A Song of Wraiths and Ruin

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The romance is quite predictable (the whole ''I need to kill you but somehow I find myself attracted to you'') but I honestly could not get into the whole romance thing because Malik behaves and thinks like he is 13 or 14 years old. Her father and older sister Hanane were killed in a fire ten years before, and Karina has been grieving them ever since. He’s the “man” of the family, but he suffers from panic attacks and cries at multiple times throughout the story. It didn't justify their behavior, but it helped to understand why they handled situations in a certain manner.

At the closing ceremony of Solstasia, Farid accuses Karina, who he has subdued, of killing the queen in front of the whole kingdom.

Malik then is speaking with one of the council members who is verbally abusing one of the Eshran workers, not knowing of course that Malik is really Eshran.

It wasn't just one person trying to kill the other, it was both of them planning to kill each other and that's just sooo muuch better.Several people have suggested that it’s a retelling of Aladdin (mostly the Disney version), as the story follows both an impoverished refugee boy and a princess whose life and future as queen of her people are in jeopardy. Malik is able to trap Idir within Malik’s mind where he resides at the end of the story, and his background is more complicated. Because he is a powerful sorcerer who has been working with Idir himself and wants to perform the resurrection ritual on Hanane, his true love. Karina believes the Kestrel to be cold and disappointed in her, but the Kestrel simply let her grief at the loss of her eldest daughter and husband turn her away from being close to her daughter. All that said, I do still want to read the sequel, because despite its faults (largely faltering on major components), the story did set up a lot of interesting new plot threads at the end and I'm curious how they'll play out.