Review: A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

Arthie Casimir is the owner of Spindrift — teahouse catering to society’s elite by day, and bloodhouse illegally serving White Roaring’s vampire underworld by night. Having clawed her way up through society by her own means, Arthie now has a place to call her own, and a lucrative business trading in tea, blood and secrets. But when all of it threatens to come crashing down overnight, Arthie and her crew must band together to pull of a masterful heist which just might be enough to save Spindrift — and earn them some coveted power along the way.

But as long-held secrets come to the surface and loyalty is questioned, threats are multiplying by the minute, and Arthie just might be in danger of losing everything that matters.

Unfortunately, I didn’t enjoy this book as much as I was hoping to. Between the premise and the eye-catching cover (I know, I know, don’t judge a book by it’s cover), it seemed like a fun and fast-paced read to draw me in and give my brain a break from the dark and heavy classics and more political reads that I had been consuming lately. Unfortunately, this was not the case.

Overall, the storyline just failed to draw me in. Though I liked some of the characters, especially Arthie, the writing style and plot development failed to absorb me, and I was left feeling as if I didn’t care very much about what was going on or the people involved. The writing style was probably the biggest problem here; it was dark and atmospheric, rich in detail and suited to the story — but sometimes it was just too much. The excessive detail and often tell-not-show style as well as the backstories took me out of the storyline and I found them distracting; but worst of all was the chemistry between the characters. It was so overdone that it made me actively roll my eyes in some places, and by the end of the book it was just plain annoying. I don’t mind well-written and well-founded romances between characters, but the relationships in this book were just not that; every time certain characters would make eye contact they would almost spontaneously combust, and every time one of them breathed the other almost passed out. This happened way too often, and I lost patience very quickly, especially as there was no proper development or foundation to their connections.

Additionally, not very much of the story actually takes place in Spindrift, which disappointed me as it felt like it was one of the most intriguing parts of the story. I wish the plot had been spaced out a little more, rather than packing most of the action into the last 100 pages or so (by which time I was mostly too uninvested to care), and that the setting had been developed and focused on a little more; in my opinion, this would have helped the book fulfil the potential that it had, and made for a much more enjoyable read.

Complaints aside, the book did have some strong points. I liked the commentary on colonialism and racism, which I thought was well-done and skilfully worked into the story. And as I mentioned, I did enjoy the characters, especially Arthie, though I felt that the storyline detracted from her a little bit as it went along. There were a few good quotes, too. Overall, however, I just wasn’t absorbed or impressed by the book, and that disappointed me; perhaps my hopes were just too high for it, or I just wasn’t in the mood, but either way it didn’t really do it for me.