Bookshops & Bonedust

by Travis Baldree

Hardcover, 356 pages

English language

Published Nov. 5, 2023 by Pan Macmillan.

ISBN:: 978-1-0350-0735-6

(3 reviews)

Viv’s career with the renowned mercenary company Rackam’s Ravens isn’t going as planned. Wounded during the hunt for a powerful necromancer, she’s packed off against her will to recuperate in the sleepy beach town of Murk – so far from the action that she worries she’ll never be able to return to it. What’s a thwarted soldier of fortune to do?

Spending her hours at a struggling bookshop in the company of its foul-mouthed proprietor is the last thing Viv would have predicted. Even though it may be exactly what she needs. Still, adventure isn’t far away. A suspicious traveller in grey, a gnome with a chip on her shoulder, a summer fling and an improbable number of skeletons prove Murk to be more eventful than Viv could have ever expected.

Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we …

Sometimes, right things happen at the wrong time. Sometimes, what we need isn’t what we seek. And sometimes, we find ourselves in the stories we experience together.

Set twenty years before the events of Legends & Lattes , Bookshops & Bonedust is a standalone cosy fantasy by BookTok sensation Travis Baldree about the power of good bookshops, great friends and the unexpected choices along the way.

6 editions

StoryDragon reviewed Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Bookshops & Bonedust: a great prequell

5 stars

I had not expected the prequell to be so good. Nearly or maybe completely as good as Legends & Lattes. A lovely cozy fantasy, in a way definitely still slice-of-life-y. I love that Viv helps rebuild a bookshop. And Satchel is so lovely! I definitely thought of Veo Corva while reading this. Their books have similar vibes. And just now I realize how close two book titles are... Bookshops & Bonedust vs. Books & Bone. I cannot say too much without giving spoilers, but one character in Bookshops & Bonedust reminds me of a favourite character in the Tombtown books by V.

Eric Wagoner 📚 reviewed Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes, #2)

So cozy but still with big personal stakes

5 stars

A sequel every good as the first without being a repeat or derivative. A prequel that stands on its own. This was such a joy to read, and I hope there is more to come!

Meadhbh Dhommnail reviewed Bookshops & Bonedust by Travis Baldree (Legends & Lattes, #2)

Cozy and sweet and I wish I could live there

5 stars

Sometimes you need something cozy and heartwarming where a dwarf and an orc can fall in love over pastries and 'moist' books. These books are the literary equivalent of a comfortable chair in front of a cheerful fire with a good story in your hand and a mug of coffee and some sweet treat on the table beside you while a pleasant rain tinkles to the ground outside. Cozy and warm and lovely.

Of course, now I need to immediately re-read Legends and Lattes.