*This book was provided as an ARC in a YALLSTAYHOME giveaway by Epic Reads.
Goodreads Synopsis:
The first in an fantasy duology inspired by West African folklore in which a grieving crown princess and a desperate refugee find themselves on a collision course to murder each other despite their growing attraction.
For Malik, the Solstasia festival is a chance to escape his war-stricken home and start a new life with his sisters in the prosperous desert city of Ziran. But when a vengeful spirit abducts Malik’s younger sister, Nadia, as payment into the city, Malik strikes a fatal deal—kill Karina, Crown Princess of Ziran, for Nadia’s freedom.
But Karina has deadly aspirations of her own. Her mother, the Sultana, has been assassinated; her court threatens mutiny; and Solstasia looms like a knife over her neck. Grief-stricken, Karina decides to resurrect her mother through ancient magic . . . requiring the beating heart of a king. And she knows just how to obtain one: by offering her hand in marriage to the victor of the Solstasia competition.
When Malik rigs his way into the contest, they are set on a course to destroy each other. But as attraction flares between them and ancient evils stir, will they be able to see their tasks to the death?
My Review:
I just really loved this book. First of all, enemies to lovers is my second favorite trope basically ever, so I had been following this book for months already. After it got promoted so much and became a bestseller, I was even happier that I could read this book.
One thing I really liked was that nobody lacked motivation. When there’s so much betrayal and hard choices, sometimes characters don’t really have explanations for why they did what they did. Here, everything seemed to fit together really well and I loved being able to immediately understand how things were necessary and relevant to the plot.
This book also had so much worldbuilding that I really liked learning about as the story went on. However annoying a character seemed to be, I could never completely dismiss them. I decided who I was rooting for to kill the other (Malik or Karina), and while I did come to a decision, it took much longer for me to decide than it usually would because I could see the motivations behind both.
I would recommend this book to people who like royalty, assassination attempts, magic, complicated romances, and more. Overall, it’s just a really good book that I loved reading and I think a lot of other people would too!
Overall, I would give this book…
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.
The Fiction Feature 