thesapphiccelticbookworm's Reviews (2.04k)

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for a copy of this book.

Kamali's home of Ausora is almost entirely made up from magical illusions. Kamali and her her family have keeping the illusions going for a century. She's the last illusionist left and her power are running out, draining her life force; she has only a couple of years left, and King Aleksander is looking for her.

Aleksander marries Princess Saira as he needs to marry a magician to keep his family strong. Saira however is no magician, or even a princess, she's plotting to kill him.

This dual POV book presents us with an unusual and intriguing magic system. This novel has a lot in it, political intrigue, mystery, evil royal family oppressing the citizens, a sapphic romance, family, both biological and found, well-fleshed out characters.

I throughly enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to see what else Sadar writes. I did find the story dragged unnecessarily  at times, but once I got to the 2nd half of the book I couldn't put it down.

Thanks to Bold Stroke Books and Netgalley for a copy of this book.

Bindi travels to India to visit her family, including her cousin, Dhona, and his wife, Rimli. Bindi soon learns that Dhona is a womaniser who constantly cheats on Rimli; when his behaviour gets too much, Rimli seeks comfort in Bindi's arms.

I didn't like how Bindi didn't have one single positive thing to say about India, her family's country. I understand her critiquing aspects of it such as the huge inequality, but this felt really over done.

None of the characters felt like real people, as there's no real characterisation, we never get to actually know any of these people. Therefore the whole romance fell flat, can't root for a romance if you don't get to know the people.

This reads like a rough draft of a book that could have been something with more time, padding and editing.