I'm disappointed. It sounded so promising and I really liked it at first. The atmosphere of the story is amazing and a tea-based magic system is such a cool and unique idea, but the execution fell really flat for me. I'm just left super confused about the characters and their motivations. It's not enough to just give characters names, I want to know who they are, why they're there, what their purpose is. Same with places. What are they and why are they important? You can't just randomly name provinces and kingdoms without any prior introduction. That was probably the most lacking part for me because at some point I had a hard time understanding what was even going on and what the world was like. Like okay, the kingdom is in danger and people are scheming and we can't trust anyone, but who these schemers are and what they want - no idea. The romance, if it can even be called that, is just as confusing and far-fetched. There was no chemistry, no connection, and the MC somehow manages to ruin even that. The purpose of some events makes no sense either, such as why the

emperor's death was concealed? And after it was announced he was dead, nothing happened. Nobody cared, nobody questioned it.

I will not be finishing the duology.