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fancifulreader 's review for:
Bitter Medicine
by Mia Tsai
adventurous
dark
emotional
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
-Thank you to Net Galley and Tachyon Publications for an ARC of this title - this was published on 3/14 so give it a try!!-
The cover makes you think fantasy/romance but this really should be classified as an urban fantasy/romance which caught me very off guard. I loved the variety of influences for this - the fae vs. traditional Chinese medicine gods and the variety of power in this was fairly expansive. The pacing was a little off for my taste - but I'm likely to put that on the ARC rather than the finished product. This novel has a little bit of everything - friends-to-lovers, generational trauma, abuse of power, some pretty darn good spicey scenes, and even what I would call a Romeo & Juliet inspired ending.
I keep trying to think of how to explain this title because it feels at once familiar and so fresh - almost like how Becky Chambers would write urban fantasy because it so character driven but I loved being able to sink into the magic systems at play. I would like a series or something like a cycle that would follow different characters and storylines within this world because there is soooo much room to play within the world that Mai Tsai created. As a debut? This was great.
The cover makes you think fantasy/romance but this really should be classified as an urban fantasy/romance which caught me very off guard. I loved the variety of influences for this - the fae vs. traditional Chinese medicine gods and the variety of power in this was fairly expansive. The pacing was a little off for my taste - but I'm likely to put that on the ARC rather than the finished product. This novel has a little bit of everything - friends-to-lovers, generational trauma, abuse of power, some pretty darn good spicey scenes, and even what I would call a Romeo & Juliet inspired ending.
I keep trying to think of how to explain this title because it feels at once familiar and so fresh - almost like how Becky Chambers would write urban fantasy because it so character driven but I loved being able to sink into the magic systems at play. I would like a series or something like a cycle that would follow different characters and storylines within this world because there is soooo much room to play within the world that Mai Tsai created. As a debut? This was great.