Rating: ★★★★
Audience: Fantasy
Length: 544 pages
Author: Chelsea Abdullah
Publisher: Orbit
Release Date: April 15th, 2025
Image & Other Reviews on: Goodreads

BOOK SUMMARY:

A merchant and a prince trapped in the crumbling realm of jinn must figure out how to save one world to return to their own in The Ashfire King, the second book in the Sandsea Trilogy.

Neither here nor there, but long ago… After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse.

The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter—one of her bodyguard’s old comrades—she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war.

Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own?

Thank you to Orbit Books for the gifted ARC.

WORTH THE WAIT…MAYBE?

I have been waiting for this book for a LONG TIME. I loved The Stardust Thief and have been waiting to see where all of my favorite characters are up to. Did I love this as much as I hoped? No, unfortunately I didn’t. Definitely enough to read book three, this one was just harder to move through.

Mazen and Loulie are my favorite POV’s and I liked the journey they went on the most. There’s some good turns and rising levels of action as another quest begins. I liked the expansion of the world and magic systems and seeing some of those character arcs really blossoming.

Aisha had a good journey too and it did help set up some of the plot lines for book three. I like that this has complicated antagonists and that it’s hard to trust every person who walks on page.

I think if you enjoyed book one you would still enjoy this book. I think the turn from more action driven rather than character driven took away from some of the moments I was hoping to see turn up.

Overall audience notes:

• Fantasy
• Language: low
• Romance: AN ALMOST KISS
• Violence: moderate – high

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