Review: A Tempest of Tea
I do not typically grab books about vampires. Vampire burnout after the Twilight craze weighed heavily on me, and I was not impressed by the vampire books that I tried after that series finished.
For several years, I was averse to this category of fiction. It seemed to me that finding a vampire book that was unique, one that didn’t lean too heavily on cliches, was no longer possible.
Mind, I’m not judging people who write vampire books and like to read them. We all have different tastes; we all have favorite mythical creatures. My favorite creatures are Mermaids, as you could probably guess (I am writing a series featuring them). This is my opinion on vampire books that become wildly popular. I’m positive there are gems out there which do not get the same level of promotion.
When I saw the book cover for A Tempest of Tea, I would never have guessed there were vampires in the story. The word tea is what convinced me to give this novel a try. Since it had been popping up on Bookstagram so much, I was tentative. There was always a chance it’d be one more book of vampire cliches.
I was surprised when I began to read.
A Tempest of Tea follows several viewpoints (which is awesome, since multi-POV stories show us a tale from different angles). Its focus is heaviest on the character of Arthie. Her story is heartbreaking, though I won’t speak much about it lest I spoil the ending (which I believed was a perfect way to wrap up this first installment).
She owns an illegal ‘blood-house’ called Spindrift. Using the appearance of a simple tea shop, it caters to vampires. They go in secret to mingle and to drink cups of (consensually donated) blood. This must all be done in secret, because the society they live in does not understand vampires or half-vampires; they are shunned and feared. There is reason behind such fear, too: a hungry vampire is something to be terrified of.
Spindrift is a solution to that problem; it provides vampires with a place get the nourishment that they need without having to become violent or kill. However, humans always fear what is different, shying away from what they don’t understand. When Arthie receives a warning from “the Ram,” the mysterious king of the city, stating that Spindrift will be shut down, she refuses to defer without a fight.
Arthie deals in secrets and blackmail. She is determined to save her blood-house, regardless of the cost. Having been roughened by the cold and lonely childhood she lived, there is nothing she’s unwilling to do, if it’ll save her business and the people she loves.
As a leading character, Arthie is powerful. We find ourselves rooting for her the entire time. There is also the POV of Jin, her “chosen brother,” who helps her to run the blood-house and keep business smooth.
My favorite POV, though, is that of Lady Felicity “Flick” Linden. She’s a wealthy young lady who wants for nothing but the love of her mother, who pulled away emotionally with no explanation, leaving her daughter to feel very alone. In her mother’s absence, Flick found distraction and purpose in becoming a “professional forger.”
All was going smoothly until Flick was caught and arrested. Not even Flick’s arrest could bring her mother to care; Lady Linden didn’t even visit the prison to see if her daughter was unharmed.
Felicity has no choice but to accept that her mother does not care for her. She decides to choose her own path, becoming the newest member of the Casimir family (Arthie and Jin chose it as their new surname). Though Flick does not adopt the name Casimir herself, she is a part of their group by the end of the novel.
Two romances unfold throughout the book. Both are delightfully slow-burn, because the characters are more focused on their challenges and on saving their own skins. However, we are not denied sweet moments and gentle touches.
Now I understand why A Tempest of Tea has been so popular on Bookstagram. It’s beautifully written with prose so colorful that I scribbled quotes from it into my reading journal.
This book is more than a pretty cover with a compelling title. It’s a new take on the myth of the vampire, and it will make you want to be a part of that world, chaotic as everything might be by the final chapter.
A Tempest of Tea is about more than vampires. It’s about family, forgiveness, betrayal, and believing in oneself no matter what. I recommend it to anyone who loves fantasy literature and slow-burn romance.
