A review by jg34
The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton

adventurous medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

This one did not hit as hard as the others. It still had incredible wit and charm, but the romance lacked for me. Bixby and Alice were good characters, both funnily robotic and exacting. However that might be why their story fell a bit flat for me. The fake marriage was a great catalyst to their eventual real romance, I just never really saw the spark. Both found each other attractive I guess. And I know in all of these books things moved fast, but I was still convinced of the love story with Cecilia and Ned and Alex and Charlotte. Maybe the banter helped. These two didn’t really have that but instead spoke in rules and regulations. Which again, very very funny (I especially loved all the “idiom” moments). But didn’t lend itself well to a love story I guess. 

Also, they were just terrible spies? And why an agency would stick them both back into the same community they spied in before with new identities??? I get this entire world is a bit ridiculous but AUNT didn’t make much sense at all to me. 

Anyway, it’s worth it to finish out the story and Bixby at least was already an interesting character from the previous book so seeing him more was fun. I’d say it is the weakest book of the series though.