3.5, but I always round up

Can't give this as high a rating as I'd like to; it dragged for me in the middle as I felt it fall into familiar YA plot and emotional beats. Our MC is an underdog who was never understood in her hometown, and yet is uniquely skilled. She has a lovely little sister, whose safety is a major core motivator. Her mom's dead. There's a magical competition, where she's overlooked by the other competitors. She gets a spunky best friend, who complains about having to attend formal dinners and so they hang out with the kitchen staff instead. The first nice guy she meets has a darkly mysterious past, but he's just so handsome, and he can really open up around our MC. But can he be trusted? Commoners are being mistreated and there's a rebellion brewing. But maybe the beautiful teen princess is actually a good ruler, so long as a headstrong MC can give her some harsh truths about the lives of the peasants! It made it harder to be invested in the political scheming and emotional decisions when I felt relatively certain about where it was going.

All that being said, there was enough unique worldbuilding here to outweigh the largely predictable plotting. The magic system is one of my absolute favorites I've ever read. I mean, TEA MAGIC!! Based on traditional Chinese medicinal ingredients and beautifully brought to life on the page. I gave it a little crap for having a magical competition, but competitive tea brewing and poison puzzles are just fun to read about. Those were my favorite parts of the book. The physical world and different locations, especially within the palace, were well-rendered and unique. I also really enjoyed the description of food here. Straight-up made my mouth water at times. There was also at least one little twist in the last quarter that kept me on my toes. And some queer rep that was very sweet--I hope it's developed further in the sequel.

Overall, I'd recommend to readers intrigued by the tea-based magic system, who won't mind a few well-trod story beats. ( )

“The more you ask of the magic the more it takes.”

I read this book for our September bookclub read. The author was born in Taiwan and moved to Canada as a child. This novel is set in a fantasy world based on the mythology of ancient China. The main character Ning grows up in the rural Su province. After the death of her mother and perilous illness of her sister Shu due to poisoning, she decides to travel to the Imperial Palace in the capital city Jia for a competition for all the Shennong-shi in an attempt to save her sister’s life. The Shennong-shi are apprenticed to the ancient art of tea making and the magic it contains. While she is in the capital she makes a friend Lian, becomes part of the royal household, and meets a handsome boy with a secret past in the marketplace, in a sort of Aladdin moment. Ning gets drawn into the ruthless court politics and intrigue and discovers treachery and danger.

I loved the concept of tea magic and the setting based on ancient China. The book started off very well and I was captivated by the contest and story, but the middle section of the book dragged, and lost my interest entirely. My other difficulty was that I don’t mind reading YA provided I can forget it’s YA while I’m reading it. In this case the classic YA insta-romance spoiled things for me, and there were parts that drifted into somewhat cerebral dramatics. The audiobook narrated by Caroline Kang was OK, although her pronunciation of the Mandarin-based words was exquisite. The cast were Chinese with a few sapphic or gay side characters. Overall this was a 3.5 star read for me. ( )

Era tanto tempo che non leggevo un romanzo così brutto: lo so, il mio sesto senso da lettrice si è attivato con prepotenza, ma io l’ho disattivato perché ero attratta da una storia che usava il tè come veicolo di magia. C’era pure sempre la piccola possibilità che mi sorprendesse e fosse un bel romanzo.

La speranza è naufragata abbastanza presto (questi libri hanno almeno il pregio di farsi sgamare subito), visto che, già nei primi capitoli, la nostra protagonista, una provincialotta finita nella capitale per gli Hunger Games del tè nel tentativo di salvare la sorella, si aggira per i banchi del mercato ammirando la mercanzia. Una roba logicissima da fare, ben sapendo che sua sorella ha le ore contate e lei stessa potrebbe morire malissimo a breve.

Io lo so che Lin stava cercando di descrivere il mercato dal punto di vista della provincialotta, ma questa provincialotta ha dei problemi piuttosto pressanti e sarebbe il caso di leggere di come analizzi la merce in virtù degli ingredienti dei tè che dovrà preparare e di qualunque altro elemento possa esserle necessario per vincere la sfida.

Stessa cosa potrei dire della corte, che dovrebbe essere piena di persone pericolose che fanno il doppio gioco e che tentano di fregarla, ma la nostra protagonista spiattella i fatti suoi a destra e a manca in tutta tranquillità. In questo contesto il fatto che un principe tormentato si innamori di lei senza motivo apparente diventa quasi sensato. Quasi: poi si mettono a fare i piccioncini e lì non sai più se sei nell’antica Cina o in una scuola superiore di Edmonton.

Ovviamente non mancano le caselle spuntate dall’elenco delle categorie marginalizzate, ma quello che mi ha dato più fastidio in questo romanzo è l’ignoranza delle dinamiche di potere in un contesto nel quale gente nobile avvezza a ogni privilegio trama per averne sempre di più. In questo romanzo, il potere o è nelle mani di persone virtuose che cercano di fare qualcosa di buono, o anche solo sopravvivere; oppure è nelle mani di persone corrotte, malvagie e dal veleno facile. ( )

i need the next one now ( )

I really enjoyed this book and am so excited to read book 2 soon!! This was such a soild read. I love the mytholgy tinge this book had to it and also the competioon at the heart of it. I normally struggle with smaller casts of chracters and thik some of the characters could have been expanded on a tad. I also think the world building had some confusion points but i am so excited to see where book 2 goes!! ( )