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nilu_reads 's review for:
Mirage
by Somaiya Daud
Think Moroccan inspired Sci-Fi with droids and inter star system politics to navigate and you have Mirage. This book gets a definite 3.5 stars from me.
Somaiya Daud's debut novel hits hard with the plot and the characters. We meet Amani and Maram in this book and they are doppelgangers and as much as they look alike, their personalities are polar opposites. While Amani is a kind, friendly girl who loves her family, Maram is cold-hearted and cruel to her family and the people she rules. Amani is a village girl (something Maram loves to emphasis) and Maram is the heir to the Andalaan Empire. An empire that was conquered by her father and despite being half Andalaan, she has been brought up in the cruel ways of the Vath, making the conquered Andalaan people loathe her to the point where she kidnapped Amani so that she can be Maram's body double due to threats on Maram's life.
The dynamic between the two start off as the conqueror and the conquered and it evolves as the book goes on. The book is told from Amani's POV and as she is plunged into Maram's world of navigating her peers, politics and even Maram's Andalaan side of the family who she doesn't get along with.
This starts off well and towards the middle it does fall into a lull but picks up again. Despite this book being about Maram and Amani, we see less of Maram. I like the fact that the romance wasn't over powering in this book. The only thing that would have annoyed me was how Amani kept going in and out of Maram's personality as the book progressed. I didn't understand why she was being nice to the waiter when we know Maram would have knocked him down. By doing that she makes it easier for people to suspect that she might not be Maram.
I am looking forward to reading the next book and seeing how Maram's and Amani's relationship changes after the final events of this book.
Somaiya Daud's debut novel hits hard with the plot and the characters. We meet Amani and Maram in this book and they are doppelgangers and as much as they look alike, their personalities are polar opposites. While Amani is a kind, friendly girl who loves her family, Maram is cold-hearted and cruel to her family and the people she rules. Amani is a village girl (something Maram loves to emphasis) and Maram is the heir to the Andalaan Empire. An empire that was conquered by her father and despite being half Andalaan, she has been brought up in the cruel ways of the Vath, making the conquered Andalaan people loathe her to the point where she kidnapped Amani so that she can be Maram's body double due to threats on Maram's life.
The dynamic between the two start off as the conqueror and the conquered and it evolves as the book goes on. The book is told from Amani's POV and as she is plunged into Maram's world of navigating her peers, politics and even Maram's Andalaan side of the family who she doesn't get along with.
This starts off well and towards the middle it does fall into a lull but picks up again. Despite this book being about Maram and Amani, we see less of Maram. I like the fact that the romance wasn't over powering in this book. The only thing that would have annoyed me was how Amani kept going in and out of Maram's personality as the book progressed. I didn't understand why she was being nice to the waiter when we know Maram would have knocked him down. By doing that she makes it easier for people to suspect that she might not be Maram.
Spoiler
I am looking forward to reading the next book and seeing how Maram's and Amani's relationship changes after the final events of this book.