Cannonball Read 15

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

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I saw it coming but that’s not totally a bad thing

A Venom Dark and Sweet by Judy I Lin

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I was right. The main threat introduced in A Magic Steeped in Poison that is more directly addressed and defined in A Venom Dark and Sweet was indeed of the ancient evil thing wants to resurrect and take over and destroy the known world. A Venom Dark and Sweet does manage to give heroine Ning more personality though in spite of maintaining her first person voice alternating with a third person representation of Kang’s perspective on things. They’re sort on the same side but also […]

Magical Tea Mystery

A Magic Steeped in Poison by Judy I. Lin

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I like the story, the characters, and the loose historical basis, but I don’t quite get how the magic fits into things in A Magic Steeped in Poison. Working with tea and medicinal plants certainly can involve the potential for poison, but I wish there was more detail about how the magic that can allow for tea to be used for emotions, healing, or telling the future worked. I’d settled for a little more about the historical aspect of traditional Chinese medicine; there’s an index […]

“The magic is not in the ceremony of pouring the tea or the sharing of the cup. It is in the connection, the brief joining of souls. The tea leaves are a channel, the ingredients the signposts.”

A Magic Steeped in Poison (The Book of Tea, #1) by Judy I. Lin

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A Magic Steeped in Poison is a YA fantasy that follows Ning, who is an apprentice teamaker (shennong-shi) in a world where teamaking is magic. She was an apprentice to her mother, but one day accidentally brews the tea that poisons and kills her. Her sister did not die, but is gravely ill and fading fast. Amidst a rash of poisonings across the country, and Ning’s frantic attempts to cure her sister, the government announces that they are looking for the greatest shennong-shi in the […]

A tea based magic system in an ancient Chinese inspired setting, yes please. (Bingo #2!!)

A Magic Steeped in Poison: The Book of Tea vol. 1 by Judy I. Lin

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CBR14 Bingo: “Gaslight” – In a setting influenced by ancient China, there is no electricity, all lights are flame based. A Magic Steeped in Poison was featured by Mysterious Galaxy earlier this year.  As a self-described tea snob, I was instantly interested.  I got the audiobook to listen during my health stomps.  While listening, I appreciated hearing the correct pronunciations of the Chinese (or Chinese inspired) names.  However, sitting down to try and write the review I’m hampered by not knowing how  names are spelled.  […]



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