I love Rosie and Aria and Max and Ollie. I actually wish that there were more stories and details from their time on the road. The author does such a great job describing them and their experiences at festivals and their time jumps in between events that I just want to fill in. I'm excited to see that there is another book exploring Aria. The two of them have such a great friendship which is so nice to see in a romance, that the friends are not just background dressing but actually are important parts of the characters lives.

Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin
Source: NetGalley and HQ Digital
Rating: 4½/5 stars

Rosie’s life has always been planned, her plans have plans, and her plans have back up plans and right up to the moment her husband walks out on her, Rosie thought all the plans were still totally acceptable to all involved. Right up until the moment her rat bastard husband left her . . . .

With her life and all her plans turned completely upside down and inside out, Rosie must make some serious decisions about her future. With more than a glass of wine or three in her, Rosie makes a most un-Rosie-like decision that involves a huge hit to her credit card and a bright pink campervan. In the bright light of day, Rosie can’t believe what she’s done and one she realizes there’s no going back, she starts making plans and reaching out to others for advice.

In short order, Rosie has a travel plan, a load of custom-made teas, and a load of fear that she won’t be able to make this new life plan work. Though luck hasn’t often been with Rosie in the recent past, the universe does hand her a freebie in the form of the free-wheeling bookseller named Poppy. Poppy has been living the traveler’s life far longer than Rosie and has many, many secrets, and tricks of the trade that she is more than willing to share with Rosie. What’s more, Poppy’s books pair beautifully with Rosie’s teas and in no time flat, the two have a business plan in place that may just keep them both afloat.

Becoming a part of the traveler community is unlike anything Rosie has ever experienced. She is welcomed by all and made to feel a part of the community immediately. The others in the community share their best and worst travel tips with Rosie and after consulting with Poppy they plan their travels accordingly. Along the way, Rosie experiences both the best and the worst of her new lifestyle. Her teas are a wonderful success, and she sells out at nearly every stop, but her bright pink campervan has a lot of miles and frequently costs Rosie a chuck of her profits. If it weren’t for the support of the community, Rosie may have called it quits after the first disaster, but her new life is interesting and not something she is willing to give up on so easily.

The Bottom Line: Yet again, I am on the opposite side of others with my star rating. I completely enjoyed this book and found it quite uplifting. Rosie is forced into a life she never planned for and not only does she make the most of it, but she also succeeds in spectacular fashion. With a few good friends, Rosie is able to overcome her obstacles and create a life for herself that is so much more fulfilling than what she once had and thought she couldn’t live without. I had such respect for Rosie and the courage it took for her to take on her crazy adventure. With the exception of a few little wonky moments, I quite enjoyed this read. In fact, I read it in no time flat and wouldn’t mind a sequel to catch me up on Rosie’s life a year or so in the future.

Title: Rosie's Traveling Tea Shop

Author: Rebecca Raisin

Publisher: Harper 360/HQ Digital, $16.99

Genre: General Adult Fiction, Romance

Format: read e-book given to me by NetGalley

Published: Feb. 16, 2021

In a heartbeat, Rosie Lewis' life does a 360º turn. Out of the blue, her husband, Callum, informs her that their marriage is over. He claims she's too predictable and plans everything. He hopes she'll find someone that will change her life for the better. In truth, he's fallen for a co-worker and he needed to finish one chapter to start another in his life.

Rosie is a hard-working Michelin-Starred Sous-Chef at Epogue in London. After she throws her husband out of the apartment, she now realizes that she has to make a new life for herself. Seeking inspiration, she scans through various blogs looking for a job that will allow her to live by her own rules, something that will transform her life for the better. She realizes that any decision will need to be well thought out. Research has to be done to determine what an investment would mean in terms of her flat, possessions and money.

The next morning, an older gentleman knocks on her door and hands her the keys to her new traveling tea shop. She had to have purchased "Poppy," a bright pink camper van, after having a number of glasses of wine. Shortly after receiving the pop-up van, she finds a website where Van Lifers share their experiences and offer tips. The website leads her to Oliver, a photographer who recommends she begin her journey as a vendor at the Hay Festival in May. She can stock up in Bristol and camp there first. He explains where the festival nomads meet and that often leads to finding travel partners.

Call it fate... When she reaches the camp in Bristol she accelerates instead of brakes and nearly runs down a red-headed young woman. She and Aria become good friends, working together to promote each other's businesses. Aria's van is a book haven for readers. Bookshelves are filled with stacked books and nothing is organized and neat. Coffee welcomes those in her tiny abode. Her "Little Bookshop of Happy Ever After" sells romance novels. Before the Hay Festival opens, they decide to shop at other local fairs. In time, Rosie opens up to Aria about her life veering off track.

Oliver continues to email her and seems interested in knowing how she is. But a few weeks later at the Hay Festival, Rosie meets Max, a vegan chef, and they immediately become friends. Rosie begins to think it's more than that when Max asks her to do physical as well as cooking challenges. Rosie becomes confused which man she'd like to have a relationship with as they spend more and more time together. In Scotland, on the way to the Fringe Fest, she begins to see who really cares more for her.

I loved this book! I respected Rosie for trying something totally out of her comfort zone and giving it her all. She was confronted with so many challenges, but with the help of her new friends and a lot of courage and hard work, she was able to be successful. Aria is a great character and fate did bring them together as she was going through her own personal challenges. I can't wait to read her book. I'll be looking for it on NetGalley. As for Max, where in the world is that man? What a unique character: sweet, caring, vegan, great chef and there when Rosie needed him. I loved Max's parents, as well. The book is an interesting look at the lives of the festival vendors. It isn't easy, but they are passionate about their crafts and work hard to earn money.

five cups of Rosie's special blend of tea out of five

Denise Fleischer

gottawritenetwork.wordpress.com

Feb. 7, 2021
To be published Feb. 9th

Thank you Netgalley and publishing house a copy of this book to review. I really enjoyed getting to know Rosie. I’m a tea lover. So the idea of a traveling tea shop is just so good.
The Van Lifers were such a fun group. Aria, an amazing friend, can’t wait for her story. The love story between Rosie and Max was a bit rushed at the end to me but overall this was a lovely story.

Rosie finds out on her birthday that her husband is leaving her. In a drunken haze, she boys an RV and then decides to travel the countryside selling her custom tea blends and comfort food favorites. She meets some interesting characters along the way and makes some very valuable friendships. A fun, gentle romance. Perfect for curling up with a cuppa!

Thank you NetGalley, Rebecca Raisin and Harper 360 for the ARC of Rosie’s Traveling Tea Shop.
This is my personal review.
Rosie is a sous chef at a Michelin starred restaurant and she has her life all planned out. She was on the path of life until she comes homes from work one day to see her husband has packed suitcases by the door and tells her it is over between them and he is leaving.
This news sent Rosie’s life on a completely different track. She buys a van she names Poppy and hits the road to sell her hand blended tea and goodies she bakes.
On her journey she meets many and the adventure send her places and she let herself experience things she never would have done before.
The book was an easy read, and the characters were likable. I wanted to feel more into the story of her adventure, but it just didn’t grab me and take me in to the world of Rosie as much as I wanted it to do.

Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin begins as Rosie, a Michelin-rated sous chef, is dumped by her husband - on her birthday no less. Waking up from a night of drowning her sorrows with wine, Rosie discovers that she has purchased a bright pink and turquoise camper-van perfectly outfitted for her new traveling tea shop adventure. I was concerned that the story would be formulaic, however it was anything but formulaic. The characters were charming each in their own flawed ways, so realistic in this Insta-perfect day and age. I loved reading about the nomadic life of those who followed the road to the next festival or adventure. I laughed, cried, and cared deeply about the characters by the end of the book. This romcom, totally outside of my usual genre, was a breath of fresh air. I may just have found a new favorite author and hope that a camper series is in the works. (I voluntarily reviewed an complimentary reader copy and all opinions are my own.)

Rosie's identity is her job: as a sous chef at a Michelin-starred restaurant, she doesn't have time for anything else. But when her husband leaves her for another woman, she decides enough is enough. Her impulse purchase of Poppy, a bright pink van, leads to her to try van life, and she creates a traveling tea shop with delicious pastries and ice cream. Along the way, she meets new friends like bookseller Aria and the mysterious vegan Max.

This was a great book to get lost in for a few hours! Rosie is a really sweet and kind protagonist, and her BFF Aria brings lots of sass and humor to the story. In this time of quarantine/stay at home orders, it was so much fun to travel with them across the UK to various festivals. I really enjoyed seeing Rosie learn more about herself and discover her inner strength. I did feel like the ending was a bit rushed and didn't necessarily fit with the rest of the story, but it was still a good read. 3.5 stars.

Thank you to Harper 360/HQ Digital for providing an ARC on NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Thanks to Netgalley and Harper 360 for access to this arc.

Wow, I loved the bitingly humorous way this started. That plus the blurb had me all set for a book that by the 40% mark I realized I wasn't going to get. By then the humor was pretty much gone and the saccharine cliched aspects had taken over. Potentially emotional plot points were introduced, built up a little bit and then with seemingly no effort were taken care of and swept away - Rosie's marriage is over, she cries and gets drunk, then discovers the next morning she's bought a camper and then heads off (with no driving training); Aria is seen crying over a photo, Rosie presses for information about the situation and Aria immediately caves in and tells all; Rosie worries about life on the road and making a living but golly, is almost immediately a success.

Then there's Max the wonder man who is so perfect in every way yet keeps urging Rosie to change. I didn't like Max from the moment he showed up and he got less appealing as the book continued. The schmaltzy "life lesson" moments were painful to read about.

The blurb seemed to promise me a book about a woman pulling her life together and finding her bliss but what I got was a paint-by-numbers blah book with flat characters. I'm also not a fan of lazily describing a character by comparing him/her to a well known celebrity. DNF

Rosie Lewis, sous-chef at a swanky restaurant, has her life all planned out, from her career to her marriage to the eventual kids she’s already scheduled into her five-year plan. But when life throws a curveball at her in the form of her husband’s infidelity and wish for a divorce, she has to find an entirely new path...one she’ll travel in a bright pink van.

I love stories about love, food, and the sugary-sweet warmth of a happy ending, and Rebecca Raisin’s novel promised to be just that. Unfortunately, the writing is just painfully mediocre. The story careens into existence, an affair and a divorce slamming into both Rosie and the reader way too fast, as the book clearly just wants to get to the main plot. I sympathize with wanting to get to the good stuff, as it were, but it left me with literary whiplash that was never really redeemed by a bland, by-the-numbers, ultimately forgettable story. This kind of novel is usually all about engaging, quirky characters for me, and unfortunately Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop was entirely lacking in this department, as it is in the department of “appealing prose.” I love stories that read like a freshly baked, sweet & decadent cupcake - but this one was a total miss for me, I’m afraid.

Thanks to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the advance review copy!

I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley.

Rosie is a sous chef at a Michelin starred restaurant. She has her life planned out - meticulously and things were going along swimmingly. Until her birthday came and her long-time, live-in boyfriend decides that they are over and dumps her ON HER BIRTHDAY! After burying her sorrow in a lot of wine that night, she wakes up the next morning to a knock on the door and learns what she did in her wine-haze. She bought a fuscia campervan! What in the world?????

This book takes you on the journey of what comes next - the highs, the lows, and everything in between. This book was a great adventure and I was excited when I got to the end to see there will be a continuation of the story of one of the other characters.

3.5 stars. This is a cute story of finding yourself, and maybe love, along the road.

Rosie's husband decides to tell her it's over on the night of her birthday and leaves to go live with his apparently long-term girlfriend. She feels super lost and, after drinking a lot, buys a van to go traveling around the country selling her hand-blended teas. She ends up going through with it and leaves London to join other van lifers on the festival circuit. She makes new friends and learns about herself along the way.

This is a wonderful story and I really came to love Rosie. However, I read the second book in this series, Aria's story, first. That story was so heartbreaking and heartwarming, so, by comparison, this one just doesn't pack the same emotional punch. However, if you read this book first I think you will definitely enjoy it and will love Rosie even more in Aria's book.

A sweet, fun, entertaining story..
Rosie husband left her on her birthday what is she to do.
She brought a pink van, which she know nothing about , and turns it into a traveling tea room.
On her travels she meets some interesting characters, had some ups and downs, and grew into a different person and even found love.
Really enjoyed reading.
Voluntarily reviewed. ,

In these crazy troubled days, a Rebecca Raisin romance is the anecdote; light and fluffy, without angst. Rosie is a sous chef in London when her husband leaves her. After telling her she is boring, Rosie is determined to remake herself. Purchasing a big pink van to join other “van lifers”, Rosie bakes and sells tea from the van. After meeting Aria, Rosie partners with her bookshop van. Max is the handsome love interest. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

So what do you do when your husband decides to dump you on your birthday and you find out he’s been cheating on you? You get drunk and buy a travel van, of course! That’s what happens to Rosie in Rosie’s Travelling Tea Shop by Rebecca Raisin. Despite her odd quirks, Rosie departs on an adventure to find herself and what makes her happy. Along the way she encounters wonderful experiences that show her what life is all about. I’m glad I received this as an ARC from the publisher through NetGalley as it was a marvelous read that inspires a person. Now I don’t know if want to just travel or give up my cluttered belongings....

Once I started this book I quite literally could not put it down. I really enjoyed the premise, and how Rosie was having a sort of clean slate start to her life. I enjoyed the van-life story, and was at time quite jealous of Rosie's new fun adventure! I did find Rosie to be a bit naive, and at times I was frustrated that she was quite literally fighting her own feelings. This was a quite, pleasant read and I really enjoyed it!

This book was a delight. Rosie is dealing with a bad breakup from a husband who was cheating on her. She decides to quit her soul-stealing job as a sous chef for a renown chef, buy a food truck, and go out on the road.
She is such a unique character for a book like this; someone who is organized to a T, doesn't like trusting other people, and someone who doesn't tend to take huge risks. I really enjoyed her character growth, over time learning to appreciate what is around her for both the good and the bad. I would have liked a little more from the romance (there's a bit of a love triangle, which isn't my favorite trope, but I think was done pretty well here). But overall the connection didn't feel as strong in this book as I've felt with other books I've read. That doesn't mean I didn't happily flail when they ended up together.

As an American, I adore these fun British stories for women. Rosie gets the news that her husband has packed his bags and is leaving. What is a woman to do? Well, buy a pink van, refurbish it as a tea shop, paint it bright pink and travel to find herself. Loved this treasure of a novel.

This is a dangerous book! Not because it's filled with scenes that make your hide under your pillow in terror, or keep your bedroom light on overnight because you're suddenly afraid of the dark.

No, not dangerous in that way, because it is a romance!

It's dangerous because it's one of those books that depict a lifestyle so enchanting that you want to imitate it. In this book, author Rebecca Raisin made me want to become a nomad and travel around the world in a van, selling tea and cakes at summer festivals and fairs!

Because that's what the main character --_Rosie -- has decided to do after her husband Callum suddenly asks for a divorce. He callously tells her she's too boring, too structured, too organized, and lacks spontaneity. She finds out he is having an affair with a younger co-worker. Much to her embarrassment, all of their friends and co-workers already knew about the affair, but everyone was afraid to tell her. Because they both work in the high-end restaurant business (she as a Michelin-star chef at Epoque, a famous London restaurant, and her husband was the chef at another restaurant), she knows she can't stay at her job and face the overly-sympathetic looks she gets from her co-workers and others in the industry. And she also wants to show Callum that she can be spontaneous. So she quits her job at Epoque.

After her last day, she drinks away the pain of her husband's betrayal with several bottles of Shiraz. She wakes the next morning and discovers that she is now the proud owner of a pink food truck/caravan nicknamed Polly. After an initial panic, she decides to take to the road and become a "van lifer" (VL). She will turn her van into a traveling tea shop, making British comfort food and desserts from the van's kitchen, and offering tea made with her own special tea blends. (She also has a talent at making uniquely flavored teas.) On a recommendation she gets from Oliver, a man she meets in an online Van Life forum, she decides to head to Bristol, where she can meet other VLs and perhaps find someone to travel with throughout the summer festival route.

Arriving in Bristol, she loses control of her food truck and nearly plows down Aria, the owner of the traveling "Little Bookshop of Happily Ever After." Aria is more experienced in this nomadic life, and offers to become traveling partners with Rosie. Their friendship develops as Aria helps her learn about the life of a traveling business.

Rosie also meets Max, a man who Aria describes as "Jason Momoa's twin brother." Rosie has never watched Game of Thrones and doesn't immediately understand the reference, but she does agree that Max looks like he should be on the cover of one of the bodice-ripper romances on the bookshelves of Aria's traveling bookstore.
Rosie describes him by saying "there's fire in his feline eyes, and he's quite disarming if you're into the fierce, primal, rugged type. He looks like the type of guy who spends his life running up hills with his pride of lions."

But Max is a man of contrasts, and there's more to him than meets the eye. The brawny ex-military man (who fought in Afghanistan) is actually a pacifist. And although his physique and demeanor lead Rosie to believe that he's a man's-n't man who maintains his physique through strenuous workouts and a diet high in animal protein, she's surprised to discover that he's a vegan and the proprietor of a natural foods restaurant run out of his food truck!

Although they are completely different (Rosie can't imagine not eating meat or sweets, and Max won't touch them), an attraction grows between them. Rosie knows there could never be a future with a man like Max, who would never settle down. She believes that Oliver, a man she knows from the VL forum, would be a better match for her personality, even though she's only texted Oliver and has never met him in person.

The book takes the reader through the adventures of living life on the road as a traveling caravan business owner. As Rosie overcomes obstacles and problems, she becomes the person she was meant to be And in the process, she also learns new things about herself and what really makes her happy. She begins to draw another picture of her future life. A future that would include a husband unlike her ex-husband. A future with someone like Oliver, or maybe Max?

So, why is this a dangerous book? Because if there's a part of you that would just like to chuck your current 9-to-5 job and your typical life, you might just be tempted to quit the job, end the lease on your apartment (or sell your home), buy a food truck and begin living as a Van Lifer! If that's not a practical reality for you, then I suggest you pick up "Rosie's Traveling Tea Shop" and live vicariously through Rosie!

Thank you to Netgalley and HQ Digital for giving me the opportunity to read an ARC of this wonderful book in exchange for a fair review.

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper 360 for the ARC. Very enjoyable read. Liked that the main character was able to continue on with her life and her dream after her husband left her. Made for a fast fun read. I have to confess Tea is my thing so very much loved that it was about a traveling tea shop. A very spontaneous move for the main character.