Review of A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal

I had a reading slump while reading this book (not the book's fault). That being said, I read the first few chapters a few weeks before I sat down and actually read this book. This was a fun read with interesting characters, strong themes (colonialism), but not a really strong plot.

This book had a very long setup before the action/climax of the book even began. It was advertised as a heist book, yet that was only the last 100 or so pages. There were a lot of time skips, and since this is an adventure/heist book, I think there were many scenes with details that should have been seen to lead up to the big heist. The heist felt very short and did feel like the whole point of the book was pointless, with the characters and their actions having no consequences. Most of this book was characters talking in a room, and I just wanted some more action.

Each chapter switches to another character's pov, which started to get confusing during the action scenes because most chapters would pick up right in the action, yet you have been with this character for a good bit of pages. When it came to lore and backstory dumps, I wish there were more flashbacks or detailed scenes (like Arthie's backstory was really good with the flashback and details). The other characters' lore was just dumped during dialogue scenes, not really holding any value to them. The characters were well thought out and have good, distinguished personalities. The romance parts felt forced or rushed.

The last part of the book picks up, and the fast pace should have been the pace for most of this book, in my opinion. This was around 330 pages, and I don't think this was enough to get to know each of these characters. I didn't have a chance to get attached or know them too well in just this book.

I enjoyed the plot twists and the action-packed ending, and I wouldn't mind checking out the second book in this series.