Beautifully written. Smart as hell. Heart wrenching. This is a book I didn't know I needed until I was reading it. Epic space romance with a dash of fantasy and rich world building. Highly recommend.

This book surprised me in the best way possible! Loved the character development of Amani and I am already anticipating the sequel. Highly recommend reading this debut.

Wooowww, this book was fantastic! I loved the plot, the character, all of it! Wait, is this too short? There are so much i want to tell you in this review but i'm afraid i will spoil everything. Recommended!

‘Happiness is rebellion, but it will not win the war.’

On the night of the initiation ceremony into her clan, eighteen-year-old Amani is abducted from her family to become a political decoy for the princess of the regime that has conquered her family’s world. Body doubles are used to sample food and take bullets, to be the target for any potential dangers. Amani is taken to the palace as a mere doppelganger, a look alike, but must take on the callous personality and haughty mannerisms of Princess Maram. But how will she be able to learn all the fine points of living a royal life while being away from her parents, siblings, and friends?

Mirage takes place in a world made up of occupied moons and conquered planets, of family factions and angry rebels. Princess Maram is stuck between her conquering father and her dead mother’s native family. And Amani is painted into a corner of duplicity, servitude, and fear. And if her acting does not pass muster, she knows what will happen to her and her family.

I was continually impressed with Daud’s writing and adherence to Amani’s clan’s traditions. From the first page, her writing connected artfully with world’s mythos of poetry. Lines and full poems are quoted throughout and help to flesh out Amani’s character. Full of lush sensory details, the author shares the minutiae of dress, food, language, and court etiquette with care.

Somaiya Daud’s Mirage starts with a simple premise, yet quickly becomes satisfyingly complex, and very, very good. I raced through this book, particularly enjoying the complex relationships Amani has with Maram and her fiancé Idris. All Daud’s characters are caught in the bands that hold them to their stations. They all must contend with the pressure that comes with a life of expectation, loyalty, and maybe, love. I predict that Mirage will be a very successful book.

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Somaiya Daud for the advanced copy for review.

This book was such a great blend of science fiction and a heavy cultural presence. Loved it! Eighteen-year-old Amani is taken from her family by the Vathek, invaders of her home planet , to become the Vathek Princess Maram. The cruel princess makes Amani's life almost unbearable had it not been for Maram's fiance Idris. Struggling to play Maram to perfection, Amani's focus is to keep her family safe from the Vathek, but can it be more? Can't wait to read other books by this author.

Be still my heart. I loved this book. Cruel princesses. Fake princesses who are really farm girls. Lady rebels. A forbidden romance. Everything I love and never knew I needed all in one book. I love how Somaiya Daud mixes real parts of her Moroccan heritage with the made up and fantastical world she has created. The world is so detailed and vivid and I find myself drawn in as much by the history and culture as the story itself. I will admit I was slightly confused by some of the terms and warring groups at first but as soon as started getting into the story none of that mattered. (Reading on a Kindle and being able to look up words, especially those dealing with food helped.) The first book isn't even out yet and I immediately need to get my hands on the next one.

4.5 stars.
This is a fantastic story with great worldbuilding throughout, as well as a high-stakes plot and compelling characters. The only thing that I wasn't completely sold on was the romance, but that was a very small part of the book.

Totally interesting, innovative read. Would recommend.

A sci-fi Arabian adventure, with bad ass POC women on a war torn planet, paired with beautiful poetry and lush world building? The premise of this book blew me away. I think that the execution was pretty well done too but sometimes the prose was on the edge of being a bit much. But I think overall it worked.

4 stars!

We follow Amani as she is forcibly taken from her family on the day that she comes of age to become the body double of Princess Maram. The world building in this story is fantastic, you get pulled into the different races and the struggles of the Kushalia versus the invading Vathek. Everything in this story was very well thought out and I really enjoyed watching Amani embrace her position in this foreign land yet still hold true to the values she was raised with.

It took me awhile to see past the writing. It seemed overly flowery and a little off putting to me, but when I forced myself to see the plot and put aside my bias against more "flowery" writing, I began to enjoy the story. Amani's tie to her religion was wonderful and her the connection she had to poetry because of that was a beautiful aspect to the story.

The characters were each complex and well written. As much as I loved Amani, I enjoyed every character's development. From handsome Idris, to the mysterious Furat, to even the manipulative Maram- each of them have a story I want to learn more about.

The plot itself flowed very well and at the end of the book, I knew I wanted to see what would happen next. I am excited for the next book!

OMG! I can't wait to hold a physical copy of this book in my hands. SO SO SO good! Unique, mind blowing, on point characters. LOVED EVERY SECOND!

3.5/5
I enjoyed this book, but after giving it some consideration, I feel like there could be some improvements to it. I saw a bunch of 4 and 5 star reviews, and I was trying to get myself to like it, but in certain portions, I just found it boring. The concept sounded really great, as it kind of reflects back on the title of the book. The plot was just okay, and I felt like a lot of it wasn't necessary. Basically, the entire book was about Amari's developing relationships with Maram, Idris, and a few other characters. I feel like there wasn't any exciting events, as the entire book was about Amari going to a few events and pretending to be Maram. I did like the romance in the book, and I liked Maram's development all the way until the end of the book, where she turned against Amari and she went back to her undeveloped self. I mean, I might pick up the sequel to see if it gets any better, but this book wasn't bad as a whole. I can definitely see why others may like it, and it's all up to subjection.

I adored this start to the Mirage series. It was terrific, devastating, romantic, and heart-wrenching. Daud has penned an outstanding novel that is short enough to be devoured in a day. (And, you will be tempted to do just that.) 

The sincere empathy of the protagonist intertwined with her strength makes her one of the most intriguing female leads in YA fantasy. (That said, I think you could argue a decent case about her Mary Sue qualities. Yet, something about her did not feel obnoxious à la Twilight's Bella.) I adored her and thought she was a great character. 

While the other characters are not so well-known (as is expected with a first-person perspective), they are each given their own depth. The relationships are well-developed, sophisticated, and give the reader fair understanding of the motivations behind their actions. 

The world-building is incredible. Daud rivals Lawrence's world-building skills in this novel. It is an imaginative and expansive world, which unfolded delightfully throughout the story. Typically a story which crosses over planets and moons loses me. I get the names and places so mangled that I give up. Daud does not twist up the reader with these vastly different settings. Instead, she uses them to more clearly separate stages of the plot. And, it works very well. 

The tension between an occupied people and their oppressors is felt throughout the story. And, yet, there is always this feeling of hope. The reader never releases their desire for something more for the native people and the heiress. As a superior storyteller can do, Daud forces the reader to feel every bit of this hope throughout every obstacle and failure. 

Honestly, this book just works. It is an exciting debut that has left me breathlessly awaiting the sequel. 

Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Somaiya Daud for the opportunity to read an eARC of this story in exchange for an honest review. I look forward to the next books you produce!

I really wanted to enjoy this book because the artwork on the cover is so attractive. I love sci-fi and I love fantasy, but I just couldn't get into the story. It was hard for me to dig through and understand all the new terms that were used to create this world. I found myself going back to passages over and over to try and understand meanings and make connections to this world. It has great potential, I just got lost in the translation...

This book is AMAZING. I loved it so much. The world-building is super lush, the character development is excellent, pacing is wonderful. Wonderful romance, lots of feels. Highly recommended!

I really enjoyed this book and the unique story line. I haven’t read anything similar to it which made it even better. I loved the characters and their complexity. I definitely recommend it.

As soon as I read about this book, I knew I had to read it. And thankfully I was one of the lucky people to get a netgalley arc of this book. This book was crazy good. I couldn't put it down and I was obsessed with everything. The plot, characters, the writing. Even the author by the end of this book. Definitely one I'll be preordering and adding to my bookshelf.

I really really wanted to love this book. however, it was a disappointment. Maram was an amazing character, but everyone else were 2 dimensional. The plot was rushed and the romance was flat and didn’t make sense.

Thank you to #Netgalley and the Flatiron Books for the E-arc copy of this novel.
I cannot say enough about what a exciting and well written novel this really turned out to be. The main character, Amani, is spunky, witty, and intelligently written. #Mirage has the potential to be a wonderful series for fantasy readers. If the next one is as well written, I see these becoming the next big series in YA!

Mirage is a beautifully written book with amazing world building. It has deeply developed characters and relationships.

Even though I knew from the blurb about the book that Amani was going to get kidnapped, it still happened so abruptly that I never felt like I recovered! From that point on, I was instantly whipped into this world that was sometimes delightful and sometimes made me want to hold my breath in anticipation.

While reading you hope for things you know probably are not going to happen, but you allow yourself to wish for them nevertheless.

Mirage: something that appears real or possible but is not in fact so.

The title of MIRAGE may suggest an optical illusion of sorts, but the story in this book felt so real and touching when I read it. This Moroccan-inspired fantasy brings readers across planets and kingdoms. It touches upon colonization, oppression, and the underlying belief of hope. We follow the adventure of Amani, a poetry-lover from a poor village, who gets taken on a day of celebration to act as the body double of the cruel princess of the realm, Maram. This book was exciting from start to finish, and Daud’s exquisite prose only contributes to the exhilarating atmosphere that MIRAGE shares. I highly recommend this book to fantasy readers looking for a refreshing, unique read!

“In the wake of this - of life - I had no need for a sign. I wanted something else, something more tangible and immediate. I wanted the world.”

Told from the first person perspective of Amani, MIRAGE is less on the action side and more on the introspection and court politics side. That’s not to say it’s slow-paced, as events are constantly happening, but much of the scenes stay in the Vathek court. The background of the story features the domination of the Ouamalaich System by the Vatheks. Under the strict regime of King Mathis, a Purge was formed that wiped out the powerful royals of the Andalaans who resisted the Vathek takeover. Amani is Kushaila, one of the oldest tribe groups in Andala. Because of the Vatheks’ domination, much of their customs and traditions have dissipated. Amani keeps her heritage close to her heart though, especially with the rare book of poetry. While Amani longs for adventure, the one she gets isn’t what she was quite looking for.

“The crown of Dihya had been stripped from me, my face changed, my body broken. But I was not a slave and I was not a spare. I was my mother’s daughter, and I would survive and endure. I would find my way back home.”

Amani’s a strong and resourceful girl that really grows into her character throughout the story. Although she’s scared when she gets taken by the Vatheks, she remains defiant. She turns this nervous and angry energy in becoming a successful body double of the cruel Princess Maram, who is biracial (half-Vathek and half-Kushaila). The story is very driven by the characters and the relationships that they make. While Maram is first introduced as very mean and spiteful, she also has a lot of inner turmoil that is explored later through dialogue. I thought Daud did an amazing job in bringing Maram to life. She has doubts and insecurities, and her upbringing guided her to the cruel lifestyle that she uses as a defense. She begins to slowly open up through interactions with Amani, who has her own agenda in mind.

Another galvanizing relationship is Amani’s slow-growing attraction with Idris, who is betrothed to Maram. Idris seems like a wild card at first, especially as Amani is untrusting of anyone in the palace, but he turns out to be an awesome advocate and overall sweet guy. The role of fiance was thrust upon him after most of his family was killed off in the Purge, and he’s taught himself to play by the games of the Vathek court to survive. My heart really went out to him, and I loved his playful and empathetic interactions with Amani. There’s a major forbidden-love component in their romance, which brings a nice twist of angst, but overall both characters complemented the other very well. (And their scenes were so sweet!)

“All choices had been taken from us, and still we’d found a way to forge paths independent of what our masters wanted.”

There’s a hidden rebellion that comes into picture later on, but the majority of the book is Amani just trying to survive. She goes from being a poor village girl to the body double of the princess of the star system. That’s definitely an adjustment, and I think Daud did an incredible job of writing her character development.

The world-building in terms of kingdom hierarchy was really well-done, although the outer space aspect wasn’t explored as much. We traveled to different planets in the book, but other than some superficial descriptions, their discoveries and function wasn’t very in-depth. The atmosphere felt more like a historical fantasy than space fantasy, although I guess I would describe it as a traditional fantasy set in space? Because of this, the technology was a bit of a moot point. There were some instances of sci-fi gadgets, but they were always small, convenient inventions put on the sides of the storyline.

I really enjoyed this fantasy, and definitely urge readers to pick it up! (If anything, just look at the gorgeous cover!) Daud’s voice is extremely refreshing as she stirs up the beginnings of a rebellion set in space. The character and relationship development is basically all I ever want in a novel, and I can’t wait to see how Amani’s adventure continues in the sequel. There’s a hint of a cliffhanger, but for the most part the story provided a satisfying resolution that got me ready for the next book!

CW: abuse, violence, trauma, torture

Thank you Flatiron Books for the review copy!