Did not finish. The potential was there, but I felt that the book was dragging a bit too often and the length was starting to get tedious. Would be interested in other works by this author, but this one was not for me.

It all just seemed way too easy for Nehza. Pieces of the soul she was meant to find just fell into her lap. She was just handed the magical feather-sword. She was attacked by mermaids who then just let her go because... they somehow sensed she was important? This completely undermined any and all tension for me, asking me to stretch my disbelief to even think there was any danger (not to mention that I didn't understand what the stakes were even though I'm pretty sure that was the entire point of the randly-from-another-POV-who-had-no-relation-to-the-story-at-that-point chapter was meant to do. I'm guessing that was the villain, but I spent the entire scene confused.)

The prose style also just didn't do it for me. It seemed very surface level and simplistic, like it didn't trust me the reader to work things out, instead holding my hand and never letting me bring my own imagination or inference to play. I read this at the same time as a middle grade novel, and this book felt like it was written for a younger audience than the MG book writing wise.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free copy of this advanced copy of the book to read and review.

This book has a lot of great ideas, but overall the execution wasn’t as good as it could have been. The characterization was fairly minimal, and things were explained, found out or described in really convenient ways that made no sense. So I was a little disappointed because overall this book could have been really great.

I was really excited to read this book because it was a fantasy set in the Muslim world. However, I had a hard time following the plot. The novel seemed promising but was not executed well. Still, I recommend this fans of Thorn!

This was a nice book, I enjoyed the writing and the characters were fun to read about, would surely recommend!

Sadly not quite what I had hoped for from a really exciting blurb. The dialogue felt unnatural and I struggled to connect with any of the characters.

Look at that cover!! So beautiful..... But that's about the only thing I really enjoyed about This book

I have tried to read this multiple times but kept getting stuck at the same part. The first half is brilliant. The scene is set, i love Nezha, i felt her pain and anger, i felt a little scared of the jinn, not going to lie 🙊 but the end half just had something missing.

I feel like it needed more depth? More dimension? I understood what was happening, but i was being told, word for word. I would have preferred to use my imagination rather than begin told every single thing. I also felt like some of the characters could have had more depth as well.

Not a fan of unicorns. Sorry 😂😂😂 but it felt like it was a very young fantasy book. I did LOVE the culture and the religious aspects that blended in really well with the story!!!

Rating it as a 3 but by no means is it bad! I would still recommend reading it, it just needed more ooompffh!!!!

Crowning Soul by Sahira Javaid was not what I expected. Based off of the description, I was so excited to dive into this book and get it into classrooms. However, this book fell short of expectations. I felt throughout the book that I was grasping for details that weren't there to understand fantasy world and see the characters develop throughout the story. I wanted to see more of this fantasy world, to really see the magic and characters shine. I did appreciate how much the author built in culture, food and family. This book would lead my middle school students questioning what was going on and if I was ready to put it down, this book would be abandoned frequently by kids.

I somehow enjoy the book because I learn new culture from another race (which is really good in a book). But as a whole, the story didn't click on me. It is a YA fantasy story that I think children will love. Nezha is the main character here, she's a teenager who discover that she has a dangerous power. Then she was stole from our world and arrived in an unknown world wherein she met 2 unicorns who guides her, it is where her adventure started. The writing style is good. I really had a good time with the 2 unicorns.

I had so many expectations from this book especially because it is written by a Muslim author and the cover is so pretty. Well i loved the cultural aspects of the story. They have been done beautifully, with good representation. But the execution of story itself felt all hay-wire. There were so many plot holes and it definitely needed more edits.

Sadly this was such a miss for me :(

I just found it very very repetitive and I’m a very character driven person when it comes to books but I just sadly didn’t feel anything towards any of the characters.

What I DID enjoy however was the representation throughout, the culture is just wonderfully done, and the magic elements did intrigue me!

I’m just sad that I didn’t enjoy this as much as what I wish I’d hoped to.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. The below opinions are my own.

Crowning Soul is the first book in a Muslim inspired fantasy series. I read the blurb at first which promised me an amazing story and the cover is absolutely fantastic.

I had a really difficult time in reading this book and the plot was confusing. I felt that there was too much happening in this book and too much of an information dump. Some parts of the book felt very repetitive and I couldn't connect with any of the characters even though tragedies occurred. The character development fell flat for me.

This book has Muslim representation and I liked that and I also enjoyed reading about the culture. An interesting premise but the execution could have been better.

I really tried to like this, and was so excited to see a novel with a Muslim woc but was sadly let down by Crowning Soul. I had to DNF less than halfway through. The premise was riveting but the execution was lacking for me.

I was extremely excited for a Muslim fantasy, but I could not connect with this writing style! I stopped reading a little over 100 pages in but just couldn't continue.
Thank you for the opportunity, I just don't think my review on this title would be a positive one.

Crowning Soul is the first book in the Heart of Noorenia series by Sahira Javaid. I wants to thanks Netgalley and the publisher from an arc of this book. I have really love reading this.

Nezha have a gift. She can control fire but its a dangerous secret. She will unravel whats behind it when one day she is transport in another world through her backyard pond. In this other dimensions, she learn that her family originated from there. From there she will also learn that she have a quest to do. Go after the fragments soul of an angel. With the help of two unicorn and a guy that can control wind, she will have to face differents jinnys and a corrupt prince who control iron.

I'm looking foward to read the sequel of this book.

I think everyone should read this! what a wonderful story with beautiful writing and laugh out loud moments. I really liked the characters and the plot and how cinematic it was

I've put off reviewing this book because I'm afraid I don't have much positive to say. Although it was refreshing to see a lead character of colour in a genre that needs more representation, that is where my praise begins and ends. The writing was dysfunctional, at times even sloppy. The author seemed to have no clear vision of what they were writing, and I found it a real battle to push through. I ended up not finishing at around 60% because I just couldn't take any more of it. It's a real shame, as the premise was so promising.

Crowning Soul had all the makings of a great book. I thought the premise was fantastic. Unfortunately the execution was lacking.

So I’ll start with what I liked:
1) The representation: Nezha is Muslim of Pakistani & Moroccan descent. I loved reading about an awesome young hijabi having adventures.
2) The basic plot: I did not finish this book, but I thought the direction of the plot was promising up to that point.
3) The descriptions: Some of the descriptions and phrasing were so beautiful I wanted to cry. They made me feel completely immersed in the world.

However, as I previously stated, the execution overall let the book down. So here’s where it kind of fizzled for me.
1) There were too many descriptions: I like beautiful descriptions that transport me. But there’s a point where it starts to affect the pacing of the story. This point applies not just to the worldbuilding, but to the most minute actions, like Nezha nudging her aunt’s elbow. It wasn’t relevant to the story, so it really didn’t need to be stated.
2) The characters were flat: They didn’t have much in the way of depth, so it was hard to care about them. I think this could have been solved by writing this in the first person, instead of third person. It would have instantly made Nezha more relatable (in the sense that she would have felt more human.) I think that another part of this was that the author told me what characters felt, rather than showing me.
3) The pacing was very slow: This ties in directly with point 1. There was too much extraneous information, so it really slowed the pacing.

Overall, I think Crowning Soul had a lot of promise, but it probably needed some more content and line editing before it was published. As it stands, I can’t say I’d recommend this book to anyone. If it was re-edited at some future date I would be more than happy to buy it and recommend it to everyone I know.