Return to the cozy fantasy world of the #1 New York Times bestselling Legends & Lattes series with a new adventure featuring fan-favorite, foul-mouthed bookseller Fern

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, 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 nothing seems inevitable.

Fern is a bookseller, a friend of Viv’s and has moved herself and her store to the town of Thune to operate next door to Viv’s coffee shop. But as they get the store ready to open Fern begins to think that a bookstore is no longer her dream and in a bit of a misstep a drunk Fern passes out in a wagon and awakes to find herself on an adventure with a legendary elf and a chaotic goblin.

We first met Fern in the prequel Bookshops & Bonedust, where she introduced the orc, Viv, to the joys of reading while Legends & Lattes gave us the story of Viv opening her coffee shop. This story is totally Fern’s.

Fern finds that her dream of a bookshop next door to her friend’s coffee shop may not be what she really wants at this stage of her life. As she struggles with doubts, and telling Viv she may have made a mistake, she drowns her misgivings in a bunch of alcohol. As she drunkenly goes to confront Viv and confess she does not really want the bookstore any more she hesitates, then sleepily crawls into the back of a parked wagon and passes out.  She awakes to find herself in the wagon of a legendary warrior elf, Astryx, and her prisoner, Kyll, a chaotic and sticky-fingered goblin with a bounty on her head and a passion for taking other people’s cutlery.  As they journey together, Fern struggles with her feelings, unsure of what she wants from life but sure that it is no longer running a bookstore. Throughout the journey she writes long unmailed letters of apology to Viv detailing the journey and her adventures.  Astryx also finds herself reassessing how she has lived her life for the last thousand years and wondering if changes are in order. And Kyll provides some unexpected surprises of her own.

While I sort of expected more of Viv in a book set in this world the reality is that Fern’s adventures were the perfect next entry in the series. Travis Baldree has created a fascinating fantasy world and many characters we wish to get to know better. We do get a brief, very brief, short story of Kyll in Goblins & Greatcoats.  I am hopeful he will return to the world again and maybe tell us more about Astryx or even more of Fern as she continues her new life as a former bookseller. Highly recommended. ~~ Stephanie L Bannon

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