ARC Review: A Coup of Tea by Casey Blair (Tea Princess Chronicles #1)
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Horse rating: 🐴 of five horses
ARC difficulty: walking bridge
Expected publication: August 2nd 2022
This is a lovely little YA story of a princess finding her own way and building a found family in the process. It is reminiscent of Tamora Pierce for me, very nostalgic since I grew up on those kinds of fantasy stories.
As other reviewers have noted, this is a very earnest story, and I think it works well for its genre. It has some very nice rep without being an information pamphlet or feeling performative. I think it has good messages, even as it is delivered a little blatantly.
“Not all witches are women,” I say automatically. Our current understanding is that all witches are born with female reproductive organs, but that isn’t the same.
Plotwise, it has a fun adventure/fantasy plot with the requisite mean villain who is a little two dimensional. It has very nice descriptions, maybe a little heavy on them at times, but it does set a beautiful and cozy scene. Same vibe as the cover (which is gorgeous!).
This does have the issue of strongly centering the heroine, as she is the privileged outsider swooping in to help the downtrodden etc. It’s a little iffy at times, since side characters occasionally serve only to teach the MC an important lesson…but again, that’s getting a little picky for the genre.
Overall, I found this to be a delightful YA fantasy adventure with a princess finding herself and her way in a new setting. I would have absolutely adored this as a young teen, and enjoyed it as an adult. I think it has very nice messages built into it as well, and would definitely recommend it to those its written for.
I grimace. “Wonderful. A hitherto untasted bug. I hope it’s at least magically inert and you haven’t poisoned me?”
I received this ARC from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All the opinions are my own.
A Coup of Tea on Amazon
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