The Bibliophile's Bookshelf

Title: A Magic Steeped in Poison

Series: The Book of Tea #1

Author: Judy I. Lin

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy, Romance, Mythology

Rating: 3.5 stars

Review:

For Ning, the only thing worse than losing her mother is knowing that it’s her own fault. She was the one who unknowingly brewed the poison tea that killed her—the poison tea that now threatens to also take her sister, Shu.

When Ning hears of a competition to find the kingdom’s greatest shennong-shi—masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making—she travels to the imperial city to compete. The winner will receive a favor from the princess, which may be Ning’s only chance to save her sister’s life.

But between the backstabbing competitors, bloody court politics, and a mysterious (and handsome) boy with a shocking secret, Ning might actually be the one in more danger. – summary from Goodreads

A Magic Steeped in Poison had an interesting premise, but it fell flat for me.

I have been wanting to read this book for years, so I am disappointed that I didn’t like it very much.

I will start off with the good things. I enjoyed the magic system throughout this book. It was tea based, which was new and interesting to me, though I will say I thought the tea magic was going to be a little simpler, so I was in for a little surprise. I also enjoyed the setting and Asian mythology and culture woven through the story. There were also a lot of food descriptions, which I loved.

I want to make this clear. This book wasn’t bad, but it needed more.

The characters felt underdeveloped. It felt very surface level and I wanted to dive further into the characters and that wasn’t happening. The main character, Ning, was the most developed character in the story. She was interesting, though I still wanted more from her. The other characters, Kang and Zhen, were two characters that I wanted to see more of. The were so intriguing, but we never really went super deep into who they are.

The plotline itself also needed to be ironed out a little more. The roots were definitely there, but it needed something. It felt disjointed and there were a few points where these things would happen with no explanation.

Overall, throughout A Magic Steeped in Poison I couldn’t get into the story and both the characters, and the storyline needed to be developed more. The magic system was intriguing, and Asian mythology and culture was beautifully woven through the story.