Review by Library Journal Review
Khamilla's birth promised great power and great destruction, as the daughter of the emperor and apprentice to her maternal tribe's storyteller. Her life becomes marked by violence when her mother's people are annihilated. During the attack, Khamilla discovers her affinity for nūr, the heavenly light that marks her as a spiritual warrior, and spends her teen years training to become the emperor's blade. Khamilla's life is upended again when her father is usurped and killed by one of his war generals. She flees Azadniabad and attends the rival empire's martial school for soldiers with holy affinities, having the intention of avenging her family. Over the course of the novel, Khamilla becomes warped by war and its atrocities. As she learns more about the history between the Azadniabad and Sajamistan empires, she is confronted with the possibility that her father misled her and their people for his own gain. VERDICT Brutal, majestic, and lavish, YA author Rana's (Hope Ablaze) adult debut has expansive worldbuilding, reminiscent of R. F. Kuang's The Poppy War with the epic machinations of Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree.--Maria Martin
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