Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop

Rebecca Raisin

March 4, 2019

HQ Digital

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Blurb:

The trip of a lifetime!

Rosie Lewis has her life together.
 
A swanky job as a Michelin-Starred Sous Chef, a loving husband and future children scheduled for exactly January 2021.
 
That’s until she comes home one day to find her husband’s pre-packed bag and a confession that he’s had an affair.
 
Heartbroken and devastated, Rosie drowns her sorrows in a glass (or three) of wine, only to discover the following morning that she has spontaneously invested in a bright pink campervan to facilitate her grand plans to travel the country.
 
Now, Rosie is about to embark on the trip of a lifetime, and the chance to change her life! With Poppy, her new-found travelling tea shop in tow, nothing could go wrong, could it…?

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SASCHA DARLINGTON’S REVIEW

So I forgot to mention to you all that a few weeks back I went on NetGalley– which for you folks who don’t know is the land of digital ARCs, where publishers and sometimes Indie writers offer novels for reading and reviewing–and I acted like I went to the library. My rationale was that I would probably get 50% or less of the books I requested. Erm. I got around 85-90% of the books. To say I was immediately a panicked headcase would be incorrect; I was worse. But I diligently wrote all of the books in on my calendar, realized that things were not as bad as they initially seemed (not all of the books need to be read ASAP), and have proceeded to do what I like to do: read books. Some of them have not been gems, but some, like Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop have been just that.

I love British chick-lit, romancy novels. Why? They tend to be smart, well-written, and I always feel like I’m on an adventure. In Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop, adventure is literally true.

Rosie seems to have it all together. She’s got a job she loves, a husband she loves, and everything is scheduled until the bombshell of her husband cheating with one of his colleagues falls. During a bout of red wine drinking, she buys a van and embarks on an adventure that she never thought in a million years she’d be taking.

First off, I loved Rosie. She is a character who seems to be wearing a straitjacket due to all of the rules she enforces upon herself. She doesn’t take risks because of the possibility that something could go wrong and Rosie possesses quite a list of things that could possibly go wrong.

On her very first outing in her travelling tea shop, she runs into Aria, almost literally, and Aria, who is the complete opposite of Rosie, is just who she needs to find. Messy Aria is a complete foil for the uptight Rosie and the best travelling companion she could find.

Before he replies I say sharply, ‘Ah, no, you’re wrong there, that’s what reading too many romance books does to a girl, gives you false expectations–“

Aria says, ‘That is unequivocally incorrect. And there’s no such thing as reading too many romance books.’

As Rosie travels, learning how to make incredible fare in her van, she evolves. She learns how to be more extroverted, how to apologize for things she does or says, how to live.

I’ve been so caught up in what might happen, that I haven’t thought about what might not happen – and that’s seeing the world in all its glory, the hidden lakes, the magic trees, the rocky paths no one has wandered down for decades, hearing birdsong, a symphony just for one, watching the majesty of sunrise and discerning each hue of orange without rushing to the next thing.

Rosie finds the possibility of romance with Oliver, a man she’s met on an online travelling forum, and Max, a vegan pacifist who is as hulking as Jason Momoa.

And when I finished reading Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop this morning, I was happy because I’d fallen in love with these characters and laughed out loud and yet I was also a little sad to be closing the book and not taking further part in their caravan adventures.

I highly recommend Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop for readers who love tea and comfort food, for fans of British chick lit, readers who like real rom-coms, fans of Jason Momoa, readers who love the idea that a hero could be a vegan–finally.

I received an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop goes on sale March 4. You can pre-order it now:

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