Audiobook Review: Tomes & Tea Cozy Fantasies #1

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

Read by Jessica Threet

Publication Date: September 2022

Summary from Goodreads:

Confession:

“Run away with me. You like tea. I like books. Care to open a shop and forget the world exists?”

This cozy fantasy was, well, cozy to the extreme. I did like the characters and found the setting to be pretty charming, but I needed a bit more plot that moved faster than this one did. The narrator did a fantastic job giving voice to these characters, and I think that is what kept me going, as well as the mystery of the stolen dragon eggs which unfortunately was not resolved by the end of this book.

Jessica Threet does a really nice job narrating this story. It was easy to tell whose point of view each chapter was being told by because she was able to make her voice sound different enough for each character. She also created some great voices for the many other characters that we meet throughout the story, my favorite being the evil Queen Tilaine. That voice gave me shivers. She does male and female voices equally well and seemed to have a different voice for every character. I would definitely listen to her narrate again.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this story was the characters, especially the ones that inhabited the village of Tawney. Although I did like the two main characters, Reyna and Kianthe, they just weren’t my favorites. I liked them as individuals and at times as a couple, but for the most part they just fell flat for me. I really enjoyed Matild, the town’s midwife, whenever she appeared on the page. Wylan and Feo, who both wanted to be in charge of the town, but were also secretly in love with each other, were also a lot of fun. Kianthe’s griffin Visk, was also a really fun animal sidekick that I just adored. Gossley, a young teen that they sort of adopt, was a character that I loved and wanted more of.

The plot, or lack thereof, was what really didn’t work for me. I mean there were several subplots, maybe too many, but the main story of Reyna and Kianthe opening a tea and book shop just wasn’t all that interesting. The story also became a bit boring mostly because it moved so slowly. I liked the story line about the dragons, but honestly if there were dragons destroying my town because someone had stolen some eggs, I would be working my damndest to find them. Not be like, oh well that is a task for another day. I did like how they handled the issue with Reyna’s desertion when the Queen finally caught up to her, but I just felt that could have moved along a bit quicker too. To be honest none of the plots felt urgent at all, which just added to the slow nature of the story.

Overall I just felt that this was an ok story that wanted to be a cozy adventure, but ended up being just so cozy I was in danger of falling asleep. I would only recommend this one to those of you who like slow and meandering stories, that have some great characters. Other wise I think you should skip this one. I know that even though I want to know who stole the eggs, that I probably won’t continue the series.