Plot Synopsis:

Inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, The Stardust Thief weaves the gripping tale of a legendary smuggler, a cowardly prince, and a dangerous quest across the desert to find a legendary, magical lamp.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp that has the power to revive the barren land—at the cost of sacrificing all jinn.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan’s oldest son to find the artifact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen, and confront a malicious killer from Loulie’s past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

Review

Thanks to NetGalley and Orbit Books for providing an e-arc of this book.

I thought this book had a strong plot with well fleshed out core characters with the exception of Mazen. I felt like he was very ill equipped to be surviving a world of jinn and politics. He honestly seemed so helpless and often had to rely way to much on other characters. While he does get a bit of a backbone by the last 1/3 of the book, I found it frustrating that he never tried to better himself to better survive the main quest of the story. I hope in the next book he endeavors to learn fighting or really anything useful.

I loved that the fables of this world are interwoven as short stories throughout the book. I thought it was a clever and well done storytelling device. I loved learning the lore of this world and having it serve the plot as well.

Overall I thought this was a good book and I can’t wait to read the rest in this series.