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

Such a wonderful, heartwarming story! I actually liked it more than Legends & Lattes, which the author cites as a direct inspiration for Can't Spell Treason without Tea. I absolutely adored Reyna and Kianthe and their entire relationship. I also loved that the relationship started before the story itself, so instead of all the first dates and growing attraction we got to delve straight into what I believe to be the most interest part of any relationship, fictional or real: the one where they actually build a life together, learn to co-exist, open up to each other about their insecurities and pain spots, overcome difficulties, help each other grow as people, make something wonderful and theirs. Like, you know, a tea shop/book store in a cold, dragon-plagued town full of nice, kind people.

Tawney is now firmly among my favorite settings, to be sure. There was something so vivid about every description that I now feel like I've truly visited it. I also found myself quite captivated by the broader setting it exists in, with the different cultures, the dragons, the entire Arcandor concept and all. The setting is built out of familiar fantasy tropes, but the way they're used and fitted together makes for something really interesting. Oh, and speaking of different cultures! That entire secondary storyline about Lord Wylan and Diarn Feo, vying for rulership and constantly bickering and looking all the time like they're one step away from a glorious queer enemies-to-lovers romance? Give me that romance. I need it. 

I guess the one reason I'm not giving this a full 5-star mark is this weird ethical struggle I had around the entire concept of the book. :D Don't get me wrong, I absolutely appreciate the concept! In most typical fantasy stories, you would expect the most powerful mage in the world and the tyrannical queen's rogue bodyguard to, you know, topple the evil queen and bring kindness and justice to the world or something. In this book, the characters instead choose to escape the queen and build a quiet, kind life for themselves in this adorable town in the middle of nowhere. That's what makes the story so unique and so beautifully character-driven, and I totally get the reasons behind Reyna's and Kyanthe's choices. I loved their journey, as I've already said. But time and time again, I caught myself thinking that it was maybe... selfish? Imagine having the power and the insidious knowledge to try and make real change plenty of people could benefit from, and not using it. I'm one of those people who can't. For a long time now, I've been wishing so hard I could be someone with at least a 50% chance to, you know, topple certain world leaders. Hell, even a 10% chance, a 5% chance, anything. I am just a normal person, and I feel like a failure for it, that I live in this world where so many things are so wrong, and I can't do anything. From that point of view, putting yourself first when you really can make a difference against a sociopathic tyrant feels downright villainous.

I'll once again say: I did love the story very very much, especially when I could shove aside that ethical conundrum. But I suppose I would have preferred it if there was no tyrannical queen. Perhaps just a not-very-good-but-passable queen with a parliament to stop her from going overboard, and with Reyna being somehow bound to her service still, to keep the story mostly the same, but, you know, not in a way that makes her complicit in tyrannical crimes. Or if Kianthe was simply a mage, not the super powerful mage with a special connection to the Stone. I guess I overall prefer heartwarming slice-of-life stories when they either happen in overall optimistic settings, like Becky Chambers's Monk & Robot novellas, or when they have this hopepunk vibe of good people in bad worlds doing the very best they can, at least for themselves and their loved ones, even if that's never going to be enough to change the entire world. Reading a "doing the best we can for ourselves and each other at the expanse of NOT doing the best we could have done for everyone" story was perhaps a first for me, and this aspect doesn't sit 100% well with me. I'm weird like that.