A review by literarylocd
Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

adventurous mysterious reflective 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 haven’t read enough urban fantasy to know whether or not it’s my thing, but I mostly enjoyed this one. 

I was easily charmed by the two main characters at their introduction and I was on edge to see where their story went. The coy back and forth they had with each other was cute and fuzzy. I wish I got a little bit more of their love growing. When we start the story they’d known each other for almost a year so it wasn’t as giddy as it could’ve been. 

I really enjoyed the idea of tense family (particularly sibling) dynamics. Elle being the middle child and wanting to do right by her brothers, even to the detriment of her own happiness. Tony was relentless in reminding her what she deserved and really advocated for her which I loved. I wish we had more time with Yìwú. His motives were clear but he didn’t feel like the big bad that he could’ve been. And so after *that scene* I felt the stakes of the book dropped. There was no longer a real driving force for the main characters. Life just happened mundanely. 

Another thing that was a little off to me was the pacing. There was often time jumps which took a while to get used to. The first 50% flew by and then it lagged until the last 10% where a bunch of things were just shoved in. I did feel the ending left a little to be desired because we didn’t have enough time to sit with it. 

Overall, I liked this story and I loved the premise. Both Luc and Elle are cool and the ensemble cast (for the most part) does their job. 

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this eARC in exchange for an honest review. 
Expand filter menu Content Warnings