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Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree – Blog Tour Book Review and Show Us How You Latte!
This cosy fantasy publishes on the 10th and is perfect to read with a Costa Toblerone latte (other coffee shops and latte varieties are available).
However a couple of years back I discovered that I could buy the syrups Costa use and have my own little latte station at home now. Budgets are tight and we need all the book money we can get. Now after reading the book I also feel the need for a pastry or three.
About the Book
A cosy, heart-warming slice-of-life fantasy about found families and fresh starts – perfect for fans of TJ Klune, Katherine Addison, T. Kingfisher, and snuggling up on the sofa.
After decades of adventuring, Vov the orc barbarian is finally hanging up her sword for good. Now she sights her sights on a new dream – for she plans to open the first coffee shop in the city of Thune. Even though no one there knows what coffee actually is…
If Viv wants to put the past behind her, she can’t go it alone. And help might arrive from unexpected quarters. Yet old rivals and new stand in the way of success. And Thane’s shady underbelly could make it all too easy for Viv to take up the blade once more.
But the true reward of the unchartered path is the travellers you meet along the way. Whether bound by ancient magic, delicious pastries, or a freshly brewed cup, they may become something deeper than Viv ever could have imagined.
High fantasy, low stakes – with a double shot of coffee.
About the Author
Travis Baldree is a full-time audiobook narrator who has lent his voice to hundreds of stories. Before that, he spent decade designing and building video games like Torchlight, Rebel Galaxy, and Fate. Apparently, he also now writes books. He lives in the Pacific Northwest with his very patient family and their small, nervous dog. Legends & Lattes is his debut novel.
What I Thought
Does for fantasy what Becky Chambers did for sci-fi.
Publishing these days is often all about the hard sell, the hook, the pacy adventure and sometimes you want something a little more laid back with a bit less peril. Slice-of-life with found family (and a sneaky bit of romance) is a perfect description and the characterisation in this, is Thimble chef’s kiss!
If you love food don’t be surprised to find yourself salivating and craving a trip to your local cafe or patisserie – I love that they include a recipe for one of the goodies in the book. As well as a bonus short story and a Q&A with the author. For any U.K. fans sad we don’t have the US cover, the cover image appears on the end pages.
There are so many cool characters and species included and definite spin off potential! Obviously, as our main character, Viv the barbarian Orc has the most growth throughout the book. Just be warned though that despite the cosy feel of most of the book the prologue is a little gruesome but this works as stark contrast and to show why Viv is striving to follow a different path now.
Final thought. Are you really a bookworm if you’ve never daydreamed bout owning a book & coffee shop?! Nod to any friends reading this who remembers the 80s BBC computer game Teashop. This is a coffee shop version of that in book form mixed with the fantasy adventure game I can’t remember the name of.
Do follow along with the tour and use the hashtag#ShowUsHowYouLatte to share your fave coffee spots or rituals.
Thanks to Black Crow PR and the publisher for the gifted copy for the purpose of an honest review.
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The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi – Blog Tour Book Review
Jurassic Park was one of the first films I really properly remember seeing in the cinema. Probably because we sat on the front row. I also really enjoyed reading Redshirts, John Scalzi’s homage to Star Trek so when Black Crow PR reached out about receiving an ARC of his new release The Kaiju Preservation Society I bit their arm off! Thanks Jamie and Stephen and Tor for the gifted copy.
About the Book
The Kaiju Preservation Society is a thrilling standalone adventure from bestselling author John Scalzi. With bucket loads of Scalzi traits – pacing, humour and tension – this is a light, uplifting escapist story in a Jurassic Park-like alternate world, perfect for fans of Adrian Tchaikovsky, Charles Stross, and epic monster movies.
In New York City, Jamie Gray is a driver for food delivery apps. That is, until Jamie makes a delivery to an old acquaintance, Tom, who works at what he calls ‘an animal rights organization’. Tom’s team needs a last-minute grunt to handle things on their next field visit. Jamie, eager to do anything, immediately signs on.
What Tom doesn’t tell Jamie is that the animals his team cares for are not here on Earth. Not our Earth, at least. In an alternate dimension, massive dinosaur- like creatures named Kaiju roam a warm and human-free world. They’re the universe’s largest and most dangerous animal and they’re in trouble. It’s not just the Kaiju Preservation Society whose found their way to the alternate world. Others have, too. And their carelessness could cause millions back on our Earth to die.
“Scalzi’s latest is a wildly inventive take on the kaiju theme”
―Booklist, starred review
“Equally lighthearted and grounded―and sure to delight.”
―Publishers Weekly, starred review
About the Author
John Scalzi is one of the most popular and acclaimed SF authors to emerge in the last decade. His debut, Old Man’s War, won him science fiction’s John W. Campbell Award for Best New Writer. His New York Times bestsellers include The Last Colony, Fuzzy Nation, The End of All Things and Redshirts, which won 2013’s Hugo Award for Best Novel. Material from his widely read blog Whatever has also earned him two other Hugo Awards. He lives in Ohio with his wife and daughter. Follow him on Twitter @scalzi
What I Thought
In the author note at the end of the book I admired how open John was with us about the challenges he faced in writing in a pandemic – particularly as it sounds like he may have also being experiencing Long Covid at points.
He scrapped the idea he was working on and was supported in a deliverator delay (read the book – you’ll get the reference). And, KPS was the outcome of being allowed to put aside one project and being allowed to follow it with this soul cleanser. Something written for pure joy. A “pop song” amidst the “brooding symphonies” as he calls it.
I really enjoyed it. Fun, pacy, easy to read. Full of characters you want to root for and not see ripped limb to limb. COVID-19 does get a mention early on but then we get to go to a whole new world full of Godzilla type nuclear reactor ecosystems who are called things like Edward and Bella and who need help from the humans to ‘get it on’.
Despite the fun there is serious discussions to be had – if you want them. But you can also just simply read this for pure enjoyment – and isn’t that what we need right now. COVID-19 has been a terrible thing but the rays of light that have shone from the darkness are worth holding onto and this will be one of mine.
Main character Jamie has a serendipitous encounter that leads him on another adventure. Not one he thought he’d be on but one he is eminently suited to. Isn’t life funny that way?
Full of lots of pop, poop and Hamilton references it is very much a book for the now – although soon, the now will be history, and I think this will stand up for future sci-fi readers. It does also include a fair bit of science – so one for the biology, physics and chemistry nerds too – and there is power in being the one who lifts things – look at Luisa in Encanto and everyone who has kept society going through the pandemic.
And if that wasn’t all excellent enough then Wil Wheaton narrates the audiobook – so I’m going to get that for when I’m ready for a re-read.
Ps. He needs a part in the movie adaptation please.
Do check out the rest of the tour which you can follow along with on Twitter and Instagram and using #KaijuPreservationSociety. Opinions and geeking out are all mine.
@scalzi @UKTor @BlackCrow_PR #KaijuPreservationSociety
@Panmacmillan @jscalzi @BlackCrow_PR
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The Atlas Six by Olivie Blake – Blog Tour Book Review
About the Book
Secrets. Betrayal. Seduction.
Welcome to the Alexandrian Society.
When the world’s best magicians are offered an extraordinary opportunity, saying yes is easy. Each could join the secretive Alexandrian Society, whose custodians guard lost knowledge from ancient civilizations.
Their members enjoy a lifetime of power and prestige. Yet each decade, only six practitioners are invited – to fill five places.
Contenders Libby Rhodes and Nico de Varona are inseparable enemies, cosmologists who can control matter with their minds. Parisa Kamali is a telepath, who sees the mind’s deepest secrets. Reina Mori is a naturalist who can perceive and understand the flow of life itself. And Callum Nova is an empath, who can manipulate the desires of others. Finally there’s Tristan Caine, whose powers mystify even himself.
Following recruitment by the mysterious Atlas Blakely, they travel to the Society’s London headquarters. Here, each must study and innovate within esoteric subject areas. And if they can prove themselves, over the course of a year, they’ll survive. Most of them.
About the Author
Olivie Blake, is a lover and writer of stories, and is the pen name of Alexene Farol Follmuth. Many of her stories involve the fantastic, the paranormal, or the supernatural, but not always. More often, her works revolve around the collective experience, what it means to be human (or not), and the endlessly interesting complexities of life and love.
Alexene tripped and fell into writing after abandoning her long-premeditated track for Optimum Life Achievement while attending law school, and now focuses primarily on the craft and occasional headache of creating fiction.
What I Thought
This book appears to be very much a marmite book but that’s often the case with books that have been hyped and when people go in with pre-conceptions about what it should be like.
I try and go into everything I read with an open mind and all I really knew about this one was that it was Dark Academia, which having loved Nevernight and A Deadly Education, I knew I was here for.
First up, it’s important to know that this is a multipoint of view book. All of the characters are so intriguing that I think it is necessary to get into each of their minds to unpick what is going on but I know that not everyone is a fan of switching heads so often. The cast of characters is diverse so there’s bound to be one who’s sections you want to skip forward to – but don’t.
Second, the book starts a little slowly. This is an adult title, and I’m currently doing a writing course for children and young people where the focus is very much on letting the reader know up front what is going on. Here we get introduced to each character in turn along with the mysterious Atlas but they, like us do not yet appreciate what we are getting in for.
I showed a friend the back of the book and they said the stakes weren’t high enough if five of the six get to walk away, but if you like more than one character the stakes even then are plenty high enough imho.
The magic in this is dynamic, and political and definitely has the potential to be manipulated.
In fact much manipulation and double crossing happens and who doesn’t love that in their fiction?
As you might expect with a story about knowledge it does get cerebral at times (and the tiny font in the ARC didn’t help my Long Covid brain). I love books that challenge me and make me think but the timing has to be right. That’s why I restarted this book a few times because I knew it was a story that would be more demanding for me as a reader, I was definitely intrigued from the first line’s of Libby’s section (just after the prologue). Demanding does not mean unenjoyable it just means be prepared to brain.
To help with some fun to get you in the mood here’s some artwork of our six.
Illustration by @LittleChmura
And a quiz to find out which character you are most like. Supposedly I’m Parisa!
The Atlas Six is out now and the sequel The Atlas Paradox is out in October 2022.
Use the hashtag to follow the blog tour and check out the tour events coming up in April too. Thanks to Jamie and Stephen at Black Crow and the publisher for the gifted ARC. All opinions are mine.
kirstyes 