> ‘A golden jinni bound by magic, a dark-eyed ahira shackled by a king. Dreams of joy despite our impossible love.’ <

4.5*s. I wished for this book on NetGalley and my wish was granted. That this book, about jinnis who grant wishes, should come to me in this way is beyond perfect. And what a read! I devoured it and can only hope that Thornton finds encouragement in the reception of her first novel and continues to write.

Emel is an ahira, one of the twenty-six daughters of the Salt King who must sleep with and woo visiting dignitaries and, with their eventual marriage, form important alliances for their father. Should they not be taken as bride by twenty-three, they are thrown into the streets with nothing and no-one. After over a dozen close but ultimately fruitless courtings, Emel has just over a year until this becomes her fate.

Saalim is a jinni, a channel through which the goddess Masira grants wishes, though not always in the way that the wisher intends. Bound to serve the Salt King, he is surprised one day to find Emel opening his vessel. Whilst Emel is wary of taking the jinni from her father, and wary of the jinni himself, a bond is formed between the two, and soon Emel must decide who’s freedom means more, hers or that of the one she loves, for both cannot get what they wish for.

>“I want to see you more. If that means I must steal time from the gods, then I will. If you’ll allow it, that is.”<

I admit, I do love a desert romance. Like every other genre, they suffer their tropes and this book does contain its fair share: sleazy despot, rather pathetic harem, standard desert setting with tented habitations, etc. However, I enjoyed that this book did three things rather differently. Firstly, the jinni was not all powerful and conceited, but gentle and kind, enjoying life’s small pleasures. Secondly, the King’s daughters were not all wilting virgins, but experienced bed partners with many a raunchy suggestion. And lastly, Emel does not own and control the jinni, spending her whole time wishing away the difficulties in her life. Instead, she fights her own battles and enjoys the jinni for his company and not for what he can do for her.

I liked Emel. She was brave and inquisitive, hard-working and kind. Some of her sisters considered her selfish, but only fear held back those that did not follow her. I appreciated that she didn’t demand or expect miracles. In fact, at times, I felt she was more abstemious than she should have or needed to be.

>“Beware of the man in gold, for he will steal your heart.”<

Saalim has my heart. He was confident, without being cocky; patient and gentle, without being wet. After hundreds of years of imprisonment, he’s resigned to his fate and yet hasn’t lost his capacity to hope for change. He may have the power of a god at his finger tips, but I found I just wanted to wrap him up in a hug and keep him safe.

The book was well paced and compelling. Towards the end, I got a little confused by Emel’s plan and the consequences of the magic wielded, but it all came clear eventually. I respect Thornton for not gushing at the end with a million and one epilogues spelling out the future of Emel and Saalim, but at the same time, I wouldn’t have complained if we’d gotten a little more. Material for the next book perhaps!

Would I recommend this? Yes! It’s a great, easy read; young-adult for sure, but not eye-rollingly so. Fans of The Wrath and the Dawn are sure to like it. Please do continue to write, Thornton. I’ll be on the look out for your next book.

I read this book in one fell swoop; it was wholly absorbing and dug its claws into me right from the beginning.

The story is written in the first-person style through the eyes of the female protagonist, Emel. Thanks to the prose, which wonderfully constructed Emel's accounts and emotions, I reacted viscerally to her experiences; there were moments I genuinely felt her rage boil inside me, her claustrophobia choke me, her stolen moments of happiness evoke a sense of ebullience, and when she was disconsolate, I, too, fell into the sadness. Through every beautifully crafted line, I was sutured into the reality and narrative of the story.

As a first-person narrative, this was character-centric; it was not bogged down by the inclusion of minutia necessary for larger world-building. Instead, we get a robust account of the characters, their interactions, and their experiences. I can imagine for those driven by narratives, this may be a challenging read, but I think it was a perfect and well-done encapsulation of the human condition. I loved that we followed one person’s experience and as such, learned and felt through them. Are there missing perspectives? Yes. However, this isn’t about that. This story is about one woman’s journey to freedom, and as such, we experience the trials and tribulations through her eyes.

Before I forget - how could I forget, I want to give an honorable mention to Saalim. I absolutely adored him and all his flaws. He was a realistic character who, although powerful, struggled with the consequences of choice. For me, his relationship with Emel was perfect and painful and, in the end, hopeful.

The ending had the conclusions necessary for the characters and enough vague hope for readers to be satisfied. However, I think there is an opening here for another installment, and I would gladly read it in a heartbeat.

If it was unclear before, I loved this book. I recommend this to anyone, anywhere. Do yourself a favor and read this, recommend this, and experience this.

Thanks to NetGalley for letting me read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

<i>Thanks to NetGalley for the early access ebook.</i>

This was a solid effort by a new author, but it didn't entirely work for me. The worldbuilding is Middle-East-inspired: a desert tribal leader with a harem and a bevy of cloistered daughters, mysterious rumors of a sea to the north, and stories about a jinni.

But there are so many things that don't make sense.

The king hides his daughters away from the world... but then also pimps them out (no, really... 3 nights at a time, with no commitment required!) to potential suitors. And if a daughter isn't chosen by a suitor by the time she's 23 (how's that for a randomly chosen age?), she is dumped on the streets to fend for herself.

Nothing like some emotional and sexual abuse to start things off with a bang.

Our heroine Emel is of course the most beautiful of the daughters and besides being frequently reminded how beautiful she is, there isn't much to her. She doesn't grow or change much over the course of the story.

We meet the jinni, and he carefully explains how Emel can think all the wishes she wants, but it's only the ones she speaks aloud that he can grant... but then for the rest of the book he constantly grants wishes that she only thinks.

Emel and the jinni fall into insta-love of course, and I was rooting for them for a while, but then he got all creepy. Turns out he'd been watching her for years... icky "if the nice guy pines for long enough he gets rewarded with the hot girl" vibes.

The editing was all over the place. A new non-English words were variously capitalized, underlined, or italicized to set them off from the rest of the text. (Just pick one format and stick with it, please!)

I wanted to start a drinking game for how often the word "okay" was used. It was such an anachronism in the story setting, and once I noticed it really stuck out. (I swear, there was one exchange that was practically "It's okay. I'm okay. Are you okay?")

Emel is a first-person narrator, but since the inside of her head wasn't very interesting, that made the story less interesting. Suddenly at the end the jinni gets a couple of first-person POV chapters, which was jarring. If there is more to the story than one person can tell, maybe the author should use a different technique than a first-person narrator.

So, overall: an interesting premise that was indifferently executed. Could have used a few more drafts and some additional editing to work out the kinks.

The story was very gripping. Read the book in just 2 days! The plot is very good considering it is a debut novel. But there were other problems. One being world building. There were some words and phrases that the characters simply wouldn't know as it is not set in the modern era. Other being character building. The plot twists and the ending were amazing but I just couldn't care about the characters. There were also some plot holes but I believe they might be resolved in the next book so I won't be considering it as a flaw. Overall a must read if you like desert stories!

This book was really absorbing. It's not like anything I've read before and I enjoyed the narrative quite a bit. Usually I can guess what's going to happen and while some things were obvious, there were enough surprises to keep me hooked. And I really loved the setting.

All that said, the book did leave me cold in some ways. I wanted more world building, more background. You get everything from the main character's perspective and while she's not a stupid girl, she is sheltered and ignorant. I don't necessarily mean I need other character's points of view, but I wanted to see more of the world than just what she saw. Her relationship with her mother, for example, was very one-dimensional and I wanted to know more about her mother's story.

I also didn't really like any of the characters. And that's fine, I don't think novels have to have likeable characters all the time. But the 2 main characters in particular are fairly selfish people, and I felt a bit detached from caring whether they got together or not.

The end is both satisfying and a cliff hanger. I am definitely intrigued enough to look forward to reading the next installment.
4 stars because even with the issues I had, I wanted to keep reading and that's the sign of a good book for me.

While I enjoyed the overall premise of this book, ultimately it suffers from overly simplistic writing (i.e. dialogue) and fairly superficial character development or growth. There is little understanding of why characters think, say, or behave the way they do except that it is what is written on the page. Subsequently, because this story does include some pretty awful characters who are violent, abusive etc..., becoming emotionally involved in how these situations affect both characters and story is difficult. Finally, the ending was not only fairly confusing (in terms of character choice) but also made little sense. The story seemed to just fall apart, as if the author could not quite figure out how to tie up all the various pieces of the story.