Special Issue: The Romance of Tea

Tea and Romance Between the (Book) Covers

Teatime allows us to slow down and savor life – and what better way to savor life than by escaping with a good book? Put on the kettle and nestle into your favorite chair to celebrate Valentine’s Day with a romantic read. These tea romances explore many relationships: romantic, friend, family, and even our relationship with ourselves. This list will transport you worldwide (United States, India, England, Scotland, and France) and through time (modern time, World War II, Victorian Era). Are you yearning for something different? Enjoy a bit of magic and fantasy with your tea romance. Choose a book – or two – to add to your pile of books to read before the kettle begins to whistle.

Special Issue: The Romance of Tea
Romantic Tea Sweets for Valentine’s Day
Cooking a Romantic Valentine’s Day Dinner with Tea

A Cup of Silver Linings

By Karen Hawkins

New York Times bestselling author Karen Hawkins returns to her beloved Dove Pond series with another “mesmerizing fusion of the mystical and every day—but this time, the magic is in the tea leaves,” writes Susan Andersen, New York Times bestselling author.

Ava Dove—the sixth of the seven famed Dove sisters and owner of Ava Dove’s Landscaping and Specialty Teas—is frantic. Just as her fabulous new tearoom is about to open, her herbal teas have gone wonky. Suddenly, her sleep-inducing tea is startling her clients awake with vivid dreams, her romance-kindling tea is causing people to blurt out their darkest secrets, and her anti-anxiety tea is making them spend hours staring into mirrors.

Format: 352 pages, Paperback

Published: July 6, 2021, by Gallery Books

ISBN 9781982105563 (ISBN10: 1982105569)

$16.99 | Buy the book

 

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Three for Tea

By Melissa Crosby

Three exceptional women—each whose hearts are broken into a million pieces—come together in this extraordinary tale of life, love, and true friendship.

Sarah Gardner’s husband went to sleep one night in November and never woke up. At forty years old, the new widow is left to care for their three children, all of whom are under the age of five.  Louise Delaney couldn’t ask for anything more. At fifty-nine, she had enjoyed almost four decades of blissful marriage to Warren—may his soul rest in peace. Twenty-five-year-old Filipina Kate Morgan thought she had met the man of her dreams during a perfect summer vacation. Kate soon realizes her mother was right: vacations end, and people change. It is a heartwarming story about life, love, and true friendship.

Format: 346 pages, Paperback

Published: September 5, 2020, by iHeart Press

ISBN: 9780995137929 (ISBN10: 0995137927)

$14.99 | Buy the book

 

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Tea Shop for Two

By Lori Wolf-Heffner

Tea Shop for Two is an uplifting and inspiring romance that’ll introduce you to new friends in the quaint shopping district of Belmont Village if you like feel-good stories about tea shops, trust, and taking a chance on love, then cozy up with a cup of tea and this heartwarming sweet romance by Lori Wolf-Heffner.

Rappel from a stadium ceiling? No problem. Leap through a flaming hoop? Check. All while wearing a twenty-pound costume? All in a day’s work for Pauline, a beloved pro sports mascot actor. But fall in love? Not after that disaster ten years ago. She won’t let the thought cross her mind. So, when her mother calls her home for a week to train the new guy at the family tea shop, Pauline doesn’t even think of romance.

Format: 340 pages, Paperback

Published: November 25, 2021, by Head in the Ground Publishing

ISBN: 9781989465271 (ISBN10: 1989465277)

$18.99 | Buy the book

 

 

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Teatime for the Firefly

By Shona Patel

“Patel takes readers on a vivid tour of 1940s India, exploring the attitudes of the day and the traditions of the tea-growing region of Assam. The story ebbs and flows gracefully, keeping readers engaged and fervently enticed. Stated, Teatime for the Firefly is a true treasure.”

Layla Roy has defied the fates. Despite being born under an inauspicious horoscope, she is raised to be educated and independent by her eccentric grandfather, Dadamoshai. And, by cleverly manipulating the hand fortune has dealt her, she has even found love with Manik Deb, a man betrothed to another. All were minor miracles in India that spring of 1943, when young women’s lives were predetermined – if not by the stars, then by centuries of family tradition and social order.

Author Shona Patel is the daughter of an Assam tea planter. She draws upon her personal observations and experiences to create the vivid characters and setting for her critically acclaimed debut novel Teatime for the Firefly. Her second novel, Flame Tree Road, was published in June 2015.

Format: 407 pages, Paperback

Published: September 24, 2013, by Penguin

ISBN: 9789351063049 (ISBN10: 9351063046)

Price $14.35 | Buy this book

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Tempest in a Teapot

By Kate Valent

Bridgerton meets the whimsical humor of Gail Carriger in this wacky fantasy romcom set in Victorian England.

Charlotte loves tea as much as the next person but never expected a magical teapot to choose her husband.

When eccentric businessman and magician Martin Steepe hosts a tea party to find a wife, Charlotte doesn’t expect to be chosen. After all, she’s only a baker’s daughter aspiring to be a penny-blood author, and the Steepes want to marry into nobility. Except he does choose her with enchanted tea leaves. Unfortunately for Charlotte, he doesn’t even know her name, let alone that she isn’t nobility. And she isn’t entirely certain having the same favorite tea is a good basis for a marriage.

Format: 168 pages, Paperback

Published: May 2, 2022, by Valiant Ink

ISBN: 9781957570013 (ISBN10: 1957570016)

Price $14.99 | Buy this book

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The Cornish Cream Tea Bus

By Cressida McLaughlin

I grew up in London surrounded by books and with a cat named after Lawrence of Arabia. I studied English Literature at the University of East Anglia and live in Norwich with my husband, David. When I’m not writing, I spend my spare time reading, returning to London, or exploring the beautiful Norfolk coastline.

Hop on The Cornish Cream Tea Bus for a delicious, romantic adventure… Baking fanatic Charlie Quilter inherits a vintage bus at her late uncle’s will and is keen to give it a new lease on life. Charlie thinks it will be the perfect mobile café for afternoon tea, so she heads to the picturesque Cornish village of Porthgolow, hoping for a new start. However, Daniel Harper, the owner of the posh spa up on the hill, isn’t very pleased that her bus is parked outside his lovely hotel. Has Charlie’s Cornish dream developed a soggy bottom? Or can she convince Daniel that her bus could take them somewhere wonderful?

Format: 400 pages, Paperback

Published: September 1, 2020, by HarperCollins

ISBN: 9780008332181 (ISBN10: 0008332185)

Price $15.99 | Buy this book

 

 

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The Little Tea Shop on Main

By Jodi Thomas

It is a deeply moving novel about the family that raises us, the hearts that nurture us, and the great friendships that define our lives.

Redheaded, curly-haired Zoe is openhearted, kind, and free-spirited and dreams of becoming a famous actor in New York City. Shy Emily struggles with mental health but has the heart and soul of a writer. And Shannon—tall, athletic, strong—has a deep sense of loyalty that will serve her well when she heads off to military college. As Zoe, Emily, and Shannon grow into women—forging careers, following dreams, and finding love—they’ll learn that life doesn’t always unfold the way they want it to, but through it all, the one constant is each other and their regular tea parties. And when the unthinkable happens, the girls must come together to face the greatest test.

Format: 330 pages, Paperback

Published: May 7, 2019, by HQN

ISBN: 9781335507556 (ISBN10: 1335507558)

Price $18.99 | Buy this book

 

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The Teashop by the Sea

By De-ann Black

The Tea Shop by the Sea is the second book in the Quilting Bee & Tea Shop series that can be read as a standalone book or as part of the series.

Eila moves from Glasgow and opens a dress shop by the sea in a beautiful village in Scotland. She becomes friends with the ladies of the local quilting bee and Gordon — he owns the tea shop where the quilting bee nights are held.
Gordon is attracted to Eila, but before he can ask her out on a date, the local community is thrown into chaos by the arrival of four wealthy, successful, and handsome men from Edinburgh. Set on the beautiful Scottish coast, there’s sewing, baking, handsome men, romantic rivalry, and light–hearted mischief and mayhem.

Format: 126 pages, Paperback

Published February 26, 2021, self published

ISBN: 9798713896911

Price $4.99 | Buy this book

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Vanessa Yu’s Magical Paris Tea Shop

By Roselle Lim

From the critically acclaimed author of Natalie Tan’s Book of Luck and Fortune comes a new delightful novel about exploring all the magical possibilities of life in the most extraordinary city of all: Paris.

Vanessa Yu never wanted to see people’s fortunes—or misfortunes—in tea leaves. Ever since she can remember, Vanessa has seen people’s fortunes at the bottom of their teacups. To avoid blurting out their fortunes, she converts to coffee, but somehow, fortunes escape and find a way to complicate her life and the ones of those around her. To add to this plight, her romance life is so nonexistent that her parents enlist the services of a matchmaking expert from Shanghai. After her matchmaking appointment, Vanessa sees death for the first time. She decides that she can’t truly live until she can find a way to get rid of her uncanny abilities.

Format: 305 pages, Paperback

Published: August 4, 2020, by Berkley

ISBN: 9781984803276 (ISBN10: 1984803271)

Price: $16.00 | Buy this book

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