Fiction Reviews
Tea You At The Altar
(2025) Rebecca Thorne, Tor, pbk, £22. hrdbk, 323pp, ISBN 978-1-035-03104-7
This is the third instalment of Rebecca Thorne’s Tomes and Tea cosy fantasy series following power couple Kianthe (sorcery) and Reyna (swords) as they make a go of their relationship, flee their responsibilities to set up shop in a remote border town selling tea and books, and yet somehow still find themselves drawn into adventure. The first and second novels – Can’t Spell Treason Without Tea and A Pirate’s Life For Tea – have both been reviewed on this site.
No prizes for guessing that Tea You At The Altar takes as its focal point Kianthe and Reyna’s wedding – an affair in which not only their adopted hometown of Tawney but also the whole realm is taking a keen interest. As the novel opens, preparations are in full swing, guests (including a small army of pirates from Book Two) are beginning to arrive and both our brides have the jitters.
As the Archmage and preeminent wizard of the day, Kianthe’s marriage was always going to be a political affair. But things aren’t easy for her bride either. Reyna’s former employer, the despotic and increasingly unstable Queen Tilaine, refuses to let bygones be bygones, and sees the wedding as a chance to place Kianthe’s powers at her disposal. Using the occasion as an opportunity to overthrow Tilaine instead - and find a replacement too if possible - increasingly looks like a good idea.
But it’s not all palace intrigue: throw in baby dragons, the return of the Dastardly Pirate Dreggs, Kianthe’s parents shaping up to be problematic in-laws, an ostensible rival for her affections (a man, no less!) and any number of romantic subplots, and you have a story which is at least as much marital comedy as political drama.
I have warmed considerably to these books since I started reading them, and that’s testament to Thorne’s writing chops and evident joy in playing in the sandbox she’s created for herself here. There is a lot going on in Tea You At The Altar in terms of content, character and themes, and the fact that she pulls all of it off in around 300 pages without narrative whiplash or jarring tonal shifts is praiseworthy indeed.
And while the series clearly began life as a riff on Travis Baldree’s Legends and Lattes, by now it has transcended this starting point to become a thing in its own right. Kianthe and Reyna are living, breathing characters among a strong supporting cast and their relationship is a highly believable one.
It’s not perfect – the board game parody is unnecessary, occasionally the comedy is a little too broad and Kianthe’s reliance on puns is wearing a little thin third time around. More piratical content, as with book two, would also have been nice, although the extract from the fourth book included at the end leaves me to believe that this will be corrected next time.
But Tea You At The Altar is solid, fun genre fiction that hits its marks better than most, in a series that continues to improve book-on-book. Fans of romantasy and cosy fantasy with a little bit of an edge will find much to enjoy here.
Tim Atkinson
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