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3.7 AVERAGE
3.7 AVERAGE
2.5 rounded up. I was bored for a good portion of the book.
just read it for the second time & it is truly a gem. can not wait for the world to read this!!
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JUST GOT TO READ THE FULL AND ITS THE BEST THING EVERRRR. GREAT ROMANCE. BEAUTIFUL WORLD. GREAT REPRESENTATION. PRE-ORDER IT NOW.
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JUST GOT TO READ THE FULL AND ITS THE BEST THING EVERRRR. GREAT ROMANCE. BEAUTIFUL WORLD. GREAT REPRESENTATION. PRE-ORDER IT NOW.
*no spoilers were harmed in the making of this review*Tha
"blood never dies, blood never forgets"
Hey guys, so I finally finished Mirage (Mirage, #1) by Somaiya Daud. I damn the semester for not allowing me to finish it sooner. If it had, maybe my thoughts and feelings would be different. SO basically, the beginning was really amazing, event he middle of it, but once it started to end, it kind of...just flatlined. BUT, that might be my bias talking for I may hav been impatient to just finish it. But honestly though, I kept waiting for all the bird poop to hit the fan in some big way, or to have some big horror come from their actions and...well. I did not really get what I was expecting, so that kind of soured me a bit. Truly, with the way the book had gone, I was expecting a lot more danger, real, action danger. Like, near death experiences constantly. Instead, the danger was more implied. It was more the threat of danger than actual, danger. Like there was always that "oh no, am going to get caught" looming over her head, but it felt more like a gloomy grey cloud than an electric stormy one about to blow any moment. Seriously, the danger aspect could have been upped tremendously, with everything considered. AND do not even get me started on the way that ended. Everything basically goes to hell for like, no possible reason. Kay??? I was like, wtf, why is this happening. wtf, what you doing, what is happening. it just left me very disorganized. That being said, this book was really cool and I really enjoyed it, for the most part. It had a lot of court intrigue. Talk about a den of vipers. And the whole plot (until the end) was really cool. Seriously, I just loved the whole ordeal of the body double thing. (no, not a spoiler cause it says that in the bookjacket). Amani is just an amazing character, really. She doesnt let her situaitond efine her no matter how much it tries. She is steel, baby. She is steel. I admire her so much. She was so strong in the face of adversity. She would not break, she would not let them break her, no matter how hard they tried. She stuck to her guns and did everything she could to survive. So, I just loved her as a character. Maram on the other hand, gods I have a love hate relation with that woman. At first she is a total beach, a jerk, every bad word and phrase one could say. she is the embodiment of it all, all the cruelty and violence and just ughhh! But....she is just a product of her environment. if she had had a different childhood, maybe things would have turned out differently. She acts the way she does because of how she was raised. But she has emotions, just like everyone else, fear, hope, joy, need for love, trust, and the thing she fears and feels the msot, betrayal. OKAY, now onto the real shining star of this whole goddamt book. IDRIS. OH MY SWEET BABY BOY. LET ME HUG YOU AND TELL YOU EVERYHTING WILL BE ALRIGHT. Gods I love idris so much. He suffered so horribly and continually and ohhhhhhhh, IDRIS. He was so charming and funny and seductive and smart and hot and so,...so sexy. I LOVE HIM. I LOVED the romance in this book. I so shipped it. Even if I sometime wondered whethe the was gonna betray or if something bad would happen. Still, I loved it. The romance was just, so necessary, truly. It added so much richness to the plot, and to the characters. The plot by itself was pretty good, but the romance made it even better. The plot, gods I really liked when Amani had to do her body double thing, it was so fine. And just, it was great. Save for the last bit of the book, that, was not so great. And it makes me not want to read the second book. Alright, I think I prattled on long enough. if you guys have any questions, feel free to comment below. As always, this is all my opinion, feel free to read the book to form your own. Till next time.
"blood never dies, blood never forgets"
Hey guys, so I finally finished Mirage (Mirage, #1) by Somaiya Daud. I damn the semester for not allowing me to finish it sooner. If it had, maybe my thoughts and feelings would be different. SO basically, the beginning was really amazing, event he middle of it, but once it started to end, it kind of...just flatlined. BUT, that might be my bias talking for I may hav been impatient to just finish it. But honestly though, I kept waiting for all the bird poop to hit the fan in some big way, or to have some big horror come from their actions and...well. I did not really get what I was expecting, so that kind of soured me a bit. Truly, with the way the book had gone, I was expecting a lot more danger, real, action danger. Like, near death experiences constantly. Instead, the danger was more implied. It was more the threat of danger than actual, danger. Like there was always that "oh no, am going to get caught" looming over her head, but it felt more like a gloomy grey cloud than an electric stormy one about to blow any moment. Seriously, the danger aspect could have been upped tremendously, with everything considered. AND do not even get me started on the way that ended. Everything basically goes to hell for like, no possible reason. Kay??? I was like, wtf, why is this happening. wtf, what you doing, what is happening. it just left me very disorganized. That being said, this book was really cool and I really enjoyed it, for the most part. It had a lot of court intrigue. Talk about a den of vipers. And the whole plot (until the end) was really cool. Seriously, I just loved the whole ordeal of the body double thing. (no, not a spoiler cause it says that in the bookjacket). Amani is just an amazing character, really. She doesnt let her situaitond efine her no matter how much it tries. She is steel, baby. She is steel. I admire her so much. She was so strong in the face of adversity. She would not break, she would not let them break her, no matter how hard they tried. She stuck to her guns and did everything she could to survive. So, I just loved her as a character. Maram on the other hand, gods I have a love hate relation with that woman. At first she is a total beach, a jerk, every bad word and phrase one could say. she is the embodiment of it all, all the cruelty and violence and just ughhh! But....she is just a product of her environment. if she had had a different childhood, maybe things would have turned out differently. She acts the way she does because of how she was raised. But she has emotions, just like everyone else, fear, hope, joy, need for love, trust, and the thing she fears and feels the msot, betrayal. OKAY, now onto the real shining star of this whole goddamt book. IDRIS. OH MY SWEET BABY BOY. LET ME HUG YOU AND TELL YOU EVERYHTING WILL BE ALRIGHT. Gods I love idris so much. He suffered so horribly and continually and ohhhhhhhh, IDRIS. He was so charming and funny and seductive and smart and hot and so,...so sexy. I LOVE HIM. I LOVED the romance in this book. I so shipped it. Even if I sometime wondered whethe the was gonna betray or if something bad would happen. Still, I loved it. The romance was just, so necessary, truly. It added so much richness to the plot, and to the characters. The plot by itself was pretty good, but the romance made it even better. The plot, gods I really liked when Amani had to do her body double thing, it was so fine. And just, it was great. Save for the last bit of the book, that, was not so great. And it makes me not want to read the second book. Alright, I think I prattled on long enough. if you guys have any questions, feel free to comment below. As always, this is all my opinion, feel free to read the book to form your own. Till next time.
*deep breath*
*opens mouth*
*starts screaming*
HOW GOOD WAS THAT??? I'll edit this when I'm more coherent but I cannot wait for the sequel.
*EDITED*
It has taken me a long time to sit and write out my thoughts on this novel but let’s start with - why did it take me so long to pick it up??? It had been on my TBR since I first heard about it before it came out, and then I picked up a copy a few months after it came out when it was on sale. And then it sat on my shelf for MONTHS until I finally picked it up last month.
And now I see why everyone loves it so much. The writing is amazing. The prose flows well and catches you and draws you in. The characters are well written and built realistically, and they’re all sorts of shades of grey. The romance is believable and full of pining and angst and it hurts so nicely.
Don’t even get me started on the poetry, because that is just gorgeous and I cannot wait to start designing bookmarks around it. I’m going to do that for sure.
The world building is wonderful. There are so many parallels towards South Asia, so many parallels I could draw to the Islamic faith, and I’m not even Muslim, so I probably missed things. The thing that got me most, though? The parallels to colonialism and the centuries of South Asian culture being stripped down and away and taken from us and used for the colonialists own gain and amusement.
I’m in love with everything in this novel and I cannot wait to read more.
*opens mouth*
*starts screaming*
HOW GOOD WAS THAT??? I'll edit this when I'm more coherent but I cannot wait for the sequel.
*EDITED*
It has taken me a long time to sit and write out my thoughts on this novel but let’s start with - why did it take me so long to pick it up??? It had been on my TBR since I first heard about it before it came out, and then I picked up a copy a few months after it came out when it was on sale. And then it sat on my shelf for MONTHS until I finally picked it up last month.
And now I see why everyone loves it so much. The writing is amazing. The prose flows well and catches you and draws you in. The characters are well written and built realistically, and they’re all sorts of shades of grey. The romance is believable and full of pining and angst and it hurts so nicely.
Don’t even get me started on the poetry, because that is just gorgeous and I cannot wait to start designing bookmarks around it. I’m going to do that for sure.
The world building is wonderful. There are so many parallels towards South Asia, so many parallels I could draw to the Islamic faith, and I’m not even Muslim, so I probably missed things. The thing that got me most, though? The parallels to colonialism and the centuries of South Asian culture being stripped down and away and taken from us and used for the colonialists own gain and amusement.
I’m in love with everything in this novel and I cannot wait to read more.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
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:
No
I loved this book and the culture behind it. I felt it was a little rushed and the main character too quick to trust in people, for being in a very precarious situation where quickly trusting the wrong person could have her done in. There was decent growth in characters that I can see being expanded on in the second book. Overall, the book really just needed to be flushed out a bit more and could’ve definitely been longer for the setup the author was working towards!❤️
Mirage is a diverse sci-fi fantasy with Moroccan influences, and I really liked it. It's very cool to have sci-fi/fantasy books that aren't rooted in Western European traditions.
Mirage is technically science fiction. It takes place on another planet, and they have advanced technology. But except for traveling on spaceships and some use of technology, this book feels much more like a fantasy.
The main character, Amani, is a peasant living on a moon of the planet Andala. The brutal Vathek empire conquered her planet before she was born, and they've crushed all opposition. Amani is a bit of a dreamer, and she wants to write poetry. On the night of her majority celebration, Amani is kidnapped by imperial droids, who take her to the royal palace to become a body double for the heir to the throne, Princess Maram. Amani and Maram are virtually identical. The princess is half-Andalan and half-Vathek, and she's hated by the Andalan people, so she's at risk of assassination any time she's in public. The two girls are worlds apart, and Amani has to be trained to take the princess' place. Add in palace politics, the princess' handsome fiance, and a budding rebellion, and you have all the elements on an exciting fantasy.
Princess Maram is cruel and vicious. The Andalans hate her, but the Vath don't like her very much either. Although she's supposed to be the heir to the throne according to an old treaty, her father has yet to actually appoint her as his heir, and she has an older half-sister who's full Vathek, so her position isn't guaranteed.
The princess has a fiance, the handsome and charming Idris, and Amani finds herself attracted to him. I found the romance the least interesting part of the book. Idris is very nice, but kind of dull and I didn't feel much chemistry between him and Amani.
The relationship between Amani and Maram is much more interesting. It starts off badly, as Amani is completely in Maram's power, and Maram is very cruel to her. But in order for Amani to successful impersonate Maram, the two are forced to spend a lot of time together. Amani starts to get inside the princess' head and figure out what makes her tick. A sort of grudging respect develops between the two women. They're not exactly friends, but by living in Maram's shoes, Amani sees that the princess' life is not an easy one in many ways.
Mirage is the start of the trilogy. The author has done an excellent job of world-building, and I'm interested to see where the story goes.
I received an ARC from Amazon Vine.
Mirage is technically science fiction. It takes place on another planet, and they have advanced technology. But except for traveling on spaceships and some use of technology, this book feels much more like a fantasy.
The main character, Amani, is a peasant living on a moon of the planet Andala. The brutal Vathek empire conquered her planet before she was born, and they've crushed all opposition. Amani is a bit of a dreamer, and she wants to write poetry. On the night of her majority celebration, Amani is kidnapped by imperial droids, who take her to the royal palace to become a body double for the heir to the throne, Princess Maram. Amani and Maram are virtually identical. The princess is half-Andalan and half-Vathek, and she's hated by the Andalan people, so she's at risk of assassination any time she's in public. The two girls are worlds apart, and Amani has to be trained to take the princess' place. Add in palace politics, the princess' handsome fiance, and a budding rebellion, and you have all the elements on an exciting fantasy.
Princess Maram is cruel and vicious. The Andalans hate her, but the Vath don't like her very much either. Although she's supposed to be the heir to the throne according to an old treaty, her father has yet to actually appoint her as his heir, and she has an older half-sister who's full Vathek, so her position isn't guaranteed.
The princess has a fiance, the handsome and charming Idris, and Amani finds herself attracted to him. I found the romance the least interesting part of the book. Idris is very nice, but kind of dull and I didn't feel much chemistry between him and Amani.
The relationship between Amani and Maram is much more interesting. It starts off badly, as Amani is completely in Maram's power, and Maram is very cruel to her. But in order for Amani to successful impersonate Maram, the two are forced to spend a lot of time together. Amani starts to get inside the princess' head and figure out what makes her tick. A sort of grudging respect develops between the two women. They're not exactly friends, but by living in Maram's shoes, Amani sees that the princess' life is not an easy one in many ways.
Mirage is the start of the trilogy. The author has done an excellent job of world-building, and I'm interested to see where the story goes.
I received an ARC from Amazon Vine.
fast-paced
adventurous
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No