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baechael's review
dark
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Big thanks to Edelweiss and CamCat Publishing for the digital ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.
3.5 but closer to a 3 than a 4 if that makes sense.
At the beginning I was really excited about this book. A fantasy romance inspired by the Middle East and desert cultures??? Featuring a jinni??? I think yes!
In Daughter of the Salt King we follow Emel, a daughter to, you guessed it, the Salt King. She and her sisters are expected to live to pleasure and hopefully marry the potential suitors that come to their city. However, she ends up discovering her fathers jinni and over time they fall in love!
However, it really started to drag towards the middle since the book was more focused on the romance and there wasn’t much development in the story other than that. It was slightly political but mostly it was a romance that happened to be set in a fantasy land.
Also, while there were plenty of hardships the characters went through outside of the romance, there really were no difficulties experienced by the MC (Emel) and love interest (Saalim), and that made it pretty boring.
I also want to mention that there is abuse, both sexual and otherwise, mentioned in this book. And while none of it is graphic, not very much of it is explicitly stated to be bad. Especially the consistent sexual abuse that Emel and her sisters experience as princesses. The more I thought about it the more I became uncomfortable with that part of the world building.
The ending was much more exciting and it made me think that the sequel will have more of a plot. And there will be an expansion on the world building. So I’ll probably read the second one.
3.5 but closer to a 3 than a 4 if that makes sense.
At the beginning I was really excited about this book. A fantasy romance inspired by the Middle East and desert cultures??? Featuring a jinni??? I think yes!
In Daughter of the Salt King we follow Emel, a daughter to, you guessed it, the Salt King. She and her sisters are expected to live to pleasure and hopefully marry the potential suitors that come to their city. However, she ends up discovering her fathers jinni and over time they fall in love!
However, it really started to drag towards the middle since the book was more focused on the romance and there wasn’t much development in the story other than that. It was slightly political but mostly it was a romance that happened to be set in a fantasy land.
Also, while there were plenty of hardships the characters went through outside of the romance, there really were no difficulties experienced by the MC (Emel) and love interest (Saalim), and that made it pretty boring.
I also want to mention that there is abuse, both sexual and otherwise, mentioned in this book. And while none of it is graphic, not very much of it is explicitly stated to be bad. Especially the consistent sexual abuse that Emel and her sisters experience as princesses. The more I thought about it the more I became uncomfortable with that part of the world building.
The ending was much more exciting and it made me think that the sequel will have more of a plot. And there will be an expansion on the world building. So I’ll probably read the second one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcoholism
Moderate: Death, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Torture, and Violence
Minor: Rape
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