Review: The Tea Witch’s Promise by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

The Tea Witch’s Promise (Purple Oak Oasis #1)
by Laura Greenwood and Arizona Tape

My Rating: 3 stars

Genre: Cozy Fantasy Romance
Age Category: New Adult
Type of romance: m/f

Blurb:
Falling for her brother’s best friend was never part of Katie’s plan.

Tea witch Brew has always had a thing for his best friend’s sister, but the alliance between their families has always held him back from acting on it. But now things are changing, and it’s becoming impossible for him to ignore her.

Having known Brew for years, Katie has never considered him to be a serious contender for romance, but when hints of his true feelings shine through, she starts seeing him in a new light. Unable to resist her new feelings towards him, she realises she’s ready to go up against everything to be with him.

Except that Katie’s older brother, and the rest of their families, might be against the match. Is that enough to put a stop to the budding relationship, or can they make it work despite the odds?

–

The Tea Witch’s Promise is a cozy fantasy romance with a brother’s best friend m/f romance, an adorable and energetic dog, unusual magic, and a happy ever after.

My Review

I really liked the Purple Oasis series, when the authors announced they would rework the series into the Purple Oak Oasis with a different setting (cozy fantasy instead of post-apocalyptic) I wasn’t sure whether to be excited or wary. And I settled on a bit of both with more of the one or the other depending on the moment. I wasn’t sure if it would change my opinion of the series and I was afraid the new series wouldn’t be the same. On the other hand I love cozy fantasy as a genre and thought it would be a good fit for this series with it’s hopeful and cozy tones. I also was a bit confused on how it would work with new books and reworked books in the series.

I decided to pick up this book, the new first book that wasn’t in the previous version of the series and give it a try. I really wanted to like this book and hoped I would easily get into it with how much I liked this series already, but it didn’t quite work like that. I enjoyed this book, but struggled a bit with the romance as well as the world building. And there was that weird feeling of it being the same series I know and like and different at the same time, not being quite right.

The Tea Witch’s Promise is told in dual point of views of both Katie and Brew. Katie is a ward and has a dog familiar and Brew is a tea witch who works in the infirmary. Brew has loved Katie for a long time, but she only sees him as a good friend who flirts with everyone. Then there is the fact Brew is Katie’s brother’s best friend and both Brew and Katie are part of one of the four families that rule the town and they are discouraged to date someone from the other families.

I liked both character well enough, but had some troubles fully feeling their romance. Katie is totally oblivious to Brew’s feelings and states multiple times how she could never see him as more than a friend and could never fall for him until she does and the change just felt a bit too sudden. Then there is this whole will-they/won’t-they part where it isn’t clear whether they will act on their feelings and I didn’t really like that part. And then when they do get together their romance is quite sweet and I liked those scenes toward the end and could actually feel their romance.

There was also the plot line with the four families not liking it when they date that never got addressed. And the brother’s best friend trope that got resolved very easily after all the mentions beforehand. The ending felt a bit rushed and I felt it was missing some wrap up, but maybe some of that will occur in future book? I also was confused at what Katie’s job with the farm was exactly as al she did was patrol and I wasn’t quite sure why. And I didn’t quite udnerstand how it worked with these four families that are important and why they are and why they don’t want them dating someone from the other families.

The unique magic system was one of the things I really liked from the old version of the series and I still appreciate that here. I did hope we would see some more of the magic and world building, but sadly that isn’t the case yet. I know from the previous series a bit about how the shifters work that are now called wards (which I think fits better), but there is very little about it in this book. Katie mentions her magic, the tattoo as well as her bond with her familiar, but I have no clue how it works or what she can do with her magic. There is a bit about the tea magic, which I think is such an unique concept, but I still would’ve liked a bit more.

As the location changed from post-apocalyptic UK to a fantasy world I feel the series lost some of the logic behind it that doesn’t quite work now. On the other hand I think the fantasy world does fit the tone of the series better than the post-apocalyptic setting. I struggled to get a feel for this fantasy world and kept trying to see it as it’s own world, but it’s at times too similar still and not similar enough to the old version. Without the apocalypse plot line and UK setting it doesn’t quite make sense why this settlement with lots of tea witches doesn’t grow their own tea yet. I also couldn’t get a good feel for this world. I hope this will get better in future books and someone who hasn’t read the old version of the series will probably have an easier time at this.

I did appreciate how this book has a lot of set up and mentions of what I know will be future couples. At times it felt a bit much as I already know where some of those threads will go and it just was very obvious when these hints occurred, but I think for someone starting the series here it will be great to get those little hints and introductions here already.

To summarize: This is the first book in the Purple Oak Oasis series, which is a reworked version of a previous series, but this is a new book in the series. I struggled a bit having read the previous version of this series and adjusting to the new setting and changes the authors have made in this one. I also didn’t fully feel the romance with Katie not being interesting in Brew at first and I felt that changed quite quickly. There are some really sweet and fun scenes toward the end that I liked. The ending felt a bit rushed and didn’t address some things. The magic and world building is quite unique and I like it, but I would’ve liked to see more of it as the magic stays very vague in regards to how it all works. I also struggled a bit to get a good feel for the new setting and I felt some plot lines like the town not growing tea didn’t make as much sense with it not being set in post-apocalyptic UK and no good explanation given of why they didn’t grow this yet. While I struggled a bit with this book there are still a lot of things I liked about it and I hope as I get further in the series it will be easier to settle into this new version of the series. I think there are some good set ups in this book for future books and I am looking forward to reading those.

Links:
– Goodreads
– Bookbub
– Amazon
– B&N
– Kobo

You can also read my review on Goodreads and Bookbub.