A wonderful cozy fantasy. The characters are likable, decently complex, and the prose is strong. The opening chapter is sharp, delivering an excellent hook while introducing you to your main character with indications of her flaws and strengths while giving her meaningful decisions and agency.
The books strongest features are it depiction of tea, as it sells the aesthetic, the pageantry, and feel of tea, a tea house, and tea service wonderfully, and its plot. The pacing is spectacular, both in allowing time for the plot breathe, for characters to interact, display themselves, and make meaningful decisions, and it graduates stakes and tension. Our main characters is constantly compelled to make meaningful decisions, to undertake risks, or make sacrifices to a variety of threats and conflicts types. All of this without sacrificing the cozy feel of the story.
Author page on goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7998882.Casey_Blair