2.5

This fell into a weird spot for me where the stakes were too high to be cozy fantasy and yet too slow paced and resolved in a way that didn’t quite reach general fantasy. It had interesting moments, especially towards the beginning/middle, but I did end up getting bored about 40% through and it never went up from there.

I started this book with admittedly low expectations. Howl's Moving Castle is one of my favorite books ever, and I wasn't expecting this one to meet my standards. That said, I did enjoy this book.

I hadn't read the other reviews for this book until I was almost done with it, and I'm glad I didn't. Other readers objected that this wasn't really a cozy fantasy because the stakes were too high and there were near-death experiences. I respectfully disagree.

I will say that I have never read Legends and Lattes, and many reviewers compared this as a "lesser quality" version of that. I wouldn't know. I normally read dense, lore-heavy fantasy, and this was not that. This book is adorable and sweet, but the writing quality is good and the plot is paced fairly well.

Without getting into spoilers, the story follows Reyna and Kianthe as they settle into a new town and make a life together. There's a mystery of repeated dragon attacks and the threat of their adorable life together being taken away.

The romance is sweet and emotional (no spice) and the characters are interesting though there aren't heavy backgrounds on either (which I don't think detracts from the story).

Other reviews complained that the relationship felt strange since the two main characters had a pre-existing relationship but they seemed awkward and newly together--their relationship until the start of the story was infrequent and brief. In the early part of the story as they run off to be together, this is the true beginning of their relationship as an all-the-time couple. Of course it's going to feel awkward and tentative at first. Maybe anyone who has never had a long-distance relationship would never understand it, but I do.

Other reviewers also complained about poorly-timed flirtations and affection, but I never particularly noticed anything weird.

I thought the pacing was good, with just enough happening internally and externally to keep me engaged. If you're looking for a cozy fantasy where nothing exciting happens, look elsewhere (or like, go watch grass grow). Just because there is action and drama, it doesn't disqualify this as a cozy fantasy. If there's no intensity to the story or the stakes, there won't be any payout. We wouldn't CARE in the outcome.

I enjoyed the magic system and the world lore, though it didn't take up too much of the story and was very approachable for fantasy newcomers.

I thought the ending was brief and neat (perhaps too convenient), but I still feel that it made sense and fit into the "cozy" genre.

The audio narration is excellent - the narrator separates the two main characters by a difference in accent and it's done very well. The subtleties in tone were expertly done and it felt more like listening to a play than a single narrator. I struggle with audiobooks where the narrator uses mostly the exact same pace/tone/accent throughout and you lose track of who is who, but that never happened. I would absolutely listen to another audiobook narrated by Jessica Threet.

TLDR - If you want a sweet, sapphic, cozy fantasy, give this one a try.

Thank you to Rebecca Thorne, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for my early preview of the audio edition in exchange for my honest review.

Reyna and Kianthe escape the confines of their careers to start a tea shop and book shop in a new town in this previously independently published series. This book series is marketed as being a "cozy fantasy" a la Travis Baldree but this series has much higher stakes than Legends and Lattes does, so it doesn't feel as cozy and comes off more as High Fantasy. There are dragons and griffins, magic, knights, vengeful queens, bandits, and political relations that all make an appearance, making this much more high stakes than what most cozy fantasies are marketed to be. Because of this, it was harder for me to give it a higher rating. I really wanted to immerse myself in the tea brewing, customer interactions, bookshop designing, etc, but much of the narrative is bogged down by dodging the attentions of the queen, fighting dragons, and political espionage.

Unfortunately, this book had the sin of causing me to be bored while reading, a real shame. The narration, however, was extremely good. Never was I confused at who was talking, accents were done really well between characters, and the narrator even did sound effects, such as when she said a character sighed, the narrator actually sighed. This sounds like it might make for a redundant or annoying reading experience, but it really added to the scene for me! 5/5 on the narration quality!

Series Info/Source: This is the first book in the Tomes and Tea series. I got a copy of this in audiobook format from NetGalley to review.

Thoughts: I liked this book. It was a fun, cozy fantasy with traditional swords and sorcery types of themes. This definitely has similarities "Legends and Lattes" but I think it has unique aspects of its own as well.

The story alternates between Reyna and Kianthe. Reyna is the personal guard to a cruel tyrant queen, while Kianthe is the most powerful mage alive. They both have a lot of responsibilities and they both dream of running away together to find happiness and peace. Then Reyna decides she has had it and they do exactly that. Unfortunately, you can't just leave everything behind. Reyna ends up dodging spies, while Kianthe has a responsibility to help those with her enormous power...and the remote town they choose to live in has a bit of a dragon problem om top of all of their other problems.

I enjoyed all the characters in this book. This is one of those happy, cozy books where even the "bad" guys end up having redeeming qualities (well most of them do). There is a wonderful community here. I also loved watching Reyna and Kianthe get to grow and understand each other (and themselves) better. There is a lot of humor in here too, which I really enjoyed.

This is decently written and I thought it was a fun, light fantasy read. There's nothing surprising or ground-breaking here but it is a very nice and pleasant read that will leave you entertained and happy.

I will mention that I listened to this on audiobook and the audiobook was okay but not great. The narrator had trouble keeping character voices straight and would accidentally forget to switch voices or use the wrong voice at times. This wasn't too disruptive to the story but did add confusion at times. When I read the second book in this series I plan on reading it in written format and not listening to it.

My Summary (4/5): Overall I enjoyed this and plan on continuing the series. I would recommend to those who enjoy humorous, swords and sorcery types of fantasy reads with some romance. This has a happy, cozy feel to it but also has enough action, humor, and intrigue to keep the plot moving forward at a good pace.

Deliciously cozy and full of heart - Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is a perfect blend of fantastical magic, far off lands, swoony romance and whimsical creatures. 100% a booklovers dream read!

🎧 Spellbinding
📚 Bookshop
🍵 Tea
🥐 Baked Goods
🐉 Dragons
⚔️ Battle
🫖 Cozy
♥️ Romance
🫶🏼 Found Family
✨ Magic

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is perfectly bookish and full of so much heartfelt emotion! I loved every single page of this adventure and can’t wait to see what Rebecca Thorne comes up with next!

Method Read: 🎧
Jessica Threet’s narration was fantastically spellbinding and truly brought the story to life! 10/10 recommend!

Thank you so much Macmillan Audio for the ALC!

This is an indie published cozy fantasy series that Tor actually picked up and is publishing themselves. It perfectly fits in the same realm as Legends and Lattes. We follow Reyna who works as one of the queen’s guards and we also follow one of the most powerful mages in the realm and they decide to start a courtship, move in together and open up a bookshop but Reyna gets a bounty on her head so they are forced to stay undercover. It’s cute and sweet, simple and sometimes that’s just all you need.

If you liked legends and latte but needed a bit more action and adventure this is the cozy fantasy for you.

I loved it! The main characters both had their own strengths and it never felt like one was relying on the other but it was a true partnership. This seems so rare in romantasy today.

The audiobook narrator perfectly captured our heroines and now I can’t wait for the next book!

Rating: Loved It, 4.5 stars

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea is a delightful, cozy sapphic fantasy adventure story. We follow two women, one a powerful elemental mage, and the other a queen's guard, who run away together to open a bookshop/tea room combo in a small border town. This is being compared to Legends and Lattes, which I feel is a fairly apt comparison. In my opinion, this one has a bit more of a plot that moves the story along, so i think that people who liked the idea of Legends and Lattes but found it a bit slow, will enjoy this one.

I had a really good time with this, and I really liked the characters. At times, the POVs were a bit hard to tell apart, but that didn't bother me too much. I appreciated that the couple was already established, and the relationship drama that we dealt with wasn't the will-they-won't-they of new relationships, it was more them trying to figure out the dynamics of a more serious relationship, which was a fun change from what you typically see. But they had good banter and interactions, and I enjoyed the meshing together of their different personalities.

The plot was fun, if a bit meandering at times. There was a bit of the startup of the business, and then a bit of mystery elements with the dragon attacks that plague their new town, and a bit of political maneuvering with the avoidance of the queen's wrath.

All in all, it was a great, cozy time and I am looking forward to seeing how the rest goes down. The audiobook was well done, and I highly recommend this if you are looking for a cozy fantasy.

Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for an early copy of Can't Spell Treason Without Tea. All thoughts and opinions are my own. This title is releasing on May 7, 2024.

Brilliant, beautiful, and funny! A cozy sapphic fantasy perfect for listening to while brewing up your favorite cup of tea (and I really do recommend having some tea at hand with this book or else you will be getting up to go grab some).
I loved the characters best. Not just Reyna and Kianthe but the side characters too. I was invested in their stories and fates, worried for them just like the main characters were, and never really sure how things were going to turn out (thankfully there is a happy ending just as all cozy books should have).
HIGHLY recommended for fans of Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree and the fantasy works of T. Kingfisher. A must have for the cozy and fantasy library.

This book was everything I wanted Legends & Lattes to be. Don’t get me wrong — L&L was great, but I prefer my fantasy with more action and higher stakes. Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea absolutely hit the spot.

If you like the miscommunication trope in most romances, this is not the book for you. The sapphic main characters are so direct and thoughtful with how they communicate with each other every step of the way, and I thoroughly enjoyed this change of pace. In addition, the diverse gender presentations and sexualities are woven so effortlessly — a facet I love in modern fantasy. There’s nothing like being reminded that who you are IS normal, and that society is the larger issue, not your beautiful brain and body.

My only real complaint is that the climax of the novel felt a little… meh. The build up and intensity was delightful — the queen was not someone to trust, ruthless and cunning in a way that spelled danger — but it took all of two seconds for her to believe the story she was presented with.

Also, I would have loved more presence from the dragons storyline in the back half of the book. For me, they felt more like a plot device rather than a significant part of the narrative with how easily they were shuffled off onto the convenient other couple. I would also have liked some more character depth from the couples and characters thar revolved around the main couple (I think that’s just me — I’m a glutton for character development).

At the end of the day, I truly loved this book and I look forward to the sequel. I can’t wait to see what this cast of characters gets up to!

An ARC of this (audio)book was provided by the publisher via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and Rebeca Thorne for sending me this audiobook!

I have to say, while I'm newer to the cozy fantasy genre I found this one to be hard to get through. I think I had the most trouble with the convenience of it all. Do you mean to tell me that the plan with the bandits and then with Tulane just worked like that? It seems way too easy for it to just work like that, they got off from most of their problems with posturing, laughs, and smirking.

Furthermore, this is not what I would consider a cozy fantasy, the stakes were TOO high for this. Not only is execution constantly looming over Reyna's shoulder, but their entire town is at risk of attack from dragons because someone stole eggs. Which, don't even get me started on that, what was the point of completely dropping that plot point? Talk about another instance of convenience, just because dragons live a long life, that means we don't have to explore solving that issue in this book! To me, that was one of the major plot points of this book, and to just never resolve it is definitely an insane take.

Consuming this audiobook style, I would sometimes confuse Reyna for Kianthe, because I felt like these characters were not fleshed out, and very two-dimensional. I just wasn't very impressed with either of them and had no real interest in following their story.

"Can't Spell Treason Without Tea" by Rebecca Thorne offers a cozy fantasy with an intriguing premise: two women in love escaping danger to open a bookshop in a small town. However, the pacing feels uneven, with rushed moments and slow stretches. While it has its charms with witty dialogue and a sweet romance, overall, it falls short of expectations. It might appeal to fans of light fantasy, but don't expect a fully immersive experience. The narration was ok, the accents were a bit distracting.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an audio version of this book!

Yeah, so I did not like this book. As far as I know, this is the first cozy fantasy book I have read. I have read a couple other reviews and they said there was too much action and too high of stakes to count this book as "cozy." That said though, as I have no experience with what makes a cozy fantasy "cozy," I'm just going to focus on this book in general.
To start, I could not tell the two main characters apart. Even though I was listening to this as an audiobook and the two characters had distinctly different voices, I still couldn't tell the two apart. It was a third-person narrative, but would still go back and forth between the perspectives of the two leads. And every time a new chapter would start I would sit there and ask myself "okay, is this the mage or the guard?" and I would never figure it out.
As for the plot... everything was just resolved so quickly. Any time a problem came about, regardless of size, it was resolved within the same chapter it was introduced (sometimes even the same paragraph).
Lastly, the dialogue. Not good. It was either super cringey (for example, referring to the griffin as a "good boy") or just very exposition-y. The dialogue just kind of felt like a means to an end. The characters never felt like real people, they were just there to regurgitate information to the reader.
I just found this book so boring. The only reason I finished listening to it was because I was provided the audiobook through Netgalley.

This was a fun cozy fantasy in the same vein as Legends & Lattes.
We have our 2 main characters Reyna and Kianthe. Reyna is one of the queen's private guards like her mother before her and Kianthe is the most powerful mage ever (I can't remember exactly what it's called since I listened to the audiobook). They secretly date for a while before deciding to run away. They settle in a small town and decide to open a book and tea shop. They make friends with the townspeople on their shop opening journey.
I liked both Reyna and Kianthe. They were dedicated to each other as well as their shop that was both of their dreams. Things didn't go perfectly, but they were able to figure things out and what worked best with the other to resolve problems. There were a lot of fun townsfolk that showed up a lot in the shop and to help. All the side characters were great.
The plot kind of moseys along at first, but it does have a little action and excitement at the end. It was fun to follow along as these 2 ladies in love figure out how to open a shop in a town they just moved to. One of my favorite parts is that they decide to open their shop in an old barn that was kind of a hideout for bandits. When bandits show up, Reyna and Kianthe pretend to be in the bandit ring and give out "assignments" to the bandits that show up that actually help the community or surrounding lands. I thought that was very funny. I actually really enjoyed the excitement at the end and thought that it really made the life they decided to create for themselves that much more cozy. There was a part that really would lead into a second book perfectly, something that wasn't quite resolved close to the end.
The narrator was great. She was so easy to listen to. Since this was a dual POV with one narrator, I think it was great that one of the character's dialogue had an accent. It made it easy to remember who was who. She really made my intrigue stay constant.

The book "Can't Spell Treason Without Tea," by Rebecca Thorne had such potential, yet I couldn’t quite fall in love with it. I mean, the plot itself was captivating, and there were points of actual suspense, but in the end, I just felt as if some fundamental piece was absent from the story.

The characters, while vividly depicted, sometimes left me unsatisfied. They appeared more like caricatures than people with complex personalities. Another element that didn't work for me was the pacing, as certain moments seemed to be prolonged while others felt quick and hasty.

It is difficult not to see Thorne’s writing as clever, and definitely, some witty dialogue made me laugh at least a couple of times. Still, not every joke hit the mark with me, and there were moments when it seemed more an effort than a laugh.

There are elements that were great about the book, but it just didn't measure up to what I hoped.

I was resisting this for a while, but I kept seeing in promoted everywhere. If you loved Legends and Lattes, this is fine. It's a very similar vibe. The sense of looming danger from the queen finding Reyna and Kianthe either felt too distant to care about or way to serious for what was happening. There are a lot of side plots being set up for a whole series in this world: dragon eggs, political intrigue, thieves guild, multiple side romances, evil queen. But instead of making me feel really curious to dig into them, it overwhelmed the story in front of me.

Kianthe is the head mage and one of the most powerful mages in existence. Reyna is part of the murderous queen’s personal guard. The two of them have been dating in secret for a while, but Reyna has been hesitant to leave her employment, as it means committing treason. When Reyna gets taken hostage by an assassin at the queen’s party, however, the self-centered queen does nothing. Realizing how expendable she is, she decides she’s done working for the queen. She and Kianthe leave and settle in a small village called Tawney, thinking no one will ever find them. They open up their own tea and bookshop. They are, however, soon mistaken at their anonymity. Dealing with dragons, bandits, queen’s spies, and more, their relationship and lives are put to the test. Will the two ever escape the queen? Will they find a way to balance a life of magic and love?

Narrator, Jessica Threet is an engaging narrator who brings the personalities of the characters to life. Her intonations are harder to distinguish, but her narrative pacing works well with the audiobook. The plot is entertaining and more character-driven. Listeners who were drawn to the book for the action and vengeance lure, however, will be disappointed. The action scenes are exciting, but are interspersed throughout the slower pace of the novel. The world building is intriguing and does draw the listener in. Characters are engaging and humorous, but the dynamics between them feels off and not fully developed. Main characters identify as LGBTQ+. Overall, fans of fantasies, mysteries, and cozy novels may want to pick this one up. Recommended for general purchase where such audiobooks are popular.

Please Note: A copy of this audiobook was given in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed are my own. No other compensation was received.

lol… yeah, after reading legends & lattes I’m sorry to say this is basically low-grade fanfiction of that. oof. i mean. it wasn’t bad, but… it wasn’t good...?

the book can’t decide whether it’s cosy or high-stakes, and though i was intrigued by the premise of a vengeful queen she wasn’t actually present much. except at the beginning, and of course at the end. which is a whole nother can of worms -- this big thing looming over them resolved /that/ easily? c'mon. it just felt too shallow and simple.

Alas, the whole story lacked a drive or structured buildup. there were the recurring themes of both Key and Rain not feeling like they were enough for the other, which then became a mini drama, which was then resolved within the same paragraph. maybe this was meant to be a building kind of energy? I felt like it was just - a thing happens - it's resolved - all is well - another thing happens - etc...
This plays into the rest of the book. Aside from the decision Reyna makes at the beginning to leave the queen, this is a story where the plot happens to the characters. a thing happens; and then the characters react, not vice versa.

On a completely personal note, I missed chemistry between Rain and Key. I think I wasn’t really fond of either of them as characters either. there were too many smirks and cackles for my personal palate, and my god, the second hand mortification of their cringy flirting /in front of the entire cafe/. please don’t slap each other’s ass and make raunchy innuendo’s with your clients as audience. /please./

i agree with some of the other reviews: their vibes feel a bit weird. totally googly eyed for each other, which is fine, but also feels a little like the early-relationship stage despite having been together for quite some time? but then they’re both also so insecure, which keeps happening, and it felt more that they were telling me how hot they both were to each other and how good at communication than showing me.

So…yeah. You'll not find complex worldbuilding, intricate politics or driving mysteries here. (I feel a little betrayed about that. The cover promises dragon mysteries, which were then mostly handed off to Feo and Wylan). It felt lacking.
There’s gonna be a part 2, and I will not be reading it.

This was such a cozy read, Very entertaining and kept my interest. I love the character relationships and the narrator did a great job at bringing them to life.

Ugh, this was just the most delightful little cozy fantasy! It was absolutely everything I wanted it to be and more.

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea follows Reyna, a private guard to a deeply unreasonable and unjust queen, and Kianthe, the most powerful mage their world has seen. The two of them have been meeting in secret and falling in love, until Reyna finally decides to leave the queen's court behind and start a bookstore with her girlfriend (no matter the consequences).

Learning about this land and its magic and politics was so fun, and we have a really great blend of cozy moments putting together a bookstore / tea shop as well as action, danger and adventure (but not so much that it loses the cozy feel). Kianthe & Reyna's love for one another really takes center stage in all of these moments, whether one of them was just in mortal peril or they are choosing what tea to present to their new patrons. It just created the most warm, fuzzy atmosphere full of so much love, and it extends to the side-characters as well. I loved the ending conflict and how it all shakes out, as well as the one shot at the very end and the way we've been set up for the sequel.. Fans of Legends & Lattes and Becky Chambers will absolutely adore this one, just as I did! Thank you to macmillan audio and net galley for this early audiobook copy!