Ning's mother is dead and her sister is dying of the same poison. Ning travels to the capital to take part in a competition to find the next shennong-shi (masters of the art of tea-making) in order to ask for help healing her sister.

In some ways this books feels like the set up of many a young adult fantasy - a dead parent, a dying sibling, a quest to find a way to heal a loved one. However I thoroughly enjoyed the magic system created through the Chinese art of brewing tea. I love a magical competition. The female friendship between Ning and her roommate Lian were a nice touch.

I would say that you can tell that the book is written by a debut author. There are elements that do not make sense or are provided with no explanation. That aside I had a fun time reading it and wanted to continue whenever I had the chance. Can't wait to pick up the sequel and see what this author does next.

Thank you very much @titanbooks for sending me an eARC of A Magic Steeped in poison! Paperbacks are available in the UK from tomorrow (6th Sept)! 🎉

After not reading a lot of YA High Fantasy for a while A Magic Steeped in Poison reminded me why I love the genre so much! The writing style was beautiful with a lot of descriptive language that had me feeling fully immersed in the book. I also really enjoyed the magic system with the tea making, finding it interesting and different to what I’ve read before.

Main character Ning has entered a competition to find the best shénnóng-shi (a magic specialist who uses the art of tea making) in the kingdom. She hopes to win, earning a favour from the Princess that may help save her sister Shu. I really liked Ning as a main character and enjoyed seeing her character develop after leaving home and facing the events of the book.

While A Magic Steeped in Poison is definitely it’s own book (and a very good one at that) I think fans of Spin the Dawn will also enjoy it as there were some similarities like a village girl going to a big city as requested by a royal to compete for a position and in the style of writing as well.

Overall I really enjoyed A Magic Steeped in Poison and I’m already looking forward to reading A Venom Dark and Sweet!
Rating: 4/5🌟
#AMagicSteepedInPoison #Netgalley

I wish I could say I enjoyed this, but it wasn't my cup of tea. Pun probably intended.

There were elements of it which were great - I did love the friendships and the actual tea-related incidents. However, everything around it just didn't quite work for me. I wasn't a fan of most of the characters aside from Ning - the rest of them blended into one another and I couldn't really tell them apart. Plot wise, it was fairly unique in terms of tea magic (exceptional, really), but it needed a bit more of the fantastical element, and a bit more explanation of it.

Again, I really do wish I'd loved it, because it has a fabulous concept! The execution just wasn't to my personal tastes.

I received an electronic advanced reader copy in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you to Judy I Lin and Titan books for giving me the chance to read this before it’s UK release.

Lin paints the most beautiful world within this book filled with magic and intrigue. The use of tea ceremonies within this book is beautiful and shows the importance of them within the world wonderfully.

Poison is corrupting the kingdom. Having lost her mother to the poison, Ning travels to the capital in order to compete to be the next Shennong-Shi in the hopes that she can gain a favour from the Princess. Desperate to save her sister who has also been poisoned.

But not only does she have to face cutthroat competitors, but she also has to face the court politics.

I can’t wait to see where this duology goes next, I’m firmly a fan of the characters within this novel and I can’t wait to return to this stunning world

Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Three Stars

A Magic Steeped in Poison isn't the best but enjoyable enough. I found it very predictable, had seen it all before, but the magic system, while patchy in places, was really interesting to learn about. who doesn't love the idea of tea being literal magic?

Overall, I just wasn't very convinced by the plot. The court politics was flimsy, with power dynamics that weren't totally believable, though served their purpose in the story. The competition part of the story felt a little obsolete as Ning was clearly written as the best to the point where it seemed silly no one else noticed. There was a lot of angst, very little threat. It suffered from the typical 'you just almost died but let's have a completely unrelated casual conversation immediately after' YA trope.

There were also moments when I didn't fully understand what was happening on the page. Things would happen and people would appear and, from the set-up and staging, I thought it meant one but then a few lines later, I would be told it meant something else and wasn't as significant as I'd expected. It made things hard to follow at times and also missed out on a fair few opportunities for drama.

I really hate cliffhangers, especially if they happen without finishing off the initial story at all. Unfortunately, I think I'll leave this series not knowing how the story ends since it decided to essentially cut off in the middle, and I didn't enjoy it quite enough to read the second book when it arrives.

I love this book for the magic in the ancient Chinese art of tea brewing. Just how everything in this book revolves around tea is amazing..... I love tea.
While the beginning was slow by the middle, you will be swept away by the beautiful world that Judy created., I was just in visioning being there while reading. The writing was beautiful and very descriptive,
I was blown away by the interesting characters and the unique magic.
The book is told from Ning's perspective, she is strong, brave, caring, and will do whatever it takes to save her sister, you can see this right the way through the book.
This book will have you on the edge of your seat wanting more.

A beautifully told and thrilling story!

Ning accidentally brews a batch of tea that poisons her mother and sends her sister, Shu, knocking on deaths door. Shu's only hope is Ning masquerading as her mother's apprentice in her place and winning a competition to find the lands greatest shénnóng-shī, the masters of ancient tea making, and securing a favour from the Princess. Ning has to do it, she has no choice, she MUST save her sister's life, but is all as it seems?

I love tea and I love magic so reading A Magic Steeped In Poison was a must for me! A beautifully woven tale of Chinese Mythology, traditions, and magic. Ning is an amazing main character who you can't help rooting for from the start! This book has me wanting to learn all about teas and different ways to make it! I absolutely love loved every second, I couldn't put it down. 5*

First of all, thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

A Magic Steeped in Poison is the first book in The Book of Tea duology by Judy I. Lin, in which we follow Ning as she participates in a magic tea competition in order to save her younger sister's life.

I have been reading more and more Asian-inspired fantasy these past few months and loving them all, and A Magic Steeped in Poison is no exception: I loved this book. I am a sucker for a pretty cover, and I find that this colourful cover depicts well the ambience of the book, with the koi carps, the flowers and the tea. Another thing that I loved in this book is the descriptions: they contain a lot of sensorial elements (sight, sound, smell, touch) that make you want to live in this book. The world building is amazing, and I liked the characters (Bo in particular), though Ning's behaviour sometimes annoyed me.
This book was really easy to read and understand, and I enjoyed the fact that Judy I. Lin added some elements to make it feel more Chinese-inspired, like the use of traditional Chinese medicine, and the use of the Chinese writing system—kanji and pinyin. Did I also mention that there is a glossary at the end of the book?
The only thing, in my opinion, that could have been improved is the fact that Ning always seems to succeed in whatever she is doing and I would have liked to see her struggle a little bit more in some of the events.
This book ends on a cliffhanger, but fortunately, the hardback edition of A Venom Dark and Sweet – the conclusion to this duology – was published in August 2022 (the paperback edition will be out in January 2023), so you can read it straight after this one!

Tropes:
📚 First book in a duology
🐉 Chinese-inspired fantasy
👩🏻 Single POV

ARC kindly provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest and fair review.

I decided to read this book because of two main things: 1) the book cover (which is gorgeous!) and 2) magic linked to tea (I love tea!). I had so many expections on this book, but unluckily it didn’t satisfy me completely.

Ning is a young girl who left her hometown, her sister and father to go to the imperial palace for a competition to become the kingdom's greatest shennong-shi, aka masters of the ancient and magical art of tea-making, hoping to win in order to get, one way or another, an antidote to save her sister from the same poison that killed her mother. However, once she arrived at the palace, Ning’s life gets more and more complicate as she gets thrown between other competitors and intricate court politics. In all of this, she meets grows close to a mysterious boy, Kang.

I really wanted to like this book, but it let me down a bit. I found it very slow-paced and sometimes even boring.
Either way, I really liked the idea of using magic connected to teas and the art of the shennong-shi.
Anyway, I am very interested in reading the sequel so as to know what is going to happen to Ning, her sister, Kang and the princess!

My rating: 3.5!

Rating:
4 out of 5 stars

Summary:
Ning just lost her mother to an unknown poison and is about to lose her sister to the same poison as well, so she decides to try to get close to the capital and try to find an antidote. She joins a competition the royal house organised to find the kingdom’s greatest shennong-shi masters – side note: she hasn’t had a formal education in this art – to be able to find an antidote. However, the competition is a little different than what she had expected. Of course, there are some corrupt judges and participants, but this is balanced when Ning receives help from the princess herself. Only, this collaboration becomes a little different than she had expected in the first place and the competition also takes a very different path…

Review:
This book completely blew me away! Let’s be honest, I definitely wanted to read this book for the cover and for the cover only. However, the story appeared to be even better than the cover!
My first thought was that I think the idea of practicing magic through brewing teas is very original. It’s not the kind of magic that a ‘normal’ witch practices, but it’s magic with different aims and yet, it’s interesting.
Furthermore, the competition element of the plot is very well written. I am a great fan of royal competitions in novels, especially when they are very corrupt, but usually they are written in the same manner or appear to have very similar aims, participants or tasks. However, this competition was very different and I really liked that.
Another thing I really liked was the fact that this story did NOT take place in the Western world, but in an imaginary Asian country. I don’t know much about Asian cultures, but this novel sparked my interest in wanting to learn more about these cultures and their customs. I think that the novel very well reflected an Asian society, especially in the details found in the book (f.i. clothing, customs, travels, etc.).
Moreover, the tension and the pace at the end of the novel was just GREAT. The story builds up tension and gets increasingly more fast paced, which results in the end of the novel that just completely sucks you in. I couldn’t stop reading for like the last 100 pages.

Conclusion:
I DEFINITELY recommend this novel! It’s an urban fantasy novel with adventurous and royal touches and also has a tiny bit of romance woven through. It feels like a great combination of subjects to reflect daily life. Additionally, the story is well-written, interesting and original. What else does a reader need?

I absolutely loved the magical elements of this story, the different kinds of power that could be wielded by different practitioners mixed with the ancient art of brewing tea was absolutely inspired. I’d love to read more about this, hopefully the second book will focus more on what makes this story unique.
I didn’t really connect with the love story, it felt like a red herring. I enjoyed the female friendships but again it feels like at least one will turn out to be a traitor. Hopefully I’m wrong.
Will be recommending for the magic!

I absolutely loved the setting of this story - it's beautifully fantastical, inspired by folklore, it's got a brave heroine who sticks to her original motivations of saving her sister throughout, there's backstabbing and mystery and a competition - I mean what more could you want? There's also some absolutely to-die-for descriptions of food scattered throughout the novel that had me salivating. The author has very lyrical writing which lends itself perfectly to the plot, as well as the magic system which is based upon tea. My least favourite part about the book is unfortunately the romance, which felt quite insta-lovey and could've had a better build-up as opposed to how quickly they fell for each other. Other than that, I really enjoyed reading this book and after that ending, I am desperate to read the sequel!

I really enjoyed this book and am already looking at getting the second one after that ending!

Before I start I’d just like to say the cover is amazingly beautiful and I’m in love!
I loved that everything revolved around Ning’s love for her sister and magical tea. It was a well developed element that I found to be really interesting.
The characters were likeable and fleshed out though Ning could be a little naive at times it didn’t make her unlikeable.
The chinese mythology and ancient medicinal elements were a common theme throughout the book and I loved reading about it (there is also a glossary in the back for pronunciation!)

Thanks to Netgalley, Judy I. Lin, and Titan Books for the arc.

Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I Lin ⭐⭐⭐⭐📱384pgs
Lots of intrigue and scheming and loved the competition element. Loved the tea magic too. Can't wait for the sequel! But since this is only an arc, it'll be a while yet! 😅

As an avid tea drinker, this book warmed my soul.

A Magic Steeped in Poision is familiar enough that there’s no confusion regarding the fantasy, but is original enough that it’s not boring. I especially loved the tea element that plays a massive part of the book.

The characters are some of my favourites that I’ve ever read. They were well fleshed out and didn’t fall flat. If you’re looking for strong female characters, this is the book for you.

However, what I loved most about this book was the way it appealed to my senses. The descriptions of the food and teas had my mouth watering throughout. I could smell the different ingredients, as well as clearly envision the setting.

Overall, I loved this book. It’s an easy, surprisingly quick, fantasy that can be grasped by anyone.

Fans of Elizabeth Lim, Sue Lynn Tan and Axie Oh will love this book. It especially reminded me of the Blood of Stars Duology – but then again, it is also very different.

Ning travels to the capital to compete against other shennong-shi, sorcerers who use the art of tea for their magic. However, she hides the fact, that it was truly her sister who was her mother’s apprentice. Her sister, who is dying and needs the favour of the emperor’s daughter to survive. But a competition of tea making is more than just skills. It’s politics and it’s dangerous and now Ning is in the middle of it all.

This was a pretty good book. Choosing the art of tea-making as a topic was simply awesome and Lin did a great job with it. I loved the cultural and culinary aspects, both of which are often found in these East Asian inspired books, and both of which I absolutely love to read about.

The characters were interesting enough. Ning was a bit naïve, but very sweet and dedicated and I have got to respect her. Lian was lovely, Kang was great. The whole book felt very well rounded, and every detail was done with so much love. I truly enjoyed this style of writing.

However, I cannot give five stars. While very well written, the longest part of this book was, plainly said, a bit boring. The competition was obviously the main plot. But there wasn’t much excitement. The stakes were quite low and anything bad happening seemed to be nothing more than a minor inconvenience. The ending was way better – exciting, lots of things going on, high stakes – but that was only the last couple of chapters.

With this ending I’m hoping that Venom will have all the excitement that this book was lacking and I’m looking forward to the second book of Tea.

Thank you, NetGalley and Titan Books for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The premise for this is incredible - I loved the magic system, it’s so unique! It goes so much deeper than I originally would have guessed based on reading the blurb, and I was so intrigued by this detailed and well-thought-out tea-based magic.

However, that’s where it sort of ended for me and landed it in the solid 3 star rating. It’s an enjoyable and readable book, but it felt pretty average YA on everything else. I couldn’t get a proper understanding of the stakes and found the plot a little muddled and confusing, and I couldn’t really get super emotionally invested in any of the characters.

The main character felt really passive in her own story, I never felt like she was giving a real emotional reaction to anything (apart from her grief at her mother’s death) and some of her actions/reactions felt like plot convenience. The main romance was also quite insta-lovey, which made it difficult to buy into.

I think this book would have benefited from multiple POVs or maybe a tense shift (it’s in present tense, which I think is why I felt the main character was so passive), but overall it was a solid start to a YA fantasy duology and a great debut. I spent a good while thinking I wasn’t going to pick up the sequel, but the last 25% picked up rapidly and has left me curious as to how it will turn out.

When Ning's mother dies from drinking a poisoned tea, and her sister Shu is dangerously ill, Ning is determined to travel to the palace, win a competition, and find a cure for Shu.

Every element of this novel is stunning to me, from the cover to the magic system. While it isn't too detailed or in-depth, I found this actually to be more enjoyable than an insanely detailed and complicated magical element. The descriptions of the tea and the ingredients and the ways it was used were subtle and seamless and felt so original.

This is a YA novel which is often younger than I usually read, however I loved the writing style and found Ning to be a determined and intelligent narrator. I would love to see the politics being more delved into but I am also aware that more would potentially change this to a more mature, new adult novel. It did feel quite formulaic (standard fantasy competition plot with general troped characters) however the magic just made it for me. Everything felt beautiful and no detail was too little or insignificant.

I'm already buying the sequel as I write this. This was a beautiful debut and I am very excited to see where Judy takes us next.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Beautifully written, you are drawn into this world of subtle magic blended with aromatic teas, secret trysts, and political intrigue. When Ning's mother dies from drinking a poisoned tea, and her sister Shu is dangerously ill, Ning is determined to travel to the palace, win a competition, and find a cure for Shu.

I loved the magical elements of the story, that are introduced slowly and become a more central part of the tale as Ning discovers her hidden powers. As the competition progresses, she sees that things are not as they seem, but she refuses to lose sight of her goal to save Shu.

I loved the characters, the delicate narrative, the aromas of the flowers and herbs used in the teas, the story telling and the magic. It ended with a cliffhanger, and I can't wait to read the next book! Highly recommend.

Okay but I might have found my new favourite series. I found myself in a fantastically thought through world. The story telling was phenomenal and I want to live in this world forever. Book two is already at my house and I cannot wait to dive right back in.