A review by ryreadsreviews
A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

adventurous mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

Title: A Tempest of Tea Hafsah Faizal 

• Publication Date- 02/20/23
• Publisher- Macmillan Audio 
• Overall Rating- 3.5 out of 5 stars 

Review: Review copy given to me by the publisher in exchange for an honest review. 

This was a highly anticipated read for me this year as it is for many. I want to start off by saying I gave it a 3.5 out of 5 but I don’t exactly feel let down. This is a YA fantasy so I did take into consideration the YA age group into my rating. Before we get into the story aspects, the audio is very good and I would highly recommend it. I am thankful I had the audio because I’m not sure I would have finished it otherwise. I really enjoyed the narrator's voices, they made the characters come to life. 

A Tempest of Tea is set in a dark and gritty Victorian-esque world. At the start of the book I thought this is what I wanted Six of Crows to be like, I still think this was better but I’m not a fan of SoC. I think fans of the SoC franchise will eat this up and love it. The first 20 percent really stuck out to me. We had vampires, tea, secret meeting rooms and badass characters. Over time, I lost the plot. I mean I wasn’t really confused, I understood the gist of what was happening but I felt like the story lost a lot of the exciting elements it started with. I think I will be in the minority for this but I am an honest reviewer. 

The relationships throughout the book and found family aspects were the strongest of the story. The worldbuilding started off as I said above, really interesting but overtime didn’t feel like it was part of the story anymore. Instead, the found family and background stories of the characters took over as well as a heist. I did enjoy those elements but I feel like if they had the interest that the beginning of the story had this would have been a 5 star read and possibly a new favorite. 

Again, I don’t really feel disappointed, there were just aspects I wish continued to stay strong throughout the story. The relationships between the characters are the only reason I didn’t DNF. Also, this is a vampire story, there are elements of vampirism throughout but it’s not really the main point of the story and that’s another area I hoped would have been stronger. 

With that being said, I think people will rave about this throughout 2024 so get on the hype!! Form our own opinions but I recommend giving it a shot especially if YA fantasy is your cup of tea ;)