Thank you to NetGalley and Avon Harper Voyager for providing me with an egalley of this book to read and give my honest review. The opinions expressed here are my own.
I've been a lover of Howard's work for a long time. I especially love when she delves into the fantasy world. So to say I was excited to read this one when given a chance is an understatement.
I'll start with the cover because how cay you not? Even if I didn't know Amalie's work, I would pick this book up and buy just based on the gorgeous cover. 
Amalie continues to impress by building a unique magical world within her book. I'm always excited to be introduced to new folklore and this one definitely fit that bill. I don't know much of Persian or Indian mythology but Howard does a nice job of creating a world where we understand the background and what it means to the characters and their development within the story. So many different concepts to explore and enjoy.
The pacing was well done with this book. I didn't feel bored when reading it and I definitely wanted to know what was next every time I had to put it down to do something else.
The FMC, Suraya Saab, is well done. She's funny and interesting and easily relatable for the reader. I liked her view on life and also loved her loyalty to family and close friends. I loved her profession but, being a bladesmith seems like it would come with a bit more "badassery" than I felt from the actual character. She wasn't strong in that respect, kind of keeping to herself when I felt like such a character would be a bit more brash and loud mouthed. The MMC, Roshan, was most of all funny. I loved that he could easily get Suraya to laugh. I will say the romance seemed just a bit forced for me. I wanted a bit more development and conflict with the characters but it wasn't truly there. He fell for her a little faster than I would have liked but at the same time his knowledge of who she was and what she could possibly do for him were floating about. It seems his intentions were not all on the up and up from the get go. But their banter is really quite fun and it's what made me feel the relationship was true.
I really enjoyed the secondary characters. Some I was sad to see go and others I wanted to see GONE! There's definitely villainy in this story. There's even a bit of a Hunger Games feel to how the book begins with the girls needing to prove their worth to the crown prince in order to become his selected wife.
So why not 5 stars, you say? I know the book is marketed as an adult romantasy and in all honesty, I just didn't get that vibe with it, despite the characters being in their 20s. It really did had a younger feel to me even with the spice infused into the story. If that spice was not there, I would not have thought of it as anything but a YA fantasy. I would definitely tell people this felt more like an older YA or even NA book with adult themes. This part of the execution fell a little flat for me. I'm hoping the second book leans more towards that adult theme the author was going for. I also found some parts of the story to be rushed. While Howard does a good job showing us the world, I needed to spend more time in some of the spaces to really understand the mythology behind what she was presenting.
Overall, I'd recommend this one and I'm excited to see where Howard is going to take the second book in the series.