A Venom Dark and Sweet

The Book of Tea, Book 2

By: Judy I. Lin

Narrated by: Nancy Wu, Joshua Chang

The enthralling conclusion to Judy I. Lin's Book of Tea duology—A Magic Steeped in Poison and A Venom Dark and Sweet—is sure to enchant fans of Adrienne Young and Leigh Bardugo.

A great evil has come to the kingdom of Dàxi. The Banished Prince has returned to seize power, his rise to the dragon throne aided by the mass poisonings that have kept the people bound in fear and distrust.

Ning, a young but powerful shénnóng-shi—a wielder of magic using the ancient and delicate art of tea-making—has escorted Princess Zhen into exile. Joining them is the princess' loyal bodyguard, Ruyi, and Ning's newly healed sister, Shu. Together the four young women travel throughout the kingdom in search of allies to help oust the invaders and take back Zhen's rightful throne.

But the golden serpent still haunts Ning's nightmares with visions of war and bloodshed. An evil far more ancient than the petty conflicts of men has awoken, and all the magic in the land may not be enough to stop it from consuming the world....

©2022 Judy I. Lin (P)2022 Listening Library

Glitches in Chapters 16 & 36

I found it much easier to read it in print since there are so many characters. I appreciate the narrators being able to pronounce the Chinese words correctly. However, I found the male narrator’s performance rather bland. Not bad. Just a little monotonous, which made it hard to pay attention. The female narrator was more dynamic but her nasal voice suits a villain or old woman better than a young girl like Ning. There were patchy audio segments in chapters 16 and 36. Will probably return the book. I prefer to read it in print. The narrator for book 1 holds my attention better.

New narrators are better

I prefer Nancy Wu and Joshua Chang to the girl from the first book. They get into the characters way better. Also, I think they fixed whatever gaps were once in the book. I enjoyed the story a lot.

Fell prey to the downfall of many audiobooks.

This was a disappointment for as far as production goes. Changing narrators after books is always dissatisfying, but changing a young girl for what sounds like a middle aged lady who drinks whiskey and smokes on her porch is jarring. Then you can hear the recording machines sometimes making noises in the background, which is irritating like crazy.
It was listenable, but, it wasn’t as enthralling as the first. The story was still good, but I may have actively enjoyed it more with more exciting and fitting voice work.

Captivating performance

The narrators make this story to be thrilling and exciting even in the most still sections. I love how they embodied the characters and gave this two sides of the stories a complete different perception of the same universe, specially Nancy Wu, I love how she can manage to do so many kinds of voices that made the listening experience richer. I'm looking forward to hear more titles by her.

I missed the narrator from the 1st book...

I liked the story, though it was not as captivating as the first book. The tone of the narrators was definitely distracting, and the performance was pretty dull for an epic fantasy book, which combined made for a hard time paying attention.

Satisfying sipper of a sequel

Surprising split PoV for book 2 works well on page and in audio versions. Immersive as book 1, this wrap up does tend for more violence and gore not of the mythic kind. Solid YA fantasy.

Wonderful

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It took some getting used to the new Narrators but thankfully I really like Nancy Wu so it wasn’t too bad. I find the magic system so intriguing in this series. I hope there’s more books on the way!

Captivating and Compelling

I had not read/listened to the first Book of Tea novel (A Magic Steeped in Poison), but picked up A Venom Dark and Sweet based in part on reviews and my appreciation for Nancy Wu's talents. I was not disappointed. She masterfully conveys Judy Lin's prose into a captivating and compelling narrative. All in all, well worth the listen, and I'm eager to pick up more by Judy.

The female voice wasn’t my favorite.

I loved the first female voice that did the audio book for the first novel. Felt young and had that air of naivety and desperation. This one made me think from the first to the second she aged quite a few years. The male voice was great though. Just brought me out of the story a little.

Voiceover

Why is the voiceover so irritating?? The voice is so HIGH and NASAL for a 19-year old girl?? Please bring back the narrator from the first book. When the parts are very exciting, it gets ruined because the narrator gasps every breath like this: “I turned *gasp* to my comrades *gasp* and I said to them *gasp* ‘WE *gasp* NEED TO GO *gasp*