Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne is a sapphic fantasy with cozy mystery elements (3.75/5 stars)

Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea by Rebecca Thorne is a sapphic fantasy with cozy mystery elements.

This was really cute! I ended up borrowing the audiobook from my library so that I could listen while I was making a bunch of food and treats for Extra Life 2024. Also, the cover is really cute and there’s an amazing illustration of our main couple within the paperback.

Our main couple, Reyna and Kianthe, have been secretly dating for years at the start of the book. They spend long swaths of time apart, as they’re both pretty busy people: Reyna is one of the Queen’s private guards and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in the land. That also means that while they’ve technically been dating a while, they still really need to learn who the other person is after they run away together.

I often confused which of the two main character names was the guard and which was the mage. I do generally prefer there to be two narrators when a book has dual POVs, because that really helps me tell which character is which. Their relationship was cute, though, and I especially enjoyed how much they took care of one another and how they learned to communicate effectively.

This book isn’t without stakes, so while I would still consider it on the cozier side of fantasy it isn’t as cozy as something like Legends & Lattes (which I did enjoy). Pacing was a little on the slower side for me at the beginning, but I really enjoyed the ending and I’m excited to see where the next book takes us.

I received a complimentary review copy from Bramble Romance. All opinions contained herein are my own.

If you want to see more from me, check out my Bookstagram, TheStoryGraph, or Twitter.