My letter “L” pick for the A to Z Challenge was LEGENDS & LATTES by Travis Baldree.

This book was such an unexpected mix of lighthearted fun and heart – I just absolutely loved it. This story is a comforting mug of cocoa by a fire with your best friend on a cold day.

We start out with Viv, a determined badass Orc who has hung up her battle axe (literally – it’s behind the counter) and quit her mercenary work after defeating a terrifying monster, making a bunch of money, and scoring herself a Scalvert’s Stone – a magical stone that gives the owner good luck.

She moves to the town of Thune, buys a dilapidated building, and with the help of a local handyman named Cal she turns it into a coffee house – a product no one in Thune had ever heard of. She recruits Tandri, an introverted succubus with a talent for management and presentation, and Thimble, a Ratkin who happens to be an excellent baker, and soon the coffee shop is a hopping spot for good coffee, great eats, and lively conversation (featuring live music!).

This gets the attention of a local crime boss who stupidly tries to extort an orc with an enormous battle-axe, and another merc who wants to steal the Scalvert’s stone – all of which puts Viv’s livelihood and the new found family she’s built in danger.

This book is stuffed with humor, masterful with it’s worldbuilding and characters, and is loaded with heartfelt moments that will sock you in the feels before handing you a steaming cup of coffee and a cinnamon bun. I cannot recommend this enough. If you buy it on audiobook, the author narrates – which is often a disaster – but in this case, Travis Baldree is a seasoned audiobook narrator with hundreds of titles under his belt – and it shows. His performance is highly entertaining.

Five stars and a homemade biscotti for this one.