rating 4 star – as told by zaheerah

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Review: The Wrath & the Dawn

July 9, 2018June 29, 2018by Zaheerah2 Comments

Rating: ★★★★☆ (3.5/5)

「Some things exist in our lives for but a brief moment. And we must let them go on to light another sky.」

Every night the bride of the Caliph of Khorasan is killed. Until Shazi volunteers to outwit and kill the king in revenge for the death of her best friend. In the vein of the original 1001 nights, she holds off her death by telling a story every night the extends onto another.

I think The Wrath and the Dawn started off really well for me. It’s plot really grabbed from the very beginning, and it did exceed my expectations. Ahdieh has a gorgeous writing style that suits this novel’s intriguing plot. There’s a lot of quote-worthy lines that I really liked, but it was a shame I didn’t really feel the connection between them for it to really hit deep. There’s a magic system that I enjoyed but isn’t really introduced fully yet which I hope gets developed in the sequel.

Shahrzad is a great female lead. Her charismatic behaviour and sharp wit was amusing and her bravery had me rooting for her from the very beginning. But that very much drops very soon once you realise she has no idea what she’s going despite the story setting her up as this character that knows what she’s doing. How she managed to fall in love with him was questionable considering her aims. Khalid wasn’t even that great anyway. His mysterious persona wasn’t that interesting enough to want to care for him, I just wanted to know why he killed those girls, not really caring for his character. The background characters were actually my favourites of the plot I feel like we should’ve gotten a bit more background information and set up at the beginning of the novel before we get pushed straight into the story. I find it strange that enjoyed the plot of this book but didn’t enjoy its characters.

The Wrath and the Dawn have its obvious appeal to romance and retelling lovers. Despite its flaws, I did actually quite enjoy reading this book. It’s vibrant setting, and secondary characters are its most significant highlights. With a cliff-hanger like that, I do intend to read the sequel.

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Book Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton

February 27, 2018March 29, 2018by Zaheerah2 Comments

Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

I received an ARC of each book via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Set in the fictional world of Orléans, a small number of girls are born with the ability to use magic to create beautiful looks for a dull general population. Camellia and her sister, known as the Belles, have trained their entire lives to be chosen as the Queen’s favourite and responsible for keeping the royal family beautiful.

The world of Orléans is beautiful, a decadent society with a darker history. Everyone is born grey, and it’s the role of the Belles to bring beauty, but it comes with a price. This book is jam-packed with sweet descriptions of a seemly beautiful world until the ugliness leaks out as the story goes on. Clayton’s Orléans is unique and thrilling; while it took a while for it to grip me at first, the ending is where it gets horrific and exciting. A fantasy world means there’s a lot to set up, but once the significant event starts happening, the pace improved.

Continue reading “Book Review: The Belles by Dhonielle Clayton” →

LGBTQIA, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: Dreadnought

March 6, 2017July 19, 2017by Zaheerah3 Comments

Rating: ★★★★☆

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

In a world where superheroes and villains are a regular occurrence, Danny finds herself being the passed the power of Dreadnought when he falls out of the sky and dies right in front of her. The side effects of this transform Danny’s body into what she thought it should be. To Danny, she now looks like the girl she knows she is even if everyone around her says otherwise. Dreadnought is her origin story which follows her first few weeks of superhero living. While trying to juggle her new life, she’s also trying to find the old Dreadnought’s murderer, who is still threatening the streets of New Port City.

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Contemporary, Mystery & Crime, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: God Smites and Other Muslim Girl Problems

February 19, 2017March 29, 2018by Zaheerah2 Comments

Rating: ★★★★☆

Received an e-arc in exchange for an honest review from the author

When going for a walk with her crush, Michael, Asiya accidentally stumbles across a dead body. Knowing that telling the police means revealing to her strict parents that she was with him, Michael covers for her but then goes missing himself. All the evidence points towards Michael but Asiya is sure he’s innocent and is willing to risk everything to help Michael.

This review is painful to write because I literally don’t know what else to say except that I loved this. It was such a fun read. All Asiya wants is a normal life but she’s thrust into a murder mystery and has to use her wits to navigate her way through the investigation. It was such a fun and comical read. And serious at times, especially when Asiya begins to doubt Michael’s innocence. And I really enjoyed the character of Asiya: she’s a headstrong lead and her faith and determination drive her to do good, even if she shouldn’t be doing much of the things she does.

Even the attempt of bringing South Asian and Muslim problems forefront was good and done so well. (Asiya and her family are Bangladeshi and anytime I see a Bangladeshi character I immediately go (ﾉ◕ヮ◕)ﾉ*:・ﾟ✧ ) Solving a murder is hard and Asiya struggles with it a lot, especially since she doesn’t want to disappoint her family so she has to work with her family and community. She mentions the inconsistency of her community that allows boys more freedom and their gossiping nature that spreads like wildfire. I hope in the sequel we see Asiya use that to her advantage, like asking her brother to help and do something that she would’ve been easily caught doing but not him.

God Smites is an enjoyable book. I turned every page and I immediately was like “this is so me!” I kind of related more to her younger brother: he just wants to play video games and struggles to pass Maths which is literally my entire educational experience. I’m also in love with the book’s dedication. For all the girls who were never told someone like them could, not even in books. With God Smites, I get to read about a Muslim girl go through daily life that’s similar to my own, where I can see myself in her actions and that’s my favourite part of this book. It’s such a real book which portrays such real characters without being stereotypical. Sure, her mother is very strict and her father too, but we also get to see them protect and try to understand Asiya. Their family dynamic was so relatable and funny. They all get frustrated and argue with each other but in the end, they do come together as a family. And that ending, guys, my jaw dropped. It ends with a big revelation and an even bigger cliffhanger. Can I have the sequel now?

I’m going to end this review with my favourite part:

He yelled a general, “Salam alaikum!” and made it halfway to the basement door before he realised something was off.

I actually had to put my Kindle down because I was laughing so much because:

She’s in the middle of being interrogated and he casually walks in like this
I do the same thing when I don’t know if anyone’s home 😂😂

GOODREADS | AMAZON | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | BARNES & NOBLE

Science Fiction & Fantasy, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: The Inquisition

January 27, 2017March 29, 2018by ZaheerahLeave a Comment

Rating: ★★★★☆

* I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through NetGalley. This in no way affected my opinion of the book.

After spending a year in prison, 16-year-old Fletcher finally receives a trial but the outcome doesn’t appear good either way. Either he’s convicted for allegedly ordering his demon to kill Didric or they have him on treason for attacking a soldier. After a quick trial and learning a shocking secret about his past, Fletcher soon joins his old friends and enemies on a covert mission into orc territory.

I really enjoyed this one. It did take me a while to remember who was who and what had happened at the end of The Novice so it did take me a while to get into the story but once I did, it was great.

Looking back, I did prefer The Novice, plot-wise, but The Inquisition has faster action and higher stakes with a close look at the enemy Orcs. I’m quite glad the courtroom drama doesn’t drag too long in the first few chapters. It’s quite neat meaning that we learn what we have to know and then it moves on to what’s really important. I’m quite divided about this book in the sense that I enjoyed the great detail of everything as they venture on in their journey but at the same time but I also preferred the more character-driven parts where we see Fletcher interacting with his friends. This conflict for me made it feel like it as partially suffering from Second Book Syndrome just the tiniest bit. But I think I’m a bit too invested in this world and characters to care. There’s also a hint of romance that I guessed would have happened but at the same time, I was still surprised because this book never really focuses on the romance.

This fantasy world is one of my favourites – it’s so vast and filled with so many different creatures and people. The plot itself only focuses on certain parts of it but there’s potential for the story to reach even further as this world finds itself almost on the verge of war.

The only real criticism I can really say is the sudden influx of new characters. There’s a point where there’s new people and demons alike come in, with new demons comes new demonic descriptions, so that can overwhelm some readers. But I would love to see Matharu release a handbook of some sort featuring all the demons in the series.

Overall The Inquisition is a solid sequel that builds and developed well, leaving you wanting more in the end. If you enjoyed the first book, you should definitely continue reading this series. (Also, R.I.P. me, I seriously died at that cliffhanger)

GOODREADS | AMAZON | THE BOOK DEPOSITORY | BARNES & NOBLE

Contemporary, LGBTQIA, Romance, Young Adult/ Teen

Book Review: If I Was Your Girl

January 17, 2017March 29, 2018by Zaheerah3 Comments

Rating: ★★★★ (4/5)

“I’m not brave,” I said, smiling despite myself. “Bravery implies I had a choice. I’m just me, you know?”

Amanda is the new girl in school and she’s trying to keep a big secret. Amanda is transgender and moves to Tennessee in hopes of keeping her head down and getting through high school. Soon she makes friends and meets Grant.

If I Was Your Girl was such a charming read. I really enjoyed it. The plot, characters and hilarious sense of humour just made this a really great book. I really loved how the narrative jumps between real-time events and Amanda’s childhood. It added great suspense and was equally heart-breaking. (don’t want to spoil but my heart broke at the diary scene)

I’m not a huge romance reader, which is why I put this book off for so long, and while their romance came across generic, I found it so sweet. Maybe my cynical self needed some adorable picnic dates and cute film dates. They were so lovable and dorky together that I didn’t care it cheesy. I also may or may not had become a mushy mess on the train when I read the Halloween scenes. (Spoiler: Grant goes as Boba Fett and Amanda dresses as Leia. IT’S SO CUTE I DIED)

What I really enjoyed was the happy ending. In our media, TV, films and novels, there are so many characters who are LGBT+ and are constantly killed off for shock factor. Amanda gets a happy ending, despite everything that happens, Amanda’s happy.

Overall, I admired this book. The biggest issue I could think of was pacing in certain scenes but I definitely recommend this to anyone and add this to your TBR if you haven’t! (Also, I loved the separate author’s note Russo adds at the end: one for her cis readers and one for her trans readers.)

I should note while it’s wonderful that anyone reads my reviews at all, but I should remind you if you don’t know: this is a story about a trans girl written by a trans woman and I am a cis reader. This obviously means my perspective is limited and I will point you all towards reviews written by trans writers. (edit: i thought I bookmarked them but it appears I didn’t so once I find them I’ll link them up)