Lori Goldstein's writing style is great, she does wonderfully building the world and laws of the Jinn. Where this book bit it for me was the overall plot and the less than original characters. I knew there was going to be a lot to learn and remember just from the first page of the book.

Dropping 12 characters like that, like you need a chart because the book isn’t (and didn’t) do a good job of clarifying the mother and daughter pairs. My first thought was this: TO MANY CHARACTERS. Especially for one book, and only the first in a series at that.

Azra—she’s our heroine. I liked her……until I didn't. The first, like, 12 pages being all about how she looks since she came into her Jinn powers---------shoot me. The only thing that kept me reading was that the whole bit of it had a hefty liberal dose of grade a teen sarcasm and rebellious behavior to go with it. I liked her for the attitude. Then came her save-yo-drama-fo-yo-mama bomb when her “Zar sisters” came into the picture. Each of those 5 girls were different, yes; but nothing original or extraordinary.

Azra’s rebellion against the oppression of being a Jinn quickly went from making me snicker to making my eyes roll then finally reaching the I’m gonna smack you stage. Maybe she’d like some hater cheese to go with that hater wine. Yes, she did have a few redeeming qualities and moments that came along in all that, which again kept me reading, but it wasn’t enough to fix my overall annoyance. I think Azra had great potential, still does, if she can get over being a brat and suck it up.

I won’t go into the details about the Zar sisters because it would be a bit of a lag so let’s get down to the romance.

4 words: lover triangle insta love

I’m a fan of both, when well done. This one missed that target for me. Both guys fell into their stereotypical roles of boy next door and bad boy (ish).

Nate was the hot bad boy (ish) guy and fulfilled the insta love quota. Azra meets him then suddenly she can’t stop thinking about him, even though she doesn’t really like him. He was hot, and of the two guys I liked him the best—but I wouldn’t say he’s made my list of fav book boyfriend addictions.

Henry is the boy next door, been friends with Arza for ages, and crushed on her for just as long, only she doesn’t know he does. At one point he makes it fairly obvious that he’s into her, but she does that whole doubting thing. Then Henry makes the smart move that very few YA heroes do when the chick they like is all over another guy and being dense. He started to  move on with another girl! YEAH for HENRY! (this fact alone raised my rating by a whole star)

Still overall I liked Nate better, but the tougher guys are always my preference so…….

I mentioned the Jinn world above, which I really liked the thought and design behind it; totally intriguing. The Afrit is the ruling body (think dictator government for the Jinn world and god help you if you cross them!) After a while though it started to feel a little dystopian/big brother/elitist monarchy. I can already guess where this whole series may be going-Rebellion uprising against the government. Or at least that’s what I’ve picked up with all the foreshadowing. I could be wrong, of course, so don’t quote me.

I liked the search to find out who her father was, though again, it was a bit obvious before it was revealed. But I still liked it.

I can’t say yet if I’d consider reading the second book in this series, but I would recommend this book to those who are curious about Jinn/Genie books. The world building is very nice, just brace yourself to hear the sorted story through a whiny brat of a teen girl.

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing me to do an advanced review of this new YA book.
~Dynomoon