The City of Brass – S.A. Chakraborty

Blurb:
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles.

But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass?a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.

In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences.

After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for

My Thoughts:
I didn’t know what to expect from this book, of course, I read the blurb but it doesn’t truly show how intense it was going to get, at least in my opinion anyway. I LOVED this book.

We follow Nahri when she accidentally frees a djinn, thus releasing ghouls to follow and attack her, she must flee with the djinn – Dara – and escape her world in Cairo and head to Daevabad, where she will be safe. As she learns more about Dara and he learns about her their feelings start to grow towards each other, but when the King of Daevabad and his sons intervene who knows what will happen.

This book is full of mystery and secrets, all occurring in a world beyond our reach. I think my heart broke about 3 times during this book. Nahri is just so relatable, during her training as a Nahid I really felt for her. She is expected to perform tasks straight away and be good at them and I truly felt her frustration. There was a time when I thought she would just be natural and be able to do whatever was required, but I’m glad that it didn’t go this way. I did sometimes find her annoying because to for me it felt like she wasn’t trying hard enough but looking back on it, there was a lot of information in a short amount of time.

I really love the character of Dara, at times I found him intolerable but other times I found him lovable. You can really tell how much he cares for Nahri. Some of his actions are just so annoying though! I wish he would have just taken a minute to think before he acted, even though he thought he was doing what was right for Nahri.

The ending of this book is so incredible! At about halfway through I already knew that I wanted the next two books in my hands but now I honestly can’t wait!!