This ends on a cliffhanger!! No wonder everyone is immediately picking up the 2nd book. I picked this up for the bts book club and because of the tea theme. I was not disappointed. The magic system is tied to tea and it was so beautifully used here even to do harm. I was not expecting the last 1/4 of this. Things got real so suddenly but still in a way that made sense. Ning is still a teenage girl, from a rural town with little knowledge of all the things going on the background politically in Jia. It's been awhile since I enjoyed a ya fantasy, so I'm glad this one I turned out to like even more than I thought I would.