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A review by its_kievan
Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.5
Look, it’s a cute book! I liked the characters, I liked the central idea, I enjoyed reading it. But if I can be boring for a second, the politics of Legends & Lattes (and, by extension, the cosy fantasy genre as a whole) are really weirdly conservative.
The central conceit of L&L is that friendship and idealism will get you a happy ending without violence - so long as that happy ending is a very individualistic one. A big subplot is the presence of an organised criminal gang powerful enough to co-opt the local police force, which extorts all businesses in the cities. Viv refuses to pay them off, but also refuses to fight back. Instead she… gives them pastries? Which is just extortion with extra steps. At no point is there any attempt to examine the morality of this arrangement, no hint that Viv might bear some responsibility to other members of the community who will continue to be extorted. Nope, instead the local crime lord helps rebuild her coffee shop so I guess everything is fine. “Fuck you, I got mine” is hardly a “cosy” slogan, but it seems to be the motto of this book. I get - believe me I get - the desire to withdraw from real-world politics, but what happens when your comfort world simply swaps one set of politics for another? There are ways to write comforting stories without writing a weird reactionary fantasy about small business owners getting a leg-up from the mob.
I don’t know. Like I said, I liked the book. It was cute, and fun (if underdeveloped), and let me kill a couple otherwise-boring hours at work. It’s just weird.
The central conceit of L&L is that friendship and idealism will get you a happy ending without violence - so long as that happy ending is a very individualistic one. A big subplot is the presence of an organised criminal gang powerful enough to co-opt the local police force, which extorts all businesses in the cities. Viv refuses to pay them off, but also refuses to fight back. Instead she… gives them pastries? Which is just extortion with extra steps. At no point is there any attempt to examine the morality of this arrangement, no hint that Viv might bear some responsibility to other members of the community who will continue to be extorted. Nope, instead the local crime lord helps rebuild her coffee shop so I guess everything is fine. “Fuck you, I got mine” is hardly a “cosy” slogan, but it seems to be the motto of this book. I get - believe me I get - the desire to withdraw from real-world politics, but what happens when your comfort world simply swaps one set of politics for another? There are ways to write comforting stories without writing a weird reactionary fantasy about small business owners getting a leg-up from the mob.
I don’t know. Like I said, I liked the book. It was cute, and fun (if underdeveloped), and let me kill a couple otherwise-boring hours at work. It’s just weird.