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This Woven Kingdom #1
Це зіткане королівство
Goodreads Choice Award
Nominee for Readers' Favorite Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction (2022)Для всього світу Алізе - звичайнісінька служниця, а не давно загублена спадкоємиця стародавнього королівства Джинів, змушена переховуватися у всіх на очах.
Спадкоємний принц Камран чув пророцтва, що передрікали смерть його короля. Але він ніколи не міг уявити, що служниця з дивними очима, яку він не може викинути з голови, одного дня сколихне його королівство - і весь світ.
Спадкоємний принц Камран чув пророцтва, що передрікали смерть його короля. Але він ніколи не міг уявити, що служниця з дивними очима, яку він не може викинути з голови, одного дня сколихне його королівство - і весь світ.
400 pages, Hardcover
First published February 1, 2022
About the author
Tahereh Mafi
61 books74.8k followersTahereh Mafi is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the Shatter Me series. She was born in a small city somewhere in Connecticut and currently resides in Santa Monica, California with her husband, fellow author Ransom Riggs. She can usually be found over-caffeinated and stuck in a book. Shatter Me is her first series, with television rights optioned by ABC Signature Studios; Furthermore, her first middle grade novel, is on shelves now, and Whichwood, its darker companion, will be on shelves November 14, 2017.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 19,999 reviews
February 14, 2022
Tahereh Mafi put her whole taHUSSY into this…
this was 40 chapters of badassey, ecstasy, and euphoria. this book singlehanded cured my depression. it’s been a hot minute since i picked up a fantasy book and after reading this book…i won’t be able to get enough.
this shit was gold. the writing? immaculate. the characters? i would DIE for them! the ending? TAHEREH if you don’t drop book 2 IMMEDIATELY 🔪
i was here for every minute of this book. from the Persian mythology that was woven into it to the lush romance. omfg like i was NOT disappointed once! our main girl Alizeh? badass to say the least. Kamran? deserves the fucking world!
the way Kamran is falling HARD for Alizeh… “You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you…i feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. i think i might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.” like AHHHHH
this book reminded me why the forbidden love trope is my FAVORITE. we get this knife to the throat scene that had me screaming into the night sky. “speak the truth now or i will slit your throat” is a love language
tahereh deserves to get her ass ATE for publishing this masterpiece ngl. ma’am is THAT bitch!
this was 40 chapters of badassey, ecstasy, and euphoria. this book singlehanded cured my depression. it’s been a hot minute since i picked up a fantasy book and after reading this book…i won’t be able to get enough.
this shit was gold. the writing? immaculate. the characters? i would DIE for them! the ending? TAHEREH if you don’t drop book 2 IMMEDIATELY 🔪
i was here for every minute of this book. from the Persian mythology that was woven into it to the lush romance. omfg like i was NOT disappointed once! our main girl Alizeh? badass to say the least. Kamran? deserves the fucking world!
the way Kamran is falling HARD for Alizeh… “You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you…i feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. i think i might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.” like AHHHHH
this book reminded me why the forbidden love trope is my FAVORITE. we get this knife to the throat scene that had me screaming into the night sky. “speak the truth now or i will slit your throat” is a love language
tahereh deserves to get her ass ATE for publishing this masterpiece ngl. ma’am is THAT bitch!
April 21, 2023
this is very ‘an ember in the ashes’ meets ‘the city of brass’ and i couldnt be happier.
because this reminded me of two books that i love, of course i would subjectively enjoy this. but from an objective perspective, i think this also has all of the necessities for a strong start of a series:
a massive thanks to harper collins for the ARC!
↠ 4.5 stars
because this reminded me of two books that i love, of course i would subjectively enjoy this. but from an objective perspective, i think this also has all of the necessities for a strong start of a series:
- really interesting world (based on persian mythology)all of the basics are there and TM has masterfully woven them into a really intriguing story - one i couldnt stop reading.
- readable writing (good pacing, consistent flow/development, and engaging plot)
- characters you can get behind (who doesnt love a long lost queen, a dutiful prince, and good forbidden romance?)
a massive thanks to harper collins for the ARC!
↠ 4.5 stars
March 3, 2023
Kamran is Aaron Warner in another universe if he had better parents
January 6, 2025
UPDATE Jan 2025: yup, still one of the worst books to come out of the pandemic
UPDATE: this book is a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, y'all, this is my 13th reason
___________
“And the Oscar for Best Actress in the new exciting drama Managing Not to Throw This Book Repeatedly Against a Wall goes to… Kat!”
*I pretend to be shocked over my win and squeeze out a few tears for the cameras while hugging my emotional support dog who is sitting next to me*
*I then get up, make my way toward the microphone, and out of my teensy tiny I-couldn’t-care-less clutch, I pull out my prepared acceptance speech*
“Dear readers, fellow friends. First and foremost, I would like to thank myself and my inner strength that have allowed me to push through, read this book until the end, and not abandon it 20 pages in. It was an incredible display of team effort, the team consisting of me, myself, and I. However, for the uninitiated, I would like to give a brief overview of This Woven Kingdom.
The fact that this book was promoted as “the explosive first book in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology” without ever disclosing that it is your basic rags-to-riches Cinderella story, shows the marketing team was very good at their job; meaning: they knew exactly how to sell this as something NEW and ORIGINAL even though we’ve been fed stories like this a hundred times over. Published in 2022, This Woven Kingdom read like a novel that came out and should have been forgotten about in 2012.
Now let me give you a more accurate, spoiler-free synopsis: set in a patriarchal society, this novel is about an obnoxious, spoilt princeling who, through the course of the book and by meeting a “speshuuul” girl destined to become KWEEEN and overthrow his family, realises that monarchy is an unfair class-based system profiting off the hard, underpaid, and often unpaid, labour of the working classes. What he doesn’t realise is that women perhaps aren’t objects and that servants and lower-class citizens maybe deserve rights, too.
It's not that the author took a very traditional Western fairy tale and let it play out in a Persian-inspired setting. Our fairy tales are long overdue a more diverse, intersectional overhaul. Any kind of retelling set in a different society is welcome, but CAN WE PLEASE, PLEASE, then at least make those retellings worth TELLING? If we have to bear yet another YA Cinderella retelling, can people at least bring something new to the table? Is this such an impossible ask?
It surely seems an almost insurmountable task given that this book presents its readers with all those things you have already read time and time again:
the servant girl that is bullied, disregarded, and beaten by the evil, evil housekeeper. 😢 The same servant girl who has MAGIC 🪄 and can sew BEAUTIFUL gowns 🤩🪡👗 but knows she can never wear them. The prince who doesn’t want to become king and carry all those responsibilities. 😠 You have to understand; NO ONE in his life understands him! 😭😭 Women are all either simpering stupid little princesses or evil! 👿 JUST LIKE HIS MOTHER! But lo and behold, there is one girl, so beautiful, so mesmerising, so enthralling that he falls head over heels in love with her at first sight! 😍😍 BUT SHE IS FORBIDDEN! 😱😱 SHE IS AN ENEMY OF THE STATE! 😨 Don’t you understand? She could be his family’s DOWNFALL! 😩
Bla-dee-fucking-blah. Someone hand me a red pen because Mafi seems to have written this with every single YA book published between 2008-2012 lying open next to her.
And it’s not just the insane lameness and utter unoriginality of the plot but that the book was lowkey steeped in misogyny. Except for our special self-insert 17-year-old main character ‘Alizeh’, there is not a SINGLE (and I’m not exaggerating here) likeable female character in this book. Except for one girl (who is portrayed as stupid, spoilt, easy to scare and terrify) that Alizeh befriends towards the end of the novel, every woman in this book is downright nasty. The MC doesn’t have any female friends; there are no female role models. Alizeh’s mistresses treat her like garbage, are jealous, frivolous, insensitive, or all three.
On top of that, our “his face looked like cut from marble” princeling Kamran does nothing but belittle every woman he meets (except for Alizeh, who, after having exchanged five sentences with her, surely must be the love of his life). All the princesses courting him are insipid, stupid, gold-digging little creatures. His mother is barely in the book (screen-time of maybe about two pages?), and of course, she is sort of insane and always plays twisted games with him.
I can excuse some things; this, I absolutely won’t. It’s wild that a book like this is part of and published in a genre predominantly geared towards teenage girls, but what do I know.
*The last sentence is uttered with every bit of irony my voice can conjure, and I enjoy the audience’s laughter for a few more seconds before I continue*
Now, if you like your romances well-developed, well-seasoned, with a good dash of character development, mutual emotional growth and maybe a little bit of slow-burn and tenderness, this book… IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR YOU as the only thing it “served” was luke-warm insta-love with a whiff of love-triangle. They see each other ONCE and already can’t stop thinking about each other. They see each other TWICE, and already they’re madly in love and obsessed. You don’t understand, I was laughing so hard, the Nokia phone I was writing my 1D fanfiction on nearly fell out of my hand.
If Kamran had been likeable at least, hell, maybe if even one of them had been likeable, this would not have bothered me THAT much, but our spoilt brat spends his days insulting his ministers, moping over Alizeh, being a petty misogynist, and delivering a page-long rant about how ANNOYED he is that he has to wear fine clothes to the ball. Mf wouldn’t even be able to distinguish between silk and corduroy, shdjdjdjjdss, get out of here.
Aside from the messy plot, the pile upon pile of discarded YA tropes which I thought we had left in the last decade; aside from the flat MC and unfeeling, rather repugnant male love interest, there was the WRITING.
If only I had known what frustration beautiful words used in the wrong context could cause, oh my. Mafi’s writing is nothing short of theatrically histrionic. If you don’t know what that means, don’t fret, that’s precisely what Mafi seemed to be going for when she wrote these whoppers:
Shakespeare really ran so the author could crawl, huh?
This has the exact same vibe as letting everyone in House of Gucci speak English… but with an Italian accent because they are Italian, yk? It’s got to be authentic! Same as you can’t let those characters speak either Italian or English without any kind of ridiculous accents, the author couldn’t write about a fantasy world without using over-the-top language that, if read out loud to a 17th-century landlord, would scare the shit out of him. God bless thee, good Sir.
*I take a sip of water, adjust the microphone, and prepare to bring my speech to an end*
Dear Academy, friends, and fellow readers. It is with great pleasure that I accept this award. As you surely understand, it took immense self-composure and strength to act in Managing Not to Throw This Book Repeatedly Against a Wall, but I hope you can see that your votes and confidence in me are much appreciated.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my eyes, for they had to see, and my brain, for it was forced to comprehend. Thank you, for not dumbing me down in the process.
UPDATE: this book is a finalist in the Goodreads Choice Awards for Best Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction, y'all, this is my 13th reason
___________
“And the Oscar for Best Actress in the new exciting drama Managing Not to Throw This Book Repeatedly Against a Wall goes to… Kat!”
*I pretend to be shocked over my win and squeeze out a few tears for the cameras while hugging my emotional support dog who is sitting next to me*
*I then get up, make my way toward the microphone, and out of my teensy tiny I-couldn’t-care-less clutch, I pull out my prepared acceptance speech*
“Dear readers, fellow friends. First and foremost, I would like to thank myself and my inner strength that have allowed me to push through, read this book until the end, and not abandon it 20 pages in. It was an incredible display of team effort, the team consisting of me, myself, and I. However, for the uninitiated, I would like to give a brief overview of This Woven Kingdom.
The fact that this book was promoted as “the explosive first book in an epic, romantic trilogy inspired by Persian mythology” without ever disclosing that it is your basic rags-to-riches Cinderella story, shows the marketing team was very good at their job; meaning: they knew exactly how to sell this as something NEW and ORIGINAL even though we’ve been fed stories like this a hundred times over. Published in 2022, This Woven Kingdom read like a novel that came out and should have been forgotten about in 2012.
Now let me give you a more accurate, spoiler-free synopsis: set in a patriarchal society, this novel is about an obnoxious, spoilt princeling who, through the course of the book and by meeting a “speshuuul” girl destined to become KWEEEN and overthrow his family, realises that monarchy is an unfair class-based system profiting off the hard, underpaid, and often unpaid, labour of the working classes. What he doesn’t realise is that women perhaps aren’t objects and that servants and lower-class citizens maybe deserve rights, too.
It's not that the author took a very traditional Western fairy tale and let it play out in a Persian-inspired setting. Our fairy tales are long overdue a more diverse, intersectional overhaul. Any kind of retelling set in a different society is welcome, but CAN WE PLEASE, PLEASE, then at least make those retellings worth TELLING? If we have to bear yet another YA Cinderella retelling, can people at least bring something new to the table? Is this such an impossible ask?
It surely seems an almost insurmountable task given that this book presents its readers with all those things you have already read time and time again:
the servant girl that is bullied, disregarded, and beaten by the evil, evil housekeeper. 😢 The same servant girl who has MAGIC 🪄 and can sew BEAUTIFUL gowns 🤩🪡👗 but knows she can never wear them. The prince who doesn’t want to become king and carry all those responsibilities. 😠 You have to understand; NO ONE in his life understands him! 😭😭 Women are all either simpering stupid little princesses or evil! 👿 JUST LIKE HIS MOTHER! But lo and behold, there is one girl, so beautiful, so mesmerising, so enthralling that he falls head over heels in love with her at first sight! 😍😍 BUT SHE IS FORBIDDEN! 😱😱 SHE IS AN ENEMY OF THE STATE! 😨 Don’t you understand? She could be his family’s DOWNFALL! 😩
Bla-dee-fucking-blah. Someone hand me a red pen because Mafi seems to have written this with every single YA book published between 2008-2012 lying open next to her.
And it’s not just the insane lameness and utter unoriginality of the plot but that the book was lowkey steeped in misogyny. Except for our special self-insert 17-year-old main character ‘Alizeh’, there is not a SINGLE (and I’m not exaggerating here) likeable female character in this book. Except for one girl (who is portrayed as stupid, spoilt, easy to scare and terrify) that Alizeh befriends towards the end of the novel, every woman in this book is downright nasty. The MC doesn’t have any female friends; there are no female role models. Alizeh’s mistresses treat her like garbage, are jealous, frivolous, insensitive, or all three.
On top of that, our “his face looked like cut from marble” princeling Kamran does nothing but belittle every woman he meets (except for Alizeh, who, after having exchanged five sentences with her, surely must be the love of his life). All the princesses courting him are insipid, stupid, gold-digging little creatures. His mother is barely in the book (screen-time of maybe about two pages?), and of course, she is sort of insane and always plays twisted games with him.
I can excuse some things; this, I absolutely won’t. It’s wild that a book like this is part of and published in a genre predominantly geared towards teenage girls, but what do I know.
*The last sentence is uttered with every bit of irony my voice can conjure, and I enjoy the audience’s laughter for a few more seconds before I continue*
Now, if you like your romances well-developed, well-seasoned, with a good dash of character development, mutual emotional growth and maybe a little bit of slow-burn and tenderness, this book… IS ABSOLUTELY NOT FOR YOU as the only thing it “served” was luke-warm insta-love with a whiff of love-triangle. They see each other ONCE and already can’t stop thinking about each other. They see each other TWICE, and already they’re madly in love and obsessed. You don’t understand, I was laughing so hard, the Nokia phone I was writing my 1D fanfiction on nearly fell out of my hand.
If Kamran had been likeable at least, hell, maybe if even one of them had been likeable, this would not have bothered me THAT much, but our spoilt brat spends his days insulting his ministers, moping over Alizeh, being a petty misogynist, and delivering a page-long rant about how ANNOYED he is that he has to wear fine clothes to the ball. Mf wouldn’t even be able to distinguish between silk and corduroy, shdjdjdjjdss, get out of here.
Aside from the messy plot, the pile upon pile of discarded YA tropes which I thought we had left in the last decade; aside from the flat MC and unfeeling, rather repugnant male love interest, there was the WRITING.
If only I had known what frustration beautiful words used in the wrong context could cause, oh my. Mafi’s writing is nothing short of theatrically histrionic. If you don’t know what that means, don’t fret, that’s precisely what Mafi seemed to be going for when she wrote these whoppers:
“He felt his muscles were atrophying slowly in the suit of his skin, a silent litany of epithets perched in his mouth even when he smiled.”
“It was in fact at the king’s behest that Kamran was to continue his inquiries into the girl’s whereabouts, for Zaal, too, had seemed perturbed upon hearing a more detailed accounting of the morning’s events.”
“I might accept an explanation of idealism more readily were your actions symptomatic of a larger philosophical position, which we both know they are not, as you've never before taken an active interest in the lives of street children - or servants, for that matter.”
Shakespeare really ran so the author could crawl, huh?
This has the exact same vibe as letting everyone in House of Gucci speak English… but with an Italian accent because they are Italian, yk? It’s got to be authentic! Same as you can’t let those characters speak either Italian or English without any kind of ridiculous accents, the author couldn’t write about a fantasy world without using over-the-top language that, if read out loud to a 17th-century landlord, would scare the shit out of him. God bless thee, good Sir.
*I take a sip of water, adjust the microphone, and prepare to bring my speech to an end*
Dear Academy, friends, and fellow readers. It is with great pleasure that I accept this award. As you surely understand, it took immense self-composure and strength to act in Managing Not to Throw This Book Repeatedly Against a Wall, but I hope you can see that your votes and confidence in me are much appreciated.
Last but not least, I would like to thank my eyes, for they had to see, and my brain, for it was forced to comprehend. Thank you, for not dumbing me down in the process.
October 14, 2024
4.25!
“You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.”
This book was so well written like the writing in this book was beautiful that I actually fell in love. The way she described everything, the dialogues, the worldbuilding and the characters all of them delivered! I honestly went in waiting fall for Cyrus but warmed up to Kamran?? I wont lie for 150 pages I was so lost as to what was happening but the vibes were there and I was enjoying this book solely based on vibes but then the plot started to progress although slow the payoff to the build up was very well done.
“Never before had he been so consumed by the thoughts of anyone.”
Alizeh is among one of the best written fmc's because I loved reading about her point of view and not once was I bored because I wanted to know more about her and there was this sense of mystery like the characters were hiding something and you just wanted to know what was happening so, I think the way she executed that was very well done. Kamran, I don' know what to think of you because on one hand I was at the start really bored of him and wanted to get rid of him but then his story became more interesting and after 150 page mark when both the main characters meet he gets more interesting also the way he would describe Alizeh and the things that he would say were so swoon-worthy and he was actually worthy of being a king because of his heart....Im so conflicted because I like him but then there's this other guy who shows up near the end and now I AM CONFUSED. Cyrus the other guy who showed up at the end and left my emotions in a state of disarray. How do you plead for your crimes? The crimes being making me choose between Kamran and him and also for being charming and changing my perspective of the story in just the last 50 pages. Hazan cutie but also sus??
“He'd forgotten how beautiful she was. This revelation was astonishing to him, for he'd spent more time than he cared to admit thinking about the girl, conjuring her face when he closed his eyes at night. He did not think of himself capable of forgetting anything about her, and yet he must have, for he was struck stupid anew, drawing near her now like a hungry flame to tinder.”
The romance is why I hate love triangles because the way we got the trope forbidden romance between Kamran and Alizeh...it was lusty but its one of the rare cases where I liked it just because of the way he talked about her, it was so beautiful. So we get this Cinderella type forbidden romance with angst and swoon-worthy dialogues being built up between them and I am rooting for them and then came Cyrus with his lush copper hair and cocky one liners and drops a mega bomb on us in the final page and im just sitting there staring at the wall trying to process what to think of it.
“He realized, with some despair, that everything would now remind him of her. The very sun and moon, the shifting of lightness and dark.”
The plot was so fucking confusing like I literally was so confused that I had to ask Roxy about some stuff but I absolutely loved the Persian mythology aspect of this book and it was so similar to Arabic (the language) that I mistook at times for that but nvm that, back to the plot, but I loved when it started making sense, it was giving City of Brass and I love that book sm. I also loved how it was being built up and we thought the the payoff would be in the next book but a part of it literally happened in the last 70 pages and it was so satisfying because there's this character whom I hate sm and also Hazan you were playing mind games with me and that was not appreciated because the ending had me shooketh.
Overall, Tahereh did not disappoint at all!!
~~~
Cyrus- written by the same author who wrote Aaron Warner??? I NEED THIS!
(Besides, it's been a while since I've read Tahereh's works and they tend to be among books I love and Roxy really liked this one so 🤷🏻 I'm bound to love it)
“You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.”
This book was so well written like the writing in this book was beautiful that I actually fell in love. The way she described everything, the dialogues, the worldbuilding and the characters all of them delivered! I honestly went in waiting fall for Cyrus but warmed up to Kamran?? I wont lie for 150 pages I was so lost as to what was happening but the vibes were there and I was enjoying this book solely based on vibes but then the plot started to progress although slow the payoff to the build up was very well done.
“Never before had he been so consumed by the thoughts of anyone.”
Alizeh is among one of the best written fmc's because I loved reading about her point of view and not once was I bored because I wanted to know more about her and there was this sense of mystery like the characters were hiding something and you just wanted to know what was happening so, I think the way she executed that was very well done. Kamran, I don' know what to think of you because on one hand I was at the start really bored of him and wanted to get rid of him but then his story became more interesting and after 150 page mark when both the main characters meet he gets more interesting also the way he would describe Alizeh and the things that he would say were so swoon-worthy and he was actually worthy of being a king because of his heart....Im so conflicted because I like him but then there's this other guy who shows up near the end and now I AM CONFUSED. Cyrus the other guy who showed up at the end and left my emotions in a state of disarray. How do you plead for your crimes? The crimes being making me choose between Kamran and him and also for being charming and changing my perspective of the story in just the last 50 pages. Hazan cutie but also sus??
“He'd forgotten how beautiful she was. This revelation was astonishing to him, for he'd spent more time than he cared to admit thinking about the girl, conjuring her face when he closed his eyes at night. He did not think of himself capable of forgetting anything about her, and yet he must have, for he was struck stupid anew, drawing near her now like a hungry flame to tinder.”
The romance is why I hate love triangles because the way we got the trope forbidden romance between Kamran and Alizeh...it was lusty but its one of the rare cases where I liked it just because of the way he talked about her, it was so beautiful. So we get this Cinderella type forbidden romance with angst and swoon-worthy dialogues being built up between them and I am rooting for them and then came Cyrus with his lush copper hair and cocky one liners and drops a mega bomb on us in the final page and im just sitting there staring at the wall trying to process what to think of it.
“He realized, with some despair, that everything would now remind him of her. The very sun and moon, the shifting of lightness and dark.”
The plot was so fucking confusing like I literally was so confused that I had to ask Roxy about some stuff but I absolutely loved the Persian mythology aspect of this book and it was so similar to Arabic (the language) that I mistook at times for that but nvm that, back to the plot, but I loved when it started making sense, it was giving City of Brass and I love that book sm. I also loved how it was being built up and we thought the the payoff would be in the next book but a part of it literally happened in the last 70 pages and it was so satisfying because there's this character whom I hate sm and also Hazan you were playing mind games with me and that was not appreciated because the ending had me shooketh.
Overall, Tahereh did not disappoint at all!!
~~~
Cyrus- written by the same author who wrote Aaron Warner??? I NEED THIS!
(Besides, it's been a while since I've read Tahereh's works and they tend to be among books I love and Roxy really liked this one so 🤷🏻 I'm bound to love it)
January 27, 2022
no thoughts, just screaming
thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC
thank you to the publisher for sending me an ARC
March 9, 2025
Guys…. I’m so sorry (I’m not), reading this book was quite literally the equivalent to watching paint dry. Like I genuinely think bored is putting it lightly when it comes to how I felt while reading this book. NOTHING HAPPENED!!!!! And I don’t mean like things happened and I just didn’t care so it felt like nothing happened…. No, like actually nothing happened until the last three chapters. I cannot rationalize waiting until the 90% mark of a book for things to pick up.
Also something about the writing felt so weird and off to me, I don’t even know what. I just felt so disconnected from the characters and the story. Alizeh and Kamran both were very bland to me, there was nothing about them I found interesting, or that made me eager to learn more. Their insta lust romance was very strange and seemed so misplaced. The amount of times we spent telling instead of showing made me want to fall asleep. We spent so much time in these characters heads with so little dialogue I felt like I was gonna go insane.
Also I think I’m just so so so beyond over the same copy and paste YA romantasy plot line where she’s hiding her identity as the heir to a lost kingdom and there’s some prophecy about her being everyone’s downfall. Then of course the boring first love interest is just instantly head over heels in love with her even though he’s spoken all of two words to her, but OH NO, she’s from a rival kingdom and they just simply can never be together, she’s supposed to be the enemy blah blah blah. Then we have the morally grey “villain” second love interest come in and take her away and she “hates” him at first and he’s so evil and the worst but ends up being misunderstood and broken blah blah blah. Guys I can’t I’m complaining I know I’m just so over it.
And listen I HEAR YOU!!! I know books two and theee are apparently LEAGUES better BUT AT WHAT COST?!!! I know I’m promised yearning and longing and banter and a pathetically in love and weak man which I LOVEEEEE I do like that is my TYPEEEEEEE!!! But now I’m scared because I don’t have any interest in the story or characters at this point… Can Cyrus change my mind?! That is the fucking question. Will I continue?? I have no fucking clue.
Also something about the writing felt so weird and off to me, I don’t even know what. I just felt so disconnected from the characters and the story. Alizeh and Kamran both were very bland to me, there was nothing about them I found interesting, or that made me eager to learn more. Their insta lust romance was very strange and seemed so misplaced. The amount of times we spent telling instead of showing made me want to fall asleep. We spent so much time in these characters heads with so little dialogue I felt like I was gonna go insane.
Also I think I’m just so so so beyond over the same copy and paste YA romantasy plot line where she’s hiding her identity as the heir to a lost kingdom and there’s some prophecy about her being everyone’s downfall. Then of course the boring first love interest is just instantly head over heels in love with her even though he’s spoken all of two words to her, but OH NO, she’s from a rival kingdom and they just simply can never be together, she’s supposed to be the enemy blah blah blah. Then we have the morally grey “villain” second love interest come in and take her away and she “hates” him at first and he’s so evil and the worst but ends up being misunderstood and broken blah blah blah. Guys I can’t I’m complaining I know I’m just so over it.
And listen I HEAR YOU!!! I know books two and theee are apparently LEAGUES better BUT AT WHAT COST?!!! I know I’m promised yearning and longing and banter and a pathetically in love and weak man which I LOVEEEEE I do like that is my TYPEEEEEEE!!! But now I’m scared because I don’t have any interest in the story or characters at this point… Can Cyrus change my mind?! That is the fucking question. Will I continue?? I have no fucking clue.
March 28, 2022
Omg how can I even explain how much I love this books. I went into this with high expectations just because shatter me is one of my favourite series of all time and I was positively surprised.
Not only did I love the third person writing style but the world building was great. KAMRAN, Alizeh and every other character like Miss Huda had amazing characters and detailed story lines. I loved Alizeh. She had such a amazing backstory with so much mystery and I cannot wait to find out more and more in the next book.
Kamran's position in this book, as the nice prince is also quite great. I loved his perspectives and his role in this entire story.
Now the romance was good. This is definitely not slow burn but more love at first sight but oh wow that first kiss was amazing.
The plot twist was also great and the introduction of the enemy was very detailed and still I have questions.
I absolutely have no idea who the love interest will be since we have so many options and the theories in m head are running wild but I cannot wait to see what Tahereh does with this amazing first book.
Not only did I love the third person writing style but the world building was great. KAMRAN, Alizeh and every other character like Miss Huda had amazing characters and detailed story lines. I loved Alizeh. She had such a amazing backstory with so much mystery and I cannot wait to find out more and more in the next book.
Kamran's position in this book, as the nice prince is also quite great. I loved his perspectives and his role in this entire story.
Now the romance was good. This is definitely not slow burn but more love at first sight but oh wow that first kiss was amazing.
The plot twist was also great and the introduction of the enemy was very detailed and still I have questions.
I absolutely have no idea who the love interest will be since we have so many options and the theories in m head are running wild but I cannot wait to see what Tahereh does with this amazing first book.
May 6, 2024
3.50 stars ⋆౨ৎ˚⟡˖ ࣪
⟶ bye this was so much fun <3
first of all, kamran supremacy >>
🌷 “You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.” 🌷
LIKE HUHH!?!? MY MANS A POET 🥵🥵
i do think naturally i will be team cyrus just bc I never get second lead syndrome. but omg he has such a special place in my heart for how sweet he was to her when all the odds were against him.
💐 dedication to my love 💐
i read this with my precious, gorgeous, hilarious, beautiful best friend kangna who i love so so so much and oh my it was the most fun i’ve had in a long long time idk how I’ll read a book alone ever again. i would wake up early and have something to look forward to when i came home bc it meant we could giggle and scream about this book together heheh.
ngl i am not the smartest LMAO this book was very very confusing to me like if i read this alone i would not have survived ask kangna i’m not even exaggerating. she explained like half the plot and meanings help. so thank you my dear (if you even see this) ily so so much <33
🧸 plot 🧸
oki i’ll try my best but again, I didn’t understand it much so…
so there are jinns and clays. jinns are devils, clays are human. alizeh is a jinn kamran is a clay. jinns have it very hard to find work bc, well, no one likes them. so when she finally finds a job as a servant, she’s very grateful and will do anything to not lose her job — although she is very very mistreated. and the prince (kamran) is obsessed with her. very insta-lovey he sees her defend herself once and falls in love help. it is a cinderella retelling after all though so it makes sense. oh and his grandfather, the king, wants to kill her (just as much as i’d like to kill him 🔪🔪) so forbidden romance woo !!
then one day whilst she’s just minding her business, she recieves a package. and this is where the cinderella part plays in but she gets invited to a ball~ i’m so jealous me and kangna were literally fantasising about attending one and having those huge flowy dresses🙁 the dream fr. and who does she get invited by?! this copper-haired beautiful stranger 🤭 who is the enemy apparently— but most of this happens towards the end bc the book is soooo damn slow.
🎀 the romanceee 🎀
honestly tahereh is so cruel for this. setting us up like that. kamran is so so so perfect and amazing and swoon-worthy rn but all our hopes will be crushed bc he’s not even the male lead. the male lead only shows up like in the last 5 chapters of the book and for the smallest amount of time ever 😭😭
i like kamran so far but she’s gonna pull an adam and make us hate his guts probably by book 2–
He only knew that she seemed apart from this mundane world; above it. The mere sight of her had paralyzed him.
like come on, it’s not everyday you find a man who will almost pass out because he’s too captivated by your beauty. how can one not love him is my question!?!?! 🥲💗
👑 alizeh 👑
she’s a legend, she’s an icon, she’s the it girl.
tahereh knows how to write a good baddie fmc like she is gonna have juliette’s exact development i just know it - starts really fragile, small and shy, and comes out a baddie who will not take crap from nobody 💅
she’s so brave too, she’s the only person who ever spoke her truth, and she was nice to people even when they were so rude to her 🙁 she’s so precious im obsessed with her.
😿 Never was she spared a moment of peace; never would her demons leave her be. She was always fatigued, always tense. She couldn’t even change out of her miserable, sopping clothes without being besieged, and now she would be pitched out into the winter streets. 😿
i wanna give her a hug and tell her everything will be okay 🫂
One day, her father had said, this world will bow to you.
i look forward to seeing when this actually happens 🙈🙈 it better or i’m suing. I want this series to end with everyone at her feet, begging for mercy and forgiveness for the horrible disgusting things they put her through
OH AND THE FANART !!this is her and cyrus and omg crying it’s so beautiful🥹
👩🍳💋 kamran 👩🍳💋
bye they made him too perfect.
he’s gonna be soooo hard to let go of I can’t
cyrus has some serious standards to live up to
no but for me, it was when she had a knife to his throat and all he could think was:
Was it terrible that his heart pounded in his chest at the soft sound of her voice? Was it worrisome that he felt nothing but pleasure to be held at her mercy?
like plz and you’re telling me I have to hate him!? no. it’s not happening (no but watch me take back all my words in book 2 HAHA)
💗 bye bye now 💗
ok i’m really sorry for all the rambling help. thank you to those that stuck around to read this and thanks to my pookie kangna for tolerating my dumbness for so long 😽😽 this book does have a pretty low rating only bc whilst i loved the story so so much it was a very slow book. something crazy would happen and then it’s followed by a whole bunch of nothing for 100 pages. but the second has potential to be a 4 or 5 YAY 🎀
(looking back at this omg I use so many emojis wth it’s looking a little hectic ngl)
also guys do you like this format? or the one from my last review😭 im so indecisive plz H E L P 💌
ily all i would definitely definitely recommend you read this asap and tell me all about it <33
happy reading 🧸🌷
⟶ bye this was so much fun <3
first of all, kamran supremacy >>
🌷 “You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.” 🌷
LIKE HUHH!?!? MY MANS A POET 🥵🥵
i do think naturally i will be team cyrus just bc I never get second lead syndrome. but omg he has such a special place in my heart for how sweet he was to her when all the odds were against him.
💐 dedication to my love 💐
i read this with my precious, gorgeous, hilarious, beautiful best friend kangna who i love so so so much and oh my it was the most fun i’ve had in a long long time idk how I’ll read a book alone ever again. i would wake up early and have something to look forward to when i came home bc it meant we could giggle and scream about this book together heheh.
ngl i am not the smartest LMAO this book was very very confusing to me like if i read this alone i would not have survived ask kangna i’m not even exaggerating. she explained like half the plot and meanings help. so thank you my dear (if you even see this) ily so so much <33
🧸 plot 🧸
oki i’ll try my best but again, I didn’t understand it much so…
so there are jinns and clays. jinns are devils, clays are human. alizeh is a jinn kamran is a clay. jinns have it very hard to find work bc, well, no one likes them. so when she finally finds a job as a servant, she’s very grateful and will do anything to not lose her job — although she is very very mistreated. and the prince (kamran) is obsessed with her. very insta-lovey he sees her defend herself once and falls in love help. it is a cinderella retelling after all though so it makes sense. oh and his grandfather, the king, wants to kill her (just as much as i’d like to kill him 🔪🔪) so forbidden romance woo !!
then one day whilst she’s just minding her business, she recieves a package. and this is where the cinderella part plays in but she gets invited to a ball~ i’m so jealous me and kangna were literally fantasising about attending one and having those huge flowy dresses🙁 the dream fr. and who does she get invited by?! this copper-haired beautiful stranger 🤭 who is the enemy apparently— but most of this happens towards the end bc the book is soooo damn slow.
🎀 the romanceee 🎀
honestly tahereh is so cruel for this. setting us up like that. kamran is so so so perfect and amazing and swoon-worthy rn but all our hopes will be crushed bc he’s not even the male lead. the male lead only shows up like in the last 5 chapters of the book and for the smallest amount of time ever 😭😭
i like kamran so far but she’s gonna pull an adam and make us hate his guts probably by book 2–
He only knew that she seemed apart from this mundane world; above it. The mere sight of her had paralyzed him.
like come on, it’s not everyday you find a man who will almost pass out because he’s too captivated by your beauty. how can one not love him is my question!?!?! 🥲💗
👑 alizeh 👑
she’s a legend, she’s an icon, she’s the it girl.
tahereh knows how to write a good baddie fmc like she is gonna have juliette’s exact development i just know it - starts really fragile, small and shy, and comes out a baddie who will not take crap from nobody 💅
she’s so brave too, she’s the only person who ever spoke her truth, and she was nice to people even when they were so rude to her 🙁 she’s so precious im obsessed with her.
😿 Never was she spared a moment of peace; never would her demons leave her be. She was always fatigued, always tense. She couldn’t even change out of her miserable, sopping clothes without being besieged, and now she would be pitched out into the winter streets. 😿
i wanna give her a hug and tell her everything will be okay 🫂
One day, her father had said, this world will bow to you.
i look forward to seeing when this actually happens 🙈🙈 it better or i’m suing. I want this series to end with everyone at her feet, begging for mercy and forgiveness for the horrible disgusting things they put her through
OH AND THE FANART !!this is her and cyrus and omg crying it’s so beautiful🥹
👩🍳💋 kamran 👩🍳💋
bye they made him too perfect.
he’s gonna be soooo hard to let go of I can’t
cyrus has some serious standards to live up to
no but for me, it was when she had a knife to his throat and all he could think was:
Was it terrible that his heart pounded in his chest at the soft sound of her voice? Was it worrisome that he felt nothing but pleasure to be held at her mercy?
like plz and you’re telling me I have to hate him!? no. it’s not happening (no but watch me take back all my words in book 2 HAHA)
💗 bye bye now 💗
ok i’m really sorry for all the rambling help. thank you to those that stuck around to read this and thanks to my pookie kangna for tolerating my dumbness for so long 😽😽 this book does have a pretty low rating only bc whilst i loved the story so so much it was a very slow book. something crazy would happen and then it’s followed by a whole bunch of nothing for 100 pages. but the second has potential to be a 4 or 5 YAY 🎀
(looking back at this omg I use so many emojis wth it’s looking a little hectic ngl)
also guys do you like this format? or the one from my last review😭 im so indecisive plz H E L P 💌
ily all i would definitely definitely recommend you read this asap and tell me all about it <33
happy reading 🧸🌷
January 8, 2026
THAT ENDING?? 👀 I can confidently say I finished this book giggling 🤭🤭
I was so excited to meet Cyrus, but oh boy 😭 it took him a very long time to appear. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?? TOTALLY. WORTH. IT. 🙂↕️🤭
Ashlyn and I really enjoyed this book and had so much fun 🥹💛✨ The writing style and world-building were perfect 🙂↕️ and kept us completely hooked.
Alizeh is so savage 🤭 and I’m sooo proud of her. She really impressed me when she fought six men alone 🫶✨ LIKE YESSS, GOOO GURLLL!!! Feral, iconic, legendary. 🤭🔥 Show ’em what you got!!! And the way her tongue works 🤭😂 I love her sooo much. She’s definitely one of my favorite FMCs, and I’m very excited to see what’s going to happen to her now 👀 especially since she’s stuck in that situation.
Kamran, umm… is it safe to say that I don’t hate him (YET) 😭 I know he’s worse, but so far he hasn’t done anything horrible. He’s meh compared to Cyrus 😂💀 but worse? Not yet. Though I am waiting for him to become worse so I can hate him freely 😂😭
Cyrus is MY MAN 😤 Yes, he came in very late and doesn’t have many scenes in this book, but lemme tell you—in the last four chapters, he completely stole the show 🤭🔥 Cyrus taking forever to show up but then absolutely devouring the last chapters??? Criminal behavior. 😭🙂↕️ He really said “I’ll be late, but I’ll be unforgettable.” The chokehold he has already… yeah, that’s my man fr 😤🫶 I’m already obsessed with him 🙂↕️🫶 and cannot wait to know more about him.
There are two side characters I really want to see in the next books 😭 Omid and Miss Huda. I know she’s loud 😭 but she made me laugh 😭 and I lowk want to see both of them again 🥹🥹
That plot twist hit HARD 😭 I was not expecting that. But dayummm. Overall, I really enjoyed this book 🙂↕️🫶 Miss Author did not disappoint ✨
Thank youuuu so much, my sweetieeee Ashlyn, for buddy reading with me 🥹🫶 I had the best time with you.
Yea, that’s it, guys. Love y’all 🫶💛
—————————————————
✧˖° ♛ °˖✧ pre-read ✧˖° ♛ °˖✧
Buddy reading with my sweetieeee Ashlyn 🤭💛 Cyrus, your new fangirls are on the way 🙂↕️
I was so excited to meet Cyrus, but oh boy 😭 it took him a very long time to appear. BUT YOU KNOW WHAT?? TOTALLY. WORTH. IT. 🙂↕️🤭
Ashlyn and I really enjoyed this book and had so much fun 🥹💛✨ The writing style and world-building were perfect 🙂↕️ and kept us completely hooked.
Alizeh is so savage 🤭 and I’m sooo proud of her. She really impressed me when she fought six men alone 🫶✨ LIKE YESSS, GOOO GURLLL!!! Feral, iconic, legendary. 🤭🔥 Show ’em what you got!!! And the way her tongue works 🤭😂 I love her sooo much. She’s definitely one of my favorite FMCs, and I’m very excited to see what’s going to happen to her now 👀 especially since she’s stuck in that situation.
Kamran, umm… is it safe to say that I don’t hate him (YET) 😭 I know he’s worse, but so far he hasn’t done anything horrible. He’s meh compared to Cyrus 😂💀 but worse? Not yet. Though I am waiting for him to become worse so I can hate him freely 😂😭
Cyrus is MY MAN 😤 Yes, he came in very late and doesn’t have many scenes in this book, but lemme tell you—in the last four chapters, he completely stole the show 🤭🔥 Cyrus taking forever to show up but then absolutely devouring the last chapters??? Criminal behavior. 😭🙂↕️ He really said “I’ll be late, but I’ll be unforgettable.” The chokehold he has already… yeah, that’s my man fr 😤🫶 I’m already obsessed with him 🙂↕️🫶 and cannot wait to know more about him.
There are two side characters I really want to see in the next books 😭 Omid and Miss Huda. I know she’s loud 😭 but she made me laugh 😭 and I lowk want to see both of them again 🥹🥹
That plot twist hit HARD 😭 I was not expecting that. But dayummm. Overall, I really enjoyed this book 🙂↕️🫶 Miss Author did not disappoint ✨
Thank youuuu so much, my sweetieeee Ashlyn, for buddy reading with me 🥹🫶 I had the best time with you.
Yea, that’s it, guys. Love y’all 🫶💛
—————————————————
✧˖° ♛ °˖✧ pre-read ✧˖° ♛ °˖✧
Buddy reading with my sweetieeee Ashlyn 🤭💛 Cyrus, your new fangirls are on the way 🙂↕️
January 18, 2026
˚₊ · »-♡→ 𝑺𝒑𝒐𝒊𝒍𝒆𝒓 𝑭𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒗𝒊𝒆𝒘 ˚˖𓍢ִ໋💋
💫₊˚⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘷 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦! ୭ ₊̣̇.
꒰ヾ₊˚. ⸝⸝ 🩸₊˚ Her Review 🌙₊˚.
•.° -🍷 ₊˚ʚ 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 ɞ˚₊ ✨- °.•
💛੭‧₊°◞ 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚: 14+ (𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙤, 𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙩.), 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 12+ (𝙙*𝙢𝙣, 𝙝*𝙡𝙡, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.), 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 13+ (𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙤𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙧𝙚.) 🍓༉‧₊˚.
˚₊‧꒰ა ——————————— ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
⤷ now playing: 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚 🐤୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ
‧˚꒰ ♥️ 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝘿𝙚𝙡 𝙍𝙚𝙮
⌞ 0:55 ——◦———— 4:03 ⌝
↠ⁿᵉˣᵗ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ↺ ʳᵉᵖᵉᵃᵗ ⊜ ᵖᵃᵘˢᵉ ❣️₊ ⊹ˑ𓂃
‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ As someone who only read the first 2 Shatter Me books + the novella in-between and already became OBSESSED with the series. It's safe to say when I saw this I literally dropped everything AND RAN..NO BOLTED TO THE BOOKSTORE. I was a little hesitant I will admit, BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS HYPING THIS BOOK AND SERIES SO BAD 😫😫 I swear there was even a point that every time I opened this app I saw someone reading this and the fomo was REAL. So ofc being the curious gal I am I picked this up and gave it a go with no expectations at all. AND LET ME JUST SAY THE WAY THIS BOOK BLEW ME AWAY WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT, BECAUSE I LITERALLY WASN'T BLEW AWAY I WAS LIFTED. From the cultural references, to the worldbuilding, TO THE CHARACTERS HELLO??? EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL 😫😫😍😍 It was safe to say as an Arab girlie this book made my heart so happy because it's so rare to see representation ON TOP OF AN ABSOULUTE BANGER OF A STORYLINE. So without further ado, grab a snack, get a seat and let us dive into this lovely little gem of a book 😏😏
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙉𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ Now we have to start off with one of the MAIN attractions of this book, because the romance?? OH IT WAS ROMANCING ALRIGHT. We had the slow burn, the enemies to lovers, THE ANGST??? OH YEAH WE HAD IT ALL. I absolutely loved the pacing of the chemistry and the fact that we got a WHOLE load of whiplash at the end to top it all off. (Those who know, KNOW.) I loved seeing Alizeh and Kamran and the way that their relationship formed. AND BY THE END OF THE BOOK, I THINK I MIGHT ASWELL GO SCREAM IN A PILLOW. The book had a way of having plot twists which you could guess and one's which you could not and I DEVOURED THAT FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER. It kept me entertained and thrilled and had all the characters living rent free in my head even when I was reading the book 🥹🥹🥹 I also loved that while romance was a BIG aspect in this book it wasn't the MAIN thing and we got to learn about both the male lead and the female lead's backstories and problems in their life. And if you think your team Kamran, oh babes call me back when you meet CYRUS. BECAUSE THIS MAN????? OH YEAH, I'M CLAMING HIM AS MY HUSBAND AND YALL CAN GO AND SCREAM 🤫🤫🤫🤫
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ AND IF YOU THINK THE ROMANCE WAS THE ONLY THING GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK YOU WOULD BE WRONG. Because the WORLDBUILDING?? I LOVED THAT TOO. It felt like I stepped into Aladdin all over again with a Persian twist. Because thew way I could literally VISIUALIZE everything from the color of the walls to the smell of the food. IT FELT LIKE I WAS IN A 4D EXPERIENCE HELLO?? And I ATE IT DOWN. I also found it VERY cool that Tahereh stuck with the Arabic names for some of the things like calling Satan IBLEES??? OH YEAH AS AN ARAB GIRL I WAS LIKE WOAH. And don't even get me started on the chapter numbers because why were they so STUNNING?? Maybe I am just in shock because there aren't many books like this but in my honest opinion it was very unique. ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD THOSE SWEETS SOUNDED?? LIKE MY MOUTH WAS ON THE FLOOR EVERYTIME ALIZEH OR KAMRAN GOT SOME KIND OF FOOD IN THEIR MOUTH 😭😭😭 Safe to say I was both mesmerized and HUNGRYYY after reading this book 🙂↕️
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ Yes, I know what you are thinking by now. "WELL IF THE BOOK WAS SO GOOD WHY ISN'T IT A FIVE STAR!?" Well babes this is the time to fill in my TEEEEEEEENY complaints. One of them being that while the writing was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to read, it was also a bit tricky and confusing at times too. I think the book was written in a way that correlates to the time the story takes place in heavily. So some phrases and the way sentences end or begin may take you a second to understand. (Or maybe I'm just slow. 🥹) I ALSO felt like the start of the story was EXTREMELY slow, which makes sense since we have to learn the worldbuilding and characters and such. BUT IT CAN ALSO be a bit frustrating since you just want to dive in without getting bored. THOUGH IT DOES PICK UP!! So as long as you have the patience then babes you are good to go.
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙉𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
⊱ ۫☀️ ׅ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 ⭑.ᐟ
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐡: Okay I LOOOOOOVED her. The way she was secretly badass? LIKE OKAY GIRLLL YOU CAN KILL SOMEONE IF YOU NEED TOO? HECK YEAH. I also loved that we got to see how despite all the traumatizing things that happened to her she still tried to be happy and make the best of it 😭😭 AND MY GIRL LITERALLY HAS A HEART OF GOLD TOO AAAAA. I honestly loved reading from her POV more than Kamran because my girl literally was so fun.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐫𝐚𝐧: MANNNNNN. SEE NOW THIS IS WHERE PROBLEMS BEGIN. I literally DO NOT know how I want to feel about him 😭😭😭 On one hand I absolutely LOVED him and he gave me a lot of similar vibes/traits to Aaron Warner. ON ANOTHER HAND, HE KINDA PISSED ME OFF?? Like I don't know if it was just me but there were some moments where I felt extremely bad for him, and then some moments where I just wanted to get a ball and throw it at him 💀💀 Honestly the ending drama we had with him was lowk hilarious and like I said before I think I got too blown away by Cyrus instead 😭😭
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐂𝐲𝐫𝐮𝐬: HOOOOOOLLYYYYYY MOOOOOLLLLYYYYYY. This guy right here is MY. MAN. I swear we barely even got to meet him but the few pages we did oh girl I was on my knees. 🙏🙏 THIS MAN LITERALLY IS WRITTEN BY CHASE ATLANTIC IN A FANTASY FONT BECAUSE HE WAS LITERALLY BADASS. And if yall new readers be falling for Kamran in the first half of the book...lemme just say you better watch out 🤫🤫 brb while I go run away with him to Tulan.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐧: ASSHHSHSHS OK THIS GUY HAS ALOT OF TRICKS UP HIS SLEEVE IM CRYING. There was so much stuff I didn't expect from him that left me in SHOCK. Also hello why does he kinda sound like a fine baddie??? IS THAT JUST ME??? OR LIKEEEEEE 👀Anyways I'm actually kinda curious to see where he's going to go in the next books cuz I can already tell he has a lot in store.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐎𝐦𝐢𝐝: MY POOR BABY PLEASE I WANTED TO CRY FOR HIM 😭😭😭 ANYONE WHO HATES OMID PLEASE GO TO HELL BECAUSE I LEGIT LOVED HIM TO PIECES. His relationship with Alizeh was the most CUTEST thing ever and I fear every time he came on page my heart melted a little. LIKE THIS POOR KID WAS ALWAYS SO MISUNDERSTOOD GIVE HIM JUSTICE 🥹🥹🥹
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍:
This book was ABSOULUTELY a TREAT. And I will be reading all the other ones in the series as soon as I get my hands on them. If you are looking for a unique fantasy world and absolute fun characters this one is a MUUUUUST read. ALSO IF YOU ARE A MIDDLE EASTERN GIRLIE IN GENERAL WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? THIS BOO WAS MADE FOR YOU!!! 10/10 loved this one and probably am gonna read it all over again when I finish the series. 🙂↕️🙂↕️
‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋
🌙🌹 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: YALL HYPED THIS BOOK UP SO BAD. And I swear if it doesn’t live to a hype I will throw hands. AND HELLO? WDYM JINN? BUDDYREADING THIS WITH MY BESTIE LIVV 💛
💫₊˚⊹ ࣪ ˖ 𝘚𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘪𝘢𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯𝘬𝘴 𝘵𝘰 𝘮𝘺 𝘣𝘦𝘴𝘵𝘪𝘦 𝘓𝘪𝘷 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘣𝘶𝘥𝘥𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘮𝘦! ୭ ₊̣̇.
꒰ヾ₊˚. ⸝⸝ 🩸₊˚ Her Review 🌙₊˚.
•.° -🍷 ₊˚ʚ 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐬 𝐖𝐨𝐯𝐞𝐧 𝐊𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐝𝐨𝐦 ɞ˚₊ ✨- °.•
💛੭‧₊°◞ 𝙧𝙤𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙘𝙚: 14+ (𝙞𝙣𝙣𝙪𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙤, 𝙠𝙞𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙘𝙧𝙪𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙚 𝙤𝙧 𝙚𝙭𝙥𝙡𝙞𝙘𝙞𝙩.), 𝙘𝙪𝙧𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜 12+ (𝙙*𝙢𝙣, 𝙝*𝙡𝙡, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙛 𝙨𝙩𝙧𝙤𝙣𝙜 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙩𝙮.), 𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙣𝙩 13+ (𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙩𝙖𝙨𝙮 𝙫𝙞𝙤𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙘𝙚, 𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙤𝙙, 𝙖𝙡𝙢𝙤𝙨𝙩 𝙙𝙚𝙖𝙩𝙝 𝙨𝙘𝙚𝙣𝙚𝙨, 𝙣𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙩𝙤𝙤 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙥𝙝𝙞𝙘 𝙤𝙧 𝙜𝙤𝙧𝙚.) 🍓༉‧₊˚.
˚₊‧꒰ა ——————————— ໒꒱ ‧₊˚
⤷ now playing: 𝘿𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙋𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚 🐤୭ ˚. ᵎᵎ
‧˚꒰ ♥️ 𝙇𝙖𝙣𝙖 𝘿𝙚𝙡 𝙍𝙚𝙮
⌞ 0:55 ——◦———— 4:03 ⌝
↠ⁿᵉˣᵗ ˢᵒⁿᵍ ↺ ʳᵉᵖᵉᵃᵗ ⊜ ᵖᵃᵘˢᵉ ❣️₊ ⊹ˑ𓂃
‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ As someone who only read the first 2 Shatter Me books + the novella in-between and already became OBSESSED with the series. It's safe to say when I saw this I literally dropped everything AND RAN..NO BOLTED TO THE BOOKSTORE. I was a little hesitant I will admit, BECAUSE EVERYONE WAS HYPING THIS BOOK AND SERIES SO BAD 😫😫 I swear there was even a point that every time I opened this app I saw someone reading this and the fomo was REAL. So ofc being the curious gal I am I picked this up and gave it a go with no expectations at all. AND LET ME JUST SAY THE WAY THIS BOOK BLEW ME AWAY WOULD BE AN UNDERSTATEMENT, BECAUSE I LITERALLY WASN'T BLEW AWAY I WAS LIFTED. From the cultural references, to the worldbuilding, TO THE CHARACTERS HELLO??? EVERYTHING WAS BEAUTIFUL 😫😫😍😍 It was safe to say as an Arab girlie this book made my heart so happy because it's so rare to see representation ON TOP OF AN ABSOULUTE BANGER OF A STORYLINE. So without further ado, grab a snack, get a seat and let us dive into this lovely little gem of a book 😏😏
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙉𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ Now we have to start off with one of the MAIN attractions of this book, because the romance?? OH IT WAS ROMANCING ALRIGHT. We had the slow burn, the enemies to lovers, THE ANGST??? OH YEAH WE HAD IT ALL. I absolutely loved the pacing of the chemistry and the fact that we got a WHOLE load of whiplash at the end to top it all off. (Those who know, KNOW.) I loved seeing Alizeh and Kamran and the way that their relationship formed. AND BY THE END OF THE BOOK, I THINK I MIGHT ASWELL GO SCREAM IN A PILLOW. The book had a way of having plot twists which you could guess and one's which you could not and I DEVOURED THAT FOR BREAKFAST, LUNCH, AND DINNER. It kept me entertained and thrilled and had all the characters living rent free in my head even when I was reading the book 🥹🥹🥹 I also loved that while romance was a BIG aspect in this book it wasn't the MAIN thing and we got to learn about both the male lead and the female lead's backstories and problems in their life. And if you think your team Kamran, oh babes call me back when you meet CYRUS. BECAUSE THIS MAN????? OH YEAH, I'M CLAMING HIM AS MY HUSBAND AND YALL CAN GO AND SCREAM 🤫🤫🤫🤫
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ AND IF YOU THINK THE ROMANCE WAS THE ONLY THING GOOD ABOUT THIS BOOK YOU WOULD BE WRONG. Because the WORLDBUILDING?? I LOVED THAT TOO. It felt like I stepped into Aladdin all over again with a Persian twist. Because thew way I could literally VISIUALIZE everything from the color of the walls to the smell of the food. IT FELT LIKE I WAS IN A 4D EXPERIENCE HELLO?? And I ATE IT DOWN. I also found it VERY cool that Tahereh stuck with the Arabic names for some of the things like calling Satan IBLEES??? OH YEAH AS AN ARAB GIRL I WAS LIKE WOAH. And don't even get me started on the chapter numbers because why were they so STUNNING?? Maybe I am just in shock because there aren't many books like this but in my honest opinion it was very unique. ALSO CAN WE TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD THOSE SWEETS SOUNDED?? LIKE MY MOUTH WAS ON THE FLOOR EVERYTIME ALIZEH OR KAMRAN GOT SOME KIND OF FOOD IN THEIR MOUTH 😭😭😭 Safe to say I was both mesmerized and HUNGRYYY after reading this book 🙂↕️
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮 𝙩𝙞𝙢𝙚 𝙄 𝙘𝙡𝙤𝙨𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙚𝙮𝙚𝙨, 𝙞𝙩'𝙨 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙖 𝙙𝙖𝙧𝙠 𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙖𝙙𝙞𝙨𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ Yes, I know what you are thinking by now. "WELL IF THE BOOK WAS SO GOOD WHY ISN'T IT A FIVE STAR!?" Well babes this is the time to fill in my TEEEEEEEENY complaints. One of them being that while the writing was absolutely BEAUTIFUL to read, it was also a bit tricky and confusing at times too. I think the book was written in a way that correlates to the time the story takes place in heavily. So some phrases and the way sentences end or begin may take you a second to understand. (Or maybe I'm just slow. 🥹) I ALSO felt like the start of the story was EXTREMELY slow, which makes sense since we have to learn the worldbuilding and characters and such. BUT IT CAN ALSO be a bit frustrating since you just want to dive in without getting bored. THOUGH IT DOES PICK UP!! So as long as you have the patience then babes you are good to go.
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙉𝙤 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙥𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙨 𝙩𝙤 𝙮𝙤𝙪" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
⊱ ۫☀️ ׅ 𝑪𝒉𝒂𝒓𝒂𝒄𝒕𝒆𝒓𝒔 ⭑.ᐟ
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐀𝐥𝐢𝐳𝐞𝐡: Okay I LOOOOOOVED her. The way she was secretly badass? LIKE OKAY GIRLLL YOU CAN KILL SOMEONE IF YOU NEED TOO? HECK YEAH. I also loved that we got to see how despite all the traumatizing things that happened to her she still tried to be happy and make the best of it 😭😭 AND MY GIRL LITERALLY HAS A HEART OF GOLD TOO AAAAA. I honestly loved reading from her POV more than Kamran because my girl literally was so fun.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐊𝐚𝐦𝐫𝐚𝐧: MANNNNNN. SEE NOW THIS IS WHERE PROBLEMS BEGIN. I literally DO NOT know how I want to feel about him 😭😭😭 On one hand I absolutely LOVED him and he gave me a lot of similar vibes/traits to Aaron Warner. ON ANOTHER HAND, HE KINDA PISSED ME OFF?? Like I don't know if it was just me but there were some moments where I felt extremely bad for him, and then some moments where I just wanted to get a ball and throw it at him 💀💀 Honestly the ending drama we had with him was lowk hilarious and like I said before I think I got too blown away by Cyrus instead 😭😭
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐂𝐲𝐫𝐮𝐬: HOOOOOOLLYYYYYY MOOOOOLLLLYYYYYY. This guy right here is MY. MAN. I swear we barely even got to meet him but the few pages we did oh girl I was on my knees. 🙏🙏 THIS MAN LITERALLY IS WRITTEN BY CHASE ATLANTIC IN A FANTASY FONT BECAUSE HE WAS LITERALLY BADASS. And if yall new readers be falling for Kamran in the first half of the book...lemme just say you better watch out 🤫🤫 brb while I go run away with him to Tulan.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐇𝐚𝐳𝐚𝐧: ASSHHSHSHS OK THIS GUY HAS ALOT OF TRICKS UP HIS SLEEVE IM CRYING. There was so much stuff I didn't expect from him that left me in SHOCK. Also hello why does he kinda sound like a fine baddie??? IS THAT JUST ME??? OR LIKEEEEEE 👀Anyways I'm actually kinda curious to see where he's going to go in the next books cuz I can already tell he has a lot in store.
ִֶָ𓂃 ࣪˖ ִִֶֶָ🥀 𝐎𝐦𝐢𝐝: MY POOR BABY PLEASE I WANTED TO CRY FOR HIM 😭😭😭 ANYONE WHO HATES OMID PLEASE GO TO HELL BECAUSE I LEGIT LOVED HIM TO PIECES. His relationship with Alizeh was the most CUTEST thing ever and I fear every time he came on page my heart melted a little. LIKE THIS POOR KID WAS ALWAYS SO MISUNDERSTOOD GIVE HIM JUSTICE 🥹🥹🥹
₊˚⊹ 🌟 ⋮ "𝙄'𝙢 𝙨𝙘𝙖𝙧𝙚𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙬𝙤𝙣'𝙩 𝙗𝙚 𝙬𝙖𝙞𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙤𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙨𝙞𝙙𝙚" ⋮ ‼️⊹ ₊˚
🌹‧ ₊˚ ⋅ 𝑶𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒂𝒍𝒍:
This book was ABSOULUTELY a TREAT. And I will be reading all the other ones in the series as soon as I get my hands on them. If you are looking for a unique fantasy world and absolute fun characters this one is a MUUUUUST read. ALSO IF YOU ARE A MIDDLE EASTERN GIRLIE IN GENERAL WHAT ARE YOU DOING??? THIS BOO WAS MADE FOR YOU!!! 10/10 loved this one and probably am gonna read it all over again when I finish the series. 🙂↕️🙂↕️
‧₊ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋ ˚ ⊹ ࣭ ⭑ . ₊ ⊹ .₊๋
🌙🌹 𝐩𝐫𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝: YALL HYPED THIS BOOK UP SO BAD. And I swear if it doesn’t live to a hype I will throw hands. AND HELLO? WDYM JINN? BUDDYREADING THIS WITH MY BESTIE LIVV 💛
![Profile Image for yuvi [hiatus].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1782487693i/172236858._UX200_CR0,48,200,200_.jpg)
May 21, 2026
★★.75
okay so it's no secret that i'm not the biggest fan of tahereh's works. i dnf'd shatter me after book3. but ppl were saying that this book is sm better than shatter me. so i thought to give it a try.
while the writing style took me some time to get used to, ngl it definitely had potential. and that was it. too much unexplored potential. sigh.
imo, this was just another case of interesting premise but underwhelming execution. my reading experience was like a sinusoidal graph ykwim? intially, i was invested and curious. but a few chapters in, and the pacing felt too slow and the worldbuilding felt kinda weak and underwhelming. i was confused (but not in a good- im-invested-and-need-to-know-more way but rather in a ts-is-boring-me-to-death way lol)
that being said, i liked alizeh's character. she was intriguing. and she actually reminded me of essiya (from jasad heir) but unlike essiya, alizeh's character felt too underdeveloped.
honestly, ntg significant happens until ch 30(?) after that, this definitely picked up the pace and so much happened in the last few chapters and the ending felt kinda rushed but i'm intrigued. alsooo. cyrus?! talk abt a whiplash. bro was literally introduced in the last few pages but managed to steal the spotlight.
um so yeah that's it. while this book didn't exactly hook me in, i'm definitely curious enough to read the next book.
(*peace out*✌🏻)
and yeah, we won't talk about whatshisface (his name starts with k and ends with douchebag). i HATED him. if you look up 'spoiled rich brat' in a dictionary, ikfs that you'll find a picture of kamran.
sigh
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
side note
started- March 21
finished- March 21
━━━━━
❀pre-read❀
━━━━━
After the disaster that was shatter me (book 1), I removed this book from my tbr😮💨
But ik that so many ppl love this book. And I've heard some things that finally convinced me to add this to my tbr (and give 'shatter me' a second chance lol)
Br w my lovelies, chertzo and dawn
So excited🤭🩷
okay so it's no secret that i'm not the biggest fan of tahereh's works. i dnf'd shatter me after book3. but ppl were saying that this book is sm better than shatter me. so i thought to give it a try.
while the writing style took me some time to get used to, ngl it definitely had potential. and that was it. too much unexplored potential. sigh.
imo, this was just another case of interesting premise but underwhelming execution. my reading experience was like a sinusoidal graph ykwim? intially, i was invested and curious. but a few chapters in, and the pacing felt too slow and the worldbuilding felt kinda weak and underwhelming. i was confused (but not in a good- im-invested-and-need-to-know-more way but rather in a ts-is-boring-me-to-death way lol)
that being said, i liked alizeh's character. she was intriguing. and she actually reminded me of essiya (from jasad heir) but unlike essiya, alizeh's character felt too underdeveloped.
honestly, ntg significant happens until ch 30(?) after that, this definitely picked up the pace and so much happened in the last few chapters and the ending felt kinda rushed but i'm intrigued. alsooo. cyrus?! talk abt a whiplash. bro was literally introduced in the last few pages but managed to steal the spotlight.
um so yeah that's it. while this book didn't exactly hook me in, i'm definitely curious enough to read the next book.
(*peace out*✌🏻)
and yeah, we won't talk about whatshisface (his name starts with k and ends with douchebag). i HATED him. if you look up 'spoiled rich brat' in a dictionary, ikfs that you'll find a picture of kamran.
sigh
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
side note
started- March 21
finished- March 21
━━━━━
❀pre-read❀
━━━━━
After the disaster that was shatter me (book 1), I removed this book from my tbr😮💨
But ik that so many ppl love this book. And I've heard some things that finally convinced me to add this to my tbr (and give 'shatter me' a second chance lol)
Br w my lovelies, chertzo and dawn
So excited🤭🩷
June 24, 2026
4.25 stars!
I have no words. I really loved the storyline. I went in with high expectations and I'm so glad it didn't just meet them but it exceeded them! Drawing rich inspiration from Persian mythology and middle eastern culture, the plot moves away from overused fantasy tropes. The story uses captivating jinn, prophecies and unique magic to create a world that felt entirely fresh and original.
“You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.”
𓏲ּ𝄢 Characters: 𓏲ּ𝄢
𝓐𝓵𝓲𝔃𝓮𝓱: She is the absolute gold standard for fierce badass fmcs. Unlike many other protagonists, she doesn’t rely on constant bloodshed to command a room. It was incredibly refreshing to read a character whose power is so deeply cerebral. She prefers to gut an enemy with a sharp witty insult rather than a literal blade. Yet, when she is pushed into a corner, she becomes absolutely lethal. Taking down multiple grown men with nothing but sewing needles is an unmatched flex!! On top of it all, she is breathtakingly gorgeous... though she is far too busy orchestrating her next move to care about something as trivial as her own reflection.
𝓚𝓪𝓶𝓻𝓪𝓷: From the second he walked in, he gave off major "obsessed ex" energy- the ones we read about who relentlessly keeps chasing the woman despite the massive lack of interest on her part. Like, chill out bro, you literally barely know her. Honestly, he’s got a massive superiority complex combined with total pick-me energy. Anyhow, I enjoyed his character too because, as a prince of the empire, Kamran has always enjoyed a life of unchecked privilege and luxury, but then a servant he can’t erase from his mind completely shatters his worldview. Being a prince means his entire life is tied to his people and the future of his throne (but sadly, he was so naive about his own country's lower-class people's lives, lol), but you can truly feel the heavy weight of that responsibility throughout the story. But what I loved about him was how utterly, delightfully down bad he became for Alizeh. He was ready to throw down with everyone- his own family and his kingdom’s oldest beliefs... just to keep her by his side forever.
𝓒𝔂𝓻𝓾𝓼: The second this man was described with blue eyes and red hair, I immediately went- OMG, that’s my Cyrus! Having seen so much gorgeous fanarts of him on pinterest, I’ve been waiting for him. I knew he was the mmc but since he only made his grand entrance at the very end, I am incredibly excited to dive into the rest of the series and see how it all plays out with my lovely Shweta.
Miss Mafi has an incredible way of making you feel the rawness and the depth of a character and that I felt with Alizeh's pain. I'm completely hooked and eager to see where the story goes, especially since this first book clearly just scratches the surface.
For anyone finding the beginning a bit of a slog, push through! I promise you, the ending alone justifies the slow burn. The series becomes incredibly captivating from the second half.
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────
Ahh, my preread got deleted. Thank goodness it wasn't a review. Anyways, I am enjoying it so far with my lovely, Shweta💕
I have no words. I really loved the storyline. I went in with high expectations and I'm so glad it didn't just meet them but it exceeded them! Drawing rich inspiration from Persian mythology and middle eastern culture, the plot moves away from overused fantasy tropes. The story uses captivating jinn, prophecies and unique magic to create a world that felt entirely fresh and original.
“You have consumed my thoughts since the moment I met you,” he said to her. “I feel now, in your presence, entirely strange. I think I might fetch you the moon if only to spare your tears again.”
𓏲ּ𝄢 Characters: 𓏲ּ𝄢
𝓐𝓵𝓲𝔃𝓮𝓱: She is the absolute gold standard for fierce badass fmcs. Unlike many other protagonists, she doesn’t rely on constant bloodshed to command a room. It was incredibly refreshing to read a character whose power is so deeply cerebral. She prefers to gut an enemy with a sharp witty insult rather than a literal blade. Yet, when she is pushed into a corner, she becomes absolutely lethal. Taking down multiple grown men with nothing but sewing needles is an unmatched flex!! On top of it all, she is breathtakingly gorgeous... though she is far too busy orchestrating her next move to care about something as trivial as her own reflection.
𝓚𝓪𝓶𝓻𝓪𝓷: From the second he walked in, he gave off major "obsessed ex" energy- the ones we read about who relentlessly keeps chasing the woman despite the massive lack of interest on her part. Like, chill out bro, you literally barely know her. Honestly, he’s got a massive superiority complex combined with total pick-me energy. Anyhow, I enjoyed his character too because, as a prince of the empire, Kamran has always enjoyed a life of unchecked privilege and luxury, but then a servant he can’t erase from his mind completely shatters his worldview. Being a prince means his entire life is tied to his people and the future of his throne (but sadly, he was so naive about his own country's lower-class people's lives, lol), but you can truly feel the heavy weight of that responsibility throughout the story. But what I loved about him was how utterly, delightfully down bad he became for Alizeh. He was ready to throw down with everyone- his own family and his kingdom’s oldest beliefs... just to keep her by his side forever.
𝓒𝔂𝓻𝓾𝓼: The second this man was described with blue eyes and red hair, I immediately went- OMG, that’s my Cyrus! Having seen so much gorgeous fanarts of him on pinterest, I’ve been waiting for him. I knew he was the mmc but since he only made his grand entrance at the very end, I am incredibly excited to dive into the rest of the series and see how it all plays out with my lovely Shweta.
Miss Mafi has an incredible way of making you feel the rawness and the depth of a character and that I felt with Alizeh's pain. I'm completely hooked and eager to see where the story goes, especially since this first book clearly just scratches the surface.
For anyone finding the beginning a bit of a slog, push through! I promise you, the ending alone justifies the slow burn. The series becomes incredibly captivating from the second half.
────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────────୨ৎ────
Ahh, my preread got deleted. Thank goodness it wasn't a review. Anyways, I am enjoying it so far with my lovely, Shweta💕
November 3, 2025
It’s 1am rn and my jaw is on the floor.
Do I recommend this? Yes but not for the romance (there’s hardly any). I’d say yes ONLY for its interesting lore and the fmc.
It grips you from the first page. And the fmc, Alizeh, keeps that going with her story. I adoreee her. The only reason I’m gna be continuing is for her and a certain other character that’s grabbed my interest.
The mmc was the biggest fuckin pain in my ass and I hardly ever say that lightly. Like I had no spoilers for this series at all and I’m telling you I’ve never gotten so pissed off by an mmc. Every time his pov came up I would actually fall into a slump so deep I wasn’t sure if I’d survive the fall. Every word he said was GRATING on my already threadbare nerves. I was dreaming up ways to push him off cliffs, run him over with a 14 wheelers, the most pathetic (derogatory) cretin I’ve had the displeasure of reading.
I’m sorry for the rant I needed to get that off my chest 🧘♀️
Anyway, yeah I’d say it was worth dragging myself thru his POVs for that ending bc !!!!! The next book is GNA eat I have a feeling 🤭
Do I recommend this? Yes but not for the romance (there’s hardly any). I’d say yes ONLY for its interesting lore and the fmc.
It grips you from the first page. And the fmc, Alizeh, keeps that going with her story. I adoreee her. The only reason I’m gna be continuing is for her and a certain other character that’s grabbed my interest.
The mmc was the biggest fuckin pain in my ass and I hardly ever say that lightly. Like I had no spoilers for this series at all and I’m telling you I’ve never gotten so pissed off by an mmc. Every time his pov came up I would actually fall into a slump so deep I wasn’t sure if I’d survive the fall. Every word he said was GRATING on my already threadbare nerves. I was dreaming up ways to push him off cliffs, run him over with a 14 wheelers, the most pathetic (derogatory) cretin I’ve had the displeasure of reading.
I’m sorry for the rant I needed to get that off my chest 🧘♀️
Anyway, yeah I’d say it was worth dragging myself thru his POVs for that ending bc !!!!! The next book is GNA eat I have a feeling 🤭
September 13, 2024
Wow, "This Woven Kingdom" blew me away! Tahereh Mafi weaves a spellbinding tale that's part Persian mythology, part forbidden romance, and all kinds of amazing.
The main character, Alizeh, is a total badass - a secret queen forced to work as a servant, hiding her true identity and incredible powers. And don't even get me started on Kamran, the crown prince who gets tangled up in her world. Their chemistry is off the charts!
Mafi's writing is pure magic. She paints such a vivid picture of this fantasy world that I felt like I was right there, feeling the icy chill of Alizeh's touch and the heat of the growing tensions in the kingdom.
If you're into epic fantasies with strong heroines, swoon-worthy romance, and enough plot twists to keep you up all night, grab this book ASAP. Trust me, you won't regret it!
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The main character, Alizeh, is a total badass - a secret queen forced to work as a servant, hiding her true identity and incredible powers. And don't even get me started on Kamran, the crown prince who gets tangled up in her world. Their chemistry is off the charts!
Mafi's writing is pure magic. She paints such a vivid picture of this fantasy world that I felt like I was right there, feeling the icy chill of Alizeh's touch and the heat of the growing tensions in the kingdom.
If you're into epic fantasies with strong heroines, swoon-worthy romance, and enough plot twists to keep you up all night, grab this book ASAP. Trust me, you won't regret it!
medium.com
January 6, 2022
wait……..this was actually so good? ignore anyone who says this is like Game of Thrones tho bc that’s very much not true at all lol, this book is straight up a fairytale/retelling with very, very strong Cinderella vibes — but in the best way. truly i enjoyed this from start to finish and that’s saying a lot because i don’t love any of TM’s other books. i want book 2 now tho
this is a Persian YA fantasy through and through and i’m glad to see that Tahereh is finally embracing the culture and not writing for the white gaze anymore. it has Islamic influences re: the history of jinn which was very exciting to read
the fairytales that this reminded me of were: Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Aladdin
this is a Persian YA fantasy through and through and i’m glad to see that Tahereh is finally embracing the culture and not writing for the white gaze anymore. it has Islamic influences re: the history of jinn which was very exciting to read
the fairytales that this reminded me of were: Cinderella, Rumpelstiltskin, and Aladdin
March 2, 2026
╰┈➤ 3.75 stars!
TAHEREH MAFI YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY LAWYER!!! 😭 second romantasy book i’ve read and i fear that i will never look back since i’m assuming it will only get better from here? HOPEFULLY!!
୨ৎ alizeh. my queen, my everything. she deserves the entire world and then some, and i genuinely hate every single person who has ever wronged her. y’all will be hearing from me. i’m not joking. reading her povs was the highlight of this entire book for me. every time the perspective shifted back to her, i felt alive again. her chapters have weight, depth, pain, strength—she carries so much on her shoulders and still manages to remain composed and powerful. meanwhile… kamran’s povs in the first half? i’m sorry but they had me fighting for my life trying to stay interested 😭 alizeh just clears.
୨ৎ kamran. this man is so easy to rage bait it’s actually insane. the first half of the book? i did not like him. at all. he came off as ungrateful and privileged and i was this close to throwing hands. i was like sir??? read the room??? but as the story went on, i started seeing the cracks. i started understanding that what i thought was ungratefulness was actually frustration, pressure, grief weighing him down. and that shift? it changed everything for me. the way he wants to lead. the way he holds himself to impossible standards. the way he thinks so highly of alizeh. I JUST HAVE ONE CONCERN: if not main lead, then why main lead shaped???? because once he started talking about her the way he does??? i folded like a lawn chair. completely. and when he called her “your majesty”? i was fucking sat. do you understand me? SAT. i swear i screamed. and the fact that he sensed her presence??? like excuse me??? that’s the kind of dramatic, soul-tied nonsense i eat up every single time. where can i find someone who speaks about me with that much reverence because hello???
୨ৎ cyrus. LOL this man had us laughing because of his sarcastic remarks. i knew from the moment in the apothecary that he was about to rise and be introduced to me. that said, his exposure his wasn’t really much that’s why i’m leaning towards kamran, but that might change, i think? he better work for it!!
along with the other characters like hazan, omid, and huda i hope to see more of them in the following books because they honestly made the book sm better, especially omid. he’s my child.
but let’s be real. this book started boring as hell. painfully slow. the first half genuinely put me in a slump because it dragged so much that i questioned my life choices. i kept thinking i do not have time for this, please get to the point. and don’t even get me started on the love triangle. this book single-handedly reminded me why i hate that trope with a passion. just because i’m continuing the series does not mean i support it. i will always be a love triangle hater. that is a core part of my personality.
that being said… once it picked up? it PICKED UP. the tension got thicker, the emotions got heavier, and kamran and alizeh’s interactions became the only thing i cared about. give me alizehkamran crumbs. give me longing. because i do not have any emotional attachment to cyrus right now. sorry to that man. maybe that’ll change, but as of now? i’m locked in elsewhere.
overall, this book tested my patience at first, but it redeemed itself enough that i’m actually excited for what’s next. i’m hoping the pacing gets stronger and the stakes get even higher because the potential is absolutely there. and huge shoutout to my girls fadhee, lena, haritha, and vaish because without them reading this with me, i genuinely don’t think i would’ve made it through the slow parts. suffering together builds character.
now give me book two immediately.
・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・
OH EM GEE???? rtc!!!
・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・
pre-read:
buddy reading this with fadhee, lena, haritha, and vaish 🌷💞🧸🏹 my best girls!! so so so excited because we planned this br for quite some time now and it’s finally happening! i hope this book don’t let us down 🥹🤞🏼
TAHEREH MAFI YOU WILL BE HEARING FROM MY LAWYER!!! 😭 second romantasy book i’ve read and i fear that i will never look back since i’m assuming it will only get better from here? HOPEFULLY!!
୨ৎ alizeh. my queen, my everything. she deserves the entire world and then some, and i genuinely hate every single person who has ever wronged her. y’all will be hearing from me. i’m not joking. reading her povs was the highlight of this entire book for me. every time the perspective shifted back to her, i felt alive again. her chapters have weight, depth, pain, strength—she carries so much on her shoulders and still manages to remain composed and powerful. meanwhile… kamran’s povs in the first half? i’m sorry but they had me fighting for my life trying to stay interested 😭 alizeh just clears.
୨ৎ kamran. this man is so easy to rage bait it’s actually insane. the first half of the book? i did not like him. at all. he came off as ungrateful and privileged and i was this close to throwing hands. i was like sir??? read the room??? but as the story went on, i started seeing the cracks. i started understanding that what i thought was ungratefulness was actually frustration, pressure, grief weighing him down. and that shift? it changed everything for me. the way he wants to lead. the way he holds himself to impossible standards. the way he thinks so highly of alizeh. I JUST HAVE ONE CONCERN: if not main lead, then why main lead shaped???? because once he started talking about her the way he does??? i folded like a lawn chair. completely. and when he called her “your majesty”? i was fucking sat. do you understand me? SAT. i swear i screamed. and the fact that he sensed her presence??? like excuse me??? that’s the kind of dramatic, soul-tied nonsense i eat up every single time. where can i find someone who speaks about me with that much reverence because hello???
୨ৎ cyrus. LOL this man had us laughing because of his sarcastic remarks. i knew from the moment in the apothecary that he was about to rise and be introduced to me. that said, his exposure his wasn’t really much that’s why i’m leaning towards kamran, but that might change, i think? he better work for it!!
along with the other characters like hazan, omid, and huda i hope to see more of them in the following books because they honestly made the book sm better, especially omid. he’s my child.
but let’s be real. this book started boring as hell. painfully slow. the first half genuinely put me in a slump because it dragged so much that i questioned my life choices. i kept thinking i do not have time for this, please get to the point. and don’t even get me started on the love triangle. this book single-handedly reminded me why i hate that trope with a passion. just because i’m continuing the series does not mean i support it. i will always be a love triangle hater. that is a core part of my personality.
that being said… once it picked up? it PICKED UP. the tension got thicker, the emotions got heavier, and kamran and alizeh’s interactions became the only thing i cared about. give me alizehkamran crumbs. give me longing. because i do not have any emotional attachment to cyrus right now. sorry to that man. maybe that’ll change, but as of now? i’m locked in elsewhere.
overall, this book tested my patience at first, but it redeemed itself enough that i’m actually excited for what’s next. i’m hoping the pacing gets stronger and the stakes get even higher because the potential is absolutely there. and huge shoutout to my girls fadhee, lena, haritha, and vaish because without them reading this with me, i genuinely don’t think i would’ve made it through the slow parts. suffering together builds character.
now give me book two immediately.
・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・
OH EM GEE???? rtc!!!
・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・。・
pre-read:
buddy reading this with fadhee, lena, haritha, and vaish 🌷💞🧸🏹 my best girls!! so so so excited because we planned this br for quite some time now and it’s finally happening! i hope this book don’t let us down 🥹🤞🏼
February 10, 2026
🏜️ Yay! :D It felt soooo good to come back on reading your favorite author's book. Not just that! It's even beyond exciting to take an adventure in Persian Fantasy world with giddy romance among the sun ☀️
Not that I'm familiar with Persian culture, I told you first. lol That's why I'm nervously excited to dive into this. *hehehe*
Okay let hear my story. lol I began my adventure at Ardunia. Here I met the crown prince of the empire 'Prince Kamran' who is instantly interested in my jinn friend Alizeh just a few times they met! This fast, mannn!! Even though she's just a servent!! 😲 I don't know why?
Then, there is Iblees who pop up in and out of Alizeh's life. Always tell her of that riddle I didn't understand! and made me skeptical in everyone in this dangerous empire! *ugh*
TROUBLE FOR WARNER/JULIETTE SHIPPERS
Why I say it's trouble? Because not just this prince! You guys will meet 2 boys here and SERIOUSLY! Both boys have our Warner vibe. One way or another. Prince Kamran is obsessed with Alizeh ( just like Warner's obsessed love for Julette, you remember? ) While another is oh my gosh bad, bad boy..
And I'm curious who your heart will lean to?
I don't know what people say..
🐉 Now my heart flew to Tulan already..
*Shriekkkkkkkkkkkk kk k k k*
Again!! This Tulanian guy swept me off my feet!! Cyrus. Cyrus. CYRUS. Who is this??? Hahaha I know who he is. :P BUT I just want to know more about him. His reputation is really interesting. And I think.. there might be something behind that dark background, I didn't know. 🤔
Cinderella-ish, my friends. Just read it! Though, I need to complain.. the romance is too few for me. I want moreee!!
ONE QUESTION : Which TEAM are you on, I'm curious? 🤭
October 12, 2024
i was three seconds away from DNF’ing when i got halfway, so me finishing this was nothing short of a miracle🙂↕️
anyways, team cyrus or whatever
anyways, team cyrus or whatever
February 21, 2022
"You are quite good," his grandfather said coldly, "at taking clear and logical arguments and elevating them to a level so esoteric they are rendered ineffectual."
It's also true that this book is quite good at taking clear and logical storylines and elevating them language-wise to a level so esoteric they are rendered ineffectual.
I am filled with disappointment. Seriously. Absolutely filled to the brim with it. I had previously put this as a 3 star read... but the more I think about it, the more I think it deserves a 2 star. I know this book just got released at the time of me writing this review, so I'm actually going to put a lot of care into this review and state my case as to why I believe it deserves my terrible rating.
1. Writing style
I've not read a book from Tahereh Mafi in a long time, so I'm not sure if it's a consistent issue I personally have with her writing (not all authors suit all readers - and that's okay!) But while I tolerate most writing styles, this one was really grating on my nerves. It was filled to the brim with tedious, superfluous language - the kind that made you want to tear your hair out after only reading the first chapter, because you realise that the whole book is exactly like it. I found it incredibly boring, slow-paced, lacking in tension and pretentious. I understand why it was written this way (idk... old ye english, medieval fantasy style???), sure, but I disliked it all the same. It made my reading experience horrid, honestly. I thought it was a me problem at first, but then I was so bewildered by it that I read out a sentence aloud to my sister and even she had to ask me to repeat it to make sense of it. (The sentence, if you're curious, was this: "I might accept an explanation of idealism more readily were your actions symptomatic of a larger philosophical position, which we both know they are not, as you've never before taken an active interest in the lives of street children - or servants, for that matter".) It felt like I was drowning in a pool of what the author deemed *Big Words To Throw Into My Book*. And then there were other issues, such as-
Oh. Wait. Where was I? What was I saying? Are you confused? Me too, because another aspect of the writing style I could not stand was the use of interruptions or dashes at the end of a paragraph. Once or twice, okay, I'll accept it. But if you use it consistently, then you have issues with wrapping up sentences and actually introducing tension effectively in your writing without resorting to cheap devices. It confuses the reader and makes the writing feel lost and disjointed. The amount of times that it happened was astonishing, and was a clear sign of poor writing.
2. Plot
What did I say about the storyline before? It was clear and logical. Well... it should've been. It did nothing new in this genre, only serving old tropes in a remix. Flying carpet? Check. Dragon getaway? Check. Secret princess? Check. A royal ball? Check. Annoyingly obvious Cinderella plot mirroring? Check. Which is why it annoys me more when a book fails to execute even an unoriginal plotline well. It was bogged down by the lack of pace, associated with a terrible writing style, and characters that served to inspire absolutely nothing in me, the reader. Talking of the characters...
3. Characters
I'm supposed to root for Alizeh, sure. Poor girl, living a life of forced servitude, spending out her days in absolute abject misery and torture to earn some coin in order to fend for herself. She's meant to be Cinderella, the lower class girl we pity and empathise with. But the thing that really bothered me with this whole concept was that she KNEW the entire time that she was destined to be the Queen of the Jinn. She knew she was special, she had ice in her veins, yadda yadda yadda. It makes absolutely no sense why she'd debase herself to the lowest levels of society while life goes on around her and she knows of the cruelties that her people suffer, but she doesn't do anything to help them (WHEN IT'S LITERALLY IN HER DESTINY). I think the author at some points tried to justify why anger wasn't a solution, sure, but Alizeh ultimately reeked of cowardice and self-pity and scored an absolute zilch in the queen material department. And then you expect me to believe she can just kill 5 men when she won't even fight back against the housekeepers who beat her? Please.
Kamran is an insolent child prince. I understood that was his character arc, of becoming king and learning about his duty, but GOD there was a bit he said about suffering and how he too was going through it and I really felt like I needed to punch him in the face. Like boohoo, you need to find a wife and produce an heir instead of traipsing back to battle! Of course instead he goes and acts all softly around Alizeh because he sees how she stoops so low for her level! She's a queen and yet she is a servant! And then he gets praised for literally the simplest of actions - showing basic human decency to HIS OWN people. In reality he's an angsty, angry little dude who doesn't know what he's doing in life.
Everyone else was cardboard material, AKA 2D prints of side characters. Honestly I'm not even sure I can really exclude the main characters from that either.
And the romance? *Sigh*. My God, the insta-love was heavy in this one. When you have a nightmare/vision about the devil prophesising something you don't want to hear about and then suddenly you're looking at the face of a stranger, would you immediately be taken away by their attractiveness? (I just know some of you might say yes... but you get the point! It's still ridiculous!) In actual fact, the whole thing is ridiculous. They keep describing each other as the sexiest, most beautiful, most handsome person alive etc. etc. and you expect me to believe their love is founded on valid grounds of trust and friendship and genuine, deep connection? A big nope from me. Nothing was compelling about their romance whatsoever. I did not root for them in any way nor do I think that they did each other any good.
4. Final thoughts
I said before that I'm immeasurably disappointed in this book. That's because the blurb had me hooked! I was willing to lay down my life for good old favourite tropes of mine. I wanted to love this book so badly. And yet here I am, writing this review at 4:30 am, because I'm exasperated that I had to go through 500 pages of it.
But as the king says, "I clear away the darkness, so that you may enjoy the light." So I'm here to tell you that this is no Ember in the Ashes and no Game of Thrones. Go read them instead because they're far beyond the reach of what this book tried to accomplish.
Want to Read
February 2, 2022if there's any characters like juliette or adam i'm gonna fucking shoot myself
Want to Read
December 31, 202530/12/25: book on hold to read in 2026
🌹 ⊹₊˚ pre read
honestly this book has been on my tbr for so long and I’M SO EXCITED!!
🌹 ⊹₊˚ pre read
honestly this book has been on my tbr for so long and I’M SO EXCITED!!
March 2, 2026
⤿🥀01/03/26
3.75 WOVEN STARS, rtc. OMG EEE I have a lot to talk about this book so I will write a review when I come back here.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷・❥・𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀・❥・ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
⤿🥀23/02/26
*drum rolls please 🥁* well the most awaited buddy read of the year is finally happening y'all after planning it for weeks!!🤩🤭 doing it with none other than my lovely girls rei, lena, vaish, and haritha 🥹😍💌💞 hope this book doesn't disappoint us!🙂↕️🤞🏻
3.75 WOVEN STARS, rtc. OMG EEE I have a lot to talk about this book so I will write a review when I come back here.
ˏˋ°•*⁀➷・❥・𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀・❥・ˏˋ°•*⁀➷
⤿🥀23/02/26
*drum rolls please 🥁* well the most awaited buddy read of the year is finally happening y'all after planning it for weeks!!🤩🤭 doing it with none other than my lovely girls rei, lena, vaish, and haritha 🥹😍💌💞 hope this book doesn't disappoint us!🙂↕️🤞🏻
October 4, 2025
3.5 stars ★
one thing i've noticed about tahereh mafi is that her real strength as a writer lies in her characters. i enjoy the plots of her books—they’re well-written and engaging enough, though not exactly groundbreaking. but it's really her characters that stand out. i think that’s why, even though i liked the book, i didn’t end up loving it.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the plot ꒱ ˎˊ˗
i love mythologies and folklore-type stories, so naturally, i loved the plot. it was interesting, and i liked the overall setting. however, after a captivating start where we learned about the world and the mc's past, things slowed down a lot. for about 150 pages, not much really happened. it wasn’t boring exactly, but the story didn’t seem to be moving forward. smh 😒
and then the story took a turn in the last 100 pages or so. there was so much stuff going on at once, it was just one thing after the other (in a good way). talk about a wild ride.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the characters ꒱ ˎˊ˗
➸ alizeh:
i absolutely adored her character. she is kind, resourceful, can kill you in the blink of an eye but will choose compassion everytime 😭😭😭. and she has suffered sm my girlll i wanted to give her the biggest hug ever.
➸ kamran:
and here in lies my biggest critique of this book: kamran. i did not like his character at all. he has been blessed with everything a person could want in life but he doesn't appreciate any of it. he looks down upon people around him all the time, may it be his friend, family, the ministers, the king, hell even his own freaking mother. and don't even get me started on how he talks about the women around him. according to him, every female creature around him wants to marry him and is incapable to stringing two words together. cool 🤡🤡.
and all his feelings for alizeh seem to stem from the fact that she doesn't fall upon his preconceived notions about people. ugh.
➸ cyrus:
watch tahereh mafi single handedly destroy my "i-want-a-dark-haired-man" agenda. first aaron, now cyrus? 😭 his character has me so intrigued.
my man has dragons + can do magic + is infamous as hell + committed patricide + can banter with the fmc 🤸🏻♀️ need i say more?
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the romance ꒱ ˎˊ˗
the way the romance is written is good enough. but i wasn't a fan of alizeh and kamran's relationship because, for me, there didn't seem to be any real feelings involved. there was lust and attraction, yes. but they didn't even know anything about each other as actual people. and there is a huge difference between feeling true emotions for someone and liking someone for who they are vs. being attracted to someone.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ bottom line ꒱ ˎˊ˗
a good story that fell short for me only because of the mmc and it's slow pace at times. but i'm still going to continue the series because:
- i want to see alizeh get everything good in life
- i want to see more alizehcyrus dynamics
- the story is so interesting
one thing i've noticed about tahereh mafi is that her real strength as a writer lies in her characters. i enjoy the plots of her books—they’re well-written and engaging enough, though not exactly groundbreaking. but it's really her characters that stand out. i think that’s why, even though i liked the book, i didn’t end up loving it.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the plot ꒱ ˎˊ˗
i love mythologies and folklore-type stories, so naturally, i loved the plot. it was interesting, and i liked the overall setting. however, after a captivating start where we learned about the world and the mc's past, things slowed down a lot. for about 150 pages, not much really happened. it wasn’t boring exactly, but the story didn’t seem to be moving forward. smh 😒
and then the story took a turn in the last 100 pages or so. there was so much stuff going on at once, it was just one thing after the other (in a good way). talk about a wild ride.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the characters ꒱ ˎˊ˗
➸ alizeh:
i absolutely adored her character. she is kind, resourceful, can kill you in the blink of an eye but will choose compassion everytime 😭😭😭. and she has suffered sm my girlll i wanted to give her the biggest hug ever.
➸ kamran:
and here in lies my biggest critique of this book: kamran. i did not like his character at all. he has been blessed with everything a person could want in life but he doesn't appreciate any of it. he looks down upon people around him all the time, may it be his friend, family, the ministers, the king, hell even his own freaking mother. and don't even get me started on how he talks about the women around him. according to him, every female creature around him wants to marry him and is incapable to stringing two words together. cool 🤡🤡.
and all his feelings for alizeh seem to stem from the fact that she doesn't fall upon his preconceived notions about people. ugh.
➸ cyrus:
watch tahereh mafi single handedly destroy my "i-want-a-dark-haired-man" agenda. first aaron, now cyrus? 😭 his character has me so intrigued.
my man has dragons + can do magic + is infamous as hell + committed patricide + can banter with the fmc 🤸🏻♀️ need i say more?
˗ˏˋ ꒰ the romance ꒱ ˎˊ˗
the way the romance is written is good enough. but i wasn't a fan of alizeh and kamran's relationship because, for me, there didn't seem to be any real feelings involved. there was lust and attraction, yes. but they didn't even know anything about each other as actual people. and there is a huge difference between feeling true emotions for someone and liking someone for who they are vs. being attracted to someone.
˗ˏˋ ꒰ bottom line ꒱ ˎˊ˗
a good story that fell short for me only because of the mmc and it's slow pace at times. but i'm still going to continue the series because:
- i want to see alizeh get everything good in life
- i want to see more alizehcyrus dynamics
- the story is so interesting
January 18, 2023
Kamran is the middle eastern version of Aaron Warner.
it’s true Tahereh Mafi told me 🫡
it’s true Tahereh Mafi told me 🫡
July 12, 2024
”What worlds he might be inspired to give up, he wondered, in the pursuit of knowing more of her mind.”
the world building based on Persian mythology is this book was so interesting. Alizeh is a jin and because of this she’s forced to hide her identity, along with some secrets she withholds about her where she comes from. Kamran is the prince of Ardunia and finds himself infatuated with Alizeh, despite everything working against his wishes to pursue her. the writing is beautiful and i enjoyed the story but i must admit that i feel like not much happened until the last quarter. i know this series has multiple books though, so im looking forward to getting more movement in the plot and im so curious about Cyrus after that ending 👀
been meaning to get to this one for a while, the covers are all so gorgeous im obsessed!! 💛✨
the world building based on Persian mythology is this book was so interesting. Alizeh is a jin and because of this she’s forced to hide her identity, along with some secrets she withholds about her where she comes from. Kamran is the prince of Ardunia and finds himself infatuated with Alizeh, despite everything working against his wishes to pursue her. the writing is beautiful and i enjoyed the story but i must admit that i feel like not much happened until the last quarter. i know this series has multiple books though, so im looking forward to getting more movement in the plot and im so curious about Cyrus after that ending 👀
November 25, 2025
I ate this up! So intrigued by the mythology and basically everything to do with the Jinn, I’m also obsessed with the Persian setting!! I actually also really love the writing and the formal almost pretentious language used. Tahereh knows how to write an addictive and fun YA fantasy. Alizeh is such an interesting and lowkey badass FMC and I’m here for it. Excited to continue this series!
August 6, 2025
ㅤ �� ㅤ ㅤ ㅤ✦ . ⁺ . 3.5 - 3.7 ☆ . ⁺ . ✦
ㅤ ㅤ ˋ°•*⁀➷ㅤmight contain spoilers ❗
ㅤ ᯓ ✿ re-read ⪼ ┆03-Aug-2025┆
ㅤ ㅤ ⤿ my god, the ending of this book hits so much harder and is so much more entertaining when you read this a second time 🤭
ㅤ Unfortunately, all the magnificently captivating and vivid writing and the incredibly amazing FMC I managed to discover in Alizeh could not make me give this book more than 3 stars. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely a good book, and I enjoyed it extremely much, especially due to the insane manner in which it is written, but I admit I did get bored at times, and I found myself barely pushing through most of Kamran's POVs. This might also be entirely due to my slight dislike for him as a character, but there really wasn't much going on in the book itself to keep me that intrigued.
ㅤ I was mainly here for Hazan's sassiness towards Kamran and the last 50 pages of the book, when a certain someone makes an appearance and wreaks complete havoc.
ㅤ ㅤ “What a strange girl you are...to behold a rose and perceive only its thorns, never the bloom.”
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ short summary
ㅤ "This Woven Kingdom" by Tahereh Mafi is a gorgeously written fantasy that practically glows off the page. Set in a rich, Persian-inspired world full of jinn, political tension, and secret legacies, it follows Alizeh—a servant girl with a dangerous hidden identity—and Kamran, a crown prince who’s very much not supposed to notice her… but definitely does.
ㅤ The prose is lush and poetic, the worldbuilding beautifully layered with cultural depth and mythological touches. Every scene feels cinematic.
ㅤ The romance, though? Pretty to look at, but it lacks real emotional grounding. Alizeh and Kamran’s connection feels rushed and a bit too much like fate trying to do all the heavy lifting. Still, the atmosphere, intrigue, and writing alone make it a journey worth taking—even if your heart’s not entirely in it.
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ honest thoughts
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ You know what is the first thing I am going to talk about when it comes to this book: the writing is one of the most beautiful I've ever encountered in any book. I was genuinely shocked with how much I was devouring every single word from the pages of this novel. The writing matches the atmosphere, the setting, and the characters of the book itself so perfectly that you get the feeling you are literally experiencing the events yourself; you find yourself shocked by revelations, you feel the helplessness of a cruel society, you experience the lies and the betrayals firsthand, and you cannot do anything but be a pawn yourself in a game of political intrigue.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ Despite the amazement that the writing managed to inspire in me, the plot of the novel fails in supporting the writing and enhancing it to its full potential. I do understand that the book itself spans a rather short period of time, but exactly due to this, I couldn't get as attached to some of these characters as I hoped to. The plot is indeed engaging, but, for me, the incredibly long monologues made me feel like the story itself was slightly dragging at times.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ It's been so long since a book kept me so intrigued and really made me gasp at a revelation or a plot-twist; this book managed both perfectly. The fact that I entirely did not see anything coming about these characters is probably what kept me addicted to this book and made it hard for me to just put it down. (I literally ended up carrying the book with me at the office 😭)
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ Now, here comes the main reason I was deemed fully incapable of entirely getting immersed in this book: the romance was lacking in so many aspects; from the more than insta-lust(?) vibes I was getting from both Kamran and Alizeh to the lack of genuine feelings being present anywhere, this romance plot entirely lacked emotional depth. I couldn't understand how two people who barely knew each other for only a few days could just act like their world would simply end without the other or something; especially Kamran, because Alizeh seemed rather just attached to him, not necessarily in love with him.
ㅤ To be entirely honest, at one point I was here only for the incredibly amusing bromance between Hazan and Kamran. I was living for their diss-like interactions.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ And now we come to the seriously mind-blowing part of this book; the last 50 pages of this novel are simply there to create complete chaos, to give you whiplash, and to shock you in the best way possible. I went into this series entirely blind, so I had no clue about what was going to happen, and, God, I made the most perfect decision. All of my praises go towards the ending of this book because it was absolutely perfect!
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ characters
ㅤ I am such an easy-to-please person when it comes to characters in a book: all you have to do is to give me some characters that are showing at least some sort of personality and character traits, and I am instantly sold.
ㅤ ✴︎ Alizeh - I started reading this book expecting to meet some helpless, weak FMC that, by being put through challenges in her life, will be forced to evolve into something way more powerful. How wrong I was. Alizeh is such a strong woman and such a complete badass! I instantly fell in love with her strong, yet gentle personality, her brilliant mind, and her absolutely stunning character throughout the entire book. I just know the banter in the second book is about to be absolute perfection because of her.
ㅤ She does seem rather innocent in so many ways too, mainly because she instantly confuses attraction with love and is so eager to feel less lonely that she is falling so easily in love with a person that... basically does nothing and only talks prettily to her (yes, Kamran, I am talking about you).
ㅤ ✴︎ Kamran - If this man has no haters, then I am definitely dead. I'll admit, his poetry is definitely nice and he had some cute moments as well, but why is this man acting like a selfish teenager most of the time? I was so put off by his superiority complex all through the book; and while I do understand that he is a prince and he was treated in a certain way his entire life, I could only see a child throwing tantrums in him.
ㅤ I also couldn't fall for his character in what concerns the romance in this book either. Hear me out: he did not fall in love with Alizeh as a living being; he fell in love only with the idea of her. He simply fell in love with the image of her that he created for himself in his own mind, and I do certainly believe this, mainly because he knows absolutely nothing about her character or personality. He falls in love with her only because of his own suppositions about her character and only because she is very beautiful. I will die on this hill!
ㅤ ✴︎ Hazan - King, you dropped this 👑! I was absolutely in love with his character instantly. He is simply so sassy, outspoken and petty that I just couldn't help but instantly like him. I genuinely hope he gets to play a bigger role soon because I am living for whatever he does.
ㅤ ✴︎ Cyrus - I am in love. I need this mean to threaten me too. Please! He just came in and conquered it all.
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ should you read this?
ㅤ Yes! Don't be deceived by my rating of the book because I am, most of the time, a rather pretentious little thing that easily dislikes things in books; but you should all probably read this book as soon as possible. It is so beautifully written, and it does such an amazing job in portraying the world of the book that you are bound to fall in love with its writing.
ㅤ Now, I am going back to reading the second book. I literally had to force myself to put it down and drag myself to my laptop just to write this review. 😭
⊹₊┈ㆍ┈ㆍ┈ㆍ✿ㆍ┈ㆍ┈ㆍ┈₊⊹
ㅤ ᯓ ✿ pre-reading ⪼ ㅤ started ┆15-June-2025┆
ㅤ ㅤ ⤿ Well, based on my poll, the people of Goodreads have spoken and decided that this is to be my next read 🙌🏻 I am pretty excited about this series and I can't wait to see what all the hype is about.
ㅤ ㅤ ˋ°•*⁀➷ㅤmight contain spoilers ❗
ㅤ ᯓ ✿ re-read ⪼ ┆03-Aug-2025┆
ㅤ ㅤ ⤿ my god, the ending of this book hits so much harder and is so much more entertaining when you read this a second time 🤭
ㅤ Unfortunately, all the magnificently captivating and vivid writing and the incredibly amazing FMC I managed to discover in Alizeh could not make me give this book more than 3 stars. Don't get me wrong, this is definitely a good book, and I enjoyed it extremely much, especially due to the insane manner in which it is written, but I admit I did get bored at times, and I found myself barely pushing through most of Kamran's POVs. This might also be entirely due to my slight dislike for him as a character, but there really wasn't much going on in the book itself to keep me that intrigued.
ㅤ I was mainly here for Hazan's sassiness towards Kamran and the last 50 pages of the book, when a certain someone makes an appearance and wreaks complete havoc.
ㅤ ㅤ “What a strange girl you are...to behold a rose and perceive only its thorns, never the bloom.”
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ short summary
ㅤ "This Woven Kingdom" by Tahereh Mafi is a gorgeously written fantasy that practically glows off the page. Set in a rich, Persian-inspired world full of jinn, political tension, and secret legacies, it follows Alizeh—a servant girl with a dangerous hidden identity—and Kamran, a crown prince who’s very much not supposed to notice her… but definitely does.
ㅤ The prose is lush and poetic, the worldbuilding beautifully layered with cultural depth and mythological touches. Every scene feels cinematic.
ㅤ The romance, though? Pretty to look at, but it lacks real emotional grounding. Alizeh and Kamran’s connection feels rushed and a bit too much like fate trying to do all the heavy lifting. Still, the atmosphere, intrigue, and writing alone make it a journey worth taking—even if your heart’s not entirely in it.
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ honest thoughts
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ You know what is the first thing I am going to talk about when it comes to this book: the writing is one of the most beautiful I've ever encountered in any book. I was genuinely shocked with how much I was devouring every single word from the pages of this novel. The writing matches the atmosphere, the setting, and the characters of the book itself so perfectly that you get the feeling you are literally experiencing the events yourself; you find yourself shocked by revelations, you feel the helplessness of a cruel society, you experience the lies and the betrayals firsthand, and you cannot do anything but be a pawn yourself in a game of political intrigue.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ Despite the amazement that the writing managed to inspire in me, the plot of the novel fails in supporting the writing and enhancing it to its full potential. I do understand that the book itself spans a rather short period of time, but exactly due to this, I couldn't get as attached to some of these characters as I hoped to. The plot is indeed engaging, but, for me, the incredibly long monologues made me feel like the story itself was slightly dragging at times.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ It's been so long since a book kept me so intrigued and really made me gasp at a revelation or a plot-twist; this book managed both perfectly. The fact that I entirely did not see anything coming about these characters is probably what kept me addicted to this book and made it hard for me to just put it down. (I literally ended up carrying the book with me at the office 😭)
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ Now, here comes the main reason I was deemed fully incapable of entirely getting immersed in this book: the romance was lacking in so many aspects; from the more than insta-lust(?) vibes I was getting from both Kamran and Alizeh to the lack of genuine feelings being present anywhere, this romance plot entirely lacked emotional depth. I couldn't understand how two people who barely knew each other for only a few days could just act like their world would simply end without the other or something; especially Kamran, because Alizeh seemed rather just attached to him, not necessarily in love with him.
ㅤ To be entirely honest, at one point I was here only for the incredibly amusing bromance between Hazan and Kamran. I was living for their diss-like interactions.
ㅤ ⋅ ☾ And now we come to the seriously mind-blowing part of this book; the last 50 pages of this novel are simply there to create complete chaos, to give you whiplash, and to shock you in the best way possible. I went into this series entirely blind, so I had no clue about what was going to happen, and, God, I made the most perfect decision. All of my praises go towards the ending of this book because it was absolutely perfect!
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ characters
ㅤ I am such an easy-to-please person when it comes to characters in a book: all you have to do is to give me some characters that are showing at least some sort of personality and character traits, and I am instantly sold.
ㅤ ✴︎ Alizeh - I started reading this book expecting to meet some helpless, weak FMC that, by being put through challenges in her life, will be forced to evolve into something way more powerful. How wrong I was. Alizeh is such a strong woman and such a complete badass! I instantly fell in love with her strong, yet gentle personality, her brilliant mind, and her absolutely stunning character throughout the entire book. I just know the banter in the second book is about to be absolute perfection because of her.
ㅤ She does seem rather innocent in so many ways too, mainly because she instantly confuses attraction with love and is so eager to feel less lonely that she is falling so easily in love with a person that... basically does nothing and only talks prettily to her (yes, Kamran, I am talking about you).
ㅤ ✴︎ Kamran - If this man has no haters, then I am definitely dead. I'll admit, his poetry is definitely nice and he had some cute moments as well, but why is this man acting like a selfish teenager most of the time? I was so put off by his superiority complex all through the book; and while I do understand that he is a prince and he was treated in a certain way his entire life, I could only see a child throwing tantrums in him.
ㅤ I also couldn't fall for his character in what concerns the romance in this book either. Hear me out: he did not fall in love with Alizeh as a living being; he fell in love only with the idea of her. He simply fell in love with the image of her that he created for himself in his own mind, and I do certainly believe this, mainly because he knows absolutely nothing about her character or personality. He falls in love with her only because of his own suppositions about her character and only because she is very beautiful. I will die on this hill!
ㅤ ✴︎ Hazan - King, you dropped this 👑! I was absolutely in love with his character instantly. He is simply so sassy, outspoken and petty that I just couldn't help but instantly like him. I genuinely hope he gets to play a bigger role soon because I am living for whatever he does.
ㅤ ✴︎ Cyrus - I am in love. I need this mean to threaten me too. Please! He just came in and conquered it all.
ㅤ ˗ˏˋ★‿︵‧ ˚ ₊⊹ should you read this?
ㅤ Yes! Don't be deceived by my rating of the book because I am, most of the time, a rather pretentious little thing that easily dislikes things in books; but you should all probably read this book as soon as possible. It is so beautifully written, and it does such an amazing job in portraying the world of the book that you are bound to fall in love with its writing.
ㅤ Now, I am going back to reading the second book. I literally had to force myself to put it down and drag myself to my laptop just to write this review. 😭
⊹₊┈ㆍ┈ㆍ┈ㆍ✿ㆍ┈ㆍ┈ㆍ┈₊⊹
ㅤ ᯓ ✿ pre-reading ⪼ ㅤ started ┆15-June-2025┆
ㅤ ㅤ ⤿ Well, based on my poll, the people of Goodreads have spoken and decided that this is to be my next read 🙌🏻 I am pretty excited about this series and I can't wait to see what all the hype is about.
June 1, 2025
4.5⭐️ tahereh mafi has done it again.
i loved alizeh and kamran but that ending??? i think i might be into cyrus a little. is kamran the new adam?? 😭 i need the next book immediately. i’ve always loved tahereh’s writing and the way she weaves emotion into every page. plus, the persian mythology? absolutely obsessed
i loved alizeh and kamran but that ending??? i think i might be into cyrus a little. is kamran the new adam?? 😭 i need the next book immediately. i’ve always loved tahereh’s writing and the way she weaves emotion into every page. plus, the persian mythology? absolutely obsessed
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