Reviews with content warning for Racism - A Tempest of Tea

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

44 reviews

justagirlwithbooks's review

3.75

“Why save the world when you can have tea?”

I really enjoyed this book! It gave me all the vibes that I wanted it to give, and I really liked the sibling relationship between Arthie and Jin. Jin was honestly my favorite character. The heist, the action, the vampires... and of course, we can't forget the plot twists. Oh, there were plot twists. The negatives of this book are probably the romance elements. I wasn't as connected to the romance like I was in WTHF and WFTS. Although I love Hafsah's writing and this book felt like something similar to coming back into a world that you love, it wasn't as good as WTHF and WFTS, and that's why it's getting a 3.75 and not a 4.

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naomi_'s review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.5

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chainsawmochi's review against another edition

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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.

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blewballoon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense slow-paced

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

3.75

On paper, I feel like I should have really liked this? This historical fantasy type setting usually works for me, heist plots are interesting, and I am a sucker for found family. I do think this book spent more time on the (lackluster) romances than it should have, but I could see myself not minding as much if I was in a different mood.

I think my problem is that more than anything I'm a character driven reader and I need to like the characters. Apart from Jin, I didn't really care for anyone, and so it was hard to care what was going on with them. Jin deserved better friends, honestly. He spent a lot of time having information kept from him and having to work around Arthie's love interests.

I wanted to DNF a few times, and I knew I was going to come away from this book displeased when I remembered it was the first in a series and seemed like the kind of book that was going to end on a big cliffhanger. That assumption was correct.

I think that if you're the type of reader who connects with the type of character that Arthie is, and you don't feel like the romance elements get in the way of the rest of the story, you may enjoy this. The audiobook narrator was okay, but it seemed like she was kind of whispering the whole time.

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