This book was read at Kalimna, Yeranda cottages, near Dungog in early January 2025.
Fantasies are often seen as a warm and fun, sometimes a little (or a lot) naughty way to take a step back from everyday life.
All the things that normally worry or concern us are put happily to one side and we indulge ourselves in something that’s diversionary, escapist and where we can simply enjoy ourselves without the strictures or boundaries we normally encounter or abide by.
But if you’ve read a few fantasies in your time, you will know that they are generally a million miles away from playful; sure, they are a step away from the ordinary but they are often feature dark magic, deadly politics, authoritarian leaders and death and violence.
Brilliant reading and wholly engaging but not the stuff of whimsical diversion or full-on escapist merrymaking.
If you’re looking for a mix of the two ideas then perhaps you should consider the rapidly emerging subgenere of cosy fantasy, and one of its newest entrants, Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne, book one in her Tomes & Tea series.
Originally self published as a way, says the author, as a way of generating “a bit of side income and [having] a fun experience as an indie author”, the novel has now been picked by Tor Publishing Group and brought to a much wider audience.
Very much following in the vein of subgenre trailblazer, Legends & Lattes by Travis Baldree, whom Thorne thanks in her acknowledgements as displaying “incredible kindness and encouragement”, Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is an exuberant joy of a novel that asks us to imagine what it might be like to live your dreams and to escape the cold and cruel reality in which you currently live.
Would it be a joyously easy path because you are following your heart … or not?
A thrill rushed through Reyna too. Putting it on paper made it feel real, and seeing Kianthe’s encouragement solidified everything.
It turns out that if you’re Reyna, runaway ex-Queens Guard in the oppressively cruel place of Queen Tilaine, a young monarch who presides over the conservative and technologically averse Queendom – the only point in its favour is that it elevates women into places of rule over men but that’s about where its liberal goodness grinds to a literally deadly halt – it’s a mix of the two.
Exhausted and dispirited by years of stopping countless assassins from taking out the Queen, who is debauched and cruel and sociopathic in the extreme, Reyna finally heeds the consistent calls of her girlfriend, elemental mage Kianthe, and flees the palace for the life they have always envisages far away from regal whims and institutional cruelty.
This dream life, hopefully situated as far out of the reach of the Queen as they can manage is centred on running a shop devoted solely to selling tea and books which, let’s face it, sounds like a dream quite a lot of us could get behind.
After some close calls with bandits, the two arrive in the remote mountain of Tawney, located just south of Dragon Country where, yes, actual huge, fire-breathing and quite magical dragons live, where they find a ramshackle barn that, with some permissions from local lords – Tawney is claimed by two kingdoms, Shepard and Queendom, and so has two lords vying for control which, in a cosy fantasy, is funny, full of flirty bickering and well, other queer romcomy stuff – will make the perfect tea-serving bookshop.
Finally, Reyna, who was raised in a longline of Queen’s Guards and who simply wants a life free from killing and being attacked, and Kianthe who is the Arcandor, or mage of all mages, can craft a life that is theirs and theirs alone, and which involves them answering to no one but themselves, and making friends and becoming valued members of the community.
(courtesy official author site)
If it sounds delightful, it is in Thorne’s assured hands, and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea quickly becomes a sweet, charming tale of two quite in-love women finally living their long-cherished dreams.
Refreshingly treating their love story as every bit the equal to the mass of straight love stories out there, Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea is a joy to inhabit if you’re queer because here are two people of the same gender allowed to be in love, to live the lives they have always wanted and to become valued members of the community without anyone making any kind of other-than fuss about their sexuality.
It’s bliss to have the queerness of the book both obvious and yet a standard part of the story, and with that taken care of, the novel spends its time imaging what it would be like for two people, of whom the world demands a lot, simply listening to their hearts, downing the tools of their trade – well Reyna largely puts her sword down but once an Arcandor, always an Arcandor though no one says you have to live in the bastion of the trade, the Magically – and fashioning a life on their terms where they are just another part of caring, local community.
Very soon, Reyna and Kianthe are much-loved members of Tawney, friends with local blacksmithing / midwife & healer couple, Tarly and Matild, all-but-adopters of orphan Gossley and on their way to living gorgeously domesticated lives where nothing exciting happens and they are perfectly happy and embracing of that.
But then dragons attack, possible in search of magic eggs, and the Queen hunts them down, and suddenly all that cosy loveliness looks in danger of being trampled on, ripped apart and torn asunder.
Kianthe’s heart fluttered, and she settled back in her chair to enjoy the warmth of the fire. ‘Me too, Rain.’ And the evening slipped away with good conversation, fabulous food, and exceptional company.
Not so cosy now, right?
Well, much like romcoms and sitcoms, cosy fantasies exist in a wonderful world where evil and oppositional terribleness don’t win out.
You figuratively walk into a book like Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea knowing that it will likely all end all, and far from neutering it and leaching all the tension from it, it means you Arte able to lean into the gripping and high stakes narrative knowing that though horrible things are taking place, it is most likely not even close to the end of the road nor the conclusion of the story.
And that is where this delightful subgenera really comes alive.
It gives you the big epic fantasy moments of dragons, villainous rulers and magic and swordplay, but it does in in a context where relationships, often queer ones, rule, where people are supported and loved by their communities and where good triumphs over evil in ways that make the heart sing and which give you some much-needed time off from the horrors and terrors and injustices of the world.
It’s a real gift and Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea absolutely runs with the idea, offering a story that is hugely blockbuster in scope in so many ways but which also has all the time in the kingdom for love and family and home and the sheer joy of belonging and mattering.
It’s all the fantasy you could ever ask for and it compels you to keep reading on the strength of yes, a kickers narrative but also characters who are fully and wonderfully realised, who really matter to you then as a result and whose fate is uppermost in your heart and mind.
Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea may have quirky charming title and a cute premise, and delivers on both, but it’s also rich in involved storytelling, high stakes politicking and people who simply want to follow their dreams; well, just as soon as they dispense with dragons, a murderous queen and some bandits … should be a walk in the park, right?
Well, not quite but it does make for a brilliantly involving story and one you will be glad to know has a happy ever after and a sequel and the heartwarming assurance that you can follow your dreams and sure there may bumps of huge magnitude along the way but you’ll come out just fine because life deserves a few good things now and then … and for the rest of your life.