Renoir’s Reviews > A Magic Steeped in Poison > Status Update

Okay, so here is the brief description of how the magic works. Something about souls connecting. But again, in the contest, someone performed a "flashy" magic where the smoke formed the shape of a dragon. I still don't know what exactly is the magic of tea. In this part it's made to sound like the tea only channels the magic, but in the other parts it sounded like the tea itself is magic.

The princess just casually invited Ning to her room. Okay, I've never been to an actual inhabited palace or anything, but this is the third novel set in some Chinese palace where everything just feels so lax. I would've thought that the imperial family would be much more heavily guarded than this. And the princess, even if she can fight to defend herself, why does she trust Ning so much??

The drowning scene is so forced... Also, huh??? Kang's birth father is an army commander? Then who is the prince? His adopted father?

Battle of Red Rain? Guan Yong? Subtle Three Kingdoms reference, I see. That's actually kind of cute.

Oh, okay, there's the reference to Shennong teaching farming too. Still, the hyperfocus on the tea using the Shennong name feels off to me.

Another cliché of the spunky heroine just mouthing off to authorities and the authority just says "Eh, it's fine". Ning says it's against her nature to beg for forgiveness for her survival, but she was clearly fine with kowtowing to the Marquis because he's obviously dangerous. But the PRINCESS is fair game? Rude.

I'm so fed up of mean girl bully type drama. Here, the billies are male, but same difference. This is 2022, people. Do you writers not have any better ideas? It's cheap and overdone.

Okay, so there's been a few references about how the heroine's family is so poor they sometimes go hungry. Some references about where the governor is oh so awful, and could even be said to be tyrannical. I don't know if it's the fault of the dry narration, but again, I NEVER GOT THAT SENSE. In the start it felt like the heroine was living a not-well-to-do, but otherwise idyllic village life.

What did she even do? So far I still have no idea how the magic is done. She literally just poured water on tea like a normal tea.

GIRLS, YOU'RE TALKING AMONG YOURSELVES AND WITH THE SERVANT. TALK LIKE NORMAL HUMAN BEINGS. YOU SOUND LIKE SOMEONE TRYING TO MAKE A SPEECH. I will never make it through this book at this rate.
Like one of the narration says "sputtering through my mirth". A less stiff alternative might be "I sputter between laughter" or something.