Published Date: November 14, 2017
Publishing Co.: Harper Voyager
Pages: 533
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
Distinct and enchanting.
Ozzy approved.
As with many epic fantasies that I end up binge reading, I wish I had slowed down for a minute and wrote down a quote so that you may sample the lyrical wine. But, I have no djinn to grant my wish.
Turns out that’s a double edged sword anyway. You get all your wishes but you’ll likely be murdered in the end. Djinn slaves are not to be trifled with.
Nahri is a pick pocket from the streets of Cairo during the French occupation. She swindles to survive, using her unusual healing abilities to help birth children and run cons against the wealthy. She speaks a language she’s never heard another human speak before and learns languages as easily as riding a camel. She smiles at everyone she plans to rob. That’s sweet really. If you’re going to take something someone has, at least do it with a smile on your face so the mark feels good for a minute.
While hosting a fake ritual to heal a mentally broken girl, Nahri accidentally summons a djinn warrior and an ifrit, with a host of ghouls they summon to hunt her down. Not exactly the scam ending she had been hoping for. The surprised-to-be-summoned warrior saves her and they run from Cairo.
What follows is a countries crossed trek through the desert via flying carpet and stolen horses, battles with mythical creatures and the arrival to a secret city inhabited by beings Nahri has never heard of before but apparently, shares as least some small amount of blood with. She’s the last blood of a tribe that was massacred and the people are desperate for both what she represents and her healing abilities. It’s a city of wealth unlike anything Nahri has every seen and a life there is almost unimaginable, until the king offers her virtually everything she could ever want.
Nahri recognizes another con man when she sees one. She decides to take the offer and believes she can hold her own against him but she’s not well versed in politics and it’s games. The youngest prince appears to hate her, the princess tries to humiliate her and the king expects her to fail. She tries to learn to navigate this new world with the help of people from her tribe and her personal warrior, but everyone has their own agendas for her life and Nahri is too independent to be lead by the nose.
Everyone is running their own scheme in Daevabad, and every scheme is interrupted or spun into a new scheme is this politically unstable city filled with various tribes of magical people who cannot seem to get along for long.
Will Nahri survive the city or will she become the victim of a long con?
cupcakesandmachetes 
Sounds very much like your cup of tea. When I first saw the title I thought it said “city of BRA’s”
City of Bras could definitely be interesting lmao.
As long as it’s not a flop I’d be happy
I was really torn on that one! On the one hand I loved the setting & the ideas. Nahri was a cool main character for most of the book and I also liked Dara.
But I was bored by the other perspective (Ali?) and it was a tad bit confusing at some points. I haven’t continued yet. Still haven’t made up my mind.
Are you continuing?
I like Ali along with Dara and Nahri. I personally wasn’t bored or confused (much, some of the different race stuff is confusing me still) so I enjoyed it and I will definitely be continuing.
Cool cool. I’ve had this on my list for a while. I’m glad I’ll enjoy it when I finally get to it.
I liked it more than I thought I would even with a few problems. Which, must not have been too terrible as I don’t remember specifically what they were lol.