About

A Coup of Tea is the first book in the Tea Princess Chronicles series written by Casey Blair.

A Coup of Tea book cover

Blurb

When the fourth princess of Istalam is due to dedicate herself to a path serving the crown, she makes a choice that shocks everyone, herself most of all: She leaves.

In hiding and exiled from power, Miyara finds her place running a tea shop in a struggling community that sits on the edge of a magical disaster zone. But there's more brewing under the surface of this city—hidden magic, and hidden machinations—that threaten all the people who've helped her make her own way.

Miyara may not be a princess anymore, but with a teapot in hand she'll risk her newfound freedom to discover a more meaningful kind of power.

Review

This was a delightful read. After consuming too many action filled progression fantasy, I wanted something different and this turned out to be the perfect choice. I didn't know that the book was politically focused, which was good because I might have skipped this book otherwise.

There really wasn't much in terms of action, but the pacing was great throughout thanks to a good plot with a bit of mystery and skillfully crafted tension between characters. The romantic sub-plots were fine, but I wish there were more POVs to get a better feel for their experiences.

The different ways of performing magic were intriguing and played a significant role in the plot even though we don't get much in terms of details. I especially liked that magecraft could be learned as a skill and yet had a neat restriction.

The tea ceremony was very interesting. Initially, I found it a bit hard to believe the kind of training tea masters had to go through until I got a better sense of what they did (hint: it's not just about concocting tea). Overall, despite the higher stakes and emotional stuff, this was a heartwarming read.

My rating: 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟

What others are saying

From Intisar Khanani's review on goodreads:

This is very much a story of a privileged person learning to leverage their abilities and knowledge to act as an ally, while both protecting those they are supporting and doing their best to center their voices. It's a delicate balance, and Miyara doesn't always get it right, but kudos to Blair for writing a story that models allyship in a fantasy setting.

From Kevin's review on goodreads:

Overall, I found this to be a delightful YA fantasy adventure with a princess finding herself and her way in a new setting. I would have absolutely adored this as a young teen, and enjoyed it as an adult. I think it has very nice messages built into it as well, and would definitely recommend it to those its written for.