I had a fun time with this book! This "cosy fantasy" book felt more like traditional fantasy than cosy fantasy to me - while the writing was lighthearted and I love the tea and bookshop, the stakes were consistently high throughout the story. I didn't mind this because I love fantasy and thought the plot was intriguing, but it's important to note if you want a purely cosy fantasy story with low stakes.

I thought the plot and characters were good and the world-building did its job, but I would love to know more about the characters' backstories and the magic/religious systems. I also felt like the book was a bit too long. Overall, this was a fun read with romance, magic, dragons, tea, and books. If that sounds like your cup of tea, I think you'd enjoy this!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and Macmillan for an advanced copy of this book!

I enjoyed it! Cosy fantasy (cosy anything really) isn’t my bag but TJ Klune and Travis Baltree have gone a long way to fixing that. While this story had a few pacing problems, it was still a warm, entertaining and satisfying read. I enjoyed the two main characters’ relationship, but felt a bit too much time was spent on the dynamics of setting up home together. I loved the magical world building including the dragons, griffins and unicorns. Many thanks to Netgalley for an arc of this book.

1⭐️

I really struggled to get into this book and hate to admit that it was a DNF, which is why I’ve only given 1 star.

The premise really intrigued me and I was looking forward to getting into the book however, I couldn’t get past the first few chapters.

I hope to one day go back to it with a fresh mind and if I do, I will update my review accordingly.

Thank you to NetGalley for a digital ARC copy.

Thank you Pan Macmillan and NetGalley for providing me with this arc in exchange for my honest review. I am unusually late posting this review due to medical reasons, my deepest apologies and this hopefully won’t happen again.

I liked this (partially cozy) fantasy. It starts with a great action packed scene where we meet Reyna, a palace guard who is getting tired of her job. She works for a sociopath queen called Tilaine and when she saves her (again) from being assasinated, it becomes very clear that the queen does not value Reyna’s life at all and that hurts Reyna more than her sustained injuries. The offer Reyna’s secret girlfriend Kianthe (an important and powerful mage (who’s dry humor and easygoing nature always lightened the mood :)) made, to run away together and open a book and tea shop somewhere, becomes more and more appealing. Queen Tilaine’s betrayal makes her decide to just do it!

Reyna & Kianthe end up in a small town where they follow their dreams but the treath of queen Tilaine, a queen you don’t just run away from.. and dragons attacking the town for some reason (which adds a mystery to be solved to the story) make their life harder than foreseen. But they do love and have eachother, their cozy shop and great new friends!!

This was an easy read but it did take me a long time to finish, so I wouldn’t have minded if it was a bit shorter. The characters felt so real!! The only one I didn’t completely get was Reyna. And for some reason I hated when she started calling Kianthe “Darling”. And the obvious dislike and misinformation around horses made me kinda sad.. And made me care less for Kianthe’s o so perfect :/ mythological partner creature.. But the author did say, at the end of the book, that this story isn’t perfect.. And I love that this originally self-published book, about two characters pursuing their dream life, allowed her to fulfill her dream of becoming a full-time author!

I keep thinking of Kianthe and Reyna and I can’t wait to see the mystery around the dragons get unraveled further and their relationship progress (they did have their struggles in this book but love prevailed).

Very cozy vibes book. Heavily reminded me of legends and lattes where plot and depth were not the main focus and having a fun, cute and cozy ready was the main adgend. While enjoyable, it did feel like too much like legends and lattes

I enjoyed this a lot. The author admits she was heavily influenced by egends and Lattes and yes, it does show, but the book is also different in many ways. I liked it enough to want to buy the follow up, until I saw the price for a Kindle version. Ooof.
Recommended but...

This book was so fun and cozy!!! I've never really read a book like this before like a cozy mystery and I really enjoyed this one and would love to carry on the series for sure

I knew going into this book that there would be an overall cosy bookshop vibe and it did not disappoint! In fact, it was even better and there was an ominous threat in the background which could impact our main characters’ happy relationship and their new found family. I thought that any conflicts were resolved very well and the overall cosy feeling made for a beautiful and fun read.

I loved the premise of this book and there were some very cute moments between the characters.
I loved the element of found family and the way people rallied to help each other when it wasn't expected.
It took me a while to warm to the main characters and feel fully invested in the story. I just always felt like something was missing.
It was a cute, cosy read but I don't know if I'm invested enough to read a sequel.

Billed as cosy fantasy and happily inspired by Legends & Lattes but this doesn't quite have the magic or chemistry that made that such a success.

There's a lot of telling rather than showing, and Kianthe and Reyna's relationship, despite only being together for 2 years of stolen moments, has firmly established communication queues, zero conflict and only darlings, dears and off-camera romance. It's cute and perfunctory without any of the steam or heat that might make a relationship more cosy on page.

There's an awful lot of admin to this plot - seeking out permits and establishing trade routes, but everything seems to come very quickly and smoothly. Which again doesn't quite hit cosy, because it's not just low stakes - there aren't any stakes.

Except for the two big plot lines- Reyna abandoning her post with a cruel and murderous Queen, and the dragons setting fire to the town where Reyna and Kianthe set up shop. Two big plot lines that unfortunately didn't feel like they were particularly resolved ...

There was plenty that was cute here, but without enough conflict to make you care, unfortunately.

I received and eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I admit, I read Legends and Lattes and loved it (and the prequel) so I went looking for more cozy fantasy stories, like this one. I really liked the title and the cover looked so comforting so I was happy to read this and give it a try. Reyna and Kianthe are such a sweet couple and so deserved the chance to run away from the absolutely selfish and awful Queen Tilaine. The first part of the book was the nicely cozy bit with them traveling to Tawny, far away from the queen, and how they befriended the town and were able to set up a nice tea house, book store/library. But then the dragons attacked and you have the queen's spies on the lookout for Reyna to bring her back to be executed for treason and those kind of lost the cozy bit and put into to straight fantasy, or maybe romantasy. It wasn't a bad story after that, though I am a bit upset that it left quite a cliffhanger with the Queen and the search for the dragon eggs. I did have fun reading this though, and will probably pick up the next one cause I want to see Ponder all grownup and I would love to visit their shop to read some books.

I had a nice time reading this book, there was a nice feel to the characters and the story was easy to follow.
I felt that there could be more to the storyline however on a whole i did really enjoy this. The world-building was good and i would definitely read more by this author in the future

I read a lot of difficult book, dense, triggering topics & so on, what do I do after those books? Read something light, fun, entertaining & joyful. This book ticks all those boxes & more. I've loved this book so much I have it in several formats, including a beautiful special edition.

I am a huge sucker for the cosy fantasy genre & this is one of the best examples out there.

I’m not a prolific reader of fantasy but I do like to read one every so often. This is a good read. It’s well written and the main characters are likeable and fully developed. The book begins with Reyna as a guard for a ruthless cruel Queen but then veers off into book shops, magic, and escapes. I was caught up in the plot and found the end satisfying and ‘credible’. I liked Kianthe and the way the magic was just dripped through the narrative.

I’m not sure I’d carry on if there are others though I did like some of the side characters.

I was given a copy of the book by NetGalley

I liked the characters and world in the book but just didn't fall in love with the story overall.
The second half was better than the first but still felt the story could have been pushed more overall, more danger and peril etc to balance out the sweet side of things.

The moment I started reading this book, I KNEW it was going to be brilliant! I mean, hello? It opens with an attempted assassination, I was hooked immediately and by the second chapter I knew I was going to have such a good time reading it based off of the general vibes and entertaining narrative voices!

I just fell in love with the characters, both Reyna and Kianthe had such fun personalities that played off each other so well and they were both so gloriously snarky it made for a really humorous narrative regardless of whose pov you were reading!

Kianthe might not be a sword wielding badass like Reyna is BUT she’s a super powerful mage and kind of a Big Deal because of it so she’s a badass in her own way! She also hates the Queen that Reyna works for so much, it’s hilarious and I lowkey feel like she’s way more rash than Reyna even if Reyna was the one to just suddenly leave her post to start a new life.

Speaking of Reyna, she’s such a mood. I LOVED her, I mean…who amongst us hasn’t wearied of life and dreamt of fleeing to a new place to start all over again? Perhaps with the additional daydream of opening your own bookshop? We’ve ALL been there to some degree, so Reyna was super relatable in that regard and she truly lives out that dream for all of us!

The romance was sweet and also a little unique in that they’ve been together for a while and could be considered to have an established relationship, however they were long-distance, as it were and so when they start their new life together it’s their first time actually being together, if that makes sense? Like all day every day instead of the odd day here or there, so their relationship was both old and new and they had a few resulting issues to work out but I really enjoyed it tbh! It’s perhaps one of the most healthy relationships I’ve read and was relatively realistic!

HOWEVER, cosy as this fantasy is…the sheer nerves I felt waiting to see if the unhinged Queen would track her down! I wouldn’t say this is a low stakes fantasy, it’s more…mid stakes? Yes you’ve got the slice of life, opening a bookstore kind of vibes and general town shenanigans, but you’ve also got tension courtesy of Reyna’s colleagues hunting her down AND Kianthe’s, to an extent! Then there’s the bandits running around AND the dragons who like to go on a fiery attack rampage now and then!

I know a lot of people were disappointed that this wasn’t technically low stakes, but I actually really liked the suspense this brought, as well as the mystery of the dragon eggs! I also loved the fact that I spotted a side ship that’s enemies or at least annoyances to lovers!

All in all, this had such immaculate vibes! It might have been a little slow in places, but the writing style was fun and easy to read so I had no problem sitting and binge reading this in a couple of sittings! The romance was cute and realistic, with a side ship on the horizon that promises to be fun, the characters were witty and entertaining AND there’s magic! So much magic! Not to mention the Griffons, as well as the dragons and bandits! I genuinely had a lot of fun reading this one and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Queer cozy fantasies is a niche on the rise, and I'm absolutely here for every bit of it. Can't Spell Treason Withour Tea was another cozy banger. Our sapphic MCs run away together to escape a terrible queen, and to live out our dreams- they open a Book and Tea shop, and wrangle the local vagrants into becoming their minions.

I actually loved this cosy fantasy book!
I was a little delayed in starting this one mostly because I had heard mixed things about Can't Spell Treason Without Tea which made we wary. But I was very pleasantly surprised and very much looking forward to the next one.
I liked both Kianthe and Reyna. I found them to both be likable in my opinion, I also thought they were very believable characters personality-wise.
I am excited to see how Kianthe and Reyna solve the dragon mystery as well as how things go with Queen Tillane.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing the ARC for me to read in exchange for an honest review.
I had high hopes for this book, however, I do not think this author's writing style was for me. It left me at times feeling like the descriptions and dialogue were a bit subpar and at other times it felt like a lot was happening of no interest. I also did feel that the characters were not very different from each other and if the chapters did not specify who the POV was from, I'm not sure I'd be able to identify them from reading alone.
Unfortunately, this book was not for me

Thank you to Netgalley for providing the ARC for me to read in exchange for an honest review.
I had high hopes for this, but ultimately was disappointed in the way it was neither a satisfying cosy fantasy not a clear full fantasy story. It got a little boring in the middle, but had some okay moments that felt held back by the more 'serious' plot.