Bookshops & Bonedust (2023) is Travis Baldree’s second book, published by Tor Books. It is the second book in the Legends & Lattes series, the first of which, Legends & Lattes, was self-published by Baldree in 2022. This first book was such a success, thanks to social media, that Tor Books republished it several months later and signed Baldree to write more about the protagonist, Viv. Bookshops & Bonedust, which tells the story of Viv’s origins, is just as popular as its predecessor, appearing on the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. In addition, it was named an Amazon Best Science Fiction and Fantasy Book of 2023 and a Barnes & Noble Best Fantasy Book of 2023.

This guide is based on the 2023 Tor Books e-book edition.

Plot Summary

Viv is a young orc mercenary. In the Legends & Lattes universe, being an orc means that Viv is large and imposing, with a tendency to bare her fangs during battle. She gets injured in battle just two months after joining Rackam’s Ravens, a mercenary gang on the trail of Varine the Pale’s army, Varine being the novel’s beautiful, female antagonist. Rackam, the head of Rackam’s Ravens, drops Viv off in the seaside town of Murk to recuperate and promises to pick her up in several weeks when the Ravens come back through the area.

Viv is used to being seen as a threat and is surprised when no one in Murk is intimidated by her in her injured state. She accidentally puts her crutch through the boardwalk in front of the local bookstore and, feeling guilty, goes in to buy a book. Although Viv isn’t much of a reader, the bookstore owner, Fern, gives her a book that promises to be an adventure story.

The following day, Viv goes to the local bakery owned by Maylee, who flirts with her. Viv returns to the bookstore. Outside, she asks a local orc for his help repairing the hole she put in the boardwalk. Afterward, she pays Fern for the book, and they become friends. When Viv returns to her lodgings at The Perch, she meets a young gnome named Gallina, who wants to be a mercenary like Viv.

Viv and Gallina become regulars at both the bookshop and the bakery. Viv encourages Fern to update her bookstore, helping her buy furniture, repaint the door, and generally clean up. One day at the marketplace, she sees a man in gray who sends chills down her spine.

A few days later, she is shocked when she sees the same man carrying a knapsack and looking through the books in Fern’s bookstore. When he leaves, she follows him out, worried for her friends. They get into a fight on the street, but the man possesses a powerful stone called a magestone and overpowers Viv. Just as he is about to kill her, Gallina appears and threatens him with her knives. Murk’s head Gatewarden (law enforcement for Murk), Iridia, takes them all to jail. Viv and Gallina are put in one cell, and the man in gray is in the other. When the man escapes in the middle of the night, Viv realizes that he must work for Varine.

As the days go on and nothing else happens, Viv relaxes. She spends her time with Fern at the bookstore and with Maylee, whom she has begun dating. Maylee was a mercenary before she retired to open a bakery, and she fully understands that Viv will be continuing on with Rackam’s Ravens when they return.

When the man in gray turns up dead, Iridia comes looking for Viv. She knows Viv didn’t kill the man but wants information about Varine the Pale. Afterward, Viv and Gallina find the man’s satchel, but it only contains bones and a bottle of bonedust. Back at the bookstore, Fern, Viv, and Gallina sprinkle the bonedust on the bones, reanimating a skeleton. The skeleton introduces himself as Satchel, formerly a servant of Varine, from whom the man in gray stole the bag.

Satchel and Fern undertake to clean the store fully, and Fern finds a book she doesn’t recognize. Satchel identifies it as Varine’s. When they open it, they find that each page is a portal leading to a space where Varine has stored her treasures. Viv reaches in and pulls out a sword called a greatsword that she immediately feels an affinity for, but Satchel tells her that, since she has removed something from the book, Varine will come to Murk looking for her.

Viv is beginning to look forward to getting back to work, and she practices with the greatsword. In a dream, Varine tells Viv that the sword is called Blackblood, and Varine is coming for it. Viv and her friends continue to improve the bookstore, even planning a book signing. Gallina convinces Viv and Satchel to help her kill spinebacks—wolflike creatures with spikes on their backs—for a local farmer, and they find more signs of Varine.

Viv, Satchel, and Gallina immediately return to Murk, but Varine’s army has already arrived. Gallina goes to the bookstore while Viv and Satchel battle their way to Iridia, who is holding Varine’s book. Viv takes the book back to Fern’s bookstore and finds Varine there, holding Fern and Gallina captive. She gives the book to Varine, who opens it. Satchel reaches out of a page and pulls Varine in, then climbs out himself. Viv slams the book shut and drives Blackblood’s point through it. The book explodes into a shower of pages, and Varine is vanquished.

In the following days, Viv prepares to leave Murk. Fern holds her first book club meeting and introduces Satchel, who has decided to stay in Murk, to the community. When Rackam’s Ravens return, Viv tells them about Varine and introduces Gallina to the group. As she is packing, Maylee arrives to say goodbye, and they are both regretful that they didn’t meet when the timing was better. Viv’s last stop before leaving town is the bookstore, where she says goodbye to Fern and Satchel.

Years later, after retiring to run a coffee shop in Thune, Viv receives a letter from Fern. She wants to visit, and Viv immediately begins thinking about the empty storefront next to her shop and whether Fern might want to open a bookstore there.