Sincerely, Shannon

BEFORE READING: I have heard of this book for a while and I had a few friends read it and enjoy it. From everything I have heard and read about it, it is a very slow paced fantasy with low stakes (and to get out of the reading slump I am in, that sounds perfect!). I am going into this book knowing nothing except it is fantasy and has something to do with a coffee shop. That’s it! 

HALF WAY REVIEW (May include a few spoilers): So far it’s not bad, it is fairly slow paced and the stakes are most definitely low. I don’t know a lot about dungeons and dragons and I think that probably would help with reading this. There is some terminology and descriptions that I would have liked some background on before I started the book so I didn’t have to keep stopping while reading. I did end up having to look up what a hob is (because of Cal) and that was not what I had pictured in my head for what that character looked like. I have these solid mental images in my head as to what the characters and the area looks like. As soon as I look up what this character’s concept art is or what the species is SUPPOSED to look like, I am shocked. I am going to keep my own little mental image in my head of these characters. I do like however how many different species are involved in this. It’s not just one species and we go with that the whole time.

At this point, I assume that Viv is going to keep building and build enough of a life here that the stakes for her personally are going to get higher, so there is that much more to lose when we get to the climax of the story. I like to see that she is building her own little ‘party’ (as in group) within her shop environment. She just left her last adventuring party and made a new party with her coffee shop. I assume by the end she will have a solid support system of people that will be her new group. I do however like that her last group of friends came to visit her, even though it hurt when she left them. 

I think I like Viv as a character at this point. She keeps saying that she would be better off alone but it seems like she mainly has worked in groups and basically keeps collecting people during her time at her shop. Things just seem safer to her because she is large and she can easily protect herself, including others in this mix has to be hard for her. 

I like that they are basically making a normal coffee shop in the middle of a fantastical world. In this world, Gnomes originated coffee though and it isn’t widely known. At the shop, they made a Latte (which is how we get the name of the shop and book). They now have cinnamon rolls, entertainment, a shop cat, they have basically air conditioning in the kitchen, a coffee machine… and a lot of other things. 

At this point, there are a few things I am thinking… 

• I think the Madrigal might be Laney, I just think she is something unexpected. 
• There is some tension between Lack and Viv, maybe romantic tension… I don’t know but it seems like the characters are interesting working with each other. Maybe it’s from Viv’s time adventuring and she is used to people like this but it might be more. 
• I really want to know what a thimblet is supposed to be in this world. I assume there is an equivalent. I can figure out the rest of the menu just fine and I hope they add more to it just for fun!

END OF THE BOOK (Definitely includes spoilers, read at your own risk): I feel like the book goes really slow from the half way point to when the fire happens, we aren’t looking at much of a conflict besides Fennus in the background. The fact that Fennus trips the ward that Hemmington set up was expected, even Viv said that. Then it gets slow again for a while. 

That is, until the shop gets burned down by Fennus. One question that I have about that is Tandri was throwing things at the windows and the windows didn’t break and they couldn’t get out of the doors or anything. The question is, did Fennus make it so no one could escape as well? Also the fact that he did all of that over the scalvert stone (which we don’t know much about) is crazy. Does he have more information about the stone than we do? I would love to know more about the stone. Also does this mean that Fennus is going to go back to the rest of the party with the stone and not tell them what he did? I hope the rest of Viv’s old party kicks Fennus out of the group and comes to help Viv rebuild. Viv worked so hard on that shop and so many people love it.

The only thing I am not sure I like about the shop burning down is the fact that all the action happens in chapter 24, that’s it. It all happens so quickly then we are on to Viv being depressed then onto repairs. That’s all the action. I thought that we would have Viv hunt down Fennus or something for a little bit of action but I guess not. 

The scalvert stone being the thing that brought them all together is the sweetest thing. I love that so much, the fact it never brought luck to the shop but drew all of the people together is such an amazing thing. The fact that we never learn more about Durias is so sad, we hear a few more things that confirm that he has something to do with time travel but I want to know more. Maybe there will be another book but I don’t know exactly where they can go from here. Also, with the scalvert stone drawing like to like, that means Fennus will have people similar to himself drawn to him. I can see that’s not going to be a good thing for him but I hope we get to see it.  

We also have to touch on the relationship between Viv and Tandri, I personally feel like that came out of nowhere. Maybe that’s just because we are following Viv and she doesn’t notice it at first but I do like it. I think it’s sweet and the fact that she bought a bed at the end and gave Tandri her own room in the coffee shop is so nice. It gives them room to grow together. I would love to see more from their relationship if they make a sequel novel to this. 

PROLOGUE: I really liked seeing how Fennus kept the stone on him and it led to Lack and the other Madrigal lackeys, I wonder what they want the stone for though… We were told that the scalvert stone draws like to like and the fact that Fennus drew the other madrigal lackeys is so so funny to me. Also the fact that Amity is the one who gets her pound of flesh is such a satisfying ending to the book. The only thing I would have liked is to see if Fennus survived or if Amity ate him or what happened there. I like Amity a lot but I feel like at some points she was more of an afterthought than anything, and we never really find out why she was there. Was it the Scalvert stone that drew her there in the first place? Was it Durias? Was it something else completely? I wish that we had a little bit more on her and maybe her species. 

EXTRA STORY: The book I bought had an additional story at the end. I thought this story was a bit difficult to read. We went from completely no action to nothing but action with some of the characters we already know. It was also going more in depth on the characters we didn’t get to meet and really learn about before which I liked. I wonder if this should have been the prologue, then we do a time jump to the scalvert stone, then we continue with the shop and the book as normal. It would have given us more background on what Viv gave up and why, on Fennus and what an asshole he is, and how she learned more about the scalvert stone. 

My personal rating for this book is 4 out of 5 stars. It was really good, I just think that it requires some background knowledge that I didn’t have and I would have liked some deeper descriptions of other characters. We learn a lot about the main character (Viv) but I would have liked some more background on the other characters (Tandri and Thimble and Cal and the rest). We know very basic things and we are expected to love these characters. I did really enjoy the book overall though. It was exactly as described. A slow fantasy book with the barest hint of romance.