I love the MENA representation in this and how the culture and folktales are woven in throughout the story. I felt the story itself suffered a bit from middle book syndrome and could drag at times, but overall a fun solid read.

***Thank you to Orbit Books for providing an advanced copy of the book via NetGalley. My review contains my honest thoughts about my reading experience with a finished hardcover copy of the book, which I purchased.***

Uh. I am so disappointed that I didn’t love this book. I feel like I’ve been waiting forever for The Ashfire King to be released. My reaction to it is definitely a bummer. At first, I thought the problem was my mood until I was able to become invested in other books I was reading simultaneously. I just never really wanted to pick this book up. It began to feel like a chore, which makes me so sad to say. That being said, the story managed to find its rhythm closer to the end. It was just too little too late for me.

The Ashfire King was SO SLOW and way too long. The first half of the book felt like it accomplished almost nothing. There were interesting things happening. They just didn’t seem to move things forward all that much. One of my critiques of the first book was that it waited too long to reveal things for the sake of having a bunch of reveals and twists at the end. Unfortunately, the same thing happened here. I was much more invested in the story once I knew how some of the new characters and circumstances were intertwined and related in significant ways to the events of the first book. Those revelations just came way too late.

It didn’t help that I wasn’t drawn in by the world-building. Much of The Ashfire King was spent exploring different locales in the jinn world. I expected those adventures to be exciting and breathtaking. Don’t get me wrong, there were some excellent moments. The ambiance of the setting just didn’t wow me. I expected the jinn realm to be alien after spending so long buried under the sand, but the descriptions just did not do a great job of helping me picture the strangeness of it all. I was also left wanting more information on the bindings and how they worked. It all seemed a bit hand-wavey at times with the magic just doing whatever was needed in the moment.

There were plenty of returning faces in The Ashfire King, as well as some great new characters. Mazen and Loulie kept most of the focus. I was surprised by how difficult it was for me to connect with them, though. They just jumped from one impulsive decision to another while racing around the jinn world mucking things up. lol. However, their growth by the end was good. Loulie learned to open herself up to others a little bit more, and Mazen became much surer of himself and his abilities. Surprisingly, Aisha was my favorite character. Her struggle to come to terms with her dependence on jinn magic was incredibly compelling. I also want to note that I was quite bummed that Qadir was absent for most of the story. I missed him and the found family vibes from the first book a lot.

While I didn’t love The Ashfire King as much as I wanted to, it did have plenty of great moments, including some swashbuckling naval action, and eventually moved the story forward in interesting ways. The first half was a chore, and I’d have loved to get more detailed world-building. However, the end point left things in a very great place for the final book of the trilogy. So, I’ll eventually be picking it up to see whether the author can stick the landing. With all this in mind, I rate the book 3.25 out of 5 stars.

Chelsea Abdullah expands the canvas in the second installment of her trilogy.

The characters that we've grown to care for have grown into better versions of themselves at the conclusion of the story, and each new character we're introduced to is fully corporal as they become a vital part of the story. Chelsea's imagining of the Jinn world is lucious, vibrant, and intriguing. Her descriptions go beyond what we could even imagine. Every fight scene is expertly choreographed and hardly ever confusing. Not only can we imagine every cut and slash, but the mortality, or lack thereof, of each and every character is never forgotten. They're brought to the forefront of each battle and skirmish and add to the tension of each encounter to the next.

A special note for the audiobook: the voices for Loulie, Mazen, and Aisha have brought their characters, and side characters, to life. My anticipation for the audio of the book was unreal! They're absolutely perfect for their roles!

This book is another smash hit, and I look forward to the final installment!

Delightful and adventurous follow up to The Stardust Thief. More world building, new characters, old characters developed and twists. I look forward to the ending of this trilogy.

One piece of feedback. In the first book there were several references to food and other sensory information experienced by the various POVs. It really grounded the scene and made you feel what the characters were experiencing. This second book didn’t have as much of that and I missed it.

Thank you to NetGalley for sharing a digital ARC in exchange for an honest review. #theashfireking #netgalley

The Ashfire King is Chelsea Abdullah’s follow-up to the highly enjoyable The Stardust Thief, picking pretty immediately after the events of that book, which ended on a pretty sizable cliffhanger. While the new novel doesn’t attain the heights of its predecessor, which I called “one of the most enjoyable and captivating books” I’d read that year, despite some issues it moves the story along, deepens several of the characters, and fleshes out more of the world’s workings. (Fair warning: unavoidable spoilers for The Stardust Thief to follow)

After a brief recap in the form of the several stories-within-the-story that run throughout, we turn to our main group of characters, who have been separated by the plot occurrences at the end of book one. Loulie al-Nazari, Prince Mazen bin Malek (who goes by his storyteller name Yousef), and the Jinn king of the lamp Rijah end up in the Jinn realm, sunk below the great desert ages ago by Loulie’s companion/bodyguard/Jinn king Qadir the other six great Jinn kings. There they get entangled in a war amongst the Jinn and become part of the quest to stop the Jinn world from sinking further (thus being wholly destroyed) and perhaps even to return it to the above world of home. Meanwhile, Aisha (kept alive only by dint of being possessed by a Jinn known as the Resurrectionist), remains above to try and thwart the plots of Omar, Mazen’s villainous brother, the current sultan. Joined by Mazen’s other brother, Hakim, the two set out to free Qadir, currently held by Omar in a seemingly unimpregnable prison. Eventually, as one might imagine, separate storylines converge.

As noted, we open up with a story-within-a story (a clever way of doing the recap btw). We saw these interlude chapters of digressive stories put to good use in The Stardust Thief, and it remains a strength here, with some of my favorite writing appearing in these stories. Structurally, this choice makes a lot of sense in a universe at least somewhat inspired by The Thousand and One Nights stories. It’s also a way to highlight various themes, including most overtly, the power of stories and how they can shape reality and behavior (it’s no accident that Mazen’s alter ego is a storyteller).

Another positive is the description of the physical Jinn world below, with its tall graceful structures, it’s cities lit by “ashfire”, the way it is permeated with magic, and more wonderfully original elements I don’t want to spoil here. All of this wonder made more poignantly tragic by the accelerating threat of it all disappearing. A tragic possibility highlighted by some moving depictions of refugees, a theme more than a little topical in our current time.

Amongst the characters, my favorite here is Aisha, mostly due to her several layers of internal struggle: her betrayal by and off her former leader Omar, her past acts of violence, and most predominately her attempt to deal with the constant presence in her head and body of the Resurrectionist, a presence that is necessary if she is to live though it means giving up some range of sovereignty of her own body and mind. I also enjoyed Mazen’s quiet, gentle nature; his growing sense of confidence and courage, and his relationship to a bird (yes, you read that right).

Finally, in the positives category, there are several good action scenes, including a sea battle, that are well done but that I won’t detail so as to avoid spoilers.

As I mentioned in the intro, The Ashfire King is a more flawed novel than its predecessor, and those issues did mar the reading experience. The pacing was more uneven here, with the book at times feeling like it bogged down in several spots and at other times feeling like it was rushing through things a bit too quickly. While I liked the physical description of the Jinn world, the Jinn themselves remain a bit cloudy to me. I never could quite pin down their use of magic, their system of allegiance/hierarchy, their differences, and other societal elements. And they rarely feel like truly ancient beings, a frequent pet peeve of mine for presentation of immortal/near-immortal characters, so this point is not limited to Abdullah’s work. Characterization was solid, but I can’t say the development beyond Aisha was particularly compelling, and a romance angle while fine felt a bit perfunctory and flat. Qadir’s absence through most of the novel, and one somewhat flat villain didn’t help in this area. And finally, the plotting had its issues as well, but I don’t want to give examples here or get to specific to as not ruin it for those who hate to know what happens.

These issues did as I say mar my enjoyment, but I never considered not reading, never skimmed or skipped, not did they have any effect on whether I’ll read the next book in the series. I will, however, hope for a return to the level of The Stardust Thief. Recommended with the above caveats.

Chelsea Abdullah delivers an epic, richly woven sequel in The Ashfire King, and it absolutely burns in all the best ways. Our sharp and endlessly fascinating Midnight Merchant returns, and the stakes are higher, the betrayals deeper, and the world even more magical than before.

Set in an Arab-inspired fantasy realm teeming with ancient cities, vanishing islands, and lived-in ruins, this book is pure adventure. We’ve got sailing in sinking sand, spies (including birds—yes, birds), fire magic, grief-forged bonds, and a legendary smuggler tangled in a dangerous quest. There’s even a dare involving a magic carpet.

Schemes unfold in every corner. The cast expands with not one but two ragtag teams, all working toward conflicting goals that twist and turn like a desert storm. Abdullah shines in blending myth with emotion, layering her story with tales within tales that challenge what’s true and what’s merely legend.

The line that stayed with me?
“She had made herself into a weapon so that she would not falter.
And she would not. Never again.”
Powerful. Fierce. Exactly the kind of heroine and story I crave.

If you loved The Stardust Thief, this sequel ups the ante in every way. Magical, dangerous, and emotionally grounded—it’s a ride you won’t want to end.

The Ashfire King is the second book in the Sandsea Trilogy, picking up where The Stardust Thief left off, with Loulie and Mazen trapped in the jinn realm. There was a long wait in between books, and I very much appreciate the summary at the beginning of the book to recap what happened previously.

I loved The Stardust Thief, and when The Ashfire King was given a release date, I was so excited. While I did end up enjoying The Ashfire King, it did end up falling a bit short of my expectations. Generally with a sequel, I expect decent character growth. In terms of one character, Aisha, I got that. I wasn’t as engrossed in her story originally, so seeing her grow as a person and seeing where her part of the journey went, I really enjoyed and she ended up being my favourite part of the book even though her chapters weren’t the dominant ones in the book. Where it fell short for me was with Loulie and Mazen. They didn’t feel like they grew as much as characters this time around, and we were kind of stuck in a loop of watching them both make increasingly dumb decisions and rescuing each other. While this made for a slightly more action-packed exciting story, it just didn’t leave me feeling as engaged with them as I had been in the first book.

I also found this to be a bit longer than necessary. Maybe it was the loop of dumb decisions, but it took a while for the story to feel like it was finally moving forward. This did allow for a more in-depth exploration of the jinn realm, which was fascinating in it’s own way, but I still found the first half of the story to drag a little more than I would have liked.

The ending though, the end won me over. One of my favourite characters finally got more page time, Aisha was a badass, there were interesting twists that I didn’t expect. There wasn’t enough Duha in the end, one of the characters introduced this book that I really liked, but I expect to see more of her in the final book, so that’s okay. It also ended up being a really solid way to set up the final book in the trilogy. I know oftentimes the second book suffers in a trilogy, and I think that was the case in The Ashfire King. It was the middle child, but it’s setting up great things for the ending of the story.
I think if you were a big fan of The Stardust Thief, you’ll end up enjoying The Ashfire King. Others might struggle through the beginning a bit like I did, and question some of the choices through the book, but the payoff in the end is worth sticking around for.

The Ashfire King picks up where we left our MCs in The Stardust Thief. Loulie and Mazen are in the legendary sunken Jinn city, with Aisha staying behind to exact revenge on Omar.

Unfortunately, I didn't feel as connected to this book as I did with The Stardust Thief. I can't tell if that's because of the mood I was in or if it was the book itself. One thing I did love about the book was the relationship developments between all three of our POVs. I especially loved Aisha's growth as a character and getting to know more about her back story alongside Amina's. I really wanted to love this book, as I couldn't put down TST, but I really struggled to pick this one up. It took me nearly two months to finish it and I just wasn't sucked in by the plot the way that I was in book 1.

I'm hoping it's just a bit of middle book syndrome and that I can feel the magic again in book 3.

The Ashfire King is the long awaited sequel to The Stardust Thief where we pick up immediately after the events. The story follows three heroes who are seeking to find answers in the world of jinn. Loulie, a former merchant turned adventurer. Mazen, a prince by birth and a storyteller by nature. Aisha, a former villainous member of the new sultan's thieves who has made a pact with a dangerous jinn.

One thing I greatly appreciated about The Ashfire King was that they included an overview of the previous book before you dive into the story. We begin following Loulie and Mazen as they are lost in the jinn's world under the Sandsea - separated from Qadir and Aisha. I loved the worldbuilding of the jinn cities beneath the sea and the mystery of Qadir's past as the ashfire king. The friendships between these characters is truly such a strong point - they are scared and in an unknown place and it makes sense how much they rely upon each other.

I do enjoy Aisha and Mazen's POVs the most but I really liked the book and am very excited to pick up the final book in the trilogy when it comes out.

This was a solid sequel. While I enjoyed the first book, The Stardust Thief, I was much more pulled into the story of The Ashfire King. With the characters and world well-established, we get to see them grapple with the truth of the sunken sea and the jinn realm, and what that means for the human world.

We once again follow Loulie, Mazen, and Aisha, which offers a nice, wide view of all the machinations working in the story, and I cared about each of their struggles. It was always bittersweet to end a chapter, because I knew it meant leaving this character’s perspective, but jumping to another who I loved.

My favorite addition this book was Hakim. He has such an interesting personality, different from Mazen though they were both raised in similar horrible circumstances. And the hard-earned trust and partnership built between Loulie and Mazen in the first book only grew stronger in this book. Their friendship and attraction is so sweet and I am eager to see how they grow next. Meanwhile, Aisha spends much of the book in a mental battle with the Resurrectionist jinn who shares her mind. This battle, fraught with paradigm shifts and prejudice, was interesting. It could have easily been repetitive or off-putting, but the way the book tells it, Aisha’s struggles feel real and earned, and the evolution of that relationship makes sense considering bother characters’ perspectives and their circumstances.

As a result of the end of book 1, Qadir is separated from Loulie, imprisoned by Omar. This made for a thrilling plot eventually, but his absence was very felt until he is brought back into the fold. I wouldn’t have changed it, necessarily, but the book just lacked some energy with him not on its pages.

Overall, I enjoyed it! I’m looking forward to the finale even more than I expected I would.

I quite enjoyed Chelsea Abdullah’s The Stardust Thief and was pleased to continue the trilogy with this book; I liked this installment even more than the first.

There is a lot about this series, and this novel, that I like: compelling world-building with inspiration from and references to ‘A Thousand and One Nights,’ multiple POVs, and exciting political intrigue and manoeuvring. The plot is well paced and really gets exciting and hard to put down, especially toward the end. Everything I liked about The Stardust Thief also applies here, perhaps even moreso.

My only gripe with the first book was that I felt the characters were not morally ambiguous enough. Everyone read, to me, as either straightforwardly likeable or as evil. This is an area I think this second book really improves upon. Motivations are, in several instances, not what they first appear; I appreciated Aisha’s storyline in particular in this installment. I do think that this novel would’ve for me been stronger had the hint of romance been left out entirely – it was by no means overpowering, but it also felt wholly unneeded and didn’t really add to the development of either characters in any vital way.

This is the second novel in the Sandsea Trilogy. Please note that this book would not work as a standalone.

Content warnings: violence, war, injury detail, blood, death, murder, confinement, grief, torture (almost all off page, not graphic)

Thank you to Orbit Books & NetGalley for providing me an ARC to review.

Mystical Middle-Eastern adventure, Magic, and a quest for the magic lamp! I could not put these down. Felt a little like Aladdin mixed with some seriously awesome plot. The twists made my head spin. The lore was so cool. And the way the author mixed languages in immersed me ever deeper. I LOVED this series.

📖 4.25/5 ⭐️
🎧4/5 ⭐️

The Ashfire King was a wild ride from start to finish. The stakes are higher, the magic gets even darker, and the characters bring so much chaos and intensity. I loved diving deeper into the world of jinn and relics—there’s tension and mystery in every chapter. Some parts were a little dense, but the emotional payoff and those final twists were so worth it. A solid sequel that definitely left me needing book three ASAP.

Thank you to Orbit for an arc of this book!

I wish I had been more invested in this but I think my mind just wasn't prepared to try and rejoin this world after so long. I did appreciate the recap in the beginning but I still felt overall disconnected. There were several moments where I was more invested and certain characters POVs I definitely care about more than others so I think this is simply the case of bad timing for me to read. It's an intense epic and it deserved more of my attention than I was able to give it. Maybe when we get book three I'll do a proper reread of the first two books so that I can full appreciate this epic fantasy in a way it deserves.

ANNNND we are back! Back to one of my favorite settings in a fantasy world. The Ashfire King is book two in The Sandsea Trilogy. The first book The Stardust Thief was by far one of my favorite fantasy books that came out in 2022 so this was long awaited and highly anticipated. Something I really wish I did was reread this first one! Luckily as I did start reading this it did start coming back to me more. As I a a voracious reader and tend to consume a lot of books sometimes it is har for me to recall everything.
The Ashfire King basically picks up were we left off. I loved how it started! The opener had me laughing. I loved it when books open with the types of lines this one did. We find that Louie, Mazen and Rijah are all now in a “foreign land” The jinn city of Dhahahb is where they are going. And this city is sinking.
I feel that the traveling to this change of scenery and going back and forth between our three major POVs, Louie, Mazen, and Aisha, kept everything flowing pretty easily and had me not wanting to put the book down…even when I had to.
I loved that we got to see carpet riding and there was still continuous world building I really liked the time spent on the sand sea The characters to me were still very well done. I really want to grab the audiobooks of book 1 and this one and listen to them as I feel the immersive experience will make it all that much better for myself.
Overall this was still very fun to read and easy to get lost in. I can’t wait for the third and final installment.

Thank you Orbit for the complimentary advance reader copy. My thoughts and opinions are my own!!

Rating: 4.5 stars

This sequel was one of my most highly anticipated books for this year, and I am so grateful that I was given an advanced copy!
I was so excited to be back in this world and with these characters. There is SO MUCH that happens in this book. And honestly, the characters and their arcs through this sequel definitely surprised me for where things went.
I was surprised that somehow Aisha became my favourite in the book! I still adore Mazen, Loulie, and of course, Qadir, but Aisha surprised me with her arc and plotline. I was fully swept up in it and loved her character throughout.

The only reasons that this is not 5 stars: I struggled a bit with the pacing for the first half of the book, but I think that was mostly because this has one of my least favourite things - split the party. And not only is the party split, but they are split multiple times!!! And when everyone is finally back together? Nothing but bad things and not a moment to lose. I'm really hoping that the group stays together for the final book, because I'd love to see them all together again through some plotlines and how things play out now that the characters have all grown.
I know we probably have a bit of a wait until the next book but WITH THAT ENDING I need the next book like tomorrow please.

Anyways, as the first book was an amazing debut, this was a fantastic sequel! It suffers a little from middle book syndrome I think - said from someone who generally loves sequels and middle books actually - but it was a really solid follow up.

This book was one of my most anticipated reads of the year and unfortunately, I think it suffers from second book syndrome. This is the phenomena characterized by series with 3 or more books that struggle to advance plot in the books between the start and end of the series. I felt the end of book 1 ended on the perfect set up for our characters to deal with and feel the ramifications of the political take over they couldn't stop. However, the setting of book 2 doesn't allow that. Instead, 2 of our 3 main characters are in the Jinn world and entirely disconnected from problems of book 1.

I thought the atmosphere, oral story telling elements, magic, and Jinn universe were well explored and well done. I still absolutely loved the characters. The plot, however, felt like a flat line. Just as I felt anything was beginning to happen in one story line, it would be abandoned for a large chunk of time for an entirely different narrative. I had to DNF at 80% because no matter how long I waited for the story to pick up, I never felt that it did. I think with time I might revisit this book when the final book comes out.

4.5 stars Starting where book 1 left, this novel thankfully starts with a recap written as one of the stories told throughout the series. I adore the way these books give a nod to middle Eastern story-telling traditions and that the stories often become the reality of the characters. In this installment of the story, our quest crew from the first novel are in separate locations fighting to save each other and their whole world. The stakes are even higher and scarier than in the first book. The setting is excellent and overall, I loved it just as much as the first. It is always so refreshing to read fantasy set in different locations and traditions. And then there was that ending! Just when you thought you could take a breath!

4.25 stars

(perhaps minor spoilers for The Stardust Thief below)

The Ashfire King picks up right where The Stardust Thief left off. Loulie and Mazen are in the world of the jinn, finding themselves thrust into the middle of a political conflict they aren't sure how best to navigate. Different jinn cities are sinking as the bindings holding them in place are being destroyed.

For one, I am so glad I reread The Stardust Thief before digging into this book. There is a great summary at the beginning of Ashfire, but I felt so much more invested in this story after revisiting the first book. I love each of these characters so much, and I loved exploring more of them throughout this novel. The jinn cities and the quests that Mazen and Loulie must go on were also such a great setting for an adventure! Though I will said Aisha is perhaps my favorite character, I find her... situation... very complex and interesting and always enjoy her POVs, which was no different in this book.

I think if you haven't read this series you're doing yourself a disservice!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing an ARC in exchange for an honest review

This is a good follow up to The Stardust Thief, picking up right where the previous book ended. This book puts our main characters on a new adventure, with new secrets and mysteries to solve.

The rich, descriptive writing will pull you into this magical, while also pointing out that often the stories we know are not always the full truth.

I received a free advance review copy through from Orbit Books through NetGalley and my review is voluntary.