Reviews with content warning for Panic attacks/disorders - A Tempest of Tea

Reviews tagging 'Panic attacks/disorders'

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

8 reviews

riverlasol's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

4.5

found family heist but WITH VAMPIRES?? This was a dream come true.
It fully delivered on the premise and I can't wait for book two!

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christene_littlelibrary's review against another edition

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challenging dark mysterious sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

A Tempest of Tea has an interesting and unique setting a tea shop for the vampire yet I found it a bit slow at the beginning. It was character driven but the character was bland and cold. Though I like Jin and Flick. And the unexpected twist at the end surprised me.

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bookdragonkatie's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.25

Started out a little slow, but holy crap did it pick up and pull me in! I loved the end and am so excited to figure out where how this is going to continue.

Also, the audiobook has an interview between the author and her husband, (at the end of the book because of SPOILERS!) which was so enjoyable and fun to listen to.

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mariahmmm's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.0

Spindrift- tea rooms by day, illegal blood trade by night. In its walls, Arthie and Jin provide a refuge for vampires to safely feed without attracting attention from the Ram guards.

But Spindrift's future is in turmoil as the Ram battles to control and condemn vampires. Unlikely alliances and a deadly heist may be the only way to protect the tearoom and push back against the Ram.

A promising story that had a few too many plot holes, things jumping around, weird time gaps, and areas that needed polishing for me to feel immersed in the story or to fully enjoy it.

Jin and Flick had some real depth to their characters, and I enjoyed Matteo and Laith, but I never ended up liking Arthie which is a shame because she could have been a strong lead.

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witcheep's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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

4.5

I like the book a lot: the characters are amazing and the elements of the plot are adding up into an intriquing mystery. Even before reading the book I knew I'd want to have a deep dive into it; I've read Faizal's Sands of Arawiya duology before and enjoyed it so much I had to preorder this book.

The plot: a heist wrapped in secrets

Secrets are at the core of the book, the topic comes up repeatedly and often. As Arthie gathers her chosen group for the heist in the Athereum, every one of the five members seems to have their own secrets and hidden motives for their actions – and I loved speculating and later finding out about them! Even the premise of Arthie's business lies in her having secrets as her preferred currency:

To the public, Arthie Casimir dealt in tea. To those who paid attention, she dealt in blood too. But Flick had read every letter and document she had forged for the girl and knew the truth: Arthie Casimir dealt in secrets.

The characters have multiple sides to them, and they keep secrets from each other. This means their trust on each other is fragile at best, but still they work for the common goal together. While doing so, there are multiple potential romantic relationships developing in the group by the means of shameless flirting, attentive actions and even displays of jealousy. Perhaps it's a little overkill to have every member of the group have feelings for somone in the group, but I enjoyed it regardless.

A hinted destiny for the main character

The main character Arthie is depicted as a cunning criminal mastermind, but an underdog in the bigger picture. She holds her inner circle tight, but cares for them deeply and protects them fiercely. At times it feels like this is relayed to the reader more of as "told" rather than "shown", which makes it a little less easy to believe. Arthie is a loveable character, though, and her intelligence is also shown on the pages of the book. It seems that faith has a few surprises in hand for Arthie, both regarding love, career, and life in general.

I'm not sure whether or not Arthie is interested in love at all. She's quite determined to think that every relationship is transactional, and this will make accepting falling in love with anyone difficult. This brings even more interest into the budding infatuations in the book: will Arthie let herself fall in love? There's a love arrow with Arthie as the main interest of two men (could be a love triangle if the men in question would show clear interest in each other) and her pondering whether she has feelings for them or not.

"Seems your boss has taken a liking to me," Matteo said with a pride.
Chester tilted his head, considering him with a fresh understanding on his way out. "Boss likes anyone with secrets."
Arthie almost laughed at Matteo's pout. "He isn't wrong."

There's also interesting intertextuality in the book: Arthie's weapon, a gun called Calibore, bears striking resemblance to the legends of King Arthur and his sword Excalibur. Both these weapons were held in stone, and have a legend that the one who could draw them would become to rule. In A Tempest of Tea Arthie doesn't show interest in ruling over people, but who's to say that the Arthurian legend won't be foreshadowing and mean that Arthie will end up having to do it anyway?

"Why save the world when you can have tea?"

Oh, and let me just end the review by saying that the ending of the book will be a huge, dramatic cliffhanger that you cannot handle as is. Thankfully there is a bonus epilogue, and at least at the time of writing this review, it was quite easily found online with a quick search. You will need that bonus epilogue in hand right after finishing the book. The bonus epilogue will shed light on the identity of a certain character and bring some ease to the cliffhanger.

________________________________

I made dozens of annotations to the book while reading, and anjoyed speculating the plot while doing so. I also host a readalong for the book here: https://app.thestorygraph.com/readalongs/b85d9fd3-d2b1-4421-9559-7abbe0a34b71 You're welcome to come discuss the book with me in the readalong. I'd love to hear others' theories and opinions on the book!

Review written 31.3.2024

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vj_thompson's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

I saw a review that described the pacing of this book as slow in the beginning, medium pace in the middle, and fast fast in the end. I think the reason the beginning felt so slow is because of the character building and slowly revealing who they are. The writing is BEAUTIFUL in this story. A lot of the words still dwell in my mind. Faizal describes a small moment with so much story and beauty.

Arthie is an awesome character. She is strong and a perfect leader. She is like an onion meaning throughout the book we get a little more of her background/story until the very end where we finally know what she has been hiding. The little love triangle was a nice side plot, which I really liked in this story.

Jin has my whole heart. He had everything until it was taken away from him, which is when he found Arthie 💕 The tea shop they created sounds so wonderful and magical. I liked that his perspective was included.

Overall, I’m dying to read the next and see what happens. The way the book ended leaves the reader with a lot of questions. I hope to see more perspectives in the next book. I was dying to read from Mateo’s POV because who wouldn’t want to hear the thoughts of a lonely vampire?!? Such a beautiful debut.

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rachelblair's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

This entire book had me saying "wait, did I miss something?" I kept feeling as though the characters had conversations that I, the reader, was not privy to, or there were background details that the characters knew about but were never explained in the actual text of the book. There's a difference between leaving some secrets until the end for plot, and just being too vague. I came close to DNFing this book. Ultimately I decided to finish it and honestly I needn't have bothered. I'm still scratching my head going "HUH?" Not because the ending was a vague cliffhanger (it was) but because I wasn't given enough background to actually connect with any of the characters or care what happens next. Disappointing.

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salma_175's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Love Hafzah’s writing and world, an easy five star read

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