A Tempest of Tea is a high stakes heist, set in a world populated by vampires. At the heart of the plot is Arthie Casimir, the owner of the teashop Spindrift, selling tea by day and blood by night. Arthie has a troubled past, as she had to flee her birthplace of Ceylon after a horrifying massacre. Now, she’s a cutthroat business owner and minor criminal.
Arthie receives a tip-off from the palace guard Laith, who’s switched sides and betrayed his order, that an important trade ledger has gone missing. Now it’s up to her and her recruited team of outcasts to burgle an important gathering of the wealthy and powerful. Her team includes Laith, the swashbuckling Jinn, her business partner and partner-in-crime, the aristocratic forger Flick and the stylish vampire Matteo.
The book is both plot heavy and character heavy, as Faizal is cramming a lot of history and world-building into the story. I found the main character, Arthie, to be a bit overly stoical, but Jinn was a charismatic secondary lead and his POV chapters were a delight to read. Faizal’s prose is gorgeous when she is describing the teashop.
I wish we had spent so much more time at Spindrift. The ‘teahouse by day, bloodhouse by night’ idea is such an amazing concept, but it hardly ever shows up again. Instead, the story crams in a lot of action and plot twists into the last 50 pages. However, the heist main plot is fun to read, and fans of the ‘Six of Crows’ series will absolutely adore this book.
Reviewed by Rachel Denham-White
Age Guide 14+
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Hafsah Faizal is the #1 New York Times and internationally bestselling, award-winning author of A Tempest of Tea and the ‘Sands of Arawiya’ duology, and the founder of IceyDesigns, where she creates websites for authors and beauteous goodies for everyone else.
A Forbes 30 under 30 honoree, when she’s not writing, she can be found designing, playing video games, or traversing the world.
Born in Florida and raised in California, she now resides in North Carolina with her husband and a library of books waiting to be devoured.
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