I really enjoyed the premise and concept of this book! It basically had everything I needed for a good time: tea magic, sisterhood, Chinese mythology, royal politics, and soo much food. Obviously I was obsessed with the concept of tea magic and really loved seeing its flaws and benefits. I also thought many of the characters had a lot of potential and interesting moments, even if we didn’t always get to see them fully developed. My major complaint for this book which made it a 3.5, in my head, rather than a 4 is the middle of the book. There were a lot of developments and plot twists that didn’t really work the best for me and were a bit confusing at times. But this is still my first proper fantasy duology in a while and I enjoyed it a lot! I’m excited to see where the next book takes us, and too see Kang’s pov since I really enjoy his character. For the last part of the book, I was reading it and going “please don’t be a cliffhanger” but oh my gosh.. that was a HUGE cliffhanger. HUGE. Anyways I’m glad I read this, it was fun and kept me engaged throughout pretty much the whole book.