I received this book for free from Publisher in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal Series: Blood and Tea #1
Published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR) on 2/20/24
Genres: Fantasy & Magic, Historical, Paranormal, Young Adult
Pages: 338
Format: eARC
Source: Publisher
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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 night, 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—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.
Short and Sweet Review
Arthie Casimir is a criminal mastermind and by day she runs a tea shop but by night it becomes an illegal blood house. When the tea house is threatened Arthie comes up with a plan, a heist if you will to save everything she’s worked for. To pull off this heist Arthie asks some of the city’s most skilled outcast to join her crew. During the duration of the heist Arthie unravels secret after secret and eventually realizes that she’s in the middle of a conspiracy that could change everything.
I’m really not sure where to start with this review. The premise for this book sounds amazing and there’s a lot happening in this book some good and some bad and mainly bad because the idea just missed the target. A stranger approaches Arthie with the idea to steal a ledger that will end up taking down the king and Arthie accepts and starts to get her crew together. The crew consists of Jin which is Arthies right hand, Flick a nobles daughter who is trying her hand at criminal mischief, and Matteo a vampire who just showed up one day. This world is full of vampires and that was interesting, what was also interesting was that our main character Arthie is one but even those closest to her don’t know it. Arthie is a strong female lead and she didn’t have it easy growing up so anything she can do to make sure the teahouse which she built from the bottom up will be safe she’ll do it. We do get the POVs of Arthie, Jin, and Flick, I wouldn’t say I preferred one over the other. I feel like we got to see more of the planning of the heist than the actual heist taking place and at that point the story slowed down for me. There were plot twists but even that couldn’t save the book from the downward trajectory. I feel like this book is trying to be like Six of Crows but in that aspect it just fails. I do think the ending was interesting and from what happened in those last 15-20 pages I may be interested in seeing where this story will go.
Overall, the premise for this book sounded amazing, the delivery didn’t quite reach the mark. This wasn’t a bad book but it wasn’t the greatest either, it lands somewhere in the middle for me.
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