A Pirate's Life for Tea

August 5, 2024
Thorne’s gleeful if haphazard sequel to Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea feels less like a true cozy romantasy and more like a parody of the subgenre, ticking off millennial memes in a loosely plotted bit of shtick. Mage Kianthe and her fiancée, retired guard Reyna, improvise their way through implausible episodes of mayhem—featuring wannabe pirates, a naughty baby griffon, and “that’s what she said” jokes—as they strive to fulfill promises made in the first volume while en route to a wedding that will (presumably) occur in the third. Their bookstore/tea shop is consigned to the background, but the established ensemble of supporting characters is very much present, along with a new pair of lovers: Bobbie, a constable helping the women to hunt down the pirate Serina, and Serina herself, the plot’s primary chaos-maker. The writing is rough, the characterization fairly shallow, and the worldbuilding incoherent. As a somewhat overlong in-joke for the trope junkies, however, it’s entertaining enough.