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chainsawmochi's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
It is very, very rare for me to read a book so good that it leaves me dazzled at the end, craving more, the taste of it lingering on every fold of my brain. "A Tempest of Tea" is one such novel.
Heists. High Stakes. Vampires. Tea Houses. A government rotten from inside. Anti-Colonial Understanding and Exploration. A main character with more tricks up her sleeve than a magician, and a supporting cast so varied and beautiful that they make the perfect found family in the end.
Yet the ending left me in shambles.
"A Tempest in Tea" is the story of Arthie, of her adoptive brother Jin, and the teahouse they own and run together. It is also a story about lies and half truths, about finding the people you belong with, and learning to love them despite their flaws--or, perhaps, because of them. Arthie here plays somewhat of the part of King Arthur, bringing together a full round table of Victorian flavored fantasy knights. Each of them has their own role to play, their own reason for their actions, and all of them are expertly woven into the overall story by Hafsah Faizal's beautiful, tragic writing.
No words were lost upon this book. "A Tempest in Tea" is a delight to read, with pulse pounding action and a wonderful exploration of character. Faizal dives into the lives of multiple characters, with the majority of the main cast being PoC's living in a Victorian-styled, colonizing country. A land that is not their own, and a country that sees them as 'other.' A country where they have carved out a small piece for themselves and planted their hearts. The writing is delicious and tender at times, while being biting and blinding a moment later. Faizal has a way with words that paints a beautifully harsh world; a world so like our own that one could hold it up as a mirror.
This review may be all over the place, and for that, I apologize. I just spent the last hour or so devouring the last third of this book. While it starts off slow, "A Tempest of Tea" ends with a bang--and then another. I await the follow up with hushed breath, eyes wide and mind ravenous for more from this world and these characters. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Heists. High Stakes. Vampires. Tea Houses. A government rotten from inside. Anti-Colonial Understanding and Exploration. A main character with more tricks up her sleeve than a magician, and a supporting cast so varied and beautiful that they make the perfect found family in the end.
Yet the ending left me in shambles.
"A Tempest in Tea" is the story of Arthie, of her adoptive brother Jin, and the teahouse they own and run together. It is also a story about lies and half truths, about finding the people you belong with, and learning to love them despite their flaws--or, perhaps, because of them. Arthie here plays somewhat of the part of King Arthur, bringing together a full round table of Victorian flavored fantasy knights. Each of them has their own role to play, their own reason for their actions, and all of them are expertly woven into the overall story by Hafsah Faizal's beautiful, tragic writing.
No words were lost upon this book. "A Tempest in Tea" is a delight to read, with pulse pounding action and a wonderful exploration of character. Faizal dives into the lives of multiple characters, with the majority of the main cast being PoC's living in a Victorian-styled, colonizing country. A land that is not their own, and a country that sees them as 'other.' A country where they have carved out a small piece for themselves and planted their hearts. The writing is delicious and tender at times, while being biting and blinding a moment later. Faizal has a way with words that paints a beautifully harsh world; a world so like our own that one could hold it up as a mirror.
This review may be all over the place, and for that, I apologize. I just spent the last hour or so devouring the last third of this book. While it starts off slow, "A Tempest of Tea" ends with a bang--and then another. I await the follow up with hushed breath, eyes wide and mind ravenous for more from this world and these characters. I cannot recommend this book enough.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Violence, Gun violence, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Blood, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Colonisation, Classism, Genocide, Gore, and Xenophobia
Minor: Deadnaming, Grief, Blood, Murder, Racial slurs, Infertility, Police brutality, Body horror, and Emotional abuse
hdunscombe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Racism, Xenophobia, Blood, Violence, Colonisation, Cultural appropriation, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Murder, Death of parent, Gun violence, and Trafficking
Moderate: Classism and Injury/Injury detail
sophiesmallhands's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Death, Colonisation, Gun violence, Violence, and Blood
Moderate: Grief, Police brutality, Gore, Racism, Fire/Fire injury, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Fatphobia, Classism, and Emotional abuse
poetsofsweetpea's review against another edition
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
A vampire heist book with tea and pastries, what more could you want?
Content Warnings
Graphic: Gun violence, Murder, Violence, War, Emotional abuse, Blood, Child death, Colonisation, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Racism
persephonefoxx's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Colonisation, and Blood
Moderate: Death of parent
Minor: Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Death
natashaleighton_'s review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
From the bestselling author of We Hunt The Flame, comes a new and intoxicatingly addictive YA Fantasy that completely stole my heart.
Masterfully blending the criminal swagger of Peaky Blinders and whirlwind action of Six of Crows, A Tempest of Tea is an insatiably lush and emotionally depth-filled tale of vampires, found family and vengeance —that heist obsessed fantasy lovers really don’t want miss!
Set in the same world as We Hunt The Flame (in the city of White Roaring) we follow criminal mastermind Arthie Casimir, proprietor of a popular Tea House which,by night transforms into an illegal speakeasy catering to the city’s vampires.
But when her beloved business is threatened, Arthie has no choice but to strike a deal with an enemy —by putting together a misfit group of criminals to infiltrate the vampire elites’ most secure organisation and steal a book. But not everyone in her crew is on her side, and there are many who would kill for the knowledge contained within the book’s pages.
I loved every second of this heady and atmospherically compelling tale, the prose was breathtakingly beautiful and the dialogue both witty and thoroughly entertaining. Hafsah Faisal masterfully explores themes of power, corruption, colonialism, class and family with such thought provoking vividness that I did find myself tearing up more than once whilst reading—especially during Jin and Arthie’s backstory reveals.
The complexity and depth of our POV characters (Arthie,Jin & Flick) was phenomenally well done too and the emotional growth we see from all of them was incredible.
Arthie, our mauve-haired Queen of chaos (and keeper of secrets) was definitely my favourite. Her ability to keep her cool, even in the most dire of situations was impressive. But it’s her decade long commitment to avenging her family and homeland (by cleverly sowing chaos in the colonising Ettenia’s upper eschelons—like a gun-toting Robin Hood) that made me love her the most. Her enterprising schemes and skill at extracting secrets (as well as keeping tons of her own) had me on the edge of my seat, eager to see what she’d do next. Though, I do admit Arthie’s charismatic second, Jin (and Laithe’s unnamed feline companion) were also firm faves.
There is some romance, which I found swoon-worthy in its slow burn intensity (which includes a bit of a love triangle) and the jaw-droppingly suspenseful twists leading up to THAT ending already has me excited to see how things develop in the sequel—which I’m desperate to get my hands on.
As high octane and pacy as this was, you’ll definitely want to savour every moment, as little there’s quite a few hints/clues that you may miss if you’re not paying close enough attention.
If you love heists, drama filled historical fantasy or vampires, then you simply must add this to your TBRs—it’s fabulous! Just be sure to check TWs beforehand
Also, a huge thank you to BookBreak and PanMacmillan for the proof.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Colonisation, and Death of parent
Moderate: Racism, Emotional abuse, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Stalking
skylarkblue1's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Representations: https://trello.com/c/nsqzygec/93-blood-and-tea-1-a-tempest-of-tea-by-hafsah-faizal
Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I'm conflicted on if I should recommend this or not, but overall I think I had a good enough time with it that I would. The only issue I really had with this book is how it handled romance - especially with a bit at the end.
The way I'd describe this book is vampires and tea meets assassins creed and heists. I know the order of assassins was a thing but the way it's portrayed in this book I'd really say is more from the IP assassins creed specifically - there's a ton of similarities and tbh I found that quite fun as someone who loves AC a ton. This whole book revolves around this one major heist, around 60% setting up and 40% heist and the aftermath.
I quite enjoyed the characters mostly, they all had their own goals and motivations which clashed quite nicely throughout the story. The only negative about that is not everyone was clear on that specifically with side characters. This is one thing the book did throughout the whole thing but was more clear in terms of character motivations, but important information was just drip-fed to you. So important info that's critical to the overall story, that's just not told to you until it's needed. Does help with making it a bit less predictable, but the twists then feel a bit undermined as it's not really a twist then it's just "you had no idea about this and this is what it is!".
The romance was quite a weird one in this. The less romance in fantasy, the more I enjoy it. I thought at first this was going to be pretty light on that and it both was and wasn't. Thoughout the middle section of the book it's just constant "oh these feelings are weird but I'm going to ignore them" and that's *constant* in the middle section and often feels really forced in. Like every couple pages kinda thing for all the POVs. The ending quickly changes it up though for a more intimate scene (though there's a shorter scene in the middle that's also more intimate, and that bit feels even more out of place. But gotta get in that description of water running down a bare mans chest....) just because it can kinda. It sorta has a reason in-universe, but the way it's written is just 100% for the romance only. There's many different ways the motivation could have been done other than suddenly ramping up the romance which hadn't really been near that point.
It's in that weird limbo between if you want to read it for romance you might be disappointed and if you want to read it for the low-romance you'll be disappointed in the ending a fair bit.
Also Jin, you gotta stop wanting to sniff women's hair. Please. It's kinda creepy how often it's mentioned.
I did love the heisting, I loved certain parts of the ending (the action parts) and I absolutely loved the kitten. The kitten really made the book for me they were super adorable, really well described, and I absolutely loved how they were used throughout the whole book. Honestly recommend reading for the kitten alone hehe.
Thank you Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!
I'm conflicted on if I should recommend this or not, but overall I think I had a good enough time with it that I would. The only issue I really had with this book is how it handled romance - especially with a bit at the end.
The way I'd describe this book is vampires and tea meets assassins creed and heists. I know the order of assassins was a thing but the way it's portrayed in this book I'd really say is more from the IP assassins creed specifically - there's a ton of similarities and tbh I found that quite fun as someone who loves AC a ton. This whole book revolves around this one major heist, around 60% setting up and 40% heist and the aftermath.
I quite enjoyed the characters mostly, they all had their own goals and motivations which clashed quite nicely throughout the story. The only negative about that is not everyone was clear on that specifically with side characters. This is one thing the book did throughout the whole thing but was more clear in terms of character motivations, but important information was just drip-fed to you. So important info that's critical to the overall story, that's just not told to you until it's needed. Does help with making it a bit less predictable, but the twists then feel a bit undermined as it's not really a twist then it's just "you had no idea about this and this is what it is!".
The romance was quite a weird one in this. The less romance in fantasy, the more I enjoy it. I thought at first this was going to be pretty light on that and it both was and wasn't. Thoughout the middle section of the book it's just constant "oh these feelings are weird but I'm going to ignore them" and that's *constant* in the middle section and often feels really forced in. Like every couple pages kinda thing for all the POVs. The ending quickly changes it up though for a more intimate scene (though there's a shorter scene in the middle that's also more intimate, and that bit feels even more out of place. But gotta get in that description of water running down a bare mans chest....) just because it can kinda. It sorta has a reason in-universe, but the way it's written is just 100% for the romance only. There's many different ways the motivation could have been done other than suddenly ramping up the romance which hadn't really been near that point.
It's in that weird limbo between if you want to read it for romance you might be disappointed and if you want to read it for the low-romance you'll be disappointed in the ending a fair bit.
Also Jin, you gotta stop wanting to sniff women's hair. Please. It's kinda creepy how often it's mentioned.
I did love the heisting, I loved certain parts of the ending (the action parts) and I absolutely loved the kitten. The kitten really made the book for me they were super adorable, really well described, and I absolutely loved how they were used throughout the whole book. Honestly recommend reading for the kitten alone hehe.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War, Violence, Death of parent, Colonisation, and Blood
Moderate: Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, and Racism
Minor: Stalking
nicmedia123's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
𝒜𝑅𝒞 𝑅𝑒𝓋𝒾𝑒𝓌
𝘼 𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙚𝙖
by Hafsah Faizal
352 pages
Released February 20, 2024
Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I can't wait for the next book.
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—she can’t do the job alone.
Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and simmering, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Initially, the novel started off a little slowly for me as the author had to build the world for us and also explain the backstory of both Arthie and Jin in addition to the cast of supporting characters as well as how their friendship and allyship developed, but once we had this information, the author could build the action and plot.
This is a fun, complicated and interesting heist novel - the characters are hoping to achieve justice as their beloved existence and life that they have built including Spindrift are being threatened by the leader of Ettenia, the Ram. This had exciting action, suspenseful drama as well as twists that continued until the end. Though the fantasy world took some time to explain, and the romance was very slow burning, it made me eager to read the sequel. I also grew to love the characters.
Fans of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows may also enjoy this revenge-style heist with a twist.
4/5 stars
#bookstagrammer #newbooks #ATempestofTea #fantasynovel #supernaturalnovel #heistnovel #bookstagramfeature
𝘼 𝙏𝙚𝙢𝙥𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙏𝙚𝙖
by Hafsah Faizal
352 pages
Released February 20, 2024
Thank you @netgalley and @fsgbooks for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for my honest review. I can't wait for the next book.
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by night, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—she can’t do the job alone.
Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister and glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it. Dark, action-packed, and simmering, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Initially, the novel started off a little slowly for me as the author had to build the world for us and also explain the backstory of both Arthie and Jin in addition to the cast of supporting characters as well as how their friendship and allyship developed, but once we had this information, the author could build the action and plot.
This is a fun, complicated and interesting heist novel - the characters are hoping to achieve justice as their beloved existence and life that they have built including Spindrift are being threatened by the leader of Ettenia, the Ram. This had exciting action, suspenseful drama as well as twists that continued until the end. Though the fantasy world took some time to explain, and the romance was very slow burning, it made me eager to read the sequel. I also grew to love the characters.
Fans of Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows may also enjoy this revenge-style heist with a twist.
4/5 stars
#bookstagrammer #newbooks #ATempestofTea #fantasynovel #supernaturalnovel #heistnovel #bookstagramfeature
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death of parent, Violence, and Colonisation
Moderate: Emotional abuse
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