Full review and links to social will be posted as soon as possible.

I'd like to thank the publisher Orbit and Netgalley for providing me with a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I unfortunately didn't love this book the way I was hoping to. I think the first half of the book was really difficult to get into and the pacing was really off. The world building didn't really seem too much of a world building as an information dump.
The 2nd half of the book was a lot better and it did have some redeeming qualities but I feel that this book would have been better with more editing. I did however love the 2main characters and the enemies to lovers vibe! Its not often you see a true enemies to lovers - and i was living for this!!

A very promising to a hopefully great fantasy series with lots of political intrigue and romantasy. The perfect combination of genres for a reader like me. I enjoyed myself while reading this and look forward to the next book in the series!

A promising debut that follows a political fantasy story that will steal the hearts of every Romantasy reader. The vibrant world filled with Egyptian influences is a beautiful backdrop. The pacing was a little off now and then but overall a great story and will definitely read the next book!

I enjoyed this one but did find it slow in places. It was a slow build up and although the characters were fab, I found that not helping in wanting to keep reading unfortunately. I got to the end but not sure I'll read more from this author

I had high hopes for this one. Sadly, the story itself didn´t really hold up.
There was nothing blatenly bad about the plot or the writing style, but it felt a bit dated.
A typical YA Fantasy Romance.
I had hoped to get a bit more.

Thank you Netgalley and the Orbit for an ARC of this book.

As soon as I read the blurb of this book I knew I was going to love it! As Sara's fantasy debut I felt it was a really engaging read. It has many of my favourite tropes such as found family, a lost heir, and enemies to allies/lovers. The FMC Sylvia is the lost heir and everyone believes she was murdered along with her family, and she wants it to stay that way. However this becomes difficult when she accidentally uses her forbidden magic and becomes the champion of the Nizahl heir, Arin.

The world building throughout the story was brilliant and well spaced so it doesn't feel overwhelming. The banter between Sylvia and Arin was one of my favourite parts as you are constantly wondering if he will discover her true identity.

Very excited for the upcoming sequel!

I didn't read such a great book in a very long time. It's truly an excellent fantasy storytelling.
Sara Hashan introduce readers to a fascinating world where magic is not allowed, dangerous political games, one heir who sens a magic and another who shouldn't be alive.
Sylvia saw many horrible things during her short life and learnt to do everything in order to survive. One day because of an expect events she is force to be take part in tournament and trains with very cruel heir.
Plot is very refreshing there is some magic parts and not very overcomplicated world rules.
Main characters Sylvia, she is just human with more floss, angry, guilty with all the negative emotions, but she isn't naive, stupid. I really enjoyed reading how she grown to be an heir and stopped denying her true self.
It's also a very slow romance, without cliche dialogue between two main characters.
I can't wait for the second book.

The Jasad Heir is a really interesting story about Sylvia, who managed to escape the massacre of her people as a child and has run from her identity ever since. She feels by using the magic she was born to, as The Jasad Heir, it will inevitably lead to more death and so she hides it until her anger unleashes it and brings the attention of one of her greatest enemies.

The magic system is definitely interesting and I wish we got more information about it, how it manifests, how it can be controlled and its limitations.

The romance subplot was a little confusing for me, only because Arin was part of the massacre of her people or so we are to believe and therefore that felt unusual. I really liked where the book ended and I think this was the beginning of a great trilogy. There are sections that felt slow and it is aimed at a more YA audience however I am intrigued enough to come back for book two.

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read this in exchange for an honest review.

Loved the setting, worldbuilding and characters development. I've been in the mood for fast pace stories, so this felt too slow... but again, it's my mood.

The tension between the MCs was chefs kiss. Cant wait to see what's next.

This book started off very promisingly, with a main character who stamped her personality on the page from the moment we met her. Coupled with the premise of a Egyptian-inspired world and a potential romance, and I genuinely thought I was headed for a fantastic read.

Unfortunately, it didn't last long. The story is clearly building up for big things to happen, but minor plot points feel like they're dragged out, and others aren't given enough grounding to understand why they are relevant. The most egregious example is the inclusion of a major trial, for which the MC is chosen as a champion, yet we are given very few clues as to why these trials exist, and they feel almost like an aside given the way Sylvia's story and internal dilemmas are initially set up. It felt as though the author wanted to include a Hunger Games "aesthetic", without actually committing wholeheartedly to the plot. There's more detail in some of the other world-building elements, but I'm not sure it all fully made sense once you scratched below the surface.

I really wish I'd been at least able to finish this book as I did love the premise, but it's quite a long book and I could sense that I would just be making myself increasingly more frustrated.

That was interesting, BUT.

I love the MC and other side characters, the interactions felt natural & not at all stiff. But the pace felt a bit slow for me… and the magic system didn’t really clear. What’s the magic? What’s the limitation? What’s the cost? I needed to knowww.

The slow burn was literally slow-burning and i’m here for that. The plot wasn’t too original but it’s still interesting enough to make me anticipate the next book♥️

Sadly this one is absolutely not for me - I found the pacing really off, the characters (and there were a lot of them!!) a bit flat and I wanted more magic? I think the writer is good and they obviously have a lot of good solid ideas, just maybe not the strongest of debuts.

To be honest, it’s on me for going into this one. I hadn’t realised it was going to be a trials/games trope kinda deal which looking at my track record is never a winner with me.

I can see this will definitely appeal to lots of others and that I am definitely just not the target audience.

Thanks so much to netgalley for the Arc! Sorry it wasn’t for me.

The culturally tinged fantasy has been a big thing recently since everyone realised that not everything has to be a Middle-European Tolkein rip-off (though there is plenty of that stuff out there). The question is, what do you borrow and what do you explain, its fantasy and there's probably going to be magic that isn't a real thing. Some cultures have quite complex scenes of demons and spirits which make this relatively easy, and what's more doubles down on your characterisation (djinns aren't quite what Westerners think of as genies but you'd still be a fool not to pay attention to your grammar). The Jasad Heir is adjacent to this, being tinged with ancient Egyptian mythology, but nothing here fit with my scant knowledge and so it has the sense of being cut from a new cloth. Just as well as the plot was quite familiar.

Sylvia is the Jasad Heir of the title, born to rule her kingdom with a specific kind of magic, she escapes the massacre of her people age ten and keeps running. So we have an undercover princess, untrained in her powers but also who believes if she uses them she will reveal herself leading to certain death. Unfortunately, she ends up embroiled with the prince of another kingdom, scion of those who massacred her people. It would literally be impossible for her hatred not to soften into grudging respect and finally love. In the process perhaps she will learn that everything she knows about her people might be wrong, that there is a greater conspiracy afoot and, ah yes, a good old-fashioned YA tournament.

The Jasad Heir is peppy enough in its remix of its generic tropes, and Sylvia is an engaging heroine who doesn't take too long to realise she has a few things wrong. There is some nice courtly intrigue and betray in the mix, and the only real disappointment is that its setting up a trilogy so doesn't end all that well. I could probably map the arc of the trilogy, though at least it is suggesting that overpowered monarchistic rule might be a bad thing.

I loved the main character and the lyrical writing. The Egyptian representations was very refreshing but I didn’t enjoy the romance element.

Wasn't able to finish this one unfortunately, I couldn't get myself engrossed into the story and put it down and didn't feel too inclined to pick it back up - maybe in the future!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the arc.
Unfortunately I didn’t enjoy this and ended up DNF-ing. The writing was confusing and I didn’t really care for the characters which was disappointing as it could have been a really good book. It just seemed very long winded and took a long time to get to the story.

I enjoyed the story enough but it wasn’t really my cup of tea. BUT I know plenty of people who would love it and I recommended it to them. I may need to do a reread of it soon as I may have just been in a weird headspace at the time.

On paper I feel like I should've loved this, unfortunately it ended up like a lot of other romantasy I've read over the past year, but still lacking in a way?

Among the things I didn't love:
- Action scenes from the Alcalah were cut off. Next scene we'd be in our lead girl's bedroom with her waking up. It got repetitive!
- The chemistry between our lead and ML felt interesting at the start, but then forced later on.
- The reveal at the end made no sense whatsoever and also felt forced because it was something that HAD to happen for the story, but the reason felt weak to me.
- Why is the Alcalah taking place?? Was that ever explained? I feel like I'm lacking info.

Will I give the sequel a go? Yes, probably.
I found the world interesting and different from a lot of other books I've read. Our lead girl is dealing with her demons as well which I liked following and the events of the first book is hinting at a chase happening in book 2 and I loooove those. So we will see.

Thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review

My Rating: 4.5/5⭐️

Reading this story felt like I’ve read it many times before yet this was so engrossing I couldn't hold back from enjoying it.

“I had encountered death in every incarnation of my life, but I had never looked it in the eye until now.”


In a magic-forbidden world, the lost heir of Jasad, Sylvia, hides in plain sight from the Nizahl’s armies.

In a village far from home, she tries to lay low and help kids at the orphanage she grew up in and the locals.

Jasads were people with Magic in their veins. Long before the Nizahl army scorched every trace of magic, there were kingdoms who used magic without fear.

Sylvia was the sole survivor of the Jasads (according to her knowledge). She couldn’t use her magic and it was dormant for most part of the book. Thanks to the invisible cuffs in her hands, she was able to escape the eyes of the Nizahl Heir, Arin.

Arin and his army would go to great lengths to get rid of magic in the kingdoms. While he were running behind the Jasadi rebels, he ended up in Sylvia’s village by chance.

Sylvia being Sylvia lands in trouble and ends up being Arin’s prisoner. He suspects she has magic and also learns about the Jasadi rebels looking for her. So he proposes a deal to help him catch them in exchange for her freedom. All she has to do was lure the Jasadi rebels whilst becoming his champion for the Alcalah (tournament to celebrate the ancestors of the 4 kingdoms).

There was something about this story that I couldn’t wait to finish once I started it. Every little secrets revealed, made me anxious for Sylvia. Would she be caught red handed or what would happen if she gets caught?

She and Arin were mortal enemies. He was unaware of the fact that she was the most threatening person to him. They were literally trying to not kill each other and eventually came to an understanding and tolerated each other’s presence for the tournament.

The tournament part of this book while it was entertaining, it was not thoroughly explored. It was barely there. The most focus of this book went into Sylvia’s training and questioning how much she owed to her people.

After reading this book it became clear to me this book was only laying the groundwork for what would come next. We got a lot of context to what happened to Jasad and Sylvia’s family. There were too many betrayal and lies that lead to Jasad’s fall. There’s still more I’d like to know about the Magic Slavery that was slightly touched upon in this book. I’m most ardently looking forward to reading about Sylvia and Arin’s next encounter.
This book may not have a full fledged Romance yet but given the ending, I’m sure there’s going to be a lot of development in the next book.

Readers who like the Throne of Glass Series, Hunger Games, might like this one too. There’s a scene which is similar to the Red Wedding, minus the wedding, but there’s much more about Egyptian folklore that’s been explored as well.


Thanks for the DRC of the book NetGalley and Orbit!!