motherbooker's reviews
606 reviews

It's a shame that cosy fantasy is such a big thing these days because it's inevitable that all new books will get compared to the rest. You Can't Spell Treason Without Tea was always going to be compared to Legends and Lattes whether that was fair or not. I absolutely loved reading Legends and Lattes and expected to feel the same about this one. Maybe that meant I set my expectations too high because this one didn't quite do it for me. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it because I did. It was a sweet read and one that kept me entertained as I listened. It just wasn't exactly what I hoped it would be. Meaning it didn't grab me as much as other books in this genre.

I loved the concept though, which is why I picked it up. A Queen's guard leaves her position to settle down in secret with her girlfriend. Reyna is one of the tyrant Queen's private guards and Kianthe is one of the most powerful mages alive. Their relationship has been a secret for years but now they want to live together as a proper couple. To do this, they have to hide in a small town and make plans to open a shop selling tea and books. They can't keep their pasts away for long as they have to deal with dragons and former employers getting in their way. Will they be able to make a new life for themselves or will they get dragged back to their old ones?

You Can't Spell Treason Without Tea is an odd mix of cosy fantasy and high-stakes fantasy. To start with, it follows the couple's journey to open their bookshop and make a home in the town of Tawney. We see them decorating, ordering stock and gaining customers. It's all very sweet until the dragons turn up. Then the stakes start to get a bit higher as Kianthe has to find a way to stop them from killing people. At the same time, the Queen sends out men to bring Reyna back, which could lead to her being tried for treason. It feels like we're about to witness a lot of drama but nothing really goes anywhere. The dragons are dealt with pretty easily and put off for future instalments. Likewise, the Queen turns up for a few pages and then is easily calmed. It feels like a lot of build-up for very little.

That's not to say that this isn't a good book but it definitely exists to set up the rest of the series. It's a warm-up, which means it spends more time introducing things than actually doing a great deal. this makes the pacing feel a bit weird. There's a lot of sedate stuff followed by short periods of drama before it completely calms down again. This was the first book in the series, so it's possible that it was just suffering because of that. However, it would have been a bit better if so much of the "good stuff" wasn't being held back for the future. I get that you need to introduce world-building, but I also feel like this was somewhat lacking. Some of the political and magical systems seem a little undefined. Again, this is probably going to be explored further in other books but it's still frustrating.

Of course, all of this would be fine if the main couple had great chemistry. In the end, I was underwhelmed with the pairing of Reyna and Kianthe. I didn't necessarily feel them as a couple and I found their dialogue stiff and awkward. Their interactions felt unnatural and it just kept throwing me out of the narrative. I wasn't engaged in their relationship which made it hard to care about it being torn apart. I didn't believe that they were soulmates. I also found it irritating that they repeatedly worried about the strength of their relationship no matter how many times they reassured each other. If they don't feel secure in their own relationship then how am I supposed to? Still, this was an easy book to listen to, so I'm not completely put off. I will still keep going with the rest of the series and see how it goes. Hopefully, we'll get to know the couple a bit more in the next one. 

Not every book will be right for you, and The Library at Mount Char definitely wasn't right for me. It started quite well and I was intrigued by the set-up. I loved that it didn't tell us what was going on or who anybody was. It really set me up for something action-packed and thrilling. Instead, it gave me a very slow burner that went all over the place with seemingly little direction. It definitely felt like the writer had no idea what would happen. It had the feel of unrelated scenes that were vaguely combined to create something of a narrative. Its lack of coherence makes it a difficult book to read. I couldn't get carried away by the story because the story was so fragmented and unrelated. It wasn't that everything was happening because it was organic but because certain people needed to end up in certain situations.

So, it's difficult to sum up this story. You either give everything away or be incredibly vague about everything. Basically, we get introduced to Carolyn just after her "Father" has gone missing. Although, he wasn't her biological father but the man who raised her along with a group of other orphans. He trained them all at the library, a mysterious place that housed all the knowledge in the universe and beyond. Each child is given a subject and forced to spend their days becoming experts. He wasn't the nicest of men but his disappearance is dangerous. With his enemies coming out of the woodwork, Carolyn and her siblings must do some stuff for some undefined reasons. Really, there's just a lot of waiting. Oh, and the sun disappears at some point, there are some lions and a couple of random men get caught up in it. It's a lot.

I'm not a believer that you need to like a character to enjoy a book. I am a believer that you need to care about them. You barely get to know anything about these characters, so I didn't care what happened to any of them. They didn't feel like real, well-rounded people and there was something off about the dialogue. I know some of them are supposed to be otherworldly but the humans sounded just as unrealistic at times. There's one person whose character is "army guy" and that's supposed to be everything we need to know to consider him a great person. If there had been less story to connect, there might have been more time to spend on character development. In the end, I only really cared about the lions. Give me a whole book about them and I'd probably have read it way quicker than this one. Everyone else? I barely remember them.

It's not that there aren't positives here and there are certainly interesting ideas. It's just that it was trying to do so much and it never came together. It's been inspired by so many things that it becomes a jumble. There were basically no rules to this universe apart from "is it needed to drive the plot forward?" Even then, it doesn't always need to drive the plot forward. There's a moment towards the end that makes no sense apart from a bit of drama. It made no sense for the character to act that way or consider it an effective thing to do. This is a book that's trying to be a clever and original epic but it's maybe too ambitious for its own good. It's weird, which I don't have a problem with. The thing I couldn't get on board with was how directionless it felt. If a plot is going to meander all over the place then you need to feel confident that the writer knows where we're going to end. I had zero confidence when reading this.

This book also seems to be labelled as a horror book, which I find off. I assume that, in this case, horror just means "gratuitous violence that didn't really add anything". That's what this book is. I don't mind the amount of violence in this book but I would have preferred that it was for a reason. Instead, it just seemed like it was there for shock value. Rather than being interested in writing an engaging and entertaining book, The Library at Mount Char felt more like a literary experiment that didn't go exactly as planned. Later on, we learn that one of the characters has set the whole plot up as a random but planned event. This felt like a convenient way of saying "this is why nothing makes sense". We then learn than another character knew it was all going to happen, which feels like a desperate plea of "but it honestly does make sense". Personally, I'm not buying it. This was a long and arduous read for me. Is the writing worth 2 stars? Probably not, but I wasted three weeks trying to finish this and it wasn't worth it. 

If Anthony Wistern could have chosen a way to die, it probably wouldn't have been during his 60th birthday party but that's what's happened to him. His grisly demise is discovered by a guest at the lavish celebration and everyone in attendance is questioned. Anthony was a wealthy businessman, so his death gets a fair bit of media attention. It's in the papers and news sites and is being discussed on true crime forums. That's where an amateur sleuth with a YouTube channel comes across the news. She lives nearby and has a personal connection to Wistern. She's also convinced that he was murdered and decides that solving the case will push her into the spotlight. So, she starts investigating his family. This includes his widow, Olivia, and their children. Are they hiding something about the night Anthony died? And is anyone else in any danger?

The book is told from 3 different points of view: Anthony, Olivia and the Sleuth. We first hear from Anthony who finds himself stuck in limbo. It turns out that, when you die, you can't move on until you remember how it happened. Unfortunately, you also forget everything that happened in the 30 minutes preceding your death, so Anthony spends his days watching his family and trying to figure out who killed him. Something he has in common with the Sleuth. She lives near the Wisterns and manages to create quite the following for her investigation. She becomes more and more obsessed with the case and puts herself at risk to get the big scoop. She suspects everyone but her main focus is the widow. As we see from Olivia's chapters, the marriage was far from happy and she isn't exactly in mourning. Instead, she's trying to figure out what to do with her life as a free woman. Especially as her children are mainly concerned with the question of money.

I'm not always a fan of books that follow multiple perspectives because it doesn't give room for great character analysis. I did enjoy this one and think it added to the story. The Anthony chapters were a fun bit of relief from the main narrative. Who wouldn't want to see Anthony trying to cope in limbo when he no longer had the money or power to get what he wanted? It's always fun seeing an awful person get their comeuppance and realise that they aren't anywhere near as important as they think they are. It's also wonderful for him to see what his nearest and dearest really think of him. His chapters are a bit like The Lovely Bones if Susie Salmon had been an amoral millionaire instead of an innocent girl. Bella Mackie seems to be having a lot of fun with the class commentary here and it's full of memorable and funny lines. Does it feel reminiscent of Succession? Probably more than it needs to but that's not the worst thing ever. This is a very fun book.

A very fun book that's full of unlikeable characters. Normally, you'd expect to find one decent person among them but not here. Bella Mackie delights in introducing her readers to the worst people possible and it's fantastic. There's nothing quite like seeing people getting what they deserve and this has a lot of triumphant moments. However, this does mean that Anthony sort of becomes the best of them despite being so awful. He, at least, tried to live life to the full and saw through the phoniness of the high society types he was mixing. Of course, you still spend most of the book thinking he's an absolute pig. It's a weird set up but I think it mostly works. Bella Mackie has proved again that she knows how to write about book that doesn't care about making you feel better about the world. She just wants to make fun of everyone and I'm here for it.

Like her previous book, What A Way To Go also drags a little in the middle and some of the twists are a bit too cliched to be shocking. However, there are a few things that do work and did surprise. I think the payoff of Anthony's death reveal is perfect and really funny. The scope of the book is also quite limited. You don't really experience much beyond the little bubble in which Anthony and Olivia find themselves. However, that would have meant adding even more to the book and it really didn't need it. I think Bella Mackie is a fantastic writer and I love a slow-burn murder mystery. I just wish the fire had been a bit quicker to get going with this one. 

This is the kind of book that I love. It's a seemingly simple story about a seemingly simple man. However, there is far more going on than it seems at first glance. Bill Furlong is a coal merchant living in New Ross, Ireland in the 80s. He lives a comfortable enough life with his wife and daughters. He brings in an honest wage, enabling him to provide his daughters with a decent education. It's a far cry from his early years as the child of an unmarried teen mother. As it gets closer to Christmas, Bill reflects on his past and the debt he owes his mother's former employer. Without her understanding, Bill and his mother would have been cast out and he'd be living a completely different life. So, when he uncovers something about the local convent, Bill starts to re-evaluate the role of religion in his community. How strong a hold does the institution have on the lives of Bill and the people he knows and loves?

It's a common fact that religion has never really favoured women and that supposed "fallen women" have been victims for too long. What I didn't know before reading this book was that the last Magdalene laundry in Ireland closed on 25 September 1996. That's insane. The Magdalene laundries were institutions that housed fallen women. This included promiscuous women, unmarried mothers and young women without any family support. They were sent to these places and forced to work for their board. The treatment that many endured was worse than they could have expected in prison. The institutions were allowed to continue because the Irish state didn't want to interfere with religious matters, so countless women and girls suffered in silence. All of this was done in the name of God but it was intended to punish anyone who didn't conform to the status quo.

In this book, Keegan addresses the stranglehold that the church had on communities and we see people warn Bill against meddling in their affairs. The church was a powerful presence and could ruin a person in many ways. Of course, Bill can't ignore things any longer. He's a good man and it's great to see such a positive male figure in this book. He loves his daughters and champions women. He understands how strong his mother was and how lucky she was to find an understanding employer. Bill is such a fantastic presence in this book. He has a quiet and contemplative nature to him but he also has a great impact on the community. He delivers the coal and wood needed to help people throughout the festive period. He could be a passive masculine figure but, instead, he is a positive force for change and the moral compass of this book.

This is such a short book but it packs a huge punch. Like Bill it is quiet and unassuming but there is so much depth within these pages. It does a remarkable job of highlighting a horrendous part of history while retaining lightness and humanity. Keegan is a writer who knows how to do a lot with a little. Her use of language is sparse but it's filled with emotion. You get even more from what isn't said to what is said. This is only my second book by Keegan and she has surprised me both times. With this book, you know everything you need to about Bill and you understand why he makes the decisions he does. It's a story that doesn't need loads of prose to get the message across and Keegan is skilled enough to make this work so well. This was a fantastic book to read at the start of the year but it does mean it'll be harder for other books to live up to it.