A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal
Thank you to Hafsah Faizal, Macmillan Children’s Publishing Group, and NetGalley for providing this book for review consideration. All opinions are my own. Commissions may be earned on links in this article.
Book Recap: White Roaring will never be the same after a night that changed the future of the city forever. Arthie Casimir must use her skills, and maybe her fangs, in order to restore peace within the city she loves. However, in order to ensure a better future, she has to look at her past.
Top Tropes/Themes:
🧛🏽 Vampires
👪 Found Family
🕯️Classism
Spice Rating: 🫑(glimpses and kisses)
Overall Rating: ⭐⭐⭐.5 (3.5 stars)
Let’s Talk About It…
I picked up A Tempest of Tea, the first book in the Blood and Tea duology, as a vacation read a little over a year ago. I was shook by the cliffhanger ending and couldn’t wait to read the second book, A Steeping of Blood. I enjoyed how this book wasted no time and picked up right were the first book ended. The crew you fall in love with in book one is present from the start and we get to see their dynamics evolve over the course of the book.
While the storyline in book one wasn’t sunny, this book felt much darker. This is a young adult book, but some of the difficult and dark themes would lead this book to be more suitable for an upper young adult audience. The story in A Steeping of Blood builds off the themes of classism and colonization that were established in the first book while giving a deeper look at the harms of both.
I wanted to love this book as much as I did the first one, but the pacing seemed off and there was also a good amount of repeated over explanation. This was mostly focused on topics in the book that were large plot points that the reader wouldn’t easily forget. I was shocked by the ending and, without giving spoilers, found the decision to end the story in this way to be unsatisfying.
Overall, if you read the first book and enjoyed it, you will likely enjoy this one. I am glad I read the conclusion to this duology, but wish this book had the same spark that the first one did and cause me to I fall in love with Spindrift.
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