Alchemy and a Cup of Tea

Reyna only wanted a quiet cup of tea on the night she was kidnapped. She wakes in a hidden cell instead, and she takes it in stride. Her wife Kianthe breaks her out, certain they will be back at the New Leaf bookshop for tea by noon.

They are not. A marked alchemy circle on the floor of Reyna's cell shows that a radical group of alchemists planned this, and Reyna is the Queendom's newest sovereign. Kianthe and Reyna have to work out what the group wants with her, and why its members felt safe taking her.

Meanwhile, trouble is building at home in Tawney. News of the shop, New Leaf Tomes and Tea, and of its famous owners has got out, and tourists are pouring into town. Their friends there are struggling to cope with the crowds.

The couple soon face a harder question than any alchemist: whether shutting the bookshop is the only way to protect the town they love. This is a cozy fantasy with a comic tone, a sapphic married couple at its centre, and a mix of low-key town problems and larger danger. Baby dragons and past battles with evil alchemists are part of the couple's history.