Anu Recommends #17
Light academia historical romcoms featuring witches, pirates, and Dangerous Damsels
Hi and welcome to the Storyteller!
How’s everyone doing? Have you checked out Substack’s new Notes feature? If you missed the mid-week email blast, it’s a new platform feature which I’ll be using to share links, short posts, quotes, photos, and more. I plan to use it for things that don’t fit in the newsletter, like work-in-progress, quick questions, and reading thoughts and updates that might not make it into the weekly issues.
You can also do this cool thing now where you can share a snippet or quote from a Substack post you liked by restacking it/sharing it with your subscribers and network. More on that here.
You can share notes of your own, as well. I hope this becomes a space where every Storyteller reader can share their reading updates from this platform and beyond; what you've found interesting in those words, the thoughts prompted.
If you encounter any issues, you can always refer to the Notes FAQ for assistance. Looking forward to seeing you there!
This is one among many recent contributor-friendly updates to this platform and even though I’m still navigating my way through them all, I appreciate having more organic, easy avenues to connect with all of you and with other writers out there. In that vein, keep your eyes peeled for when I kick off the exclusive subscriber chat thread for The Storyteller community soon!
Now, who’s ready for a series spotlight, and an excerpt from said series’ third and final book (out on April 18, 2023)?
“Overflowing with heart, humour, and hyperbole.”— Publishers Weekly
I’ll give you a moment to admire the covers and how well they complement each other 😍 Shoutout to Katie Anderson and Dawn Cooper for such fantastic design and art!
India Holton is one of the best I’ve read when it comes to effortless, deadpan, tongue-in-cheek humour, similar to her plots, that glides between understated and utterly over-the-top bonkers with wicked, mischievous, sparkling delight. Throw in all sorts of delightful literary allusions, subverted tropes, sly digs at stereotypes even as others are embraced but not without its surprises, and lead characters that are the opposite of surface level—the books feature some of the most thoughtful, vulnerable, tender character development I’ve read—and what you have are winners.
I recommended books 1 and 2 here as part of my favourite reads of 2022, and listed the third book, The Secret Service of Tea and Treason as one of my most-anticipated 2023 releases. This is why I was thrilled to get the chance, thanks to Netgalley and Berkley, to read an advance copy of Tea and Treason!
The last part of today’s issue has an excerpt (kindly shared by the publisher) to whet your reading appetite. But, first, my mini-review.
Tea and Treason: Name a more delightful combo
Two top spies and seeming rivals, one secret undercover mission to uncover an assassination plot against Queen Victoria herself, one madhouse filled with *shudder* pirates, especially pirate wives. Simple enough?
This is the publisher’s blurb:
Two rival spies must brave pirates, witches, and fake matrimony to save the Queen.
Known as Agent A, Alice is the top operative within the Agency of Undercover Note Takers, a secret government intelligence group that is fortunately better at espionage than at naming itself. From managing deceptive witches to bored aristocratic ladies, nothing is beyond Alice’s capabilities. She has a steely composure and a plan always up her sleeve (alongside a dagger and an embroidered handkerchief). So when rumors of an assassination plot begin to circulate, she’s immediately assigned to the case.
But she’s not working alone. Daniel Bixby, otherwise known as Agent B and Alice’s greatest rival, is given the most challenging undercover assignment of his life— pretending to be Alice’s husband. Together they will assume the identity of a married couple, infiltrate a pirate house party, and foil their unpatriotic plans.
Determined to remain consummate professionals, Alice and Daniel must ignore the growing attraction between them, especially since acting on it might prove more dangerous than their target.
Alice Dearlove and Daniel Bixby are two of Holton’s most achingly beautiful characters—a heroine trained in martial arts who can silence a fully-grown adult man with deadly grace and calm, but can just as easily get all-peopled-out and need to go home, have a cup of tea (or a few), and hug a book until her nerves settle; a hero who has been mercilessly hammered into a perfect, seemingly emotionless, finely honed instrument that puts duty (to A.U.N.T) above everything else.
Both have deep trauma from their abandoned (abused) childhoods and have since found coping mechanisms while keeping those feelings and vulnerabilities buried as far away in the dark corners as possible. We watch them navigate all of this and their fears, wishes, hopes individually and together. They help each other at least begin the long process of healing and recovering from the ghosts of their pasts.
Now do you get what I meant when I said this madcap romp has a big heart and soul?
Here are two (among many highlighted lines and passages) that I chuckled over:
Alice reminded herself, she did not do fun. She was sensible right through to her lumbar vertebrae and sternum.
He drew in a breath he hadn’t known he’d been inhaling, and almost choked. 😂 (IYKYK.)
Next Sunday, I can finally share a most enjoyable chat with the author herself where, among many other topics, she talks about writing while being autistic and how that impacts the stories she writes and her narrative choices. It is never more evident than here where both Alice and Daniel are neuro-divergent, with many shared commonalities along with very different manifestations, because aren’t we all unique and individual?
To wrap this up so you can get to the excerpt—Tea and Treason was utterly delightful; my favourite from this series and that’s saying a lot! Holton is at her witty with a big heart best, and seems to have really hit her writing stride and assuredness here.
And now *drum roll*…
Excerpt
THE SECRET SERVICE OF TEA AND TREASON by India Holton
Berkley Romance Trade Paperback Original | On sale April 18th, 2023
Three years Daniel Bixby had worked as a butler for the rogue pirate Rotten O’Riley. Three years flying a rickety, ensorcelled house at speeds one could only describe as improper, smuggling pennyroyal tea into Ireland, and washing O’Riley’s laundry. Yet after just one week in Dahlia Weekle’s service he was exhausted. Criminal life had nothing on the rigors of shopping with an aristocratic lady.
This purse-snatching offered the best entertainment he'd had since his return to London (or, to be fair, second best, since nothing could surpass yesterday's discovery of a Utopia edition in the original Latin). Indeed, he might have stopped the hoodlum at once by using a phrase from the magical incantation that pirates employed to fly their battlehouses and witches to move small objects-O'Riley's witch wife had taught him how to bring down a man with just one enchanted word-but it was invigorating to give chase (not to mention that witchcraft was highly secret, highly illegal-and, according to pirates, highly, er, low behavior.)
About three hundred feet along the street, he caught the thief. After a struggle, he twisted the man's arm behind his back, relieved him of the purse, and held it out of reach.
"Thank you," said a woman's voice behind him.
Daniel felt the purse removed efficiently from his grip. Glancing around, he was astonished to see the lady's maid. Time seemed oddly suspended as he stared, arrested by the sight of her. You, said something inside of him, like a memory or a dream. It had whispered to him in the dress shop but spoke louder now, as if she'd removed a mask and he could see her more clearly. Her delicate face was framed by a coiffure so severe it made him think of backboards and plain, starched undergarments-
At which point, time dropped into the pit of his stomach with a crash that sent reverberations through his entire nervous system.
"Ma'am," he said, taking refuge in politeness even while his nerves clamored and the thief swore and kicked in an effort to get free. "It was a pleasure to be of assistance."
"You are too kind," she replied, her voice civil but her expression making it clear she was speaking literally. She turned and handed the purse to the thief.
Daniel blinked, trying to comprehend the evidence before his eyes. He had not been so confused since hearing Wordsworth described as a poetic genius. And confusion was dangerous in his line of work (i.e., when he felt it, other people became endangered). He twisted the thief's arm further, causing the man to holler, and took the purse from him once more.
"I beg your pardon," he reproved the lady's maid.
At his somber tone she cringed, her big dark eyes filling with tears, her lashes trembling. Daniel felt like an utter cad. "Please don't cry," he said, holding out his hand in apology.
And she grabbed the purse in it, tugged hard, and jabbed the fingers of her free hand up into his armpit.
Daniel gasped at the sudden pain. His grip weakened, and the purse disappeared once more from his possession. The woman returned it to the thief, who took it with an attitude of bemused uncertainty.
"For goodness' sake," Daniel muttered. Although years of piracy had presented little opportunity for heroics, he felt certain they did not usually involve the victim attacking her rescuer. Wrenching the thief about, he snatched the purse from him and-
The woman grasped his wrist with both hands. Daniel attempted to shake her off, and she attempted to emasculate him with an upthrust of her knee, and he saved himself (and his future children) by quickly blocking her with his own knee, leading to her stomping down on his foot, and him twisting her arm, and both of them stopping abruptly to watch the thief escape along the street.
"Is that your pearl necklace he's carrying?" Daniel asked mildly.
"Yes," she replied.
"Oh dear."
She shrugged. "Hopefully he won't bite the pearls to see if they're real. They are in fact cyanide capsules."
As the thief turned a corner and disappeared from the narrative, Daniel released the woman. She took a careful breath, her fingers twitching at her skirt, and he frowned with concern. "Are you hurt?"
The look she gave him was such that Daniel immediately wanted to find a chalkboard and write I will not ask stupid questions one hundred times upon it.
"Yes," she said in a quiet, terrifyingly precise voice. "I have a headache, my feet ache, and it has been six hours since my last cup of tea. Six hours! And now I even sound like her. Do you realize how much work went in to shepherding that woman into position so her purse could be stolen? How many boutiques I have endured this week? Do you realize how many conversations about penny-dreadful novels I have been forced to endure?"
"I-"
"One such conversation would be too many, but there in fact have been dozens, all mixing together into a ghastly, giggling blur. And yet there goes Putrid Pete back to his gang's headquarters without the tracking device in Miss Tewkes's purse, thanks to your dratted chivalry."
"I-"
"Furthermore, what were you thinking, bringing Miss Weekle shopping on Bond Street today? Her servants coordinate with Miss Tewkes's servants so as to ensure the ladies never meet. The last time they did, there was a fracas over a parasol, and Miss Weekle's footman ended up with his nose broken. You have disrupted everything. Therefore I say good afternoon, sir. This ends our acquaintance."
And grabbing the purse from him, she turned and marched away.
Daniel stared dazedly after her. His memory was shouting for attention . . . His body, however, drowned it out with a hot, uncomfortable throbbing. Perhaps he had strained something in his fight with the thief. He would have to consult a medical encyclopedia this evening.
The woman took an unrelenting course along the footpath, obliging more genteel ladies to leap out of her way. She moved with the dangerous grace of someone entirely aware of her surroundings and entirely unafraid. He watched her, knowing she would know that he did.
And for the first time in living memory, Daniel Bixby grinned.
Excerpted from The Secret Service of Tea and Treason by India Holton. Copyright © 2023 by India Holton. Excerpted by permission of Berkley. All rights reserved.
Did this sneak peek convince you that you need to rush to acquire books 1 and 2 before the third one comes out on Tuesday?
As always, please feel free send in recommendations—books, movie, TV shows, authors to interview, ideas of what you’d like me to write on, rants/ramblings/excited monologues, GIFs and memes (especially them) and more. Just drop me a line and turn this into a conversation, even if just to say hi and let me know what you thought of the latest issue :) Or share this with someone you think might enjoy it.
Take care and see you next week!
Anu
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You can find me on Twitter at @AnuNande (follow for all the football chatter) and on Instagram at @booksinboston.
Anu, thank you for introducing me to India Holton and her pirates and witches. Her usage of English language reminded me of P. G. Wodehouse. The reader needs to be very attentive of each sentence to enjoy the full flavor of it.