Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

June 28, 2024

Can't Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne

Reyna, a Queen's guard, and Kianthe, mage and Arcandor, decide to flee their lives and travel to a border town where they plan to open a teashop that sells books, or a bookstore that serves tea. 

DNF at 40%. I expected to enjoy this, but it just didn't work for me. The storyline was really slow-moving and the characters were not interesting. I expected it to be in the same vein as Legends and Lattes (which I think was the author's inspiration for her novel) or That Time I Got Drunk and Saved a Demon. The cover art is so charming, too. Sorry.

Many thanks to Edelweiss and the publisher for providing an eARC for review.

Beautiful teas

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

October 8, 2021

The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin

Grace Bennett and her bestie Viv move to London just before the start of World War II. While Viv gets a job at Harrod's, Grace doesn't have the necessary letter of recommendation. She gets a job at a musty old London bookstore with the understanding that if she works there for six months, the owner will give her the required letter. Although Grace isn't a reader, she sets to work cleaning and reorganizing the shop and is soon sucked into the spell of books, with the help of a patron named George. During the Blitz, Grace volunteers as an air raid warden, a job that many feel is unsuitable for a woman, and becomes known for reading aloud in the local tube station during air raids. When a bomb hits the street where the bookshop is located, the community comes together to save the store.

Based on a true story, this is a feel-good novel about World War II and the "keep calm and carry on" attitude of Londoners during the Blitz. The plot is predictable w giveith the expected romance, but that's okay. It gives a look at life during the Blitz without getting too graphic.

London tube station being used as an air raid shelter during World War II

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

June 18, 2020

The Lost and Found Bookshop by Susan Wiggs

Natalie Harper is a successful executive at a wine distribution company in northern California, until a horrendous tragedy upends her life.  She returns to San Francisco to care for her aging grandfather and try to figure out where her life is going.  On impulse, Natalie decides to quit her job (which she hates) and take over the family bookshop.  But the bookshop is in deep financial trouble, and she wonders if it is too late to rescue the store.

  

As I'm not a real fan of women's fiction or romance, I found the storyline somewhat predictable, as I pretty well figured out the rest of the story about 1/3 of the way through the book (who the love interest was, that Granddad was going to find buried treasure in the basement and save the bookshop, etc.).  There are too many coincidences that stretched credulity a little too far (a $12,000 military medal, a $19 million Tang dynasty vase, and a priceless set of original hand-colored Audubon bird books, all in the same building?  Which has frequent floods and earthquakes, yet all the artifacts are still in perfect condition?  The most famous children's author in America drops everything to do a reading for her little store?).  Unlike her previous novel (The Oysterville Sewing Circle) where the love interest shows up on the second page of the book, at least there was a little character development first.  This one really wasn't my style.

But if you are an avid romance reader or enjoy women's fiction, or want a happy ending where everything works out perfectly, you will enjoy Wiggs' latest novel, and to be fair, she is a very good writer, much better than many romance authors.  With all the upheaval and social unrest in the world right now, maybe a perfect happy ending isn't a bad thing.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an eARC in return for a review.