TL;DR: I have to say I’m disappointed. This was a bit overly long, and I feel mislabeled as cozy. It was dull with moments of very high stakes and I was left with a feeling of whiplash.
Source: eArc Provided via NetGalley – Thanks so much to the publisher! I also own the physical indie edition so thanks so much to me, haha.
Plot: Key and Rain run away from their high demand, high power jobs and pray they don’t catch up to them – spoilers they do. A mystery with dragons is thrown in but is handwaved away in the end.
Characters: I honestly struggled to tell them apart.
Setting: A small town was the best detailed but outside of the tea shop it was very barebones.
Magic: Key is the biggest, baddest mage in the land with all the abilities ever. So every problem is brushed away with the wave of hand (I wish I was joking). So it’s more of a get out of jail free card.
Thoughts:
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is a book that’s been on my radar since it was independently released. It’s been recommended many places as a good title to read if you enjoyed Legends and Lattes, and it was so well recieved that Tor picked it up for a big release. It’s the story of two women who run away together to start a life in a book and tea shop.
The premise sounds amazing, and possibly why I was so excited. I love bookshops, tea, and cozy fantasy in general but this one had some issues I found frustrating. First off, this didn’t feel cozy, instead it felt just a dull. The story, instead of the constant warm feeling that a cozy builds gradually, went through lulls of slow and rather dull moments where problems and issues were hand-waved away and moments of high tension where characters and others lives were at stake. The ‘things’ of cozy fantasy were there. Plants, books, tea, pastries, etc. But they felt like set dressing and very flat.
The relationship between the characters could have also affected this because it just didn’t have it. The two women are in a relationship from the beginning and as such we never see the initial coming together. Instead we’re told a lot how they fell in love or how they feel, but shown mostly the slow less interesting side of a relationship. Their conversations, while never overly long always devolve into one of two things: Sex Jokes or Oh WOW Our Communication is SO good.
The world could be interesting and I might consider picking up the second book on a whim, but I really hope the whiplash feeling of slow and dull to abruptly high stakes is evened out. Cozy, to me, is a slow build to whatever is lingering behind the characters. This was an up and down rollercoaster billed as ‘cozy’ and left me feeling very off balance.
3 Undying Plants out of 5
Sarah Evermotion's Book Thoughts 
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