Honestly, this collection was a mixed bag. The latter half of the collection feels more edited and much more effective. The first stories lacked cohesion, it felt stilted and like it was trying to smack its meaning over my head. I think the collection would benefit from more editing, a reorganising, and perhaps some clearer stylistic choices. Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for a free ARC in exchange for honest review.

Here we have a collection of short stories that give us a glimpse into each character’s lives. While they’re impacted by fantasy elements, that’s not the driving point of these stories. They range in length and depth, so there’s something for everyone. Some people may not like all of the short stories, but the great thing about a collection like this is that you don’t have to debate on whether or not you want to commit to a full length book if you’re on the fence about the story. They’re short and sometimes not so sweet, but you don’t have to get invested if you don’t want to because they wrap up quickly.

What I like about this collection is that we get to hop around completely different lives. Funnily enough, my favorite story ended up being the very first one I read, which is the one I would probably read as a full-length book. However, I did enjoy reading through the entire collection and getting a peek into several totally different lives with varying degrees of fantasy elements.

I did not find this book interesting, unfortunately. I was actually pretty confused about what was going on. :(

Thank you to Jacob Budenz, NetGalley, and Amble Press for an Advance Reader's Copy in exchange for my honest review.

Short stories aren't usually my vibe, but this was a new take that I'm glad I was able to experience. Tea Leaves took me on a spiritual ride that I did not know I needed. There are some stories that I did not connect with, but the ones that I did I really loved. This it the book that struggling ally and LGBTQ+ members need. It will resound with someone in some way.

I quite liked individual stories, but I found very few of them outstanding. Unfortunately, it didn't really suit my taste overall.

I loved these stories. I wanted more. Each one felt fresh and different and I'm a sucker for a weird little story. Can (and do) recommend.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to read a free copy of this novel in exchange for my honest review. I was initially very excited to read this novel as I myself am part of the LGBTQIA+ community, however I did not enjoy the author's writing style at all. The stories lacked any real meaning and the characters all fell flat. Short stories are some of my favorite things to read, so this experience was very disappointing to me. Reading other reviews of this novel, it seems many people felt the same way.

As always with short stories, I enjoyed some more than others. Generally the second half of the collection scored much higher for me averaging out at a 4, and the first half scored much lower with an average of 2, thus the overall 3 star rating.

I'm not sure what exactly I expected from this collection, I got the queer characters I was looking forward to, and some fable lessons, but the stories themselves were pretty mixed, some being short or so open ended they felt slightly pointless, and others being so well written and so interesting I wanted so much more of them.
I don't usually choose to read a short story collection but anything with a queer focus really does have me by the neck I guess!

I'm always for story collections with representation (I'm hesitating on saying diverse representation here because I don't think I can assume any characters in these stories were minorities, although almost all of them were LGBT+ AND there was a diverse cast of ages, which felt rather novel). I enjoyed that there were a lot of characters that were flawed and that the flaws weren't glossed over or hidden. My favorites from this collection were:
✨ Under Her White Stars: the spirits of the land try to break-up a lesbian couple that already have a strained relationship
✨ Ah, Well: a small-town boy wants to become a magician but would rather wait for a push from fate to start his journey
✨ Trial: a man in a cafe bathroom is put on trial for his life by an eldritch horror (I identified most with this one because if I also had to explain why I was special enough to live, I would also probably draw a blank).

I would say this book is definitely worth a read.

Tea Leaves was absolutely amazing! I can’t emphasise enough what a talented writer Jacob Budenz is. All the protagonists are queer, and the queer experience is woven throughout, but the stories transcend that and explore deep into human nature of all kinds. The ideas are unique. Some of the stories fall under the horror genre, but rather than using it to shock the reader Mudenz uses it to delve deeper into how people react and experience things that their minds can’t grasp. Other stories explore love and relationships from different angles. This is one of the best books I have read this year, and I highly recommend it.

This was a hard read for me. And it shouldn't have been because it's a book composed of short stories, I should have had the time of my life. But the stories just didn't click with me. It was a struggle to read every page because it just didn't have anything that caught my attention, the stories were different from one another and yet it felt like I was just reading the same page over and over. It wasn't even bad objectively, I just feel like this book has a specific audience it should cater to and I'm not one of it.

This was nice, I like the cohesiveness and it was really beautiful! Thank you to netgalley for the electronic advanced readers copy.

I am in love with this "collection of fables for our time". I have never before read a collection of short stories where I was satisfied with every single one. Obviously there were some I could fawn over for decades and others that I just liked but I enjoyed every single story.
"Tea Leaves presents 16 speculative short stories that place queer characters in larger-than-life situations to emphasise the surreal experience of marginalisation." I can tell already that this collection is unlikely to be as big as it should be, but please devour this book and pass on the love for these stories. I would definitely love to read a full length novel by this author, and although every story had a satisfying ending, while I was immersed in these tales I knew they would each end too soon for me. If you can't tell, I wholeheartedly recommend this collection, and implore you to read it.

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐦𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐝 𝐢𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐥𝐢𝐤𝐞: collections where every short story hits, magical queerness, fantasy and sci-fi, cozy and captivating, environmentalism, horny reptiles, love through the ages

I can appreciate what this collection is trying to be. That being said, it wasn't for me. I was expecting at least some whimsy but there was none. I was so bored. I was hopeful that it would get interesting half way through as other reviews have said but it didn't happen for me.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

3.5 rounded up
The cover really caught my eye.
Very nice collection of stories; most were quite enjoyable, others were just not for me. Thank to Netgalley for the opportunity to read this book

Before I begin I would like to thank Net Galley and the author for allowing me an edition of this book.

From start to finish i quite enjoyed this book, however I had the same issue throughout. First of all I just want to gush about how much I enjoyed the ideas behind each story. Personally, my favourite was the tale between the wizard and his husband, it was so cute and creative I just loved it. Almost cried if we are being honest.

On the other hand, I felt as though it was to informal at times, I first noticed it in the story of the guys who saw the fairies, This isn't a problem per se, more of a personal preference. My only other slight issue was the fact the stories were so short sometimes (yes I understand what this book is). Occasionally I felt a story needed to be longer, whether this could be rememedied by lengthening the story or editing it down I am not quite sure. Overall, these issues did not take away much from my enjoyment of these fantastic series of tales!

Great collection of queer freindly short stories with a captivating outlook. This was a nice, slow, cozy read for the fall. Really great concept and magical system, with interesting portrayals!

Thanks to NetGalley and Amble Press for this ARC.

It took me a long time to finish this book. Not because the wording or the topics were difficult, but because each little story left me in a different world that I was not ready to leave immediately. Each character had their own voice, each story had its own style, and never once did I feel like two novelettes were from the same book, or even the same author.

The theme and atmosphere of the stories were lighthearted in the beginning: cute fairies, clumsy wizards, shape-shifting aliens, et cetera. These chapters all featured queer characters but the main conflict of the story did not originate in their sexuality.

Then, around "The Color of Cream", the atmosphere changed and we no longer got any happy endings. Many of these later short stories focused on processing grief, be it from the death of a loved one, infidelity of a partner, or losing a community's support for being queer.

This collection took me on a journey of discovering ordinary people's lives in extraordinary worlds. Thank you!

This is a collection of short stories and, as such, bound to have narratives that better fit your tastes than others. The second half of the book spoke more to mine (And Then Again to the Next, The Oak I Knew, The Age of Oceanus, Borealis), but I'm not sure someone without my completist tendencies would hold out for it.

If I had to label the genre, I'd say it features mostly urban fantasy, climate fiction, and horror. All of these are often used for commentary, and this collection was no exception. But I felt like I was being talked down to, smacked over the head with the ideals conveyed with little to no depth or finesse. (Mind you, I mostly agree with the author's views, so it's got nothing to do with that.)

The potential was obvious, but there were no new perspectives to garner from these stories. They were also hindered by the length, of course, as it is much harder to make a reader care about a character's journey in so few words. It would've probably helped to invest a little more on characterization, however. As my brilliant friend put it, “[nearly] all the characters in this collection are in unhappy relationships. Yet none is as unhappy as I am having to read this book”. And most of these relationships are terrible by MC's own doing and in the same or very similar way. The relationships were either 1) going stale, the MC struggling with feelings of inadequacy or lack of desire for their partner, or 2) new but not exciting. So, if you’re looking for uplifting queer romance, best to look elsewhere.

This book is for you if you enjoy:
- reading about failing relationships
- dystopian cli-fi
- fantastical creatures behaving oddly
- sprinkles of body horror

Thank you NetGalley, Amble Press and Jacob Budenz for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I quite liked this! I love anthologies and short stories so this was a great book to read in-between and keep me from falling into a reading slump!