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4.15 AVERAGE
4.15 AVERAGE
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Note: I received an advance review copy in exchange for honest feedback.
I gave this book the same rating as [b:The Stardust Thief|58950705|The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1)|Chelsea Abdullah|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1636396304l/58950705._SY75_.jpg|91801906], but for very different reasons. The sense of wonder from book 1 wasn’t *quite* there, but I was happy that the characters were more fleshed-out, and their relationships more thoroughly explored. I loved that there were multiple villains, and that atonement was a major theme. I also loved some of the new characters, like Amina and Rijah, but disliked how “on the nose” the feminism aspect was (females are strong and fearless! males are cowards!). I was also annoyed by the scattered plot with too many side quests as well as the inconsistent and confusing expanded lore. Above all, I felt like most of the book was simply filler action: bad decisions leading to consequences. I kept zoning out while reading and was fed up with Loulie or Mazen going like “I have an idea” and everyone just going along without question. This type of behaviour could be expected from twenty-something humans… but century-old magical beings...? If the characters had communicated and planned, the book would have been 75% shorter… and that’s saying a lot.
Pros and cons of the series so far:
❤️ Rich worldbuilding and intriguing lore
❤️ Strong female characters
❤️ In-page stories
❤️ Action sequences
❌ Too many Arabic terms
❌ Meh MMC
❌ Repetitive use of cliché phrases
❌ Pacing issues
❌ Lots of telling vs. showing
Trigger warnings for the series: violence, death and murder (parent, child, etc.), grief, blood and gore, injury and injury detail, torture, fire and fire injury, genocide, physical and emotional abuse, kidnapping and confinement, toxic relationship, war, sexism and misogyny, animal death, panic attacks/disorders, hate crimes, slavery, sexual assault, etc.
Follow me on Instagram: @bibi.reads.writes
I gave this book the same rating as [b:The Stardust Thief|58950705|The Stardust Thief (The Sandsea Trilogy, #1)|Chelsea Abdullah|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1636396304l/58950705._SY75_.jpg|91801906], but for very different reasons. The sense of wonder from book 1 wasn’t *quite* there, but I was happy that the characters were more fleshed-out, and their relationships more thoroughly explored. I loved that there were multiple villains, and that atonement was a major theme. I also loved some of the new characters, like Amina and Rijah, but disliked how “on the nose” the feminism aspect was (females are strong and fearless! males are cowards!). I was also annoyed by the scattered plot with too many side quests as well as the inconsistent and confusing expanded lore. Above all, I felt like most of the book was simply filler action: bad decisions leading to consequences. I kept zoning out while reading and was fed up with Loulie or Mazen going like “I have an idea” and everyone just going along without question. This type of behaviour could be expected from twenty-something humans… but century-old magical beings...? If the characters had communicated and planned, the book would have been 75% shorter… and that’s saying a lot.
Pros and cons of the series so far:
❤️ Rich worldbuilding and intriguing lore
❤️ Strong female characters
❤️ In-page stories
❤️ Action sequences
❌ Too many Arabic terms
❌ Meh MMC
❌ Repetitive use of cliché phrases
❌ Pacing issues
❌ Lots of telling vs. showing
Trigger warnings for the series: violence, death and murder (parent, child, etc.), grief, blood and gore, injury and injury detail, torture, fire and fire injury, genocide, physical and emotional abuse, kidnapping and confinement, toxic relationship, war, sexism and misogyny, animal death, panic attacks/disorders, hate crimes, slavery, sexual assault, etc.
Follow me on Instagram: @bibi.reads.writes
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
***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.
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
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!
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!
adventurous
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
5 stars n notes. 🥰
Waited forever for this book and then read it in two days. Ah, well. I will stay with me forever.
Wild magics, fascinating peoples, a plot moving fast you almost miss the calm oases.
Okay, maybe 2 notes. Not enough of my fave coward in the book, though, for understandable reasons. 😔
While I approve of the developing romance, the langaue used for it doesn't vibe with me. 😭
Other than that? I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE THIRD PART!
Waited forever for this book and then read it in two days. Ah, well. I will stay with me forever.
Wild magics, fascinating peoples, a plot moving fast you almost miss the calm oases.
Okay, maybe 2 notes. Not enough of my fave coward in the book, though, for understandable reasons. 😔
While I approve of the developing romance, the langaue used for it doesn't vibe with me. 😭
Other than that? I CANNOT WAIT FOR THE THIRD PART!
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
The Ashfire King picks up just where The Stardust Thief left off and follows a similar format to the previous book, with POV chapters from the same characters. Though I quite enjoyed The Stardust Thief, it did have some slight pacing issues. In this sequel, I encountered the same problem but to a greater extent.
Buried in there somewhere was an interesting story, especially with the exploration of the jinn realm but the plot seemed to be all over the place and though there was a lot of magic and adventure, I soon found myself not caring much about the details of the story. I think one of the main differences between the two books, the fact that they were together as a group in the first and split up into subgroups with their own storylines in the second, goes some way in explaining why The Ashfire King wasn't as captivating.
The short stories between the chapters and Qadir's past were the most interesting sections for me. Aisha was my favourite character and Mazen was endearing as before but everyone else was just passable.
Will I read the third book? I'm not sure. Probably depends on how soon it will be published.
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
lighthearted
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No