Brigands & Breadknives
by Travis Baldree
Series: Legends & Lattes, #2
Genres: Fantasy
Release Date: November 11, 2025
Pages: 336
Get from: Library | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
My Rating: ★★★★⯪
Review
NOTE: This review is based on an eBook I borrowed from my local public library system.
There are **SPOILERS** in this review.
I didn’t expect to love Brigands & Breadknives (B&B) as much as I did. After reading the blurb and realizing that it wasn’t a continuation of Viv and Tandri’s story, I put off reading it for a while — helped by the wait on Libby. But, once I started reading it, I was captivated.
The three main characters really resonated with me. You have Astryx, who is all about work and duty until Fern and Zyll come along and remind her how to live again. Zyll is childlike in her honest emotions and joy of life, but you also definitely wouldn’t want to get on her bad side. She can hold her own when she needs to. And Fern feels like your average person, stuck between the two — head and heart, duty and desire — not sure which she is willing to follow and feeling torn because of it.
While the stakes are much higher in B&B — they face death several times — in many ways it’s still a cozy read. There’s a lot of character growth, and watching the friendships develop is delightful.
The only part I didn’t like — and why I knocked off half a star — is the ending. To me, it felt like it came straight out of left field. I fully expected Fern to be overjoyed to have a place where she fit and a friend who desperately wanted her. Especially for such important work. I was sure she’d stay with Astryx with the caveat that they had to go to Thune so she could talk to Viv. Instead, Fern turns down Astryx in a perfunctory, almost heartless manner.
Zyll also takes off rather quickly given everything they’d been through together.
Fern’s reunion with Viv was nice, but the epilogue was a disappointment. Fern is with Quillin, likely in a relationship, but she seems to have lost contact with Astryx and Zyll, despite the life-changing experiences they had been through together.
The other thing I wish we’d gotten was more information on Tullah. Once she revealed that Zyll had “obliterated” her army and reputation, I was certain she was the force behind the Four Fingers gang. But we never got any additional information.
Those two things aren’t enough to dampen my enthusiasm, though. I highly recommend B&B, whether you’ve read Legends & Lattes or not.
Notable Quotes
Chapter 2: …new chapter freshly opened in Fern’s life—the page turned, the title printed, and ready to be filled with words of renewal, purpose, and peace.
Chapter 8: “That’s nice. You’re very polite,” replied the Oathmaiden. “It would’ve been a shame to have to kill you.”
Chapter 17: The mist churned in slow motion on its way up the channel to the northeast, blushing with conch pinks and delicate oranges. Here and there it tore apart like dough stretched too far, and the river below glittered in sudden sunfire.
Chapter 17: There atop the bluff, surrounded on all sides by a beautiful distance, Fern was consumed by a sense of remoteness that was not at all lonely. A safe smallness wherein the horizon was infinite, and as such, judgment, too, must be impossibly distant.
Chapter 17: “I think for the first time in a long time, I wasn’t looking backward … or forward, either. So maybe I was looking at whatever is between those things.”
Chapter 20: “I’ve tried to make a habit of never talking about what I do until I’m out of anything else to talk about. In my experience, it’s a terrible way to get to know somebody—at least if you want to know anything worthwhile. I want to learn what you laugh at, what makes you roll your eyes, what gets you upset, or passionate, or puts you at ease. Work is just… The stuff that holds the rest of it together. It’s like describing a house by talking about the nails.”
Chapter 20: She traded silver for dreams in ink.
Chapter 20: So, your fire’s gone out, and the coals are cold…
Chapter 28: Conversations with Zyll tended to be like bottling smoke. You mostly weren’t sure if you were going to end up with anything for the effort.
Chapter 29: I find myself wondering if, for every hard decision of my life, I’ve put a thumb on the scale in favor of what I imagine somebody else’s opinion of me might be. Is that true, and I’ve just stacked other reasons on top to hide it from myself?
Chapter 37: … books are a weapon against loneliness. Putting them in the right hands lets people see one another. It makes us … better to one another. I think that’s a worthy thing to do.
Chapter 38: A thimbleful of disdain poisons the entire well. It must never find its way into a friendship.
Have you read Brigands & Breadknives? Let me know in the comments! I’d love to hear from you.
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