HOLY SMOKES! What a great year for books I’ve had! This is, hands’ down, the best reading year I have ever had. Ever. I know I say that every year, but there are eight, count ’em, EIGHT five-star books on this list. YOWZAH!
In all seriousness, I’m so excited to share this list with you all.
Utterly brilliant historical fiction. Captivating and compelling.
Continue reading “Top 10 of 2020”
Series: Daevabad Trilogy
Genre: Fantasy
Maturity Level: 4
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆
Daevabad has fallen.
After a brutal conquest stripped the city of its magic, Nahid leader Banu Manizheh and her resurrected commander, Dara, must try to repair their fraying alliance and stabilize a fractious, warring people.
But the bloodletting and loss of his beloved Nahri have unleashed the worst demons of Dara’s dark past. To vanquish them, he must face some ugly truths about his history and put himself at the mercy of those he once considered enemies.
Having narrowly escaped their murderous families and Daevabad’s deadly politics, Nahri and Ali, now safe in Cairo, face difficult choices of their own. While Nahri finds peace in the old rhythms and familiar comforts of her human home, she is haunted by the knowledge that the loved ones she left behind and the people who considered her a savior are at the mercy of a new tyrant. Ali, too, cannot help but look back, and is determined to return to rescue his city and the family that remains. Seeking support in his mother’s homeland, he discovers that his connection to the marid goes far deeper than expected and threatens not only his relationship with Nahri, but his very faith.
As peace grows more elusive and old players return, Nahri, Ali, and Dara come to understand that in order to remake the world, they may need to fight those they once loved . . . and take a stand for those they once hurt.
What a finale!! I’m almost never happy with the end of a series, which maybe partly explains why I rarely make it to the end. But The Empire of Gold was so fantastic! It really checked all of my boxes. (Caution, mild spoilers ahead. Nothing you probably haven’t guessed, but shield yourself if you want.)
Continue reading “Review: The Empire of Gold”
Series: The Daevabad Trilogy
Genre: Fantasy
Maturity Level: 4
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆
Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad—and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there.
Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of a devastating battle, Nahri must forge a new path for herself. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family—and one misstep will doom her tribe...
Meanwhile, Ali has been exiled for daring to defy his father. Hunted by assassins, adrift on the unforgiving copper sands of his ancestral land, he is forced to rely on the frightening abilities the marid—the unpredictable water spirits—have gifted him. But in doing so, he threatens to unearth a terrible secret his family has long kept buried.
And as a new century approaches and the djinn gather within Daevabad’s towering brass walls for celebrations, a threat brews unseen in the desolate north. It’s a force that would bring a storm of fire straight to the city’s gates . . . and one that seeks the aid of a warrior trapped between worlds, torn between a violent duty he can never escape and a peace he fears he will never deserve.
I am in love with this trilogy and with Chakraborty’s writing. Daevabad is so incredibly immersive. Even the distracted way in which I’m forced to read at this time in my life, I have no problem just diving in and feeling like I’m there. I love that she writes characters who are all shades of grey, and presents situations where there might not be a right answer. And these books are so exciting! I can’t remember the last time I stayed up late scrambling to finish a book.
Continue reading “Review: The Kingdom of Copper”
Series: The Daevabad Trilogy
Genre: Fantasy
Maturity Level: 4
View on Goodreads
Rating: ⋆⋆⋆⋆⋆
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass, a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.
I. LOVED. THIS. BOOK.
Honestly, I adored it so much that I’m not sure I can even really talk about what it is that I liked so much. I’m not sure I really know what it is that I liked so much. It was different from anything I’d ever read before, it was so well written, it checked all the boxes of things I love in a fantasy book. I just … loved it.
Continue reading “Review: The City of Brass”
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