Tea With a Minotaur follows a neurodivergent minotaur who prefers tea and learning over the battle-training preferred by his brothers and his clan-chief father. Struggling to find his place in the world, he embarks on a journey to find honey for his tea only to encounter much more than he would have thought possible. This was a sweet exploration of family, friends, and how much you are willing to fight for what you want. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and am fast becoming a huge fan of cozy fantasy.

Mahkai is the main character in the story and is very different from his minotaur brothers who prefer to train and fight in simulated battles to prepare for invasions. The memory of past battles is still fresh in everyone's mind and being prepared is a huge motto of the clan. The problem: Mahkai wants nothing to do with battles and training. He gets in trouble constantly for asking too many questions, always seeking answers to problems and to things he doesn't understand. Because of this, his brothers and other family members don't understand him, so he doesn't feel like he fits in with his baattle-loving clan. Mahkai's character development was very well done, and it was fun to see him grow into a more confident person, one who appreciated his own talents, one who stood up for himself and his friends. I loved how he was always asking questions as the author used this concept to give the reader some insight into the world, something I thought was quite clever.

One of my favourite characters was Gwen, a little owl companion that Mahkai rescues during one of his adventures. She was so sweet and I loved the descriptions and interactions between them. In fact, I enjoyed all of the characters and thought they had distinct voices and personalities of their own.

The plot was decent and I definitely like the themes in this book. Delving on the topics of friendship, loyalty, family, self-confidence, and self-worth, there were some moments that really made you think about your own family and your place within it. Both Hartley and Mahkai were struggling with family members who didn't understand them and didn't appreciate them, and their heartwarming talks and support of each other actually brought tears to my eyes. The story did struggle with some pacing and transition issues however, as there were times when I thought the author was setting up a certain scene only to shoot you a couple of days into the future with the event being completed and you didn't get to see it. I actually wondered if my book was missing a scene or two. The book is interspersed with tea recipes and they actually matched what was happening in the story and gave hints as to the personalities of the characters as well. I thought they were a nice addition to the story.

Verdict
Tea With a Minotaur was a sweet story about a minotaur who finds his way in the world through some misadventures and I was happy to be there for his journey. I enjoyed all of the characters and thought the development was good. Despite the pacing and transition issues, I still enjoyed the overall story. If you are looking for a fun cozy fantasy novel, then I highly recommend this book for you. ( )