*I was given an audio ARC of A Brewed Awakening in exchange for an honest review. Thank you to Thomas Nelson Fiction and Pepper Basham for my copy of the book*
Synopsis:
As a child, Daphne Austen fell in love with her grandmother’s stories of England, perhaps to the point of romanticizing them a little too much. Now, as an adult, she inherited Tea Thyme, the only English tearoom within a hundred miles of her Blue Ridge Mountain town. But keeping her tea and pastry shop afloat proves to be a continual struggle. Since losing her mother and then grandmother, Daphne’s clung to the need for routine, predictability, and beautiful order–and her tearoom shines as the epitome of her Anglophile and obsessive tendencies. But her perfect world spirals into madness when an Englishman moves in next door and shatters all her Darcy daydreams with his loud music, questionable manners, and highly American interests. With an off-the-charts swoon factor, he even tempts to shatter her heart.
Finnley Dashwood left England to start over somewhere his ex-wife’s parents couldn’t track him down and force their parenting techniques on him. It was as if they wanted to make up for their daughter’s neglect by suffocating him with control and unwanted affection. The unassuming town of Wisteria, North Carolina, provides the perfect place to start over and even remake himself as the dashing, English restaurant owner of his earlier days, instead of the somewhat-cynical recluse he’d truly become. With a shop ready for his use, an apartment for him and his daughter, and an acquaintance who owns the revered Wisteria Manor (now event planning center), Finn has everything he wants for a new beginning–except . . . maybe an understanding of the small-town Appalachian culture and the uptight, perfectionistic tea princess next door.
At first, Finn finds the whimsical and notoriously optimistic shop owner humorous and somewhat annoying, but as she begins to invest in the life of his daughter and he observes her authentic love for the people of the town, Finn’s heart opens to the terrifying possibility of a second chance at love. As they are forced to work together on a local-celebrity wedding, their differences clash, sizzle, and finally begin to simmer into a unique, complementary blend of sweet and savory. But just as hope blooms into possibility, a massive storm crashes into the little town, upturning all their plans and putting not only their budding romance but the resilience of the tight-knit community to the test.
Review:
Buckle up for this review everyone, it’s a little messy. I wrote a lot of notes while listening and let’s just say I was not nice. I honestly can’t believe A Brewed Awakening has been getting so many positive reviews. Not only was the romance lacklustre, the plot was not compelling and the narrators were not engaging. Part of me questions why I even finished it in the first place.
This book is way longer than it needed to be. It took til 80% in for the entirely shocking (not) revelation that they’ll be catering the wedding together. The mention of the wedding at all came really late in the story. After re-reading the synopsis, I feel like the cook-off was added for a bit of drama. The synopsis outright tells you they are “forced to work together on a local-celebrity wedding” so what was the point of the cook-off? To add extra time to this book that absolutely did not need it? A Brewed Awakening was almost an hour longer than shown to be. The player went into minus minutes and over 100% at one point.
The main characters entire personality is being being obsessed with all things English to the point that it feels like a fetish. Pretty much every time Daphne see Finn she internally comments on his accent or how he looks. Her feelings towards him felt very surface level and at no point was I rooting for them to confess their feelings for each other.
The fact that Finn has a little girl with a disability feels more like a ploy to make you like him rather than representation for people with disabilities. He must be a good guy because he’s a single dad, right? Turns out he’s actually quite misogynistic – something that feels like it’s trying to hide behind a British accent. An exact quote from him is: “I’ve not seen a woman fawn over anything like that outside of a shoe store” what a gross gender stereotype, which is basically what most of this book is. The woman owns a pink “princess” tea shop, the man owns a gastro pub. She makes dainty sandwiches, he cooks meat.
Back to the British accent, the male narrator is not great. He’s often quite robotic and the accents, both British and southern, feel very over the top. The female narrator wasn’t too bad but I think the fact that I didn’t feel interested in the story didn’t help me feel very engaged.
The Britishness of this story is also exactly what Americans think British people are like but it’s not accurate at all. No one says “macintosh” when talking about a rain coat.
Another part of the narration that didn’t work was the ‘tweets’ at the start of each chapter. They were so difficult to follow and I felt like they added no substance to the story. I don’t need to hear the opinions of every single person in this town and whether or not they’re “team tea” or “team coffee”. Show me the tension between Daphne and Finn, don’t tell me to believe it’s there because the townfolk are commenting on it online.
There’s also a lot of talk of God and religion throughout that felt quite pushy and out of place to me as someone that isn’t religious. Even the huge flood near the end (which I half listened to as I just wasn’t interested) felt like a Christian overtone. If I had known this was a huge part of this book, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up. I have nothing against religion but only when it’s not being pushed/forced onto me.
I wouldn’t recommend checking out A Brewed Awakening – I genuinely don’t think it’s worth your time.
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