Legends & Lattes is a sweet cozy fantasy centered around found family and running a cafe in the midst of mild criminal mischief. This was a nice low stakes read to break up some of my recent heavy reads.

We overall get a fairly surface level understanding of the characters, but I still enjoyed them. I am a sucker for found family, especially when there is a spooky animal companion who is a cat/cat-adjacent. I so enjoyed the found family aspect that I wasn't really interested in or bought into the romance subplot, and I truthfully would have been happier for them to just be friends. Thimble was my favorite and I'm pleased that the author's upcoming short story collection has a Thimble story.

There were a few minor wording choices that tripped me up but otherwise this was a very easy read. The bulk of the world and lore is built around the coffee shop setting, so there is minimal world building needed or done. The fantasy elements are more for setting, decoration, and vibes, so orient your expectations accordingly. I also had to remind myself to suspend disbelief a bit more at the organized crime aspect but that was very doable.

We aren't covering new ground or ideas in this book, but it's a good time, especially if you are hungry and appreciate a baked good. If you are looking for an easy breezy cozy fantasy, I think you will enjoy this book.

Preliminary thoughts to be worked out in the morning...

Artifacts is an art heist and murder mystery and law drama and crime show with mafia ties. Oh and of course, archeology! Also there is a cup. The cup is rarely mentioned.

I was confused for a good amount of it and I blame a lot of that on the writing. Not the story. But the word choice, the writing style, and the grammar. Some of the writing felt very elementary and then there would be some out-of-place word that felt unnatural like, "I felt compunction" which I don't feel was used correctly. There were also several sentences that were so repetitive, for example within a few pages there was:

"I recalled a set of slides Cyrille had shown us.. My mind turned to Cyrille's story.. I thought about the slides Cyrille had shown us.. In class, Cyrille had talked about.. Cyrille had read to us in his seminar.."

Besides the writing, I was never really engaged with the mystery or the plot. I also did not like the ending. I felt it was sudden and left a lot of gaps and unanswered questions.

I do think the characters and the locations were well described though. I wish we knew more about Giamma in the end. I think if you are able to get past the writing and you have some background knowledge in archeology and art history and you enjoy mysteries, you might really enjoy this book! Maybe you like collecting evidence and forming your own theories!

This book is definitely for someone but today that someone is not me, unfortunately.

Oh also I think this would make a better movie. 🤔🎥

NOTE: I rated this book 4.75 stars and it probably would have been 5 stars but a HP reference early on left a bad taste in my mouth. Dear authors and publishers everywhere, WE DON’T WANT THIS!!

I think this is marketed under the thriller genre and it definitely is, but it read more like literary or contemporary fiction in my opinion, it’s a good mix. There’s also a great sense of humour and a healthy dose of satirical criticism of the publishing industry thrown in.

Fruit Fly follows two characters: Mallory - an author with one hit to her name and no ideas for the next one Leo - a young man struggling with addiction and trading sex for his next hit Reddit tells Mallory the ingredients for a bestseller today are sad, gay, dark. So naturally she decides to make a Grindr account to seek out some inspiration, leading her to a party and more importantly Leo. Leo’s tragic backstory and life on the margins of society is just what Mallory needs to return to the limelight, so she goes undercover as his therapist while adapting his story for her new novel.

I love Fruit Fly because it kept me on my toes!! I could not have guessed where the story would go, largely because Mallory and Leo are both unpredictable for different reasons but both out of their own kind of desperation. Leo is living under a bridge with a crippling addiction and no savoury way to fund it, so he goes through waves of withdrawal and using that trigger erratic behaviour. Mallory feels her career slipping through her fingers and takes risks to follow this new pursuit secretly from under the thumb of her controlling husband. They are both victims of circumstance and it’s like a car crash you can’t look away from because they KEEP doing awful things! These characters are not even in the same orbit until Mallory starts living a double life and I loved watching them think they were both playing the other (is that a micro trope?? If so it’s a fave).

This book is a phenomenal deep-dive into addiction, family violence and cycles of abuse - the central theme being exploitation vs inspiration. In one word: binge-able! I have never struggled with substance abuse so I can’t comment on whether the experience Leo portrays is accurate, but it felt raw and unfiltered and didn’t shy away from the harsh reality. I think fans of any genre will enjoy and take value from this story.