Tempest of Tea was everything I thought it would be. Immersive from the very first paragraph. Faizal's writing is immaculate and her characters are enjoyable. Her world building is effortless and effective . A great vampire story without all the tropes were sick of reading.

3.5 stars! I’ve been looking forward to this one since loving We Hunt the Flame (not so much its sequel) and was even more excited when I found out there were vampires and heists! It’s been awhile since I’ve read a multiple POV book, which I usually love.

Read about 40% of this a few months ago and it wasn’t really clicking so I set it aside. I finally looped back around to it, and though it was enjoyable, I still think it’s a bit slow at times. I love Arthie a lot, but wasn’t as interested in Jin or Flick’s POVs. I am BEGGING for Matteo POV in the next book!!

The ending of this is fun though and it’s why I’m rounding my rating up to 4. Lots of twists and it has me SUPER excited for the next book. I have a feeling I’ll like that one a lot more!

I really enjoyed this book! Vampires and a heist plot? Yes please! Some of the reveals were a little obvious, but it did not detract from the overall enjoyment of the story. I also appreciated the commentary about colonization from the viewpoint of those being "colonized." I would recommend this to people at any chance I get!

If you are looking for something different but still want the paranormal world then I would definitely pick up this book. In my personal opinion, I really enjoyed reading this book with a cup of tea and comfy chair by a fire because once you start reading you won’t want to stop. Go in and enjoy the ride.

This book is literally THAT GIRL. I would love to write an intelligent, professional sounding review, but honestly, I am so obsessed, I don't think it's possible. It's just so good. The characters? Complex and lovable and so real. The setting? Love that. The plot? Iconic and I'm not even a huge plot girly, I'm usually just here for the vibes (which were immaculate). I am, however, a fantasy girly, and this one may just be my new favorite? It's truly that good. I couldn't stop reading. Faizal truly just did everything as perfectly as I could imagine. I have no notes. I cannot wait for the sequel and for release day so I can put this in the hands of everyone. I would recommend this to anyone, I feel like it has such a wide appeal. If I could give this 100 stars I would. Just know the hype is absolutely correct and you need to read this.

Content Warning: violence, blood drinking, fire, death

+ I love when a book totally catches me off guard and surprises me. This book was full of surprises! How do you combine King Arthur, Vampires and Peaky Blinders (never watched it though I’ve always wanted to) together and make it work? I don’t know but this author just did it! I also loved how she adds historical fiction to the mix as she covers the colonization of countries liked Ceylan (in our reality that would be Ceylon-now Sri Lanka). This story is set in Ettenia which I’m assuming is England. And the vampires are just a race of people that live among them. This book just had everything I wanted, things I didn’t even know I wanted in one place and I loved it all. There are a lot of twists and turns in the second half of the book and that cliffhanger ending left me wanting book two now.

+ I am in love with Arthie and Jin. I love their story, their friendship, their love for one another – even though this story had hints of a romance for Arthie (a love triangle even that never came to fruition-an no it didn’t involve Jin), the love between Arthie and Jin appeased my soul. I also loved that this was told in multiple POVs because Jin’s voice was important to this story. He is Arthie’s right-hand man and I loved that he was the lightness in their relationship. They are found family, they are to one another the siblings they never had, they are soulmates and I knew they would have each other’s back no matter what. Also, I need Jin to have a happy ending, that guy deserves the world!

+ Because this story is about a heist, there are other characters involved and part of the crew. Flick, Matteo and Laith. All of them intriguing and we do get Flick’s POV but not Matteo and Laith who are very intriguing and added to the story in various ways. I like how they all have complex backgrounds.

+ Arthie is a complicated character which I love. She’s had trauma and holds a lot of secrets, not only her own but she’s a phoenix who basically rose out of ashes. I love that she was smart, and still allowed herself to love (Jin and Spindrift) even though she doesn’t open herself to anyone else. She is flawed. I love that she is a business woman and she’s the leader of their crew.

~ I can’t call what was in this book a true love triangle. There is flirtation, there is desire that Arthie doesn’t want to explore because she is a person who is in control at all times. But I think it makes her mistrust even more heightened. She has a crew of people she doesn’t totally trust (except Jin) and her weakness was a good-looking mysterious man. She isn’t perfect, she can only hold so many of the right cards in her hand and I honestly loved every part of whatever romance was building for her because the tension between them was delicious! 

~ I think Flick’s POV was the weakest and she seemed like the weakest link because she’s not like the rest. She grew up in luxury as a lady’s daughter but she has her own agenda. Out of all of them I felt like I didn’t trust her the most because all she wanted was to please her mother and she had such a shiny upbringing. 

My Thoughts:

Why was I surprised that I loved this book? I loved the We Hunt the Flame series. The writing is so good, the slow burn in the romance is enticing and the relationships are heartfelt. Honestly, Arthie and Jin, they have my heart. It might be a slow build in the beginning as the pieces are set on the chessboard but I was riveted from the moment I started the book. Once the pieces started moving, it was a fun, twisty, emotional ride to the end. And then of course we get a crazy cliffhanger that made my jaw drop! I need the second book asap and this book solidifies that this author is a must-read for me.

Unfortunately, A Tempest of Tea did not work for me. I did not find that this book kept my attention, other than the inclusion of the cat who was very cute. The characters Jin and Arthie did however stand out to me, and their dynamic carried the book.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the arc. 👏

This book was a lot of fun! I enjoyed all of the characters and thought that they had really distint personalities. The plot was engaging and fast paces. My only complaint is that there could have more a little more character and world building. I'm planning on picking up the sequel when it is released.

Well done, Hafsah Faizal, Well done, Mam.

When I said I love fantasy with fond-family tropes, I mean this. This is it. Period.

Arthie was kind of cliche but I love her. Her action, what she spoke, her thoughts, everything of her was alluring. On other hand, we had the playflul Jin with his confidence (and handsome face). The banter between these two was perfect. Hilarious.

The world building, as a fan of Hafsah's previous writing, I don't think there was any change. Still so "Hafsah" with detail narrations here and there. It would be boring for some people who seek for quicker and noticeable pace, but as for me, the pacing was tolerable.

So many hopes. So many twists. To be honest, I don't like the ending. It left me kind of dumbfounded and betrayed. I understand that was part of mystery to be unravel in Book 2. But still. The cliffhanger was killing me.

Thank you netgalley for the e-ARC in exchange for honest review.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux for an e-copy of this novel. All thoughts are my own.

What. a. Book.

Incredible. Amazing. The ending? The reveals? Epic.

I loved returning to the world of We Hunt the Flame but years later, in a very different way, and with different characters because it’s a different world in a way. The characters are all different and nuanced and the story tugs at your heartstrings because it’s not just an adventure, it’s also about family and connections and keeping secrets and falling in love but also about a harsh world with power dynamics at play and power players demanding their due.

I don’t even want to tell you what this is about because I don’t want to spoil anything but I’ll say this: Vampire fantasy with epic characters. You’ll figure out the plot within the first few pages anyway. But will you see the ending coming? That’s the question.

I already ordered a hardcopy of this. I’m so ready.

Tea Shops... Vampires... Heists... and the importance of Coconuts. What is not to love?!

I absolutely adored seeing the bonds develop between characters, and being able to join Arthie, Jin, and Flick alongside their adventures, and their dive into the vampire society Athereum to save their livelihoods.

also, as Matteo says “Every good love story starts with a bullet to the heart.”

I can't wait to own my physical copy... and for Book #2.

5/5

A huge thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Children's Group for the digital ARC for "A Tempest of Tea" by Hafsah Faizel!

I really wanted to like this one, especially with being a fan of Faizal’s previous work but her storytelling in this felt more telling than showing. I wish the story would’ve been stronger because it felt like there was a constant onslaught of info dump that didn’t add to the flow of what I was reading. The premise is interesting but I felt I couldn’t really immerse myself in this story as much as I wanted to.

This one started as a five star read for me, but I have pretty mixed feelings about the ending--there were a few too many twists and turns and I felt dissatisfied with the cliffhanger, and it felt like the references to the author's previous books didn't really make sense with the rest of the world. That said, "A Tempest of Tea" is a fascinating mashup of vampires, heists, Arthurian imagery, and anticolonialism that's nothing quite like I've read before. If you like Six of Crows style fantasy that really ought to be adult instead of YA, this is probably right up your alley.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc! Opinions are my own.

A Tempest of Tea is a tale of heists, vampires, and secrets that often left me confused and a little dissatisfied. The synopsis mentions that the story is about saving a secret teahouse that offers up consensual ways for vampires to consume blood, but said establishment was rarely present within the book. Strangely enough, I didn't really feel like vampires were that present either. Those fantastical elements instead took a back seat to a heist that lacked the intensity or complexity of Six of Crows, a title this book is marketed as a comparison to.

The characters, while enjoyable on the surface, felt too spread out and numerous to get that depth that makes them feel original and makes me fall in love with them. There were a few emotional beats that didn't land for me because I didn't have enough time to develop a connection to the cast and to care about their individual goals and problems. Lastly, and this could be completely my own fault, but the writing confused the hell out of me. Numerous times I had to reread pages, sometimes chapters, because I couldn't follow how we went from A to B or why C was even happening. There are several events towards the end of the story that had me scratching my head trying to figure out the hows and whys of it all.

All in all, A Tempest of Tea is enjoyable but does little to serve up an experience that steals the spotlight from some of its contemporaries.

Okay, so I know this wasn’t supposed to be a “cozy” book, but it so was?! I LOVE a good found family trope, but the characters! I loved every single one– I seriously can’t pick a favorite. What do you get when you put King Arthur, Peaky Blinders, vampires, heists, a tea shop, and a kitten together?? … A TEMPEST OF TEA.

The prose is simple and easy to get into, but SO beautiful with plenty of quote-worthy sentences and a lot of underlying meaning. Romance is only a subplot, but there are several swoon-worthy moments that had me fanning myself. BRAVO!

“She was, simply put, a tempest in a tiny bottle, tiny and simmering and ready to obliterate.”

Thank you so much for the ARC! Full review will be posted to Goodreads on release!!

Beautiful cover, intriguing premise, disappointing execution.

A Tempest of Tea promises a criminal mastermind, an elaborate tea room, vampires, and a heist. And technically that's all there, but everything seems a bit shallow. The characters need more development, there's more lead up to the heist than the heist itself, and then everything sort of switches tracks after the heist in an unsatisfactory way. The worldbuilding seems interesting, but I wonder if reading Faizal's other duology would help make things clearer. As it was, I felt like I was missing important things rather than just fun Easter eggs.

My biggest issue is that there is far too much telling over showing. Arthie's disdain for colonization is mentioned countless times, and while her actions do back this up, I don't need to be reminded of her motives every other page. And for a young girl described as a criminal mastermind, nothing really seems clever enough. On top of that, I never felt any chemistry in any of the romantic pairings; everyone's falling for each other despite it being a bad idea, but everything plays out in descriptions of hearts and smells and the color of clothes. And there's maybe a love triangle? I'm not exactly sure. There's also a lot (a lot, a lot) of similes, and while I don't mind a bit of purple prose, this is probably a quarter of the book and makes things drag on far longer than necessary.

I also finished the book feeling a bit confused, and not in a "wow, this ended on a cliffhanger and I wasn't expecting that twist" sort of way. More of a "I guessed that twist, but now people are showing their true colors and not they're fighting, now they're running away, and did we ever see that character before?" sort of way. I don't like to end a book feeling confused, but I also don't care enough about this book to go back and try to figure things out.

I do like the brother-sister relationship between Arthie and Jin, and I'm mildly interested to see how that shifts based on the ending of this book. Likewise, the scientific aspects of vampirism seem very interesting, but we only get mentions of this sort of research. It seems like this topic will come up more in book 2, but I won't be reading it to find out.

A Tempest of Tea wants to be Six of Crows but doesn't come close. There's just a lot of things that don't go right for me in this story, and I had to force myself to finish it. This will probably be some readers' cup of tea (pun intended), but it wasn't for me.

While cozy fantasy books about tea are definitely favorite genre, books about vampires, generally are not. So I wasn’t sure what to expect from A Tempest of Tea. This book was a pleasant surprise.

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. Dark, action-packed, and swoonworthy, this is Hafsah Faizal better than ever.

While it is not a good fit for my classroom, I enjoyed this book and will look for more from Hafsah Faizal. Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for sending this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own

Wow! This was the first Harsh Faizal that I read, and she did not disappoint! The insides are just as pretty as the outside with this novel!
There's a heist.
There's vampires.
There's a diverse cast that forms the sweetest found family.
And... there's a cat :')
Faizal's writing is fast paced and engaging. She keeps the action moving in a way that kept me flipping page after page to see what happened next. Not only did she do that, but she still managed to perfectly flesh out the characters, keeping them feeling real and rich, which is something that I typically find lacking in quick-paced young adult fantasy books.
There are sweet relationships, high stakes, and a tea house. It's been more and more difficult for me to find YA books that I can enjoy, but this one is exactly what I hope to pick up every time I reach for a YA book.
Read if you:
- wished Kaz in Six of Crows knew how to make really good tea
- are looking for a vampire book that isn't overwhelmingly romantasy
- great world building in a historic England inspired setting that focuses on POC characters

I’ve been WAITING YEARS for this book and it definitely lived up to my longing expectations! The story follows Arthie Casimir and her crew as they undertake a heist that will take down the head of this Britain-like empire—to save their home, a teahouse called Spindrift; and as revenge for the atrocities this empire has personally committed against them as it colonizes the world.

I’m OBSESSED with these characters. I love the differences between their narration styles and the intricacies of their relationships. Arthie’s and Jin’s chosen-sibling relationship is one of the absolute best things in this book, and I love the symbolism and mirroring that happens as their backstories come full circle. Arthie is so cold and calculating but Jin brings out her tender side. Speaking of Jin, I LITERALLY laughed out loud at his quips. I think he’s my favorite character. He has such range—you go from laughing because he’s hilarious on one page, and then on the next page you descend into these really deep, complex emotions. I loved his relationship with Flick and how she’s like pure sunshine to him. FLICK. HER CHARACTER ARC. So amazing, so satisfying to see her growth as a character and her bonds with the rest of the crew. I love her style and her innocence and how she doesn’t abandon it even in the harsh streets of White Roaring. And as for Matteo and Laith, I’m dying to have POV chapters from them in the second book because they are so interesting and mysterious and I want to know what’s going on in their heads! And speaking of mystery, I loved the way Arthie’s secrets were slowly revealed throughout the book, and how she was keeping them even from the reader. She is such a layered and complicated character and delving into those layers made my brain explode. She is iconic. She is an absolute empress.

I did kind of feel like we were hurtling at light speed at some points of the book. Sooooo much was happening. There was not a single dull moment. I was never bored. But a lot of the time I had to go back and read things again in order to register what was happening because the action was so breakneck. I kind of like that, though. I had a similar experience reading Six of Crows for the first time so I’m thinking that’s something you want in a heist book. I really liked the heist itself and all the clever planning that went into it (even though, again, I felt like I was falling off a cliff and that there was a lot of information going over my head but that’s okay haha).

If you are a fan of fantasy heists, this is a must-read. You will absolutely fall in love with these characters and the setting, which is so vivid and living that it feels like a character, too. Now it’s time for me to wait for book two…

I was SO excited for this book as I loved Faizal’s We Hunt the Flame! This book has it all - heists, vampires, unique world, morally grey characters, friendship, romance and witty banter. I will give warning it did take a little bit to get into for me as the beginning was slower then I expected from how wild the description of the book sounds but once it got going it was fantastic. It really does have some Six of Crows and Peaky Blinders vibes but it is also totally it’s own and I think if people compare it maybe that’s where disappointed would be. I had a great time though and will be purchasing the book and continuing the series! 4/5 only for the slow start.