Arthie loved secrets, but love was a feeling much like hate - so full, so heavy, so laden with everything. And for all the secrets she collected, she hated her own.
A Tempest of Tea
by Hafsah Faizal
Genre: YA Fantasy
About: By day, Spindrift serves tea to the well-to-do, by night it offers blood to its undead patrons. At all hours it's soaking in secrets. Arthie Casimir collects them all and her fame for doing so has reached even the king's ear. But the king has unchecked power himself and won't allow a low-born foreigner like Arthie to rise too high. As her teashop is targeted, she must ally with enemies to take down a power-hungry monarch in a town where the hungry sometimes have fangs...
Thoughts
I loved the concept of this. A fancy little teashop run by crooks who open their doors to vampires at night. Absolutely yes. Then to save the teashop they have to plan a heist that involves more vampires and double-crossing and magical weapons. I mean even just writing the plot makes me think just how cool this set-up is.
Unfortunately I didn't like the execution. I think it was the POVs. When we're in Arthie's head, she seems to know exactly what Jin is thinking, while also getting distracted by hot vampire Matteo or hot guard Laith. When we're in Jin's POV, he's again weirdly in tune with Arthie and gets distracted by hot lady Flick. Flick's own POV does read a little more distinct as she doesn't seem to know Arthie or Jin quite so well, but she is likewise distracted by hot bad boy Jin. I really didn't understand the point of switching POVs when they more or less read the same.
The character relationships were also very simplistic. We're constantly told what a badass Arthie is from absolutely everyone around her, including herself. The villain revealed at the end was so obvious with not even the smidge of grey. Matteo meets Arthie and Jin for the first time in the very first chapter, but for the entire book they act like they've known each other for years. Or characters that have known Arthie from her past show up towards the end and I couldn't care about them because that history is thrown onto the reader. It was a lot of telling the reader what to think about characters before I'd spent the time to get to know them.
The heist was also not very interesting. Spindrift is in danger from the get go and we're immediately making plans for a heist before my tea's even cold. Arthie and Jin are constantly telling the reader how important Spindrift is to them, but the reader is given no time to enjoy the place. I couldn't find myself caring about saving it, and the heist itself was another telling the reader how unbelievably dangerous the place they're going is when I don't know, I guess it must be? We're just not allowed to get to know characters or places, everything is told to the reader and we're expected to feel as the characters feel.
I've heard this likened to Six of Crows and I would agree that there are similarities so if you're a fan of that book you may enjoy this one, but I think the main difference for me was the POVs. In Six of Crows each POV is very distinct and they each bring something different to the table. In this, the POVs are mostly just a series of fast-paced action with touches of characters being horny.
Overall, I'm not invested enough to continue the series and I was disappointed that the writing, for me, didn't deliver on its highly original concept or the gorgeous opening line.
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