Can't Spell Treason Without Tea

First, the good: the setting is cute and the characters are fairly well done. There's enough background to the relationship between the main characters to keep things interesting, and they both grow into their relationship and their new town. That's fun to witness, as is the elemental magic of Kianthe.

Now, the bad: the narrator of the audiobook was not my favorite. If the mage's name is pronounced "Kianth," then why is it spelled "Kianthe"? (Maybe a critique for the author, either way.) The narrator makes the choice to act out laughter every time it's mentioned and it's not good. Multiple urgent plot points are introduced; most are tabled for later books in the series. One is resolved very improbably, with a plan that is kept secret from readers until it's put into action - unnecessary because it was not even really a plan, nothing complicated. The suspense did not match the reveal, just as the suspense created by the introduction of things like a major unresolved threat to the town where our heroines have settled does not match the temporary resolution of "we'll get to that next book."

Just not my cup of tea I suppose, but certainly plenty of cozy fun for someone who doesn't mind that.

Rebecca Thorne's Can't Spell Treason Without Tea is a cozy sapphic romance fantasy, explicitly in the vein of Travis Baldree's work. The book focuses on the (prexisting, and secret) relationship between a palace guard and a powerful mage. When the queen pushes too far, they treasonously abandon responsibility to set up a combination teashop/bookshop in a small town, like you do. It feels like there's larger stakes here than in similar books, but they're still personal and local ones. I'd also argue that these two are so competent in their own domains that any conflict feels much more about the potential emotional impact than a true worrisome threat.

I appreciated the amount of worldbuilding heft here. I am always a sucker for anything that opens with a fantasy map, and I felt like small bordertown Tawney was interestingly situated both geographically and politically. It's caught between three countries, and has two local governers who butt heads over who actually is in charge. It's just got the sense of place that I want out of a fantasy book. The book also has some magic system details that had more depth than I was expecting from this sort of book.

Overall, this was quite the cozy read, and it's definitely the kind of treat my brain needed right now. I'm looking forward to more novels in this series, as it felt like there were quite a few hooks for future complications. I laughed at the in-world explanation for why the biggest of these hooks lands itself in the "quite important but not at all urgent" category, which seems perfect for ongoing fantasy hijinks.