“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. ( )

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!! ( )

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!! ( )

This book just wasn’t my cup of tea… (painfully obvious pun.) The writing was beautiful, but I found the plot boring and the characters flat. I skim read most of the back half because I wanted to be done. ( )