Reviews with content warning for Death - A Tempest of Tea

Reviews tagging 'Death'

A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

65 reviews

wickeddelights's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny 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? It's complicated

3.0

I am giving this book 3 Stars because I still got a good amount of enjoyment out of this book, but I feel like this could have used a few more rounds of edits and way more time planning.

It felt like a gender-swapped retelling of Six of Crows where one character was swapped out for an Astarion insert. 🙃

The premise was sooooo promising 😫
Artherian retelling but make it anti-colonization? ❤️Love it.
Vampires? ❤️Hell yes.
Excaliber turned into a gun? ❤️ Super cool.
A Tea shop that turns into a blood bar at night? ❤️ Amazing idea, I was so excited for this part.

But we spent *barely* any time at the tea shop. Yes, Arthie and Jin's motivation for doing what they did was with the shop in mind, but I feel like such a cool setting was totally tossed aside in favor of just under 200 pages of preparation for this plan that once we got down to it felt really rushed at the end.

The romances also felt strangely paced. There was a love-triangle-esque will they-won't-they situation with Arthie/Matteo and Arthie/Laith. The scales tip more towards Laith, things start to happen and then Arthie sends Laith away for obvious reason, but then literally on the same page as Latih leaving after him and Arthie have their moment Arthie walks out of her room and runs into Matteo and two pages later he is caressing her cheek, and she's leaning into it with a low simmer in her belly.
And Jin and Flick were an instant and obvious future pairing. Jin is described in a manner that makes him seem like a ladies man and yet it felt like he was instantly all in on Flick.

I loved how much Jin and Arthie clearly cared about each other though, but the amount of secrets between them felt so odd after how much time they've known each other. I was so glad to see Flick become a part of the family and get the love and respect she deserves as well.
It was an entertaining read, I just think it needed *more* in a lot of places, and I'm interested to see where the sequel takes it.

Also I will just say the coconut reveal at the end absolutely killed me.

Content Warnings

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

3.5

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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letsgolesbians's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
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

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sophiesmallhands's review against another edition

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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

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kathigh86's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious slow-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

My first 5/5 of the year!

Hafsah Faizal is such an amazing author. Her writing is compelling and elegant. She is a master at trapping the reader in her worlds.

I absolutely adored the political commentary and how Faizal paralleled her world to the real world. I’m very excited to see how Ettenia evolves in the next book.

I loved the multi-POV in this book. We got a little bit of each character without giving away too much of their own secrets. I really enjoyed trying to guess everyone’s ulterior motives.

I have read the Sands of Arawiya duology. I felt like I was in on a little secret. It definitely added to my reading experience but not necessary to understand the general plot.

Overall this book was amazing. It was very slow in the beginning but once you hit part 2/the 60% mark everything is full steam ahead. I was not able to put this book down for the last 25%. So many things left unsaid too. I’ll be waiting on the edge of my seat for the next book!

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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.

Content Warnings