ARC Book Review: Theodora's Tea Shop by Christy Anne Jones

Thank you to Headline and Netgalley for the advanced reader copy!

I'm going to be honest here. I've been a longtime fan of Christy Anne Jones, having followed her writing journey on Youtube for quite a time. She's been a huge inspiration, and her cosy videos have always motivated me to keep writing my dark fantasy novel. It goes without saying that I was beyond stoked when Headline accepted my ARC request.

In Theodora's Tea Shop, a timid, chronically ill woman called Dot sets out to the city of Alliaster to find the witch, Theodora, in order to learn magic. As Dot becomes an apprentice while working at the tea shop alongside old spirits, a rust-haired boy, and a hopeless young man, she slowly unravels the witch's secrets, unknowingly falling into dangerous schemes that threaten her life. Theodora's Tea Shop is pitched as an atmospheric 1920s-inspired fantasy for fans of Howl's Moving Castle.

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First and foremost, I have to applaud Christy (I will call her by her first name because I have a one-sided friendship with her through YouTube) for her brilliant writing. The novel is filled with rich and vivid descriptions of characters and locations, lending an atmospheric feel to the entire book. We find out so much about characters in tight spaces because Christy uses each line as though it were real estate. Expensive, and only given to sentences that can pay their worth.

On the topic of characters, they remind me a lot of the cast from Howl's Moving Castle. Lio and Howl. Rupert and Markl/Michael. Dot and Sophie. And they are as endearing as the ones from the Studio Ghibli film. Even though they make mistakes and can be frustrating in their behavior, I find their imperfection and failings likable. I'm sick and tired of the strong female character whose only flaw is that she's petite or has a foul mouth. (Can those even be called flaws?) I want real, human shortcomings because they are relatable. I believe Christy managed to do this with her book.

The villains/antagonists, on the contrary, were slightly more one-dimensional. I won't spoil the book, but some were nothing but evil, and I couldn't find it within myself to understand their motivation, which was a shame because I had hoped that the bad guys would receive the same kind of treatment as the main characters.

There were many moments that touched me because the theme is so universal that it would be hard not to relate to it. At the heart, Theodora's Tea Shop is about self-love and acceptance. It's about the courage to be oneself. I was glad to see that there was no romance because it would have dulled the message Christy was conveying.

Rating

⭑⭑⭑⭑⭒

I would highly recommend this book to those who are itching to read a book with real characters and authentic experiences and who enjoy vivid descriptions of a rich 1920s-inspired world.

Theodora's Tea Shop by Christy Anne Jones is out now.