The Jasad Heir was a whirlwind of magic and betrayal featuring a badass MC. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Sylvia's story and I loved her strength interspersed with vulnerability. The book began and finished strong, but there was a lull in between heavy with world building and training sequences which were not quite to my liking, but I am not usually a fan of 'games' style books (i.e. Hunger Games, A Gathering of Shadows, Throne of Glass #1).

I will say that if you like Throne of Glass, you will LOVE The Jasad Heir. Sylvia and Aelin are written in the same font (with distinct differences, of course), so if you like women that are just a bit unhinged and broody white-haired princes, READ THIS BOOK!!

Hashem did a phenomenal job creating a unique world and leaving her readers with a cliffhanger that will make them thirsty for the sequel.

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

A couple chapters into this book I already knew it was going to be one of my favorite reads of 2023 so far! I had a blast reading this story, it was the type of book that grabbed my attention and I could almost forget I was even reading and instead felt like I was watching a movie in my head.
We follow Sylvia, the lost heir of Jasad, who has been in hiding since the Nizahl murdered her family and left her kingdom nothing but scorched lands. But when her magic (something that became unique to the Jasad people) is revealed to the Nizahl heir, Arin, she is forced to make a deal with her enemy while trying to conceal her true identity.
There was so much to this book that I loved, from all of the characters, the tension, the magic and so much more. One of the most interesting aspects of this story is seeing Sylvia’s internal battle between doing what will keep her and those she cares about safe, or doing what is right by her kingdom and people, even though it was her home for such a short time.
One of the only changes I would have wished for this book is that the games/trials were a bit longer. They felt a tad bit rushed.
Overall I loved this book and can’t wait to see where this series goes next!

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for this arc in return for my honest review!

The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem was good, just maybe not for me.

First, the good things. The Jasad Heir had some aspects that I really appreciated and wished were included in other fantasy novels. Sylvia, the main character, had some characteristics that I really appreciated. Sylvia is described as being taller than those around her and more curvy. This is a rarity in fantasy novels, where most women are described as being petite and thin. I love the representation and wish other fantasy novels would follow in Hashem's lead in creating characters with diverse body types. I also liked how almost every character and every nation described in the Jasad Heir are morally gray. Most of the characters are not described as good or bad, just people who make good or bad choices. There are a few exceptions (mainly the villains), but I appreciated the morally gray main characters and the descriptions of the countries.

The not so great things are mainly that I just truly was not very invested in the plot or the characters. I also found the ending to be unsurprising and cliché. The Jasad Heir took me weeks to finish, which is indicative of how detached I felt throughout the book.

All in all, I think that the Jasad Heir had good bones and may be the perfect fit for some readers, just not for me.

This book is the closest I have come to sating the itch in finding the book that both fulfilled my representation needs and juicy storytelling wants. While the book starts out slow–I considered DNFing up until the first 10% of the book–I am so glad I didn’t. At around 20%, the book finally had its claws in me and I was so there for the rest of the ride. By that point, I was fully vested in the character, hook, and conflict. My understanding of the world at that point also started to feel more solid, which I’ll admit, took me awhile to get straight. It also has an enemies to lovers slow burn which keeps things interesting but done tastefully with little spice.

I think this book hits on important themes of identity, resistance, and the universal struggle of staying true to ourselves while navigating our responsibility to the larger whole. But on the face of it, it’s a well-told story of betrayal, forbidden magic, includes a slow burn (extremely slow) with an enemies to lovers trope that is actually convincing in its prolonged hatred and ensuing tension. The writing is extremely well done on a line level. If you can get past the slow beginning, The Jasad Heir is worth a read. I for one, am eagerly awaiting a sequel!

Thank you to NetGalley for the free advanced copy!

For full review go to my blog The Story Untold: https://nnaziz.wordpress.com/blog/
Review also available on Instagram: @nnazizwrites

An incredible debut! I was intrigued by the blurb but in no way was I prepared for how captivating this book was going to be. The author has an amazing way of writing characters that are relatable in every way and a story telling that’s full of depth. I loved the humor woven throughout the book and the enemies element to this story. The tension and the build up between the main characters was some of my favorite, and I can’t wait to see where book two will take these characters!

What you’ll find in this book:
•Slow burn
•Enemies
•Egyptian retelling
•Deadly trials
•Fantasy
•Romance sub plot

Unfortunately this was a DNF for me. The first 20% was a solid opening but after that the pace was pretty slow. I was intrigued by the premise, but the writing style didn't grip me to the point I struggled to get into it.
I really like the idea of the story, so I will pick it back up later on and try again

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the eARC in exchange for an honest review..

The fact this book is a debut is insane to me. This is easily my favorite read of the year and might be one of my favorite books of all time. This book contains three of my favorite tropes: found family, enemies to lovers, and a slow burn romance. I love how naturally the author shows the importance of the side characters to Sylvia. Her internal struggle throughout the book is that as the heir of a hunted people, she constantly feels that she isn't good enough or what her people need to overcome all the challenges they face. Arin brings out all the feeling in her that she has tried to keep buried, and we see her slowly trade some of her anger for the realization that everything she does, she does for the people she loves. Their interactions are best described as tense, with an underlying hint of appreciation. She is the puzzle he can't quite solve that constantly surprises him. He is the composed statue that she wants to shatter and see come absolutely undone for her. The building of their relationship was perfection and made the ending all the more heartbreaking. Between the trials of the 4 champions, the threat of the two Jasadi groups, and the Nizahl kingdom itself, the tension could be cut in half with a knife. I will remain promptly on the edge of my seat as I not so patiently wait for the next book to be released.

I absolutely loved this book. The enemies to lovers was developed extremely well. I liked learning about the various kingdoms and their views on the world. This was a great start to a series and I’m excited for the sequel!

3.5 stars

I finally finished The Jasad Heir! I think it’s a pretty solid debut novel and has a lot of fun tropes. A tournament of challenges, a long lost heir, enemies to lovers, super slow burn romance, and a lot of political intrigue. Sylvia was a pretty strong main character and I really enjoyed watching her come into her power. Arin also grew on me by the end. However, the pacing of this book was all over the place and I kept losing motivation to read. I liked the overall premise of the story, but I feel like there was a lot going on and some of it could have been edited down. I will definitely keep reading this series.

It's a Favorite, 5 stars!

"When you choose who you are willing to fight for, you choose who you are."

This book was SUCH a ride! I am absolutely obsessed and will proceed to make this my entire personality, thank you very much. The Jasad Heir follows Sylvia, a lost queen of her decimated kingdom. Her magic is punishable by pain of death and people scattered across the remaining kingdoms, hunted along with her. She has run for many years, but in one moment, her magic is exposed to the heir of the kingdom that decimated her own, and she is forced to make a deal with him. In exchange for her freedom, she agrees to be his champion for the upcoming Alcalah.

I am honestly so impressed that this is a debut! It has just a little bit of everything that I like, and it was done so well!

What I loved:
- Sylvia is my favorite type of heroine: an absolute chaotic disaster, dripping with sarcasm, and prickly as can be. Sylvia has spent her whole life running and holding people at arms length. She went through some really traumatic things as a child and as a result cannot stand to be touched and is very much looking out for herself. I loved seeing her grow and transform throughout this book. I will never get tired of a good self-realization journey as our prickly misfit of a character finds their place in this world.

- That leads me to my second point - this is a lost royalty trope. I will probably never get tired of this. I absolutely adore seeing the lost royal finally come to peace with who they are and reclaim their identity. I felt like this was a really natural progression in this book and handled well.

- The romantic tension in this was absolutely glorious. It is the sloooowest of slow burns, enemies to lovers, chaotic and straight-laced pairing. I was living for the moment when they finally gave in. I usually am not the biggest fan of enemies to lovers because it often ends up feeling artificial and insta-lovey, but this one totally made sense and I felt like I got to see it from the ground-up, which was fantastic. I really appreciate Arin as the love interest and feel like his character was really well developed.

- In general, there is a lot of really strong character work in this. I came to really care about and become connected to the characters. Even the side characters who don't get a lot of page time. Sefa and Marek, Rory, Fairel Wes, Jeru, really everyone. They were so well crafted and I loved getting to know my band of misfits.

- I am a sucker for a competition/trial/task storyline and this delivered. We get the training montages as well as the actual Alcalah itself. I don't know exactly why I love trial storylines so much, but dangnabbit, I just want to relive that Hunger Games high I've been chasing for the last decade or so! I feel like these were really interesting trials, and while I wouldn't have minded more page time for the worldbuilding that is wrapped up in these trials, I know that this would come at the expense of the slower paced character work that I loved so much.

- The ENDING was absolutely PHENOMENAL. So many things happened and I am absolutely salivating waiting for book 2. It wasn't necessarily a surprising ending, but it was fast-paced and explosive, and now I just need to know where this leaves us!

What might not work so well for others:
- Honestly, there wasn't a whole lot that didn't work well for me, but I will expect that some people will find this to slow. It takes a while to get to the trials, and a lot of that time is training and character moments. That worked really well for me but I can see how others might not appreciate it.

- The other big complaint that I anticipate seeing is that there will be the heavier fantasy readers who find that there is too much romance/romantic tension, and for the more romance inclined they will likely find that there isn't enough. I generally enjoy both genres and this was a perfect mix of the two for me.

- The only thing I can think of that would have made me love this even more would be getting more of Arin's POV!

Honestly, for me this book was like a more adult mix of the Daughter of Smoke and Bone and the Throne of Glass series. I'm sure that there will be critics who say this is YA *insert eye roll here* because we have a female protagonist who makes impulsive decisions, but I heartily disagree. I am very much looking forward to seeing hopefully some more political maneuvering, magic, and romantic tension in book two!

Overall, I highly recommend, and I cannot wait to pick up the next installment and see where we go from here!

Thanks so much to Orbit and Netgalley for an ARC. All opinions are my own. The Jasad Heir releases on July 18, 2023.

The Jasad Heir is an amazing new series set in a wonderfully imagined fantasy land! Sylvia is a common villager...or so she wants people to think. 10 years after the assault on her homeland, Jasad, Sylvia lives a quiet life. But she is hiding a dangerous secret; not only does she have magic locked inside her, something that has been illegal since her homeland was destroyed, but she is the only survivor of a massacre that lead the rest of Jasad's royal family dead. When the heir to another throne finds her and declares her a champion in the kingdom's upcoming games, Sylvia knows her only shot at freedom will be to win the games...and hide her true identity from the kingdoms that thought her long dead.

Wow! I loved this book and already can't wait for the sequel. It was SO fast paced; which I loved, especially considering that the book is quite lengthy. Sometimes I felt like there was too much information to keep track of the book moved so fast! There were SO MANY characters, and quite often I couldn't remember who some of the minor characters were. I also had a hard time keeping track of the kingdoms at first. There wasn't a map in my ARC edition, but I do think that the final version is set to have one and I think that will help readers keep track of where the character is traveling to. Honestly other than the fact that I had a hard time remembering the character and that the information was thrown at me so fast that I could barely keep track of things that happened, this book was AMAZING! Also the ending was EXPLOSIVE! I sincerely cannot wait to get my hands on the next book in the series because I NEED to know what happens next! I would absolutely recommend to fans of the fantasy genre.

Thank you to Netgalley for providing me a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Jasad Heir- 4⭐️ 1.5🌶️


✨My Opinion✨

Magic
Enemies to lovers
Politics
Fantasy romance
Slow burn
Competitions and champions
Lost heir
Secret life
Bargains


The Jasad Heir is the familiar political fantasy romance. The world building was really enjoyable, if long, and I found myself quickly drawn in to the vibrancy and layers of the kingdoms inspired by Egyptian culture. The FMC is morally grey because of her upbringing after Jasad fell and I loved it!

There is no spice in this book. The tension reads as hatred/tension more than romantic tension. The romance is SLOW. Slower than slow. Which makes it feel more like a YA fantasy with early 20’s main characters. The book contains a lot of politics, but not super clear politics to make up for the lack of spice/romance.

There was a little bit of overwriting when it came to the inner monologue. Things were stated over and over again throughout the book in inner monologue as well as in action.

I was caught off guard by the random MMC POV that slipped in… some of the chapters so short they didn’t even give any insight to how he thought or what his actual background is. I understand that learning his full POV would have given away the “big twist” a lot sooner… or it wouldn’t have been a character defining twist moment… but I would have rather not had his POV until book 2.

I don’t think the purpose of the trial was ever noted. Yes they happen, and have been happening for a long time… but why? Also, they didn’t feel like high enough stakes for the FMC with the trials themselves. She wasn’t even worried about them, which made them feel like complete side plot to read about…. Which then made the book feel like a LOT of side plots all squished together.

For book 2, I want clear politics, more details about the magic system and how it works, more side character depth, more romance. I’m excited about where this series could go!

Thank you NetGalley and for an ARC copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

It's easy to read and follow. The writing is lovely. It felt on the cusp of YA and adult, so I imagine it really hits its stride later. It should be a good fit for our libraries, especially with the diverse rep! :)

I stopped after chapter 1, but I'm considering going back to it. If I do, will update.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for the ARC.

Book Name: The Jasad Heir
Author: Sara Hashem

ARC
Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for an ARC of Sara Hashem’s The Jasad Heir

Stars: 5
Spice: 1

Debut Series:
Fast Paced
Best Dual POV
Egyptian-inspired Throne of Glass/4thWing/Hunger Games/ Fantasy with Romance

- Topics
- Anger
- Survival Loss Greif
- Belonging
- Destiny Fate and Duty
- Navigating Identity
- Safety vs Freedom
- Reconciling Multiple Identities
- Tropes
- Tournament
- Hidden Princess
- Assailant princess.
- Magical tournament.
- Enemies to…
- Flirty Stabbing
- Secret identities
- Who hurt you
- One Horse
- Cant Fight the Feeling Anymore
- Thoughts.
- Slow start but picks up by 20%
- Slightly clunky world-building
- Major TOG (first book) Vibes
- Slow Burn
- READ
- THIS
- NOW
- EVERYONE

This was a solid debut! 3.5 stars!

This book includes many popular tropes that readers will love, including a queen in hiding, enemies to lovers ("who did this to you"!!!!!), a tournament of champions, forbidden magic, scheming rulers, and many more. I really enjoyed the Egyptian inspiration and I think that added a lot of layers to this book. I really liked the nuance with Sylvia and Arin and their respective kingdoms. As more and more was revealed it made you question what was the right choice, and if there even was a right choice.

However, I struggled with the pacing of this book. It was inconsistent. The tournament is such a huge premise of the book but it only takes place in the last 30% or so and it felt rushed and skipped over. It didn't add anything and it just seemed like a means to an end. I also wish that there had been MORE nuance regarding politics and magic. This is an adult debut but in many aspects it felt very YA. All of the nuance seemed to vanish as soon as the romance subplot began to develop.

Overall, I enjoyed reading this book but I just wanted a little bit more from it! I'm excited to see where this series goes, because I think it has a lot of promise.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit Books for the ARC!

The Jasad Heir is an enthralling fantasy novel that takes readers on a thrilling journey through a vividly imagined world. With its gripping plot, richly developed characters, and intricate world-building, this book is a must-read for fans of fantasy!

The story introduces us into a captivating universe filled with magic, political intrigue, and a prophecy that holds the fate of the realm. Each character has a distinct voice and plays a crucial role in the overall plot, making their interactions and alliances all the more intriguing. From luxurious palaces to mystical forests, every location feels carefully crafted and serves a purpose within the story.

Sylvia and Arin have become my new favorite duo. They compliment each other so well. Sylvia with her witty remarks and Arin unfazed, yet covertly charmed by her.

In the end, The Jasad Heir is a captivating fantasy adventure that skillfully combines elements of magic, politics, and personal growth. This book is a delightful addition to the fantasy genre and will leave reader's eagerly anticipating the next installment in the series.

The Jasad Heir is everything I long for in a slow burn enemies-to-lovers romance with an intricate and fully realized world that had me wishing it never ended!

I love a good political fantasy where the threads are so tangled that you’ve got to just pull on one to see where it goes. The stakes are set high right from the beginning with Sylvia, the Jasadi heir, who lives in hiding in Mahair, a small village in Omal. Jasadi’s are hunted and put on trial, which always leads to their death, in Nizahl. She does her best to live under the radar but she gets herself intro trouble when she ends up killing a Nizahl soldier and quickly does her best to cover it up with the help of her friends, Sefa and Marek. Her carefully hidden world begins to unravel when the Nizahl heir comes to her small part of the world looking for a champion and comes across Sylvia. Convinced she’s a Jasadi, he toys with her until she reveals herself—but, instead of putting her on trial he makes her his champion and then the fireworks begin!

You’ve got two enemies in close proximity to each other and neither pull any punches—or knives—in the beginning. This is one of the very best examples of an enemies to lovers done right. We see the relationship fully develop between them from hate, to reluctant trust and respect, to finally something more. I appreciated the way their story was developed and how neither ever forgot what the other was and what it meant for them to even think of liking the other. It was glorious and I love them all the more for it!

Sylvia was such a complex character who was born into royalty and the role of being the heir—a role she never asked for and yet can’t escape. There is so much to this book—from magic, to longing, angst, humour, death, betrayal, and love. What we owe to other people and what we get to keep for ourselves.

Thank you Orbit books for the arc!!!

Thank you to netgalley for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I've kept an eye on the author and this book since she began writing and updating her progress on social media. I've been so excited for this book. It definitely lived up to the hype. The TENSION. Ugh. I can't wait to read whatever else she writes.

4/5 ⭐

For being 500+ pages, this book flew by pretty fast. Combining concealed identity with a tournament to the death, we follow Sylvia - apothecary apprentice and long thought dead heir of Jasad. In a world of magic, mystery, and political intrigue, there's no shortage of action at any moment. I still don't entirely understand the magic system, though I think that's intentional. Sylvia doesn't fully understand it due to memory gaps, so we can't either. Also Arin is such a frosty boy, even if we know it's going to go the way of enemies-to-lovers. And given the fiery conclusion of this book, I can't wait to see where it goes next.

*Thank you to Orbit and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review*

It took me a minute to get into this one, but once I did I devoured it. I loved the worldbuilding, the enemies to lovers romance, the two main characters - all of it! Sylvia starts out as a very morally grey character and by the end I think she has grown a lot, but we'll have to wait and see in book 2. Even though the romance wasn't the main focus, I loved the slow burn and the way Sylvia and Arin fall for each other slowly despite their best efforts.

My only complaint with this book was the pacing. They spend a lot of time in one particular area and while there is a lot of good character development, there's not too much going on plot-wise. There is a lot packed into the last 30 percent or so and I found myself wanting a little bit more of the tournament, even though that's a trope I'm kind of exhausted by at this point. I did like how she slowly reveals information about Sylvia's backstory instead of info dumping all at once.

Overall, I loved the book and I will definitely be picking up book 2.