A review by elthechameleon
Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

funny hopeful lighthearted relaxing fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

If you’re a reader in the mood for a cozy fantasy, this is it. 

 

And if you’re usually a “it must have war and death” fantasy reader…stick around. This book might surprise you. 

 

You Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea looks low-stakes on the surface, but underneath, Thorne is asking some interesting questions about what “escapist” literature can do. I, for one, returned from this literary vacation with a lot more hope. 

 

Reyna, a queen’s guard, has prepared her entire life to die in the line of duty defending Queen Tilaine, a brutal ruler more interested in consolidating power than taking care of her people. Reyna is also secretly in love with the most powerful mage in the land, Kianthe, known publicly as the Arcandor. Their story takes place where another book would typically have its epilogue: In the very first chapter, the women run away to open up a bookstore and tea shop, New Leaf Tomes and Teas, in Tawney, a small northern town governed by two rival kingdoms. The book follows their adventures building a business, creating community with their neighbors, and trying to stabilize the fragile peace they've carved out, all while in hiding from the queen. 

 

This book teases you with the possibility of drama and action again and again, making you think the characters will, like all other fantasy heroes, have to sacrifice their happiness for the good of the kingdom. Thorne’s characters keep choosing cleverness and community instead. When bandits arrive at the bookshop, furious that their old hideout has been commandeered, former assassin Reyna tricks them into believing the shop is a front. She then begins assigning them missions that, coincidentally, resolve real community problems. Throughout the book, characters have conversations that hint at the possibility for rebellion against Queen Tilaine. This rebellion never happens. In a standard fantasy novel, Reyna’s capture at the end of the book would result in a cliffhanger and a harrowing rescue mission that takes up all of book 2. Reyna instead escapes after convincing the Queen she’s been acting in her best interest all along by getting close to the Arcandor.

 

Some of these reviewers will call this book “uneventful,” but that’s kind of the whole point. 

 

What if there’s something hopeful or inspiring about reading about a healthy couple that has productive arguments and characters that first seek community solutions? What kind of political possibilities could that spur in us, as readers who turn to this book to escape the problems of the world? 

 

Thorne does admit that this book is heavily inspired by Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes, but, in my opinion, this also reads like classic children’s fantasy like Patricia C Wrede’s Enchanted Forest Chronicles. And, honestly, why do kids get to be the only ones who get funny, lighthearted stories? Adults need them too - not just to escape reality, but to imagine better ways of living in it.