Eh. I absolutely adored Legends & Lattes but this didn't really click for me. I found myself missing the live interest of L&L and a more mature Viv, and the coffee element and city setting - strange because I love bookshops and seaside settings usually?

I enjoyed the slow pace but it did feel very much so like one of those free cozy phone games where you decorate a house and repeat looped dialogue without much plot. Nothing really happened until the last couole of chapters and then the action, which was based around a very cringey mwah ha ha style villian and a duex ex machina (in my opinion) trick to defeat her, and seemed to both clash with the cozy low stakes rest of the book while also lacking all tension and fear for the characters.

I also just personally didn't like the love interest, and would have much perferred to see Viv have her fling with Fern, the hot gate warden, the erotica writer or the poet orc handyman instead, all of which I think had better chemistry!

I really enjoyed the erotica writer subplot but found it kind of clashed with the sexless main story. I don't mind some spice in my cozy fiction (I loved The Honey Witch!) but why am I getting snippets of sex scenes in a book the MC is reading that I know nothing about and the actual plot only has the characters hold hands?

My favourite character was Sachel and I'm kind of sad he didn't go live with Viv and help her with the coffee shop in L&L! Can someone tell me if Fern & Sachel appear in the sequel and if I should read it?

I know the author struggled with this one and I think it shows. It really needed an editing job I think, and I don't recall their being so many typos and just bad sentences in L&L?

All in all, I did enjoy it, and read it in only a couple of sittings. I was adament I wouldn't rate it well, but then I nearly cried at the epilogue, which is set in L&L timeline. I would say give it a go if you loved L&L and want more info about Viv and her past, but definately do not start the series with this one! A bit dissapointing, but veru nostalgic. I think I'll keep just to keep L&L company on my shelf😆❤