Pages to Fill

Legends & Lattes #0.5

by Travis Baldree

Short story prequel to Legends & Lattes. It is available in the book Legends & Lattes, second edition.

Genres: Fantasy, Short Stories, Audiobook, Fiction, Cozy Fantasy, Cozy, Adult

33 pages, ebook

First published June 7, 2022

About the author

#1 New York Times Bestselling Author of Legends & Lattes, Bookshops & Bonedust, and Brigands & Breadknives. Audie-winning. Audiobook narrator. Erstwhile game developer. Made Fate, Torchlight & Rebel Galaxy.

Reviews

[Mel (Epic Reading) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anticlimactic, of course, as it’s at the end of the first book (second editions have this short story) and so we know that it likely ends with her discovering coffee. Additionally we know which characters cannot die as they play a part in Legends and Lattes.
That said, I’ll take more of Viv any day.
Hoping that book 0, the next one written which is also a prequel doesn’t disappoint because, again, we know what happens.
If you loved Legends and Lattes this short story is a great introduction to fighting orc Viv, as opposed to cafe owner Viv.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

coffee is peace

[✧ hayley (the sugar bowl) ✧ · Rating 3 out of 5]

➳ 3 ⋆ ˚｡⋆୨୧˚

this was cute and fast and a good little prequel short story. overall nothing special, but i had fun! ☕️🫶





୧ ‧₊˚ 🍓 ⋅ ☆

[willowmoth · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short little story in between Bookshops & Bonedust and Legends & Lattes. It made me want to pause and smell some coffee beans. 😌✨️

🖤🩶🖤🩶🖤🩶

Reading-order note (if you care)
Personally, I think the best order to read them in is:

-Bookshops & Bonedust
-Pages to Fill (the short story that sits between them)
-Legends & Lattes
-The epilogue of Bookshops & Bonedust

That keeps everything in chronological order and, in my opinion, makes the whole story land even better.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

cute lil prequel short! this is a fun romp. viv is on an adventure that takes her and her and gallina to an enormous gnomish library, which is grand and beautiful! there's also some sly investigation, lockpicking, and a badass fight scene.

i love when a prequel ends with an exciting flicker of what we know is to come for its characters - here, the discovery of coffee.

[Maddie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A cute short story prequel to Legend & Lattes. You kind of know where the story's headed but it's still really enjoyable.
I'm really enjoying this series.

[Dana Cristiana · Rating 3 out of 5]

Included at the end of the first book.

3.5 for the short story.

[MARI]

No rating. Short novella before legends and lattes. The order of this series is kind of confusing me but 🤷‍♂️

[Frank · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

Good despite very short length but felt kind of out of place between the end of L&L and an extract of B&B. Probably would have been better being adapted to lengthen the prologue of L&L given that the ending is obvious from the start and lends itself to establishing Viv's motives for opening the coffee shop more.

[Amber (ambervgn) :) · Rating 3 out of 5]

leuk om te lezen waar Vivs obsessie met koffie vandaan komt 🤭

[Sotiria Lazaridou · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5⭐

[Andrée · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very short prequel that gives you Viv's introduction to coffee but honestly nothing else of note.

[Sabrina · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.75 stars

I would LOVE to visit that gnomish Athenaeum/library in Azimuth... RTC!

(Technically this was included within the edition of 'Legends and Lattes' that I have, but I'll give a separate rating/review anyway... an unexpected perfect fit for #MinisculeMarch hosted by The Sassy Library Fox!)

[Adam Froud · Rating 2 out of 5]

A nice little prelude even if I can't remember 90% of it

[Kerri]

This was much less my cup of tea (bean water?).

[Bo Verhoef · Rating 2 out of 5]

I don't like the fighting parts of this story sorry.

[Cristan✨🪐 · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5⭐️

[Melinda · Rating 3 out of 5]

CHARACTERS
🔲 mary-sue party
🔲 mostly 2D
🔲 great main cast, forgettable side characters
✅ well-written
🔲 complex and fascinating
🔲 hard to believe they are fictional

PLOT
🔲 you've already heard this exact story a thousand times
✅ nothing memorable
🔲 gripping
🔲 exceptional
🔲 mind=blown

WORLDBUILDING
🔲 takes place in our world
🔲 incoherent
✅ OK
🔲 nicely detailed
🔲 meticulous
🔲 even the last tree in the forest has its own story

ATMOSPHERE
🔲 nonexistent
🔲 fine
🔲 immersive
✅ you forget you are reading a book

PACING
🔲 dragging
🔲 inconsistent
🔲 picks up with time
✅ page-turner
🔲 impossible to put down

[Tracy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Short story of Viv being with her earlier crew before she discovers coffee.

[Taylor Foxx · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute little story telling of how Viv first came across coffee. I think the story was cute for what it was

[Sandra Girard-Demontigny · Rating 2 out of 5]

Although I really liked the Legends & Lattes story, I didn't think this short story was necessary, as we already knew the main lines of this story.

Malgré que j'ai beaucoup aimé l'histoire de de Légendes & Lattes, selon moi cette petite histoire n'était pas nécessaire étant donné que nous connaissions déjà les grandes lignes de l'histoire.

[Tony · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was just an amazing little surprise I wasn’t expecting at the end of legend and lattes it fits cos when it ended I wanted more.

[Alyssa Keptner · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was very cute! I liked the look it gave into Viv’s past.

[Vanessa (Wanderness) · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read at end of Legends and Lattes but felt out of place after reading L&Ls. Maybe I should revisit before Bookshops and Bonedust and i might feel differently

[Ethan Westerfield · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a quick prequel to Legends and Lattes that explores how our main character Viv discovers the wonderful taste of coffee for the first time. I am a sucker for good world building and a good mystery to boot.

Also, this and some lines in Legends and Lattes make me think Viv and Gallena DEFINITELY had a fling at one point. There's just no way that didn't happen.

Keep up the good work Mr. Baldree

[Carolina · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars ⭐️
This short story is at the end of book 1, Legends & Lattes.

We just read the book and this is what went on before, so we know how it ends already, and we know which characters cannot die already too.

A bit of anticlimactic feeling.

[Planxti's Imaginary World · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bookshops and Bonedust 4.0 stars
Pages to fill 4.5 stars
Legends and Lattes 4.5 stars

This short story, while not necessary for the book, filled in several corners in a quite entertaining way. It has all the character and charm I've come to expect from Baldree.

A nice bonus.

[Preslee Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Yesss more Viv lore

[Paola Micheli · Rating 2 out of 5]

"she wished, she’d thought to bring her notebook.
There were blank pages to fill."

THERE... there is where the title matches the book, in this sentence!!!
32 pages of nonsenses and unnecessary info!!!

Again we are straight into a kind of a battle with unanswered questions and childish dialogues weird sentence and a meh story...

Somewhere in the middle of the novella i was thinking that an episode of Scooby-Doo probably is a better option of this "thing"!

After 2 books i still wander who the hell is the main character, cause Gallina stands out but Viv is so weird, with no character depth & cheesy!

Also so many characters take place into the story and we have a brief picture of them, but we have details of unnecessary moments, elements, scenes & words!

it's a kind of a book that wakes you up the possibility in your mind that maybe you can write better stories than some people out there!!

so sad!
༼;´༎ຶ ۝ ༎ຶ༽

[Jennifer · Rating 5 out of 5]

More, please!