Book Summary: 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 Rating/Review: 4/5 stars. I loved the fact that this fantasy with a historical fiction vibe was set in Cairo and the magical city of Daevabad. The main character was a spunky, interesting, layered character and the development of the city and it's history was seamlessly interwoven with the adventure story of the heroine and the djinn warrior she summons. A fun read with lots of great details you can sink your teeth into. This is the first in a trilogy series, so there's a bit of a "left hanging" moment at the end, but this first one was well enough written I'll likely look for more by this author to finish filling out the entire story and didn't spoil the storyline contained within this one.
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