"The Emperor Tea Garden" is a vividly engaging fantasy romance told on several different levels that transcend time, place, gender, and even species. In this enchanted space, the boundaries between life and death, dream and reality, and here and there are all blurred. The eponymous tea garden is one whose customers are mostly deceased, mostly in love, and mostly fade away with the dawn. Eray captivatingly investigates the concepts of love, passion, and loyalty. For example, the narrator exchanges places with Night for a night, and a young man who has committed suicide in the name of love gets to leave his grave and be reunited with his paramour. Eray presents an underlying theme in which love can conquer even death itself.
