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A review by wild_avalon_lass
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.5
In hindsight, I have no idea why it took me so long to get around to reading this book.
Vampires. A gritty Victorian Fantasy world. A tea house that serves blood to vampires at night. Found family. A dangerous heist.
It's exactly the thing that appeals to me.
I did make the mistake of reading reviews BEFORE writing my review...and found some things that surprised me:
- Arthie. It seems the majority of readers didn't like her? Absolutely baffling to me, because Arthie made SO much sense to me. Of course she's not going to feel 'open'. She's jaded and more scared then she'll admit, and hiding enough secrets to keep anyone bottled up. She's bossy and harsh at times, but loving enough to want to provide a safe space for vampires - whether she'll admit that or not. She deeply cares for her crew, and is trying oh so hard to resist her femininity...and being flustered when people SEE her.
I loved Arthie. She's the rigid backbone that kept this book together.
- Romance was lackluster. Excuse me, Matteo is right there. I don't typically enjoy love triangles, because I'd found it tropey and boring. This was NOT the case here. I kept going back and forth, liking Laith, hating Laith. Trusting Matteo, not trusting Matteo. And I absolutely get why Arthie felt pulled by both men and confused by the pull...because I was too. I also feel like this storyline did a great job at showing the different KINDS of ways the men cared for her. Laith hovers, protective and close at hand, ready to intervene before she even asks - and that results in him overstepping what she needs from him, or wants from him (without divulging into spoilers). Matteo, meanwhile, sits back and lets Arthie come to him. He doesn't intervene or interject himself into her plots until Arthie turns to him and demands his participation. Which means sometimes, Matteo is less helpful than he should be.
I LOVED the opposite elements and how Faizel still managed for there to be enough similarities between the two love interests that it was clear Arthie had a type (men who are brats).
- Coconuts. Ok, I get it. Vampires are my THING. But I thought it was common internet knowledge that there is a theory that coconuts are close enough to human blood that a vampire COULD survive off coconuts. Naturally, it wouldn't be as optimal as the vein, but in a pinch, coconut water could replace blood as a vampiric food source. The book may not have explained it as well and thoroughly as it could...but is that really what we need? A whole chapter of characters info-dumping about coconuts? It's implied, people.
Vampires. A gritty Victorian Fantasy world. A tea house that serves blood to vampires at night. Found family. A dangerous heist.
It's exactly the thing that appeals to me.
I did make the mistake of reading reviews BEFORE writing my review...and found some things that surprised me:
- Arthie. It seems the majority of readers didn't like her? Absolutely baffling to me, because Arthie made SO much sense to me. Of course she's not going to feel 'open'. She's jaded and more scared then she'll admit, and hiding enough secrets to keep anyone bottled up. She's bossy and harsh at times, but loving enough to want to provide a safe space for vampires - whether she'll admit that or not. She deeply cares for her crew, and is trying oh so hard to resist her femininity...and being flustered when people SEE her.
I loved Arthie. She's the rigid backbone that kept this book together.
- Romance was lackluster. Excuse me, Matteo is right there. I don't typically enjoy love triangles, because I'd found it tropey and boring. This was NOT the case here. I kept going back and forth, liking Laith, hating Laith. Trusting Matteo, not trusting Matteo. And I absolutely get why Arthie felt pulled by both men and confused by the pull...because I was too. I also feel like this storyline did a great job at showing the different KINDS of ways the men cared for her. Laith hovers, protective and close at hand, ready to intervene before she even asks - and that results in him overstepping what she needs from him, or wants from him (without divulging into spoilers). Matteo, meanwhile, sits back and lets Arthie come to him. He doesn't intervene or interject himself into her plots until Arthie turns to him and demands his participation. Which means sometimes, Matteo is less helpful than he should be.
I LOVED the opposite elements and how Faizel still managed for there to be enough similarities between the two love interests that it was clear Arthie had a type (men who are brats).
- Coconuts. Ok, I get it. Vampires are my THING. But I thought it was common internet knowledge that there is a theory that coconuts are close enough to human blood that a vampire COULD survive off coconuts. Naturally, it wouldn't be as optimal as the vein, but in a pinch, coconut water could replace blood as a vampiric food source. The book may not have explained it as well and thoroughly as it could...but is that really what we need? A whole chapter of characters info-dumping about coconuts? It's implied, people.
Other things I loved about this book:
- The sibling banter between Jin and Arthie. Sibling banter is HARD, but Jin and Arthie felt so authentically real, like real siblings arguing all while having each other's backs to the end. I love how their dynamics built off each other: Arthie is bossy and hard to deal with, so Jin is the 'good cop' to Arthie's 'bad cop' in all things. Arthie says shoot someone, Jin shoots - but he's going to fuss at her later and demand a full reckoning on WHY he shot that man. They bicker and disagree, but present a united front to all outsiders. THAT is what siblings do.
- The setting. I saw so many people describe it as 'Peaky Blinders' (even Faizel did). But I found the setting MUCH more reminiscent of the 2009 Sherlock Holmes. "Discombobulate" could be played over almost every scene in this book and fit perfectly.
But aside - the descriptions of the tea house, the city setting, the political background...it felt like a real-fleshed-out world. I know that this is technically in the same universe as her other books (which I have not read), so maybe the realness has something to do with that.
My complaints:
I don't have many, but the few I do have did bug me throughout the whole book.
The biggest is the timeline. I kept having a bit of a headache piecing together the backstory as it came to us: when Arthie arrived, when she met Jin, when certain things happened. It seems others did too, because more than one reviewer mentioned Arthie and Jin being teenagers...but I am pretty positive that both are in their 20s?
The way Arthie spoke about The Wolf of White Roaring, I thought it was something that happened very very long ago...but based on info we learn later, I think it was only within the most recent 40 years or so?
It was hard to place exactly how old anyone was, including Penn and Mateo (the vampires), how long anything had been around, or how long anyone had been doing anything because time was just kinda...fluid.
It is a very twisty, secretive story and the timeline kind of followed suit. I'm not sure what could have been done for better timeline clarity, honestly.
But that really was my only itch regarding this book - and aesthetics IMO cover a multide of sins, and AToT has more than enough aesthetics to cover one timeline issue!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Racism, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Colonisation