Welcome to Rydding, the hidden village you might stumble across if you need a home and a fresh start. For Elwyn Howell, the village is a lifesaver when she finds it just as she's run out of strength and hope while running for her life. The abandoned healer's cottage welcomes her, even though she's given up on that calling. She opens a tea shop instead, using her knowledge of herbs and her empathic gift that allows her to select the perfect tea for each customer. Soon, she's feeling at home in the village community. She's afraid it's too good to last, a fear that's confirmed when she finds a wounded man unconscious in her garden. Was he sent by the people who are hunting her? Not even he knows, since he has no memory of who he is or how he got there. As she nurses him back to health, they develop a close bond, but the specter of both their pasts--the one she's fleeing and the one he doesn't remember--gets in the way. He doesn't know what life he may have left behind, and she lives in constant fear that her old life will catch up with her and she'll end up convicted of a murder she's not entirely sure she didn't commit. They can't hide forever, not even in Rydding, and if they want to have a future, they'll have to confront their pasts. A new cozy cottagecore romantic fantasy from the author of Enchanted, Inc.
Featured Series
1 primary bookTales of Rydding Village is a 1-book series first released in 2023 with contributions by Shanna Swendson.
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 stars, Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
Elwyn, fleeing capture, and near starvation, is looking for a place to die. Just on the verge of giving up, she finds a seemingly deserted village and sleeps in an abandoned cottage. But when she wakes up, she finds a small community, and some friends.
Review
I hadn't encountered Shanna Swendson until I ran across this book, but it turns out she has an extensive bibliography. This no doubt accounts for the competent, confident writing, and I liked the characters as well.
‘Cozy fantasy' seems to be a thing these days, and I found Tea and Empathy to be, if you will, almost aggressively cozy. It's about healing, largely takes place in tea shop, and there are a lot of doilies. Added to that, it's pointedly touchy-feely, warm, and fuzzy. That's great, in a sense – I agree with most of the viewpoints expressed – but I did begin to find it a bit treacly after a while, wishing that someone (who was not clearly signaled as ‘bad') would do something controversial. The closest we get is that the protagonist's close friend seems to think all men are bad (but is still hot for the male love interest). That was a bit disquieting in that it didn't come across as a character trait so much as a statement of policy – and in fact almost all the men in the story are pretty rotten, except for one male Mary Sue, and one with slight complications. Happily, the book largely gets away with all this, in part because it's so short – about 160 pages for me.
All in all, a pleasant read, I enjoyed the setting, and the book does well at building satisfying low-risk tension, but I would have liked a little more depth and complication (and curiosity!) to the characters. There's also a bit of a disconnect in that the village attracts people who need a home and safety, but bad folks can also get in. Also, in that the coziness doesn't seem to extend to the farm animals killed and used for food.
The book is the first in a series, and there's clearly quite a lot to explore in its setting. I found it a little on the cloying side, but I'd be interested to look at Swendson's other work.
I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review.
