Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree

Bookshops and Bonedust by Travis Baldree is the prequel to one of my favorite books, Legends and Lattes (which I also have reviewed, and you should probably read that review before reading this one) and I almost walked right past it in the library. I was walking around and saw Legends and Lattes so I thought, nice! I love that book! Upon closer inspection with my eyeballs, I saw another book under it. At first I was like, Ooh, two copies, good idea, but as I took a closer look, I saw a two on the side of the binding (meaning that it’s the SECOND BOOK IN THE SERIES. I think my library is so smart for doing this) and immediately checked it out, excited—no—ecstatic to read this book. 

The book is about Viv, an orc and a member of Rackam’s squad (squad? Not sure) who gets injured while looking for a necromancer named Varine the Pale (spooky, I know) and dumped in the boring town of Murk. She spends her first few days cooped up in an inn, unable to do anything because of her injury. One day, she decides to venture outside, and she finds a certain bookshop and bakery that changes her life (maybe some light exaggeration). 

She starts to explore the bookshop, get book recommendations from the owner, and slowly begins to fall in love with the bookshop and its musty stink, helping the owner, Fern, with her business. However, not everything is puppies and rainbows. Viv and Fern start to notice a hooded man with a stink of copper and blood walking around outside, a smell that Viv could recognize immediately. A signal of Varine the Pale, and a signal that there won’t be peace in Murk for much longer.

I have a YouTube channel where I animate some of my book reviews! Be sure to check it out at: www.youtube.com/@theeccentricbookshelf.

When I first started reading this book, I thought it was just a boring remake of the first one. I got really confused as to why the setting had changed and why the characters were all different, but that’s just because I didn’t know it was a prequel (the sticker was covering that part, okay?). I was very wrong about it just being a remake and I’m so glad that I kept reading. 

First of all, mystery is a much bigger part of the book. There’s a lot more stuff going on outside of the bakery and the bookshop compared to Legends and Lattes. LAL was very focused on the café and not much else (sure, there was a bit of mystery, but BAB has significantly more). I would go as far to say that their differences make it so that BAB is almost a different genre than LAL. There’s just so much more action and adventure and exploring in the prequel. LAL was a comforting and very laid-back read, while BAB got my heart rate up and genuinely stressed me out a little bit (a good thing). Baldree was super good at building up the stress and keeping the intensity high. Honestly, I was probably holding my breath for the majority of the last third of the book (or at the climax as an English teacher might say).

However, there was a lot more romance than the first book, and I’m not sure I enjoyed it too much. It added a tad more to the novel, but Baldree didn’t address it enough (especially at the end) for it to make any significant difference. 

I have a YouTube channel where I animate some of my book reviews! Be sure to check it out at: www.youtube.com/@theeccentricbookshelf.

I also thought that the books didn’t really fit together really well. They were essentially two different series with similar plots (at least in the beginning). It didn’t expand too much on the more important parts of Viv’s backstory. Instead of going in depth about her life as a mercenary, it just focused on a repetitive plot line. The only thing that brought the two together was the epilogue. It was okay, but I feel like that part could have been more incorporated into the book and overall been done a lot better. Besides those, there’s not much I can critique. 

I thought it was an interesting book with a ton of fantasy elements and action throughout, while still being able to capture some of the coziness of LAL. All in all, while it wasn’t as good as the first one (what do you really expect, though, I went in with expectations that were maybe a bit too high), it was a very enjoyable book.