DNF at 47%

Edit: Yay contract ratification!

Like the previous books in the trilogy, I had such a hard time putting this down. Also like the previous two, I wish there was more romance. Chakraborty writes such beautiful sparks and longings, I want more! 

I read this as an e-book through my library, and that copy included an alternate epilogue which I really feel should be in the book, not an add-on. Hoping and praying she makes that alternate ending it’s own proper series!

Holding reviews on HarperCollins books until the HCP Union gets a fair contract.
Learn more: linktr.ee/hcpunion

A gripping story of two generations of a Lebanese-Syrian family across borders and told through two timelines. This book seamlessly melds the multiple points of view from different family members and between past and present timelines without becoming confusing or flattening any of them into two-dimensional characters. A beautiful and heart-wrenching look at how family secrets and generational trauma can still yield to love and connection. I've read a lot of first and second generation novels, and few have been so uniquely done as this. Each character provoked a rollercoaster of emotions, I loved and hated all of them in turn. I have never felt like a family was so accurately depicted on page. A powerful and immersive novel.

I think I would have enjoyed this more if I had read it myself rather than listening to the audiobook. While the book is full of humor, there are also very serious moments, and the narrator sounded like she was smiling while reading very dark passages. The dissonance in the tone of the narrator and the meaning of the words distracted me from what was being said. 

If the book wasn’t so focused on suffrage and politics, maybe the Orientalism, revelry in British imperialism, and general blinding whiteness of it wouldn’t have bothered me so much, but the juxtaposition of a human rights struggle without at least acknowledging the racism in that movement and time felt wrong. Despite politics being key to major plot points, the political ideologies of the main characters were disappointing. 
That said, the romance was compelling and the friend group was nice, so I might still give the rest of the series a try.