joy Sullivan published by Dial Press

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