Brigands & Breadknives

Book 3 in the Legends & Lattes series

‍

Like the first two novels in the series, this is about self-discovery. In this case, the focus is on a secondary character from the second book. Fern is a foul-mouthed rattkin who takes the long road to discover what she wants to do with her life.

‍

What followed was a tour of a sad alleyway, a scummy well, a half-burned shed, and a muddy paddock filled with irritable geese—The Lane of Small Dejections, Hell’s Least Important Bumhole, Cinder Estates, and the Quadrangle of Spite, respectively. Fern nodded and effused appreciatively at each stop, grinning like a loon.

‍

Along the way Fern has one adventure after the next, befriends a thousand-year-old legendary elf, is reminded what love is, asks herself the hard questions, and finds her new passion.

‍

Neither of them had brought up the argument that sparked the day’s events. In fact, both were at great pains to pretend nothing had happened. To Fern, it felt like they were balancing a rotten egg on a plate. Nobody wanted to be the one to let it roll off and break.

‍

This novel is cozy fantasy, but it’s also swashbuckling, funny, and, in some places, psychological. The cast of characters is fantastic and there is nary a human. Instead there are elves, stone-fey, dwarves, rattkins, gnomes, orcs, a succubus and a goblin. There’s also talking Elder blades!

‍

“But you were ‘accidentally’ a murder weapon?” She held him up and stared at a point halfway up his blade, which Fern had decided was where his eyes ought to be. Then again, maybe she was staring him in the ass. “I think it’s time for you to tell your fucking life story.”

‍

The writing is fun, the pacing and dynamics of the action are well-calibrated, the character development is excellent, and the story is never predictable. As a low-stakes buddy adventure story, this is a great read.

‍