We Free the Stars

The battle on Sharr is over. The dark forest has fallen. Despite the fact that Altair is in captivity, Zafira, Nasir, and Kifah are heading toward Sultan's Keep with the intention of completing the plan he started: putting the Sisters of Old's hearts back in each caliphate's minaret and restoring magic to all of Arawiya. The plot reveals how the darkness overthrows the kingdom, about the magic that is in Nasir's blood and how he handles it, as well as about Zafira's struggle with the Jawarat—a darkness that hums with voices and pushes her to the edge of sanity—which she fears unleashing. As the darkness closes in on them much faster, Nasir and Zafira feel themselves falling over one another and can't bear to lose. However, time is running out to achieve their ends, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made. I definitely enjoyed this book more than the first one, with lots of magic and mysterious twists and turns. I must admit that the author's linguistic writing was impeccable. The pace was moderate at the first half and at the end it was quite fast. I loved the character development and the growing relationship between Nasir and Zafira. They were absolutely adorable, and the slow burn romance was amazing. There were several interesting side characters but Altair was my favourite, with his strong and hilarious personality. I think there were a lot of elements within it that could have been executed better or just weren't necessary. Overall, it was a great read.

La cubierta está bien al igual que las páginas. Las esquinas están ligeramente golpeadas al igual que el lomo. La reseña es únicamente del estado del producto y no de la historia. Sólo desearía que mejoraran la protección de los libros en el paquete porque a veces llega sólo la caja con el libro, sin algo que lo proteja de posibles golpes.

After several months of procrastinating the end of the Sands of Arawiya duology, I finally brought myself to reading We Free the Stars. This book gave me more angst than I ever thought possible, officially bringing Nasir and Zafira in the list of my favorite couples. While I did enjoy them a lot in the first book, the angst in this one makes up for their quick buildup. It was glorious. At one point I literally yelled “just f—”…well, you get what I mean. The characters were a confirmation and a surprise at the same time. Zafira and Altair, I already loved, but Nasir turned into my thirst trap. I was wholly prepared to give my heart and soul to Altair one more time, but Nasir swept me off my feet. I love him. I think my sister and I have officially found our respective book boyfriends for the series. Order is restored! Another surprising character was Kifah. She was kind of overshadowed by the other characters in We Hunt the Flame, but she truly shined here. Kifah was the perfect shoulder to Zafira’s understandable brood, at moments witty and ironic and wise in others. We also got the opportunity to see more of Zafira’s sister, Lana. I loved her character! The only sour note was the missing Storyline That Was Meant To Be. The ending of We Hunt the Flame had me believe we would be seeing a hate-to-love romance of epic proportions, but alas, it wasn’t the case. Either the author had to cut it out due to lack of page time, or she’s secretly planning to return to the world of Arawiya in the future. I truly hope it’s the latter, because there were a lot of instances where we’re teased just how perfect these two could be together, but for the time being I remain a little disappointed, seeing how much I was looking forward to it. Who do I need to beg for this to happen, pretty please? In my heart, this is a five star on everything else, but because of the missing storyline, I’m bringing it down to four.

Nothing to do with the content. The cover print was offset and the spine had damaged. Returned and now waiting for refund.

I am so glad that I was able to read this book quite some time before its release, even though I'm still not able to write a deserving review. But let me say, this book was so good. I already fell in love with the first book (We Hunt the Flame) and everything it gave us - the characters, the plot, the relationships (both positive and negative ones) and the writing! And all of this carried into We Free the Stars. I had so many emotions while reading it and while typing this I already have an urge to re-read the duology again.

Initial Thoughts There’s nothing like reading 450+ books between the first and second book in a series to remind you how much you missed the world. I read We Hunt the Flame in May of 2019 and oh wow was I frustrated with the ending. I actually preorder my copy of this book in October of 2019 and here we are in 2021 just talking about it. Needless to say, I was excited to read this book. Some Things I Liked Stunning world building with lush descriptions. As mentioned above, I read a TON of books between books 1 and 2, but, all that did was mature my reading taste. While I might have rebuffed the poetic language in book 1, I craved it in book 2. Hafsah Faizal paints such rich pictures I felt like I could close my eyes and see what Zafira, Nasir, or any of my favorites were seeing at any given moment. That romance. Never have I ever been so tortured by slow burn romance and loved it so much. I probably had a moment every other chapter where I wanted to either shake Zafira or Nasir and be like “JUST SAY IT!” The tension that Hafsah created was nothing short of phenomenal. Altair. My heart hurt every moment he wasn’t with the zumra. He’s one of my favorite characters of all time. His wit, his smile in the face of danger, the way he mercilessly teases Nasir, I would read a million spin off stories about him. The ending. The build to the end was everything I wanted it to be and more. It was just what I wanted to see. Series Value I would love to read more books set in this world. Prequels, sequels, side stories, you name it. I’m very excited to read Hafsah’s next series, which is supposed to be set in the same world but about new characters. Final Thoughts I devoured this book. I read it all in one sitting. I couldn’t put it down. This book was WELL worth the wait. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Recommendations for Further Reading An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir – if you want a book that will literally destroy you emotionally and make you feel all the feelings, try this completed seres. A Tempest of Tea by Hafsah Faizal – if you want more of this amazing world but also a little bit of Vampires and Arthurian legend, look no further than Hafsah’s next series.