A Venom Dark and Sweet

It's definitely more of a 4.5 but I'm rounding up.

I've been eager to get to this sequel since the moment I finished reading A Magic Steeped in Poison, with that very fascinating and twisty ending. As my luck would have it, I read the first book weeks before it's release because I managed to get an arc but couldn't this time, so I had to wait for the release eagerly. I decided to try out the audiobook and I'm glad of my choice now.

I had already loved the first book but I have to say, this sequel is even better in almost every aspect. We finally move out of the palace and get to see the land outside of Jia, making for very gorgeous descriptions of mountains and forests and gorges and temples - the bamboo forest being one of the most memorable sceneries, and very easy to imagine coz it's a pretty common occurrence in cdramas. The stakes also change from one person's determination to save her family as well as palace intrigue, to something much more sweeping, with dark forces threatening the realm and ancient gods rendering support. Naturally, we get to know more about the creation of this world and the magic system, the mythology behind it all, and it made for a very fun read. The author's decision to make it a two POV book also helped us get a bigger picture of everything that was happening plot wise as well as giving us better character development than the first book. The pacing was pretty quick here because of the high stakes and it felt like everything was happening very fast - while I loved it for the most part, the ending did feel a tad bit too rushed, but satisfactory nonetheless.

Ning is a much changed person this time around. She has been through a lot of trauma, carries around the responsibility of her friends' deaths in her heart, and is determining to help Princess Zhen now that she has managed to save her sister. As she treks across the empire, learning more about her magic and the threat against their world, she becomes braver and wise and learns to trust her heart and it's decisions. She really comes into her own as the story goes on, and I loved her growing confidence in herself and those she trusts.

It was nice to finally get to know what Kang is thinking. I was initially a bit angry at him for following along with everything his father tells him, despite the cruelty of his actions - but I was glad to see that he still had a mind of his own and was interested in digging deeper and finding out uncomfortable truths. His connection to Ning is still present when they meet again and while I definitely expected more distrust and some groveling to occur before she trusted him again, it all happened pretty quickly here. But it was just nice to see them trust each other and work together for the well being of the people, even when it personally hurt Kang.

We do get to see a bit more of Zhen and Ruyi and I adore their relationship, but it really wasn't too much page time. It was awesome to see more of Ning and Shu's sisterly bond and really how far they'll go for each other's sake. I really wanted to see more of Lian and her bonding with Ning but she was almost absent from the book. The only other character who has some sort of significant presence through the narrative is the villain, who was very stereotypically evil like from many myths I've read, but it was fun to see our characters work together to defeat him.

On the whole, this was a fitting and satisfying conclusion to the Book of Tea duology. Full of beautiful descriptions, high stakes adventure, fascinating tea magic system, and a well developed mythology, this book is a thrilling ride and I fell in love more with the main characters. I can't wait to see what the author writes next.

At first I was upset that there wasn't as much tea magic in this one, but I persevered through my disappointment and discovered so many wonderful places in the kingdom! I genuinely enjoyed the other places we got to visit and the various people and powers we got to witness. The twist near the end and then the way it was all wrapped up were very well done. And there was a good amount of tea magic sprinkled throughout the book. It was a great wrap up to the story!

CAWPILE SCORE
C-7
A-6
W-8
P-8
I-8
L-8
E-8
TOTAL-7.57/10

CAWPILECharactersNing—chosen by many gods to stop serpent from rising more. Ptsd from serpent attacks and multiple shiftsKang—Grappling with implications of what his father has done and why. Trying to make sense of what he wants. Serpent—blinded by ambition and powerAtmosphereAtmosphere was done beautifully again.Great descriptions of food.WritingGreat writing again. Very distinct voices for both Ning and KangLots of turns. I thought all the wulin monks were taken over, but it was just a small portion.PlotTo stop the serpent they must gather his items and let him come again, then he can be stopped. InvestmentI was saddened by the neglect of tea “forms” not disappointed in the book, just that aspect.Loved the 5 simple things represent the gods and bind the serpent again. Ornamental disc, stone bowl, metal dagger, paper fan. LogicMoving from the “simple” rebellion to the serpent taking over was well done felt logical with all the pieces in place.EnjoymentSorcerer of the mists was a great scene. Love that Kang and Ning stay together that they both feel pulled to each other and trust each other even with the issues that came between them. MiscI knew Councillor Zhou was the bad guy the whole time, wasn't sure about Kang's dad, until the end, but sacrificing himself to be forever drowned that takes guts.Chancellor started everything even the lie about emperors brother trying to kill himBrother Huang- don't talk about your life after this mission, that's what gets you everytime.
I will be talking about it on Libromancy https://libromancy.podbean.com/

3.5 rounded up

Maaaan I'm conflicted! While I loved and enjoyed the plot of this story (and the first book too), I think the writing was more tell-not-show so it wasn't captivating and jaw-dropping. The story was delivered with literal actions/descriptions. Something that I did enjoy in this book was the first-person POV of Ning shifting to having an additional POV of Kang but in third-person. I felt like making both of them consistent would have been nice, even having Kang's first-person POV would've been cool!

(spoilers for the whole duology) In this book, there was a lot of death in addition to the first book, which was.. understandable (since it's a war), maybe to grip the reader, but it felt "unnecessary"? The ending felt terribly rushed, and Ning mentioned the kiss with Kang so many times, you'd expect them to kiss at the end, right? (well, that's what I expected, and it didn't deliver LOL) I also wished we knew the whereabouts of all these other characters that came up in between, like the kitchen staff, which were a great part of Ning's competition in book one. ):

Regardless, I enjoyed the duology and being on this journey.

The additional point of view - the story of Kang was great. Although, that is a bit confusing as to why Kang's POV is written in third person, while Ning's is in first person.
The first book to be so much more magical and whimsical, particularly surrounding the tea aspect, but with this one there just wasn't that spark of magic. It also feels like magic moves on from tea to “real” magic, which is hardly explained and rushed.
The motivations for the plot in the first half of the novel were vague, and the ending was quite rushed with everything that needed to happen to wrap up the story.

I once again wish you could do 1/2 stars on Goodreads, for while I enjoyed the second book in the Book of Tea Duology, I don't think I liked it quite as much as the first, but also think it was better than just a 3. Judy Lin continues to weave a wonderfully fantastical story of magic and adventure and ties everything up quite nicely in the end. In fact I think the last 1/4 of the book was the best as it amped up the action and stakes felt more urgent than previously. Her writing is sparse, but still manages to weave a world I enjoy reading and delving into. I think I felt the relationships lacking more in this one though. There were a lot of segments strung together and no time for us to care about anyone really deeply before being propelled to the next task or event. I think in that way I wasn't as invested as I was with book 1. But still overall a worthy read and happy to see more Asian fantasy getting out there.