I knew I was going to read this as soon as I found out that the heroine does magic calligraphy, and it was everything I wanted. Elle, a descendant of a Chinese medicine god, has been in hiding for years after stopping her younger brother from killing her older brother—who’s also in hiding, now living as a mortal. Elle’s working in a magic shop in the US, pretending to be far less powerful than she is, generally being lowkey miserable and punishing herself for intervening in the impossible conflict between her brothers. She also doesn’t get modern life, like using her smartphone, in a way that I found funny and cute; her older brother has no such issue and loves to tease her about it. I love that kind of detail in urban fantasy, ancient magical beings adapting (or not) to our world.
Anyway, one of Elle’s clients is the handsome and charming half-elf Luc, and she can’t seem to stop herself from making his calligraphy orders just a little more powerful. So he notices her, and that sets off both their romance and all the rest of the plot. I love the take on magic here: every culture’s folklore is true. The rules of magic operate differently from culture to culture and intersect in unexpected ways.
This multicultural world is reflected in the book’s multilingual nature. When characters speak another language, it’s printed without translation. So when Luc speaks French, there’s French on the page. When Elle and her brother speak to each other in Mandarin, or when Elle does calligraphy, the book shows us the Chinese characters. Sometimes characters’ names or other words are transliterated into Pinyin, with diacritics marking the tones, but when a character who does not speak Mandarin says a word, it’s printed without the tone diacritics, which is such a cool, nuanced way to indicate someone’s unfamiliarity with the language.
Luc and Elle are so sweet and supportive to each other, which makes a wonderful contrast to the difficult, cutthroat world of magic they live in. There are gigantic obstacles to their relationship. One of the reasons I’m drawn to fantasy and sci-fi settings in romance is that I love a good external obstacle, a “we can’t be together because my dad is evil and might magically compel me never to speak to you again” type of deal, and this book really delivers on that front—both in the problems and in their solutions. Such a fun read.
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Bitter Medicine
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Reviews with images
Debut Urban Fantasy
Book Review: Bitter Medicine by Mia TsaiStars: ⭐⭐⭐.5Spice: 🌶️🌶️This review may contain minor spoilers.Bitter Medicine is an urban fantasy story that follows Elle and Luc. Elle is a descendant of an ancient Chinese god of medicine and Luc is a half elf who works for an elite tier of agency "fixers". The two begin a friendship knowing very little of the other's secrets. Elle saves Luc's life after one of his missions and it catapults their relationship to the next level, opening many doors into each of their futures. This book includes a mixture of cultures, friends to lovers, and found family.I enjoyed this new modern fantasy that takes place throughout our world. I wish we got a little more background, but understand why some things couldn't be discussed until after a reveal. The villains in the story didn't have a clear driving force and I wanted to know more of their backstories and what led the group to where they are in this book.The found family aspect of the story opens the world to so many possibilities. This reader wants to know more of how the siblings got into their situation, what happens to Yiwu after, more about the Wrecking Crew, and Lira. So many questions about Lira's life, her future, and her friendship (or more) with Tony.The language shifts in this story definitely piqued my interest. I know some basic French and was able to read those portions & immediately know what was happening. I do not speak Chinese, but I am an ever curious reader, so I did many quick translations to better understand the conversations throughout. In the Afterward, Mia describes "code-switching" and how it often happened with different parts of her family. This was so interesting for me to read and I appreciated the insight into why it was brought into this story.My biggest drawbacks were pacing and chapter length. There were times in the story that I zoomed thru chapters, the story drew me in and I couldn't wait to see what happened next. But there were also times I had to force myself to keep reading thru the "slower" part of the story. Maybe a shorter chapter wouldn't have felt so daunting for the pieces that weren't as captivating.Overall I enjoyed the story but wish it was broken down into smaller pieces. And I would love to read more about the other characters, maybe some more about the before/after of Bitter Medicine's time frame.Thanks NetGalley & Tachyon Publications for the eARC!
