Bookshops and Bonedust Review

It's been a while since I visited the wonderful world Travis Baldree created with Legends and Lattes! (You can read the review for that book here.) It's also been a while since I took a picture of a book with one of my dolls. That's Venus McFlytrap from G3 Monster High.

Bookshops and Bonedust is the prequel to Legends and Lattes. This prequel follows Viv the Orc recovering from an injury from her last battle. She spends time in this seaside town called Murk, where she becomes friendly with a colorful cast of new friends, from a restaurant owner named Brand, to a gnome named Gallina, to a carpenter named Pitts, and even her surgeon named Highlark. She also becomes enemies with a guard named Iridia, but even she becomes more of a frenemy later on. However, Viv spends most of her time at a nearby bookshop and the bakery next door to it. She becomes super close with the rattkin that owns the bookshop, named Fern, and her pet griffet Potroast (they're pictured on the cover). Viv does a little project where she renovates Fern's bookshop, as it has been falling apart and hasn't gotten many visitors. Fern also gifts books to Viv to read as she recovers from her injury. Viv also loves the treats the bakery next door has, and she also becomes super close and even forms a relationship with the owner, a dwarf named Maylee. Viv grows to love the town of Murk, but she keeps seeing threats from Varina, the person whose monsters she last battled. Viv tries to figure out a clever way to stop Varina with her new friends, which may even include a skeleton who used to work for Varina...

I didn't know what to expect going into this prequel as I saw a lot of mixed reviews for it, but I was pleasantly surprised that I loved it! In fact, I think I like it even more than Legends and Lattes. Don't get me wrong, I loved L&L (I gave it 5 stars), but with this book I feel we really got to understand Viv as a character. In fact, I think all of the characters here were way more fleshed out, and the pacing of the story overall was a lot better done. And, this is just my opinion, but I preferred Viv and Maylee's relationship so much more than Viv and Tandri in L&L. Don't get me wrong again, Tandri was a nice girl, but I found Maylee to be more interesting, and her relationship with Viv felt way more developed. Or maybe that's just me because Maylee was my favorite character in this book.

So yes, this was a 5 star book for me. I hope Travis Baldree writes more stories in the world! I would like to see a sequel with the characters introduced here and L&L.