tl;dr
Two perfectly paired leads take on a series of creative challenges for a read that's super fun.

Thoughts
I love a middle grade book with a clever lead who relies on their wits. It's such a treat that this one has two. Amir is a manipulative genius with a morally gray worldview, and Shamsa is a capricious trickster with a heart of gold. They fit together perfectly as they work together to overcome a series of increasingly tricky tests. I really love the fact that the nature of the tests is varied - everything from physical prowess to poetic nuance shows up, and it was great to see their creativity as they worked together. Amir's personal journey is also a really strong through-line, as he grows from disaffected teen to being fully invested in being involved in the world and its people. The writing is super clean and flows easily, and the character voices all come across as distinct. Overall and incredibly fun read with some great characters.

This uses the elements perfectly with what I was hoping for from Nura's book. It was written perfectly and I enjoyed the mythological elements going on. I thought the characters were wonderfully written and worked with the story and the fantasy element. I enjoyed the way M. T. Khan wrote this and left me wanting to read more from the author.

Amir is the son of a wealthy Pakistan business owner, raised to be above others and given every opportunity to do so. Shamsa is the Jinn Princess overshadowed by her many talented siblings. When they meet by chance they must embark on an adventure together: Amir to find his missing mother before his grandmother forces his father to remarry, and Shamsa to set herself above her siblings and become the heir to the throne.

Amir is such a wonderful main character. He deals with the loss and grief surrounding his mother’s disappearance in such a realistic way. At first he doubts, then he is angry; he wants to pretend it doesn’t bother him, but then he slowly starts to think “was it something I did?” We get to go along this emotional journey with him and see how he not only accepts these emotions but learns to move past them as well.

He is pitted against his siblings in a competition none of them seem to want to be in but are nonetheless expected to. Fortunately this gives him an edge in his quest to help Shamsa. Along the way they bolster each other and give each other the courage to show the world their real selves.

Shamsa is such an underdog character but she has a ton of compassion and a big heart. She wants to be heir for the recognition at first (poor girl has 30 siblings!) but as the competition progresses and her eyes are opened to the plights of her people she realizes she wants to make her home a better place for everyone, not just the wealthy. The best lesson she learned was the one thing she hated about herself—not having fire powers like the rest of her siblings—allowed her to be the one to save the kingdom and make herself heir (along with cool water powers instead!).

Overall this was a fun ride for readers of all ages, but I especially believe that younger readers will see a lot of themselves in both Amir and Shamsa, and the story will help them to learn some great life lessons about grief and familial expectation.

Thank you NetGalley, Little Brown Books for Young Readers, and M. T. Khan!

This was a very good middle grade read. It deals with so many things loss, grief, loneliness, ect, and does so greatly with young readers in mind. I loved how Amir and Shamsa grew into new ways of thinking through the book. I will definitely be recommending it to my children when it releases.