Don’t we all want to run away with the person we love to open a bookshop/cafe in a small village somewhere?
That’s all Reyna and Kianthe want to do. However, when one’s the guard of a tantrum-prone murderous queen and the other’s the most powerful mage in the land, it’s a bit difficult. After getting kidnapped, Reyna decides that the spoiled little bit of royalty she works for has had enough of her life, and finally takes Kianthe up on her offer to run away from all their responsibilities and just be them. Settling into the town of Tawney, a small village close to dragon country, they get on building their dream life, just the two of them. Though with everything happening (them having to go into hiding so the queen doesn’t find them and kill them, the town not being too welcoming at first towards strangers, the building they’ve taken over still having bandits coming looking for assignments there, the local council representatives being incredibly nosy and desperately in need of matchmaking, and the dragons setting fire to the town every once and a while), it should be no problem getting a bookshop up and running, learning to live together and dealing with all of it, right?
I loved this book. The characters seemed real, as did the situations they found themselves in. Taking aside that the world contains magic, I think we can all sympathize with wanting to get away from our annoying boss (Reyna) and overbearing colleagues (Kianthe), and just live our lives. Reyna and Kianthe are comfortable in each other, and I liked how they grew together as separate people and as a couple as the book progressed. Their personalities meshed well; they have their areas of strength and their areas of weakness and not only do they balance each other out but they don’t try and change their partner to be more like them. The subplot with the dragons did not go the way I thought it would at first (in a good way), and I am intrigued to see how that will be resolved. I’m also intrigued over how Reyna is going to deal with the Queen and the subterfuge that had to occur there.
I can see the influence the author got from Legends & Lattes; while they’re not exactly the same, I would say both books would be under the same broad “Cozy Sapphic Romantasy” umbrella.
All in all, if you want a somewhat low-stakes cozy sapphic fantasy novel set in a cozy plant-filled bookstore, complete with dragons, found families, mild homophobia, and truly groan-worthy puns, this is a book I would recommend you reading.
“Dragon magic. Not for the faint-hearted.” And ironically, she fainted.”
“What would you have done if he’d used that sword?” Her girlfriend shrugged. “Considering I have six knives on my person, I wasn’t worried.”