Teas and Tomes is officially a series. I saw the sequel to Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea, A Pirate’s Life for Tea at the airport, and it’s a decent light travel/beach/need a mental break read. There’s two plot threads: first, Reyna and Kianthe have to find the dragon eggs they promised to find in the first book, and second (during that investigation) they get involved in local politics by agreeing to capture a river pirate who has been annoying the local diarn Arlon. Naturally, things turn out to be more complicated than simply catching a pirate since (among other things) the constable Arlon assigns, Bobbie, has a personal connection to Serina (the pirate), and it also turns out that apparently Reina likes to meddle/matchmake and decides she want to help Bobbie and Serina get themselves together on several levels. This part kind of takes over, and the plot really slows down for about half the book to show that Bobbie and Serina are both in need of straightening out on each other and aspects of the world around them. I got a little tired of that. But then it’s the Dastardly Pirate Dreggs, who’s a total hoot, to the rescue, and both stories pick back up and connect, and then it’s off for the finale involving two overlapping heists.
There’s also a less cozy and more spicy add-on side story for those who might prefer that kind of romance (not my thing, but it’s here for those who are so inclined). It also appears that the way the next story will be introduced is by an epilogue. This happened at the end of Can’t Spell Tea as well, but with a little more context and experience now, I can sort of guess what one of the main elements of book 3 will be, besides pulling off Reyna and Kianthe’s wedding (saw that on Goodreads as part of the pot of book 3 of 4). Now I just need to decide whether to keep or exchange this one since I got it at one of those airport shops where you can return the book within 6 months for a 50% refund; we’ll see.
