#Review - A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal #YA #Fantasy #Romance

Series: Blood and Tea (#2)
Format: Hardcover, 448 pages
Release Date: September 23, 2025
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Romance

The epic conclusion to the #1 bestselling A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal; the gritty fantasy duology about an orphan girl and her crew who get tangled in a heist with vampires, perfect for fans of Leigh Bardugo’s Six of Crows.

She's had her tea, now she's out for blood.

White Roaring is sharpening its fangs after the deadly night that left the city in shambles. The press are dead, the public calls for justice, vampires are in danger, and amid the turmoil, the Ram announces a celebration.

Still reeling from the bloodshed, Arthie Casimir has no time to mourn the death of anyone, let alone her own. She has no time for love, either, but it had saved her life. As Arthie navigates new emotions and new allies, she must reassemble her scrambled crew and scrape what little they have left to fight one last time – and she will need to face the ghosts of her past to do it.

In Ceylan.

After the jaw-dropping ending of #1 bestselling A Tempest of Tea, Arthie and her crew still have plenty of hearts to break and crimson-red secrets to uncover. Hafsah Faizal crafts a deliciously twisty and seductive sequel that will leave readers breathless until the very last page.

A Steeping of Blood is the second and final installment in author Hafsah Faizal's Blood and Tea duology. This story alternates between Arthie Casimir, Jin Casimir, Flick (also known as Felicity Landon), and Mateo Andoni, who play key roles throughout the story. This story picks up right after the chaotic events of the first book, where protagonist Arthie Casimir and her ragtag crew of humans and vampires barely escaped a deadly heist gone wrong. 

Without spoiling the jaw-dropping twists (and trust me, Faizal saves some of her most deliciously twisty reveals for this installment), the story follows Arthie as she grapples with the aftermath of bloodshed in the fog-shrouded city of White Roaring. The Ram, the tyrannical monarch pulling strings from the shadows, remains a looming threat, and with vampires under siege and humans vanishing into the night, Arthie's crew must reunite for one final, audacious heist. 

This time, their quest takes them back to Ceylan—Arthie's homeland—where old ghosts and new alliances collide in a web of political intrigue, forbidden pacts, and crimson secrets. Arthie still remembers 10 years ago when she arrived in Ettenia in a blood-drenched boat, the only survivor. For 10 years, she's hidden the fact that she's part vampire from everyone, including Jin, which is why she has an affinity for drinking from coconuts. 

Arthie, the fierce orphan teahouse owner with a vampire's unquenchable thirst for justice, shines brightest here. Her arc delves into vulnerability—mourning losses she can't afford to feel while confronting the "ghosts of her past" in Ceylan—making her evolution from a guarded leader to someone who dares to love profoundly all the more moving. Jin and Flick provide the emotional counterpoint, their relationship a sweet anchor amid the chaos. 

What was a budding spark in book one blooms into a heartfelt partnership, with Flick's POV "really shining" through her growth as a forger and ally. The villain of this story didn't disappoint. In fact, this person actually had Arthie and her crew struggling and rushing to keep up with the machinations that this person put in place. This book is a clear political statement by the author about colonization, one that I will not address, as it was an integral part of the overall storyline the author was trying to convey. 

The author should spend time in South America and ask the people there how they feel about the Spanish. Just saying. I am very much sick of authors and others, especially politicians, blaming white people for their troubles. Fix your own lives before blaming others. Put away the political nonsense, and this book was enjoyable, as well as a bit sad that things ended the way they did. 

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#Review - Den of Liars by Jessica S. Olson #YA #Fantasy #Romance

Series: The Devious (#1)
Format: Hardcover, 400 pages
Release Date: July 1, 2025
Publisher: Feiwel & Friends 
Source: Publisher
Genre: Young Adult / Fantasy / Romance 

Lola St. James is the world’s best kept secret. When her father’s loss in the Liar’s Dice Tournament–a high-stakes competition where players are forced to gamble with their deepest secrets–made her a target, she was rescued by the Thief, the notorious leader of the Tentacles. But the Thief’s kindness came with a price: Lola’s heart. In the years that followed, she and the Thief formed a bond like no other, able to feel each other’s emotions because of their shared heart.

Now, living under the pseudonym Astra, she is determined to prove herself and become a full-fledged Tentacle. But when a critical heist goes sideways, the only way forward is for Lola to compete in the Liar’s Dice Tournament herself. Lola is confident in her ability to pull off any heist, but the Thief's mysterious brother, the Liar, runs the game and he turns out to be more than she bargained for. As her attraction for him grows and illusions run wild, she will be forced to confront the secrets of her past, the truth of the brothers’ shared history, and the lies she tells herself.

Den of Liars, by Jessica S. Olson, is the first installment in the author's The Devious duology, which mixes together high-stakes heists, magical intrigue, and a slow-burn romance set against the backdrop of a glittering casino where secrets are the ultimate prize. The story centers on Lola St. James, a young woman living under the alias Astra, who is bound to the Thief, the notorious leader of the Tentacles, by a magical bond that allows them to feel each other’s emotions through a shared heart. 

This bond was formed when the Thief rescued her after her father’s devastating loss in the Liar’s Dice Tournament—a high-stakes magical competition where players wager their deepest secrets. Determined to prove herself as a full-fledged Tentacle, Lola embarks on a daring casino heist, but when it goes awry, she’s forced to enter the Liar’s Dice Tournament herself. There, she encounters the Thief’s enigmatic brother, the Liar, who runs the game and challenges her in ways she never expected. 

As Lola navigates the tournament’s deadly mind games, she’s torn between her growing attraction to the Liar, her loyalty to the Thief, and the secrets of her past that threaten to unravel everything. Once the tournament begins, the plot accelerates, delivering a relentless series of twists, betrayals, and revelations that keep readers hooked. The heist elements, reminiscent of Ocean’s Eleven, blend seamlessly with the high-stakes magical tournament, creating a narrative that feels both action-packed and emotionally charged. 

The novel also incorporates disability representation, with Lola having strabismic amblyopia (a “lazy eye”) and nearsightedness, requiring glasses. Olson, who shares these traits, authentically weaves this aspect into Lola’s character, highlighting her resilience without making it the sole focus of her identity. This representation has been celebrated as a meaningful addition to the fantasy genre, where such portrayals are rare. 

The two brothers, the Thief (Enzo) and the Liar (Nic), are equally intriguing, their fraught relationship adding complexity to the story. Enzo, Lola’s best friend and partner, shares an emotional bond with her that feels deep and authentic, though it’s complicated by their shared heart. Nic, the Liar, is a charismatic and morally gray antagonist-turned-love interest, whose banter and tension with Lola spark some of the novel’s most memorable scenes. The dynamic between Lola, Enzo, and Nic forms a unique love triangle—not in the traditional sense, but one rooted in loyalty, betrayal, and competing desires. 

This dynamic, combined with the brothers’ “deadly backstory,” keeps readers guessing about their true motives and adds emotional weight to Lola’s choices. With its strong heroine, morally gray brothers, and a cliffhanger that leaves readers scratching their heads, this book is a must-read for fans of Caraval, Kingdom of the Wicked, or The Inheritance Games.

CHAPTER ONE

LOLA

Damn, if I don’t love a good police chase.

“Halt!” the cop behind us barks.

Enzo snorts next to me. “‘Halt’? Do they ever realize how ridiculous they sound?”

I laugh as our feet slap in tandem across the slippery roof tiles of Aethera’s factory district. Our heart thunders in my chest, and adrenaline sparks in my pulse as sharp as the electricity rumbling in the clouds overhead. “Wholly unoriginal,” I agree as we leap across an alleyway and land midstride on the next roof, never breaking our pace.

We haven’t been chased in at least a year, and I can’t help grinning as the constable falls farther and farther behind. With Enzo’s magical ability to render us both incorporeal, we’re always long gone by the time the police show up to the scene of our thefts. Which means our heists are usually uneventful.

But six minutes ago, when dancer Louelle Martine returned home early to get ready for her performance tonight at the Liar’s Den Casino, she caught a glimpse of us vanishing through the wall with the four-thousand-plat tutu she was supposed to wear. Unluckily for us, a constable was just next door managing a domestic disturbance. Her cries of “It’s the Thief! The Thief!” had him hot on our trail in seconds.

The tutu is valuable, sure, but the Thief? His capture would be worth far more.

Since he and his brother, the Liar, rose to infamy five years ago for their magical powers, Enzo has become something of a myth. Most believe him dead thanks to a slew of rumors he started soon after he met me, but those who have recognized him during one of his cons whisper stories of a bejeweled specter who haunts the streets, seeking revenge for his ruination.

Not entirely incorrect, if you ask me.

Rain mists above our heads, and my breath fogs up the lenses of my glasses as we dodge chimneys and radio antennas, dislodged shingles and electrical wires. Enzo and I have done a thousand heists together, and we move like a pair of dancers across a stage. When he turns, so do I. When I leap, he does, too. We may only share a heart, but after four years of heists and training, we may as well share a body, a mind, a soul.

We angle west toward where the iron-gray sea churns in the distance. We just have to get to the last apartment building four roofs away, and then he’ll magic us through to the ground floor, where our getaway motorcar waits on the street.

Leap, roll, dash. Grasp arms, swing a pirouette around a smokestack, launch in an arc to the next roof. My poor depth perception, courtesy of the severe nearsightedness in my lazy eye, was a difficulty early on in my training, but now my body instinctively tracks Enzo in a way that ensures I always land on my feet. In turn, his typical rigidity bleeds away when he works with me, his body mimicking the lethal grace mine learned from a childhood of ballet training.

Together, we are unstoppable.

“Halt!” The police officer’s voice is a gasp, so far behind us it’s almost lost in the intensifying roar of the sea.

We finally reach the last roof. The ocean slams against the cliff mere yards from the base of this sixteen-floor structure, which trembles in the angry wind. Enzo jams his hand into his pocket, pulling out a lump of raw voratium so dark it seems to suck in the light of the streetlamps below, and presses the metal between our palms.

I wait for the familiar sensation of my body rippling into nothing, the weightlessness like a balloon inflating in my chest, the bubbling tingle of my limbs turning to air.

But only Enzo vanishes. My body barely flickers.

With a growl, Enzo reappears, chucking the voratium off the roof. “Damn it, this better not all be bum voratium.” He digs into his pocket again, retrieving a whole handful of the pitch-dark metal and gripping my palm.

Once more, when his body mists into nothing, mine stays firmly corporeal.

“Magnus St. James, you bastard!” He reappears, hurling the lot of metal as far as he can and letting out a string of curses I feel like bursts of rage in my own chest.

My father’s name, a dirty word on his lips, makes shame simmer under my skin. It’s becoming harder and harder to get our hands on good voratium these days with the way St. James has monopolized the entire industry. We steal what we can, and this lot came directly from one of his top lackeys, so we assumed it would be pure.

But it seems my father doesn’t do even his own staff favors.

Memories of him teaching me all about voratium ripple across my mind. The business of mining it, polishing it, driving up its price. All over again, I see the textbooks he had me study, their pages full of diagrams of the precise angles lumenors use to direct starlight into the metal. I glimpse his cunning smile, hear his sawdust voice describing how I will one day inherit his illicit network of families and businesses, all loyal to our name because of the power we wield with our voratium and our corruption.

All my life, I was his little secret. A weapon, stored away for her own protection until the day she would take her father’s place as the most infamous crime boss in history.

But that future died four years ago. To keep my father’s enemies from hunting us after Enzo whisked me away from them, we went to great lengths to convince the world I’d been killed. A corpse wearing a face doctored to look like mine was dumped on the street outside the warehouse I’d been locked in, and my father never knew the difference.

Every time I think of him, my chest constricts. Dust like glass in my lungs, hurt like ice in my veins, sting like poison at the corners of my eyes.

Because when he thought Magnolia St. James had been kidnapped, he did not come for her. And when he thought she had died, he did not cry, did not care.

That was when I learned the difference between the lies told to protect the ones you love and the lies told to make a person think that’s what you’re doing. Lies that last a whole childhood, lies that tell you they love you and that you matter and that you have a place, lies that slice through bone and muscle and tendon when they surface and leave you with a pain that hurts everywhere.

So I let Magnolia St. James die, and now I’m nothing more than her ghost, rippling through shadows with Enzo in the night. In the four years since I was kidnapped, I haven’t befriended anyone besides him, haven’t shown my face in daylight, haven’t even met Enzo’s gang of thieves he lovingly calls his Tentacles. Because I am too valuable, my heritage too dangerous, my existence a live wire ready to catch flame.

But tonight, as long as we make it through this heist and the one that comes after it at the Liar’s Den, I will finally prove to Enzo that I don’t need to stay in the shadows. That I’m enough of a con artist to manage the baggage of my history and my parentage. And when we finish this heist and break the curse that requires us to share a heart, my freedom will no longer be a liability.

Enzo stalks to the edge of the roof, his panic slicing like a knife through our shared heart. “How do we get you down, damn it?!”

The police officer’s cries grow. He’s only two roofs behind us now. We need to act fast.

I search our surroundings. None of the other buildings besides the one we just came from is close enough to reach by leaping. I lean over to survey the wall below. I’m an excellent climber, but the walls are lacquered in a glossy finish popular in this part of town that’s impossible to climb without a rope, and I don’t have one.

Whirling, I scan the area, cursing the smudges on my glasses that make it difficult to see. My gaze snags on an abandoned laundry line waving in the breeze, connecting this building to the one the police officer just leaped onto. Yanking out one of the two daggers strapped to my belt, I sprint toward the rope, hurling my blade toward the other end of the line. It slices through easily, bouncing off the opposing building and flipping to the street below as the rope drops, hanging only by the end connected to the window directly beneath my feet. Dropping to my stomach, I stretch my arms over the edge to detach the knot, then scramble back toward Enzo, dragging the rope behind me and shoving it at him, pointing at the massive smokestack at the apex of the roof.

“That rope isn’t long enough to even go around the whole chimney, let alone reach the street,” he protests.

“Good thing it doesn’t need to go around the chimney.” I raise my brow.

His eyes glint as he gathers the rope. “Knew I kept you around for something.” He vanishes, and the rope does with him, reappearing with its end through the brick of the chimney as Enzo coalesces on the other side.

I grasp it with both fists. “I’ll meet you at the car,” I call, swinging over the side of the roof.

A massive thud tells me the police officer just leaped to our building. I keep my eyes on the cobbled street below, feeling the burn of friction through my leather gloves as I slide down, feet skidding along the slick wall.

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#Review - Shadow & Storms by Helen Scheuerer #Fantasy #Romance

Series: The Legends of Thezmarr # 4
Format: Kindle, 420 pages
Release Date: June 20, 2024
Publisher: Alchemy
Source: Kindle Unlimited
Genre: Fantasy / Romance

“She was ready to shed blood, ready to take back what was hers.”

The time has come to make one last stand against the forces of cursed men and monsters. But Thea’s enemies are only getting stronger. With allies divided and an outnumbered army, she must race against her own fate to secure the future of the midrealms – or die trying.

A prophecy is looming, and Thea’s life is in the balance. Does she have the power to cheat death itself?

Love and loyalty will be tested. Bonds will fracture forever. But all must fight for a better world.

In the final war for survival, will Thea and Wilder emerge victorious? Or will the shadows consume them at last?

‘We are all daughters of darkness, Thea. We were born into a world of it, a place that would dictate the way in which we defend ourselves, the way we live our lives. No more. That world is no longer. And the next one will be what we make it.’

Shadow & Storms, by Helen Scheuerer, is the 4th and final installment in the author's The Legends of Thezmarr series. Shadow & Storms picks up shortly after the cliffhanger ending of Fate & Furies, thrusting readers into a world on the brink of collapse. Althea “Thea” Embervale faces her most daunting challenges yet: rescuing her beloved Wilder Hawthorne from the Scarlet Tower and leading an outnumbered army against a growing tide of cursed men and monsters. 

A looming prophecy tied to Thea’s fate stone—a recurring motif throughout the series—casts a shadow over her every move, raising questions about whether she can defy death itself. The narrative weaves together themes of love, loyalty, sacrifice, and destiny, as Thea and her allies make their final stand to secure the future of the midrealms. The story opens with immediate conflict, setting a tense tone that persists through strategic battles, emotional confrontations, and quieter moments of reflection. 

The plot is structured around two primary missions—Thea’s quest to save Wilder and the broader fight against the realm’s darkness, which converge seamlessly in the climactic final act. Unlike some series finales that struggle to tie up loose ends, Shadow & Storms resolves major plot threads with precision, offering satisfying answers to questions posed in earlier books. The battle scenes are vividly choreographed, blending magical spectacle with gritty combat, while the prophecy’s resolution is both surprising and emotionally resonant, subverting expectations in a way that feels earned. 

Thea Embervale, the fierce and unapologetically brutal heroine, is a standout. Her journey from a secretive alchemist to a legendary warrior is complete in this book, showcasing her strength, vulnerability, and determination. Thea’s struggle with her fated mortality adds a layer of poignancy to her actions, and her fierce loyalty to her found family and Wilder makes her endlessly compelling. Wilder Hawthorne, the brooding warrior and Thea’s love interest, is equally captivating. 

His arc in Shadow & Storms focuses on healing from the trauma of his captivity, and Scheuerer handles his recovery with sensitivity, avoiding the trope of instant recovery. Wilder’s devotion to Thea—balanced with respect for her independence. Characters like Kipp, Cal, Wren, Torj, and the Shadow Prince (from the companion novel Slaying the Shadow Prince) shine in their interactions, delivering quips, camaraderie, and heartfelt moments that make the group feel like a real family. 

Wren and Thea’s sisterly bond, along with finally understanding their lost older sister Anya and what really happened to her and their parents, is a standout. This culminates in visually stunning, magical collaborations that underscore the power of their connection. Not everything about this book is fantastic. I loved the action scenes and was happy with the battles, especially those ending the story arc for various characters. Not all is happy. 

There is heartbreak in this book, and it may have been done remarkably well, considering. I've said this before, and I shall say it again: Yes, this is a Romance, and thus, you will have sex scenes. But I think that the book could have used less of these and more about the unusual relationship between Wren and Torj, which I know is going to be spun off into a new series. 

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