Brigands & Breadknives by Travis Baldree

My rating: 2 of 5 stars


I didn’t know what to expect with this entry into the world of Legends & Lattes. I hadn’t read anything leading up to it, nor did I read the back cover copy. I enjoyed the first one, and the second one was ok. I have been leaning toward ‘cozy’ lately and this seemed like it would fit the bill.

It is still cozy… but there’s a lot more action and a lot more peril in this one than in the previous entries. The whole thing is a very interesting take on adventure. It starts without intention to adventure, morphs into a mid-life crisis and wraps up as something I can’t really identify.

(SPOILERS AHEAD)

I wanted to empathize with Fern more than I could. Going from the position of ‘I have everything’ to ‘I can’t be here anymore’ seemed very abrupt. Running away from your problems is not a heroic thing, and I generally have a lot of problems with that. I think if there was some return to wrap up the story that was more than ‘I am broken and I won’t be here anymore’ it might have been better? Just abandon your pet? I’m shocked more people aren’t upset about that. Come back to your friends just long enough to… make yourself feel better about what you did?

I’m sure there’s a part of this that’s supposed to be a happy ending where Fern is off with the unintentional bad guy that she thought smelled good – but I just don’t see it. Maybe it’s me?



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