A TEMPEST OF TEA by Hafsah Faizal

Although the third-person narrative initially made it hard for me to immerse myself in this story, I was impressed by the captivating, vivid descriptions that effortlessly brought the characters and world to life. I was also fascinated by the intriguing and creative world that was established. However, I struggled with the clunky worldbuilding information dumps and wished some concepts, like the tea house, had been better developed.

THE BLOOD GIFT by N. E. Davenport

Rich descriptions and a smooth, casual writing style brought this story to life and made it easy to immerse in. The world-building was also skilfully expanded and delivered without any glaring information dump, making it more engaging than the previous book. My only issue was that the extensive details of Ikenna’s emotions and internal conflicts made the narrative somewhat repetitive.