The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton is a delightful blend of humor, romance, and chaos. Following rival spies Alice and Daniel as they embark on a fake marriage to thwart an assassination plot, the story is rich in witty dialogue and quirky characters. The chemistry between the protagonists develops through their comical escapades and shared vulnerabilities, making their journey both entertaining and heartfelt. Holton's prose combines elegance with absurdity, crafting a whimsical world that's perfect for readers seeking an escapist adventure​.

Fun read! If you like rivals to lovers, romance with quirky characters, some fantasy thrown in, and great banter, this one is for you. I do recommend reading the others in the series first to up the enjoyment but it's not strictly necessary.

I'm sorry it took me so long to read this book! The divine silliness, clever dialog, and appealing characters mace me so happy. I can't wait to see what the author comes up with next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book, as this book has already been published, I will not share my review on Netgalley at this time.

I love this series, the whole thing just makes me chuckle, the world is inventive, the characters are quirky. And maybe Alice was meant to be read as neurodivergent?

I’m in my Regency Romance era this year, and I’m loving it! My recent read of THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON was so fun.

🎧I paired the book with the audio, and loved reading this way, and found myself transported back in time with such an entertaining read.

WHAT TO EXPECT
-enemies to lovers
-regency romance/Historical Romance
-witty banter
-neurodivergent rep

*many thanks to Berkley, Netgalley and PRH Audio for the gifted copy for review

Thank you so much NetGalley and Berkley Publishing Group for this fantastic arc!!

5/5 stars!

India Holton does it again, and I am SO HERE FOR IT!!! This book is full of everything I love and more - regency romance, forced proximity, fake dating(well, marriage), hilarious characters, magic, and pirates! Love love love love love!!

I love these books! India Holton has created one of my favourite worlds to jump into and I love that we get to see old characters flit in and out of the story.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

This was a fun read! Follows the same tone and style of the previous books in the series/universe. If you enjoy funny, smart crime-fighting and enemies to lovers, then you'll love this easy read. I think the best comparison is that this is a more wholesome and magical "Kingsman: The Secret Service."

I will happily continue to purchase this series for my library, as it's such a clever and committed twist on Regency and romance tropes. I still feel that the first entry was the strongest, with the clearest tracking of the plot and character development amongst the absurdist elements. However, the broadening of this world to include neurodivergent MCs is welcome and valuable.

One of the hallmarks of a good India Holton book is absurdism, and The Secret Service of Tea and Treason is quite the Barbenheimerian book. Alice, or Agent A, is a top operative in a secret government intelligence agency assigned to stop an assassination plot with rival spy, Daniel Bixby (Agent B). Posing as a married couple, they infiltrate a pirate house party and their explosive intentions. Charms, tea and heinous crime weave together in an elaborate—and entirely absurdist—romance novel.

This book was delightful from start to finish! I just love the way India Holton writes these books, they’re so charming and funny. Both Alice and Daniel were so loveable, and it was great to see some favourite characters again.

India Holton does it again. What a fantastic finale to this series. The tension in this novel was dialed up, the dialogue was witty (and banter-filled) as ever, and the cast of characters (old and new) were jumping off the page. I especially love the neurodivergent representation in India's books. It's not common to have that available in historical romance, so it is firmly appreciated from this reviewer!

I haven't read much of historical romances, really like this one hope to explore more .

“I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.”

I haven't read the first two books in this series, but this one was super cute and I didn't feel lost at all! The characters are fun, and the banter is perfect!! A delightfully fun read!

When Alice (Agent A) is paired with Daniel (Agent B) for an assignment with the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, their assignment is to infiltrate a pirate house party. However, pretending to be husband and wife is proving to be harder than they anticipated.

The Dangerous Damsels series is super fun, and this one didn’t disappoint! The situations Alice and Daniel found themselves in were ridiculous but still romantic. If you like quirky and historical, you’ll enjoy this!

All I have to say here is that I loved this book so much.

I don't even know if I can explain how much I loved this book. My favorite book in the series for sure, I ended up loving it so much more than I ever expected. The best way to describe this book is FUN, it was truly so much fun. The kind of book that had some of the most ridiculous sentences I've ever read, but it works somehow. I absolutely loved our main characters, Alice and Daniel, and their interactions with each other. Seeing them fall for each other, but also realize that they were worthy of being loved had me 🥺

The thing that hit the most for me though, was the autism representation in this book. Both Alice and Daniel are clearly autistic, although it manifests differently in them. And seeing them being truly themselves with each other, after a childhood of being othered, was so special.

This book was cozy, quirky, romantic, a little steamy, but all-around so much fun. Sad to see the series come to an end but can't wait for whatever India Holton puts out next.

Posted on Forever Young Adult's blog on 7/10/23.

First Impressions: Third Time’s A Charm

I’m glad this cover falls in line with the other two and they didn’t mix it up at the end of the series. It’s pretty and girly and I love all the little touches that relate to the book.

What’s Your Type?

Spies
Fake Marriages
Only One Bed
Two Straight Men In A Crowd of Pirates
Learning To Love

Dating Profile

Agent A—or Alice to her friends, if she had any—is one of the top agents in A.U.N.T., a secret government agency comprised of people who can fade into the background: your butler or valet, your ladies’ maid or server. Because A.U.N.T. recruits from young orphans and trains them to be loyal workers, not much ruffles Alice’s feathers, and there’s no ugly dress or would-be assassin she can’t handle.

Alice’s greatest rival in the spy agency is the elusive and extremely capable Agent B, who has apparently spent the last few years undercover in the pirate Alex O’Leary’s home as his right-hand man. That much forced proximity to the rakish rogue has made the eminently proper and stoic Daniel Bixby a little…different than he used to be, as evidenced by the earring he’s kept wearing long after his job with Alex ended.

Meet Cute: Fake Marriage Of Convenience

Alice and Daniel actually met briefly in the last book in Bath, where they were both pretending to be nothing more than a maid and a butler. Alice is excited to learn she is going to work a high-stakes undercover mission with Agent B, until she finds out it’s the only man she’s ever thought more than two seconds about. Worse yet, they’re going to need to be pretend to be married AND pirates if they’re going to infiltrate a pirate party to search for a weapon designed to assassinate Queen Victoria. It will be the ultimate test of their skills.

The Lean: Competency Porn

Both Daniel and Alice are orphans raised by an uncaring spy agency, so their emotional maturity is quite stunted and they’re both secretly longing for a human touch yet unable to voice that need. It’s quite clear with every reveal they learn about each other that they’re equally smitten, and Holton finds the right balance between “just kiss already” and shaking your head in amusement at these silly fools in love. I enjoyed seeing the two of them, both quite capable, become more protective of each other while still recognizing the other’s killer strengths.

Dirty Talk

By this point in the series, you know that Holton delights in nothing more than a witty, pithy double entendre or euphemism, and her love scenes are true to form. There were some moments of sweetness:

He smiled, making her shiver right through. “You know when you open a new book and realize it’s going to be perfect?” he whispered.

“Yes,” Alice said.

“That’s how I feel when I look at you.”

However, my favorite “dirty” moments were when Alice just did not get the euphemisms everyone around her was using:

As Daniel returned to the washroom to dress again, Alice and Veronica shared a speaking glance. “Oh my giddy aunt,” Veronica whispered.

“Your giddy A.U.N.T.?” Alice whispered back, confused.

Veronica’s eyebrows gave a suggestive dance. “I’ll bet that man has a golden gun, if you know what I mean.”

“No, it’s metal, with—”

“And balls of steel.”

Alice felt like she had fallen entirely off the roller coaster of this conversation. “Do you refer to some variation of cricket?”

Veronica fanned herself with her apron. “I wonder if he would shoot me if I asked?”

Alice stared with concern at the girl. She was rambling incoherently and expressing suicidal ideation; clearly, A.U.N.T. had overworked her!

Ms. Perky’s Prize for Purplest Prose

Forget purple prose—once again I highlighted so many snort-worthy lines and scenes that I’m surprised my e-reader didn’t just ask if I wanted ALL of it to be highlighted pink. Some choice nuggets:

“Very well, return to headquarters and bring us back the information. But be quick about it. Any moment now, the Wisteria Society might—”

“Find the weapon and use it for nefarious purposes,” Mia said, nodding somberly.

Daniel frowned . “ I was more thinking they might—”

“Discover your identity and force you to walk the plank?”

“Make us play another parlor game,” Alice said, and both she and Daniel shuddered.

She nodded to the old man, then strode across the room, her bootheels tapping smartly against its wooden floorboards. Alice loved that sound. It made her feel like a capable woman. An intelligent woman. A woman who had this morning made an omelet without it turning into scrambled eggs! Certainly not a woman who had tossed and turned all night, trying to ignore visions of a bespectacled butler straightening his cuffs after having bashed a man senseless.

The pirates were my FAVE this book:

“Let us in,” Mrs. Rotunder called out in a voice as sweet as Mrs. Kew’s tea. “We only want to chat!”

“Chat you right off the plank,” Millie added, chuckling.

“Millie!” Mrs. Rotunder tsked with exasperation. “I’m trying to fool them into a false sense of security.”

“They’re spies, not idiots,” Millie retorted. “Well, not complete idiots.”

“Fair point,” Mrs. Rotunder said, and the thumping against the door grew louder.

Now the pirates were enjoying a quiet period, much in the same way the eye of a hurricane is quiet. Settled in the Ecru Drawing Room, they engaged in ladylike occupations such as needlework—“oh, stop sniveling, Olivia, I’ll have this tattoo finished in one minute”—sipping a few extra cups of tea—“dearest, could you pass me the milk jug, and by milk jug I mean rum bottle”—and attending to their correspondence—“I say, Hadiza, how do you spell extortion?”

We Need To Talk: Thoughtfully Fun

It’s never made explicit in the text, but I got the sense that both Alice and Daniel may have been on the autism spectrum. Some of it was definitely just the way they were raised by literal killers, but there were other moments, like the memories they shared about their childhood punishments, and Alice’s reactions to what she perceived as over-stimulating experiences, her issue with light touches, and her inability to recognize idioms. It made for a bit more of a grounded story than the previous two, mainly because you just wanted to see these attention-starved people finally get the love and appreciation they deserved from someone other than their favorite books.

We’ve already seen plenty of the Wisteria Society pirates, and their wacky hijinks were on full display in this book, and I loved every glimpse of their antics even as it exhausted our main characters. Please, someone, invite me to a pirate house party! I would love to play “the floor is lava” with them while trying to steal the host’s silver candlesticks. I also liked that our previous main characters popped in here and there for little cameos, tying everything together.

Was It Good For You? A Standing “O”

The ending made me happy-sigh, and I laughed my way through the book. It’s such a fun, inventive, and smartly funny series that has surprised and delighted me for the last few years, and the author gave it a happy conclusion. I look forward to seeing what new worlds India Holton comes up with next!

FTC Full Disclosure: I received my free review copy from Berkley. I received neither money nor peanut butter cups in exchange for this review. The Secret Service of Tea and Treason is available now.

DNF. For some reason, it was really confusing to me, and so I just couldn't get very far with it. It may be a lovely book for someone else.

Why can’t there be more books in this series! The wit and banter alone is so fantastic not to mention the premise is so unique.

I loved the romance in this story and loved that each book in this series covers different tropes and that they all connect to one main storyline.

Honestly, I’m just hoping India Holton writes more books in this world.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️