A Pirate's Life for Tea

by Rebecca Thorne

Genres: Fantasy, Romance
Pages: 384
Series: Tomes and Tea #2
Rating:

Synopsis:

While searching for stolen dragon eggs, newly engaged couple Kianthe and Reyna find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a swashbuckling love story.

On one side is Serina, a failed farmer turned river pirate. Her booty? Wheat, grains, and the occasional jar of imported tea leaves. It's quite the embarrassment to Diarn Arlon, the powerful lord of the Nacean River, and he'll conscript anyone to bring her to justice. Especially Kianthe, the elemental mage who just crashed his party, and her somewhat-scary fiancée.

Begrudgingly, the couple joins forces with Bobbie, one of Arlon's constables--who happens to be Serina's childhood friend. Bobbie is determined to capture the pirate before anyone else, but it would be a lot easier if Serina didn't absolutely loathe her now.

As Kianthe and Reyna watch this relation-shipwreck from afar, it quickly becomes apparent that these disaster lesbians need all the help they can get. Luckily, matchmaking is Reyna's favorite past time. The dragon eggs may have to wait.

A Pirate’s Life for Tea is the second in Rebecca Thorne’s series about Reyna and Kianthe, and… it might be the last one I read. I get how the adventure and romance of it will interest people, but something just isn’t clicking for me — it feels so terribly young, and I’m not saying that because I think it’s aimed at being cosy, but because the interactions between the characters don’t feel particularly grown up (even as they’re having sex).

The fantasy world it’s set in also fails to feel quite fleshed out: it felt a bit like in a video game, where as you progress, bits of the map get revealed — only I’m not sure the map’s there to be revealed until Kianthe and Reyna go there. (I don’t just mean the actual literal map, either, I mean the cultures and broad strokes of what’s out there for them to find.)

Maybe I’m wrong, and it’s all planned already, but I just didn’t feel it in reading the book.

Anyway, I can see how it would be a lot of fun for others, but it’s not my cup of tea (I don’t even like tea, so that’s not too surprising). I might read more in the future, maybe if I need something easy and morally simple to read, but not when I have so much else on my TBR that sounds tempting.

Rating: 2/5