A Tempest of Tea: Vampires, heists and a proper brew

Author: Hafsah Faizal

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️✨

In the city of White Roaring, humans coexist with vampires, and at Spindrift, people drink tea by day and vampires enjoy blood at night. The teahouse also serves as the home of a criminal gang including Arthie and Jin, who have created a place for humans to safely sell their blood to vampires willing to buy it (as well as a diverse selection of teas).

At the beginning of our story, the landlord who owns the actual building Spindrift is in reveals he has sold it to the ruler of White Roaring and the larger empire of which it is the capital. The problem: the ruler does not like the gang, and they know they’re likely to have their business and their home taken away.

So they hatch a plan to acquire something valuable enough to allow them to blackmail the ruler and keep their home.

This book has some definite parallels with Six of Crows, and if you are a fan of that book, I’d definitely recommend this one. That being said, there are different vibes, and it’s always a struggle when reading a book with a lot of similarities to one of your favourites to be conscious not to compare them too much.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. The characters and the world were intriguing, and the end made me want to immediately know what would happen next, which, for me, is the sign of a good book. Like Six of Crows, this book follows a heist and several POVS among the crew, and the author did a good job introducing and developing all of the POV-characters, which is no small feat in a less than 350 page book.

I’m eagerly waiting the next instalment in this series, and I hope I love it as much as I loved this one.