This was a cute, low-stakes cozy fantasy with a great cover that really fits the vibe of the novel. It features Vera Wong, a Chinese immigrant and widow who owns a rundown teahouse that doesn’t get much traffic. She has a distant relationship with her grown son, probably due to frequent nagging texts like this: “Tilly, are you awake? It is 4:31 AM, very late. When I was your age, I wake up at 4AM every morning to cook breakfast for Ah Gong and Ah Ma. Qi lai! Seize the day! Carpe diem! Kind regards, Mama.” She has also named her teahouse “Vera Wang’s World-Famous Teahouse” because as Vera’s now deceased husband explains, “Vera Wang is very famous person, even white people know her name. So your mother said we might as well name it after her.” These quotes should give you an idea of what Vera is like.
I wasn’t sure I would like Vera. She is opinionated and bossy, but she is also lonely, kind, and empathetic, and she grew on me the way she grew on the other characters in the book. These characters are introduced after Vera finds a dead man in her teahouse. She doesn’t think the police are going to investigate the murder efficiently enough (based in part on how they aren’t acting like police do on CSI), so she withholds some information from the police and decides to investigate herself. She expects that the killer will return to the scene of the crime, so when Riki, Sana, Oliver (the dead man’s twin), and Julia (the dead man’s wife) individually make their way to the teahouse, they all become suspects to her. However, this does not stop her from developing genuine relationships with them, feeding them (and boy did it make me want some of what she was cooking), and helping them grow as people, even as she is still trying to find evidence to implicate or exonerate them.
I enjoyed the growth of these characters and the found family aspect. They all become close to each other and to Vera. The mystery had a surprising conclusion, too. While I had started to suspect who the killer was, there was a twist to the reveal that I didn’t expect, and I was pleasantly surprised. However, the book wasn’t captivating enough to keep me from somewhat frequently checking to see how far through the book I was (on Kindle), I liked the characters but didn’t feel a strong emotional connection to them, and the resolution between two particular characters in the book was a little unsatisfying. Ultimately this book was a 3-star read for me. I think it’s worth it if you like cozy mysteries because it’s not a bad book and I did enjoy it, but it hasn’t left me eager to read more by the same author.