I’m starting to be convinced that maybe Hafsah Faizal’s books aren’t necessarily up my wheelhouse? I really enjoyed We Hunt the Flame but was highly let down by its sequel. And I found myself trudging through Tempest of Tea but held out hope that this book was turn it around. Unfortunately, I was let down again.

Like I said, I didn’t totally connect with the first book in this series. I liked Arthie but couldn’t find myself interested in the others EXCEPT Matteo, who was a big reason I still tried this book because I was sure that he would step into a bigger role (he did). However, it still wasn’t enough to get me to care about any of the plot. WHY Matteo didn’t get POV chapters, I’ll never know. It seems like a massive waste of a great character. And don’t even get me started on the ending. What was the point? All the suffering throughout the book and it doesn’t even end on a happy note for Matteo or Arthie. Lame. Might have to take a break from Hafsah’s books until a premise really grabs me.

A Steeping of Blood
by Hafsah Faizal
Pub Date: Sep 23 2025

White Roaring is sharpening its fangs after the deadly night that left the city in shambles. The press are dead, the public is calling 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, even though 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.

First and foremost, thank you NetGalley and Macmillian for letting me get an ARC of this book!

This book is much more fast paced and action packed compared to the first, which wasn’t a win for me, personally. With the first book, I was there for the vibes, which were immaculate, but the vibes here were much different. Seeing the romances between characters develops was worth it, but the plot overall felt scattered. I struggled with this one, which is painful to say because I love Hafsah Faizal and her work. That being said, if you didn’t like the first book because of the pacing and vibes, you might actually really like this sequel, especially if you’ve already read the first book. Am I still going buy it when it comes out for my book shelf? Yes. Am I still sad that I hyped this sequel up for myself only to have my expectations not met in the ways I wanted? Also yes.

It’s a good book, I just wasn’t expecting what I got. 3/5.

A Steeping of Blood is Robin Hood meets Twilight. It’s an action-thrilled second book in the Blood and Tea duology with not one, but two swoony romances. Readers who enjoy found-family, vampires, and unlikely heroes taking on a corrupt government leader. It has a quick-moving plot with lots of action and the ending is bittersweet like a cup of tea. I read it in one sitting.

It really pains me to say this but I struggled with this sequel. I absolutely adored the first book and couldn’t wait to dive in and be back with these characters. The first 25% was great, I was having a wonderful time being back in the world, but then I started getting a little bored and ended up struggling with the rest of the book.

Thank you soo much to Macmillan for sending me an eARC of this book.

I’m trying so hard not to spoil this book but it is so so incredibly good and I loved it, even more than the first one. This book gave me more of the characters and helped me understand them more and truly make a place for them in my heart.

I love Arthie SO MUCH and how she changes in this book and truly opens up to the crew is so sweet. I can’t really say much else without spoiling.

But Hafsah has also said that she added a lot more tweaks and fluff to the story since the ARC was released for reviews and I do believe they could make the book much better so I am still waiting until September before fully forming a review.

But overall great, and also made me really sad. That’s all I will say.

Another great novel in this series. A Steeping of Blood by Hafsah Faizal is very well written and very plot driven. It caught my attention from the start and held it. I also love the cover the color palette and illustrations were a great choice for the book.

I really enjoyed this! Maybe not as much as book 1 but I still had a great time with the characters and the plots were very paced fast! I love the found family tropes and also how certain relationships developed can’t wait to add to our library collection!

I love this duology and I want more of it! This is so much fun!

This duology has vampires, secret and not-so-legal businesses, political drama, and a cast of unlikely friends/outcasts working together. All things that I absolutely love. And if that description alone didn't make this obvious, yes, it is perfect for fans of Six of Crows. If you like the heist, sneaky business and ensemble cast of that series, definitely give this a go. I think you'd really like it.

I think these two books accompanied themselves perfectly, I don't think one was better than the other and I think that's so rare to find with duologies (at least in my experience).

I loved the arc that these characters went through and I loved all the little drama and reveals that we got throughout the duology (a lot of it coming to a head in this final book). These characters were just all so fun and falling in love with the characters is such an important thing for me when reading. So yes, now it is time to look up fanart and fall even more in love with them.

Thanks to NetGalley for the e-ARC of this book in exchange for my honest review! My Goodreads review is up and my TikTok (Zoe_Lipman) review will be up at the end of the month with my monthly reading wrap-up.

This was a fun book. It was just as good as the first book in the series and the story developed wonderfully. And the romance was great.

Thank you for the ARC in exchange for an honest review. First of all, Hafsah— I’m sorry. I truly am… But it is very obvious that A Steeping of Blood was difficult to write. A Tempest of Tea was one of my favorite books of the year last year. I literally have THREE copies of it. Between the characters, the twists, and the over-arching theme, I was really looking forward to seeing what would come next with a second book.

The writing style, while beautiful and witty, was way too juvenile for the subject matter. I mean, we’re talking about colonialism, racism, death, etc… I get this is technically YA, but this book could benefit from the author using a more sensitive tone. A personal issue I had was the dialogue between characters... The one-liners and pet names were unbearably cheesy.

Overall, this book was dull but somehow still so incredibly heavy-handed. The unnecessary descriptions and random side thoughts during the multiple POVs will probably have most people skimming the pages.

A Tempest of Tea was slower on the pace side, and while this one is much faster paced, it feels like we spend chapter upon chapter reading about a single scene that could’ve been easily put into half a page and still packed the same punch.

I love how we saw more of Flick and Jin but at the cost of the other characters… Which was fine, but the ending of the first book left us with SO many questions that didn’t really get answered.

My main issue was the end… I’m not the type of person that always has to have a HEA, but the twist at the end felt inorganic and added purely for shock value and nothing else. Maybe to create buzz online when people talk about their experience while reading it? I don’t know, but wow… I felt very thrown off by everything that happens in the last 100 pages.

I’m sad to be making such a review.

A truly phenomenal sequel. I loved the continuation of Archie and Jin’s story. I really enjoyed the 3 POVs with Flick. Each character went through great character growth.

The story may start off going where you think it will but immediately adds more plot twists than I was expecting. I was in tears through some of the plot twists but I loved this journey.

I had 30-40 pages left and was wondering how is the author going to wrap everything up in that time. In a way I was definitely not expecting! It has an incredible balance between action scenes and emotional/plot drive scenes. The only thing I wanted was an overall HEA, this one was bittersweet for me.

I didn't especially like the first one: the writing style was juvenile despite the subject matter being rather dark, there was no sense of urgency, extremely heavy-handed with its themes: beating you over the head with them with the subtlety of a sledgehammer, the book was full of quippy Marvel-esque one liner dialogues, and the characters talk about doing things more often than they actually accomplish anything.

In a word, it was dull.

The conclusion didn't do a whole lot to mitigate my dislikes: it's still got the same unlikeable cast of characters as the first and an unclear purpose. This one has MORE action than the first, but that's not really saying much since about 60% of the first book was them planning to do things. I'd HOPE that they actually do things now.

Some YA is written with teens in mind but is still enjoyable to adults like Harry Potter, Hunger Games, Howl's Moving Castle, and even the one this series is so heavily inspired by: Six of Crows.

The two Blood and Tea books are hard to read as an adult and I think even in my teens, I would've been disinterested. There are better vampire books, better heist books, and better books about anti-colonialism written with a more deft hand.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this early copy in exchange for my honest review

So often in duologies, one book shines brighter than the other, either the first starts with such a bang that it is hard to live up to or the ending mutates the story. With Blood and Tea, there was a perfect balance between A Tempest of Tea and A Steeping of Blood. Readers who were captured by the first book have more heists, more light romance, more parental drama, and more vampires to look forward to. The writing is easy to read and the twists are fun to follow. There are a few redemption arcs and a few heartbreaks on the way to the very fitting ending. Readers who enjoyed the first book in this pair will likely find this to be a gratifying conclusion. (3.5/5)
I received access to this eARC thru NetGalley (for which I want to thank NetGalley and the publisher, Macmillan Children's Publishing Group - Farrar, Straus and Giroux ) for an honest review. The opinion expressed here is my own.

I enjoyed this even more than Tempest of Tea—I thought Jin and Flick’s story was perfect and the ending was so well done. Huge thank you to NetGalley and MacMillan for the advanced reader copy ☕️✨🪶

I loved this! I ran to read the first one before I read this and I loved this author's writing style! It was a delightful read, can't wait to read more by this author!

‘A Steeping of Blood’ is a dangerous cat-and-mouse game on a magical level.

One thing I will say is that Hafsah Faizal is an excellent writer. The plot is just as engaging as ‘A Tempest of Tea.’ The pace is fast and it’s a fun ride, with vampires, voyages, and heists galore. The crew is back, but broken. Can they find their way back together? Jin has yet to find his missing parents and the way they fit into the schemes unfolding in White Roaring. Will this mystery be solved? Flick has found herself completely changed by her time with the Casimirs, away from the prison of polite society. Is there now more room for her to grow into herself? The Ram is still on the rampage. Can they be stopped? All the answers await.

As for the overall rating, this a difficult review to write because there are many things enjoyable about this sequel, but the ending was not at all what I expected and that did affect my rating. I would say that for the first 97% of the book I thought it would sit in my heart at a solid four-star rating, but this heart hurts! I’d like to remain spoiler free, but also to pout. Why???

Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. It was highly anticipated and I’m grateful.

ahh didn’t realize i had requested the sequel first! i will be diving heard first first thing into the first book because this looks (and sounds) absolutely perfect!! 💫