Mia Tsai

I wished I loved this book more than I did! I felt like it had a lot of potential, and such a cool concept (an immortal woman and half-elf agent romance? Xianxia-inspired? Multicultural rep and all the fantasy creatures I love in one place?! Yes!) but ultimately the execution fell a little flat.

So starting with what I loved - the unique world, the ending, the themes of work stress and family loyalty (because I could 100% relate to those), and mention of so many types of fantasy creatures that I enjoyed reading about. Luc’s sphinx aunt was especially cool. I thought the magic system from Elle was really interesting, too. I also loved seeing Chinese words in the story that weren’t directly translated all the time, it added to the realism for me.

Sadly…a big part of this book was the romance between Elle and Luc, but I didn’t feel much chemistry between them, so, sadly I wasn’t really buying the intense love that sprouted between them. And very little buildup to the sex or action scenes. Elle also seemed like she was acting quite young despite being over 100 years old. I also wish there was more worldbuilding…it seemed like such a cool world but I didn’t know a lot about it. Finally, I never got the sense that Elle or Luc were in any sort of danger, even at the climax, so there was a lack of tension for me in many parts.

Overall this was an okay read. I enjoyed it while I was reading, but I didn’t love it.… (altro)

Originally posted on Just Geeking by.

Content warnings:
This book contains scenes with blood, violence, gore, death and grief. This includes flash back scenes to a character being ordered to kill children and an on page scene where a nesting harpy’s nest of eggs is destroyed during a mission.

There is an abusive relationship (physical, manipulative, financial and emotional) between a character and an employer/mentor. The abuser uses their true name to control their actions and forces them to do things that are completely against their nature. The same character is a bigot, making racist comments and misgendering another employee and forcing them to wear a dress for a mission.

Other characters have difficult, and traumatic relationships with their family, some of which may be considered negligent and emotionally abusive.

As a disabled reader and someone who has always been interested in healing magics in fantasy, Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai sounded very interesting to me. That side of the storyline and world-building was as intriguing as I expected, however, quite a bit of this book just wasn’t my cup of tea.

Firstly, the synopsis of Bitter Medicine is quite misleading in the way that it describes Luc as having a curse. It made it sound to me that there would be some aspect of healing happening, especially considering the title of the book. What is described as a curse is not actually a curse. Someone knows his true name and is using it to control him; that is very different from a curse. The healing of a curse verses that type of trauma are two completely separate things, and this adds a certain level of trauma to the storyline, which I was not at all prepared for as someone with PTSD (see the content warnings for more details).

Likewise, the saving of Luc’s life happens in a roundabout way. The synopsis suggests that something happens in the book, where in fact it happens off page before the book even begins, and it is nowhere near as dramatic or romantic as the synopsis makes it sounds.

Luc and Elle’s relationship is sweet and endearing, and both are likeable characters. What I disliked was how quickly Elle’s personality changed as soon as the sex scenes started. It felt like she became a completely different person, and in this way it reminded me of moments in some anime and manga where the female character becomes over sexualised. That’s not to say in any way that women should not enjoy themselves in the bedroom or take control, rather that it didn’t feel like a natural personality transition. It felt very disjointed and that made those scenes feel awkward to me.

Overall, Bitter Medicine by Mia Tsai was an enjoyable read with some interesting characters and great world-building. It has a nice amount of representation, and there’s a scene towards the end of the book where a character is recovering from something (spoilers!) that was very well written. Unfortunately, this one just didn’t quite work for me personally. The main issue for me was that I went into it expecting one thing and got something else. It is also very slow paced, and it just felt like I was slogging my way through it at parts. The light-hearted nature of Bitter Medicine was just a bit too light-hearted for me considering some of the themes discussed in this book, and it didn’t mesh well for me.

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… (altro)

Chinese traditional magic, European fae magic, and the magic of other cultures exists alongside the non-magical world.

Elle is a descendant of a Chinese medicine god. She's got considerable magical talent, and was supposed to be a doctor.

Instead, she's working in a magical calligraphy shop, masquerading as a person of relatively modest power and careful to do nothing that would expose the truth, making magical glyphs for agents working for the agency that runs the magical side of this world. She has a regular client, Luc, whom she tells herself she regards as only a "business friend." It's just impossible for her to have any deeper feelings for him, because she can't risk exposing who she really is.

Luc is a half-elf who works directly for the head of that magical agency, as an elite enforcer, and he's had to do some very ugly things. He also has secrets to keep, but he's more willing than Elle to explore the attraction between them.

He has also noticed that recent work she's done for him is better than her official magical rating says it should be, and he wants her and only her doing any future glyphs for him. He also has some special items he wants to commission from her, for a big job he has coming up.

We slowly learn that Elle is in hiding from her family, but especially from her younger brother, and hiding her older brother, who was supposed to be heir to the family's most important magical legacy. He's supposed to be dead. The why of this is complicated and understandably riddled with emotion, but Elle takes all the guilt on herself.

Luc is very, very good at what he does, but he's starting to hate it. But he's trapped, and sees no way out. He's also terrifyingly dangerous, and at times it results in levels of violence and blood some may find uncomfortable.

But when he's not on a job, he's a different man. He notices a lot about Elle that she doesn't recognize about herself. She feels responsible for taking care of everyone around her, and feels guilty and ashamed that she can't make everything work right for everyone she feels responsible for. She doesn't acknowledge the ways those people have contributed to the problems she's struggling with.

Elle is stretching herself far too thin, and not taking any care of herself.

Luc is coming to a breaking point, too, though it's a very different one.

The language here is beautiful, and the characters and the world they live in unfold with exquisite care. By the time we learn Luc's secrets, we're ready to understand them.

Other characters are also well-done. Luc's boss, Oberon, is monstrous, but very believable. Elle's older brother, Tony (no more his real name than Elle is hers), is utterly likable and charming, even when we recognize his role in creating the situation that may kill all of them.

All the cultures involved are treated with respect, and scattered through the book are works or phrases in the characters' respective languages and scripts. It's little bits, never enough to frustrate--just lending some reality to the fact that these people really do come from a variety of cultural backgrounds.

I thoroughly enjoyed this.

I received an electronic galley of this book from the publisher via NetGalley.… (altro)