teatimelit

Guest Post: The Magic in Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai

Hi dear friends! Today, we’re here with a guest post from Mia Tsai, author of Bitter Medicine!

As a descendant of the Chinese god of medicine, ignored middle child Elle was destined to be a doctor. Instead, she is underemployed as a mediocre magical calligrapher at the fairy temp agency, paranoid that her murderous younger brother will find her and their elder brother.

Using her full abilities will expose Elle’s location. Nevertheless, she challenges herself by covertly outfitting Luc, her client and crush, with high-powered glyphs.

Half-elf Luc, the agency’s top security expert, has his own secret: he’s responsible for a curse laid on two children from an old assignment. To heal them, he’ll need to perform his job duties with unrelenting excellence and earn time off from his tyrannical boss.

When Elle saves Luc’s life on a mission, he brings her a gift and a request for stronger magic to ensure success on the next job—except the next job is hunting down Elle’s younger brother.

As Luc and Elle collaborate, their chemistry blooms. Happiness, for once, is an option for them both. But Elle is loyal to her family, and Luc is bound by his true name. To win freedom from duty, they must make unexpected sacrifices.

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ARC Review: This Time It’s Real by Ann Liang

When seventeen-year-old Eliza Lin’s essay about meeting the love of her life unexpectedly goes viral, her entire life changes overnight. Now she has the approval of her classmates at her new international school in Beijing, a career-launching internship opportunity at her favorite magazine…and a massive secret to keep.

Eliza made her essay up. She’s never been in a relationship before, let alone in love. All good writing is lying, right?

Desperate to hide the truth, Eliza strikes a deal with the famous actor in her class, the charming but aloof Caz Song. She’ll help him write his college applications if he poses as her boyfriend. Caz is a dream boyfriend — he passes handwritten notes to her in class, makes her little sister laugh, and takes her out on motorcycle rides to the best snack stalls around the city.

But when her relationship with Caz starts feeling a little too convincing, all of Eliza’s carefully laid plans are threatened. Can she still follow her dreams if it means breaking her own heart?

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ARC Review: Do I Know You? by Emily Wibberly & Austin Siegemund-Broka

Eliza and Graham are anticipating an anything-but-sexy, weeklong getaway to celebrate their five-year anniversary. Nestled on the Northern California coastline, the resort prides itself on being a destination for those in love and those looking to find it. For Eliza and Graham, it might as well be a vacation with a roommate.

When a well-meaning guest mistakes Eliza and Graham for being single and introduces them at the hotel bar, they don’t correct him. Suddenly, they’re pretending to be perfect strangers and it’s unexpectedly…fun? Eliza and Graham find themselves flirting like it’s their first date, and waiting with butterflies in their stomach for the other to text back.

Everyone at the retreat can sense the electric chemistry between Eliza and Graham’s alter egos. But when their scintillating game of roleplaying ends, will they still feel the heat? 

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ARC Review: Last Violent Call by Chloe Gong

In A Foul Thing, Roma and Juliette have established themselves as the heads of an underground weapons ring in Zhouzhuang, making a living the way they do best while remaining anonymous in their quiet life.

But when they hear about Russian girls showing up dead in nearby towns, they decide to investigate – and discover that this mystery is closer to home than they ever imagined . . .

In This Foul Murder, Benedikt and Marshall have been summoned by Roma to find the elusive scientist, Lourens, and bring him to Zhouzhuang. Time is of the essence aboard the week-long Trans-Siberian Express, but when someone is murdered on board, Benedikt and Marshall convince the officer in charge they are investigators and promise they can solve the murder if he doesn’t stop the train.

But as they dig deeper, they realize that the murder might having surprising ties to their own mission . . .

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ARC Review: Central Place by Delia Cai

Audrey Zhou left Hickory Grove, the tiny town in central Illinois where she grew up, as soon as high school ended, and she never looked back. She moved to New York City and became the person she always wanted to be, complete with a high-paying, high-pressure job and a seemingly faultless fiancé, Ben. But if she and Manhattan-bred Ben are to build a life together, in the dream home his parents will surely pay for, Audrey can no longer hide him, or the person she’s become, from those she left behind.

But returning to Hickory Grove is . . . complicated. Audrey’s relationship with her parents has been soured by years of her mother’s astronomical expectations and slights. The friends she’s shirked for bigger dreams have stayed behind and started families. And then there’s Kyle, the easygoing stoner and her unrequited crush from high school that she finds herself drawn to again. Ben might be a perfect fit for New Audrey, but Kyle was always the only one who truly understood her growing up, and being around him again after all these years has Old Audrey bubbling up to the surface.

Over the course of one disastrous week, Audrey’s proximity to her family and to Kyle forces her to confront the past and reexamine her fraught connection to her roots before she undoes everything she’s worked toward and everything she’s imagined for herself. But is that life really the one she wants?

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Let’s Talk: Cossette’s 2023 Reading Goals, Content Goals & Tracking

Happy New Year, dear friends! I hope your 2023 is off to a great start, and is filled with lots of good reads, fun adventures, and good health. Personally speaking, I’m so glad to be back after a bit of a break — It’s definitely one I needed, and I’m excited for what the new year brings. Over this break, I did a lot of thinking about what I wanted my 2023 to look like as a reader, a blogger, and a bookstagrammer, and also started my reading journal. I thought it’d be fun to share some of my goals for the year with y’all here!

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An Announcement

Hi, hello friends! 

We hope you’ve had a lovely December so far, and that you’re all staying safe and cozy. We wanted to share a few quick announcements with you today!

First, we’ll be going on a hiatus from now until the new year! In the meantime, you can still find us on Twitter at @teatimelits, or on our personal bookstagrams — @readbycait for Caitlyn, @cossettereads for Cossette, and @bookswithmary for Mary. 

With the new year brings some new changes as well. In case you missed it, Mary has stepped down from the blog. You can read more about this in her most recent blog post. When we’re back in January, we’ll also have some new graphics, and a new posting schedule — You can now expect posts from us on Tuesdays and Thursdays! 

Lastly, our December pick — The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches — was our final tea time reads pick. We’ve really loved being your hosts and it genuinely has been wonderful reading with you, hearing your thoughts, getting excited about upcoming releases, and sharing recommendations. The server will stand for people to continue chatting, however we will not be continuing to run it as is.

Hope the rest of your December is wonderful!

Love,

Caitlyn, Cossette, & Mary

Let’s Talk: Five books I wish I could read again for the First Time

Hi, hello everyone! Welcome back to another post from me! Before we get into today’s post, I wish to inform you all that this will be my last post on teatimelit. I have adored my time creating content for the past two years, but it’s time for me to hang up my creator cap. Admittedly I’ve learned that creating blog content isn’t what I’m passionate about anymore, and that’s ok! I’ll still be hanging around in the book community, so if you want to see what I get up to and what I read feel free to follow me on Instagram @bookswithmary (revival pending) and Goodreads @maryreading. Thank you all for the most wonderful two years; I have loved engaging with you all and bonding over a shared love of books. But without further adieu, let’s get into this week’s post. 

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