Book Review: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal
Hey all, Sam here.
I’m going to start off this post by calling myself out, because this is not the first book by Hafsah Faizal that I’ve read. It’s just the first one I’ve reviewed, even though I meant to review her debut novel a couple years ago…so my current plan is to do a re-read of that one so I can finally get an actual review posted. I have no plan for a time frame on this, but it will happen.
All right, so today’s book review is for a book that I was definitely highly anticipating, and as soon as I snagged my copy (which meant taking a little trip to B&N almost two hours away), I dove right in…which is what I’m going to do with the review portion of today’s post as well.
Let’s dive right on in.
My Thoughts
Why save the world when you can have tea?
On the streets of White Roaring, Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and collector of secrets. Her prestigious tearoom transforms into an illegal bloodhouse by dark, catering to the vampires feared by society. But when her establishment is threatened, Arthie is forced to strike an unlikely deal with an alluring adversary to save it—and she can’t do the job alone.
Calling on some of the city’s most skilled outcasts, Arthie hatches a plan to infiltrate the sinister, glittering vampire society known as the Athereum. But not everyone in her ragtag crew is on her side, and as the truth behind the heist unfolds, Arthie finds herself in the midst of a conspiracy that will threaten the world as she knows it.
From the New York Times—bestselling author of We Hunt the Flame comes the first book in a hotly anticipated fantasy duology teeming with romance and revenge, led by an orphan girl willing to do whatever it takes to save her self-made kingdom. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Tea. Vampires. Intrigue. Blackmail. Heists. A diverse band of intriguing characters…yep, this book had it all. And it even tied into Hafsah Faizal’s previous duology….although you definitely do not have to read those books first.
Okay, yes, while I was very quickly drawn into the characters and their lives and this city and all its intrigues, I can also say that the romance was definitely insta-interest and the feelings were there and strong, even without a lot of relationship building and time together. I do understand the attraction, though, and I think Arthie fought off her interest, not wanting anything to get in the way of her doing what she needed to in order to keep her shop open and her crew safe.
We do jump into the action pretty quickly, with the threats and the job deadline happening quickly and needing to put everything together in a short amount of time, which left this story feeling a little rushed, but again, that isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Besides, Arthie is the sort of mastermind who is always trying to think and plan ahead for all sorts of complications and their potential solutions, so giving her a complication that she doesn’t have time to plot out every second is probably for the best.
Between my interest in the characters and being drawn into this dangerous heist, I read this book rather quickly…and now I find myself having to wait for news on the sequel/conclusion. Because by the end, we’ve had a lot of intriguing revelations and even more complications, and I am very curious to see what it means for the characters and the city they are in.
Basically I want more and I’m sad that I have to wait. But again, Hafsah Faizal’s previous duology is set in the same world….so I guess while I wait for the conclusion to Arthie’s story, it would make sense to go back and re-read the other duology. Perhaps I’ll see threads of connection that I missed while reading A Tempest of Tea.
All right, that is all from me for today. Thank you so much for stopping by, and I’ll be back soon with more geeky content.
