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A review by emromc
The Forbidden Wish by Jessica Khoury
3.0
3.5. I really enjoyed the main character....Zahra was a fierce, flawed heroine with a fascinating, developed background. There was more than one awesome female character, no love triangle, and some great back stories. The romance got pretty cheesy, and there were some things that took me out of the world the author was building, mostly things Aladdin says. He literally calls one guy "man" at one point... like, "sorry, man!" Definitely not ancient Arabia. And he calls Zahra "Smoky." Again, not very time-appropriate. Aladdin had some decent back story too, but overall he didn't impress me as much. He was charming and flirty, sure, but compared to how well Zahra was characterized, he fell flat for me. I wondered why Zahra falls for him of all people, so the romance didn't fly as well for me.
But that twist at the end! That made the book worth reading right there. The writing was good except for the little anachronisms. I'd recommend if you love fairy tale retellings, strong women characters, or cool twists, but not if you're opposed to teen romance (even if one of them is a few thousand year old jinni... again, she's so ancient, been around the block, met so many men... why does the pretty average Aladdin catch her heart??) or a slower paced middle section.
But that twist at the end! That made the book worth reading right there. The writing was good except for the little anachronisms. I'd recommend if you love fairy tale retellings, strong women characters, or cool twists, but not if you're opposed to teen romance (even if one of them is a few thousand year old jinni... again, she's so ancient, been around the block, met so many men... why does the pretty average Aladdin catch her heart??) or a slower paced middle section.