Though some six months until its March release (the book, both physical and digital, is currently available directly from Tachyon and other select outlets), Mia Tsai’s debut novel BITTER MEDICINE received a vaunted *STARRED* review from Publishers Weekly, G. A. Buba‘s effuse praise, and an excited mention at Books, Bones & Buffy.

With brilliantly developed, multifaceted characters; a clever magic system; and witty prose, the pages of this fantasy fly. This marks Tsai as a writer to watch.

Publishers Weekly

On top of being eminently bingeable Tsai handles an interracial/multicultural romance with so much nuance and grace I was swooning. We love a man who doesn’t tolerate racist microaggressions. The multicultural aspects definitely hit me in all the Asian diaspora feels, of having family and a home impossibly far away that you can never return to because you have been irreparably changed by leaving. Of having expectations and duties heaped upon you and feeling that no matter how much you sacrifice it will never be enough in the eyes of your family and the harrowing journey to self-love and self-acceptance for who you are instead of what you can do for those you love. I actually wept my heart out at multiple points and then had it pieced together masterfully.

BITTER MEDICINE is hands down my favorite read of 2022 and I already can’t wait to read it again to linger with my new favorite couple.

G. A. Buba

Ooh I love this cover. And come on: a Chinese immortal and a French elf??? I am definitely going to get my hands on this book:-D

Books, Bones & Buffy