A review by annettebooksofhopeanddreams
Mirage by Somaiya Daud

4.0

And, the campaign to read more Fairyloot books and to make sure they finally fit into one square of my bookcase again continues. This time it was time for Mirage. For some reason this book didn't speak to me when I got it, I even had it filed as book I'm not gonna read soon. However, when I came across it a few weeks ago I was kinda intrigued and curious. So, when I woke up way too early this morning and had more time than I thought before my friends came over, I grabbed this book and started.

The book is not really spectacular and a lot of really interesting things are happening away from our point of view character. Even though we meet the resistance, we don't get to see much of how they operate and what they do, because our heroine doesn't get that close to them. We get a few glimpses of the politics, but our heroine is not involved enough to see much of it. Even action-wise it's quite a calm book. There are a few action scenes, but most of it is talking and relationship bonding.

However, even though this would normally frustrate me, it didn't annoy me at all in this book. Maybe because I personally really enjoyed Amani's careful steps into this world. She was constantly balancing her own wishes, longings and needs, with her duties and the consequences when she would forget about those for a moment. Watching her struggle, watching her figure out what she wanted and what she didn't want was actually quite amusing and entertaining.

And because a lot of things are new for Amani, we get to learn and experience this world with her. So, just like her we have to make up our minds, discover new information and change our stands constantly. There were moments that the book gave a lot of information though, information that maybe formed the world and characters, but wasn't really important. However, once I let go that I needed to remember all of that, it worked for me.

I will certainly read the last book of this duology too! I'm really curious how everything will be solved!