Loved this book! I was hooked from the very first page. It honestly didn’t disappoint. If you do one thing this month, read this book. The characters and storyline will just pull you right in

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the early access to this book.

I enjoyed this book, the world building was good, the characters were intriguing. The political setup kept me hooked, and I'm looking forward to what happens next!

The Jasad Heir is an Egyptian inspired fantasy debut novel.

This book, as the start to a new fantasy series wasn’t a bad start. I found the world to be very vibrant and rich as you discover more about the different kingdoms as the story progresses.

My only critique of the book would be the pacing. The whole plot centres about our main protagonist Sylvia, as she is forced to become the Nizahl Champion. After accidentally revealing her magic to the Nizahl Heir (Arin), who as it happens, despises magic and is in charge of prosecuting anyone who is found wielding it.

Which is how Sylvia finds herself travelling with Arin and then taking part in this tournament and if she wins she basically gets her freedom.

Which in theory is an amazing plot and is one of the main reasons I was so excited to read this book. However the tournament part doesn’t actually start until around 65/70%, which leaves the remaining 30% feeling incredibly rushed. I felt like this element should have started sooner in the novel as it would help with the slower pacing at the beginning.

However overall the characterisation of Sylvia was incredibly complex as she deals with the traumas of her childhood and not really understanding who she is as a person.

I also really enjoyed the relationship that Sylvia had with Sefa and Marek, as it adds a lightness to this otherwise quite dark and heavy world. I would 100% read book 2 just to experience the wholesomeness between the three of these characters.

The romantic element in this story is more of a sub-plot. I wouldn’t call The Jasad Heir a fantasy romance story - more of a political fantasy with elements of romance. The reason for this, is that the romance is more of a tension/slow-burn between the two main protagonists. That comes together around the 90% mark. This tension/spark does influence the characters thoughts however it doesn’t really impact the plot too directly, at least in this book.

Overall I think this is a solid debut novel and I look forward to seeing how the story unfolds in book 2.

Jasad Heir
Release date 20th July
Rating 4.5 ⭐️
Firstly I would like to thank NetGalley and little brown for the Arc of this book.

The first thing that drew me to this book was the cover I will not lie when it was circulating around on socials a few months ago I was like this looks like something I would enjoy and I was not wrong.

How do I describe this book, intriguing, all consuming and in parts infuriating when you want something to happen. If you know you know.

This is very political fantasy with trials, and a lost royal, all things that I look for in some of my favourite tropes in a fantasy. The world was expanse enough that I feel as if I still need to know more but I also still feel that I know a lot about it. I will say I am a massive simp for Arin who doesn’t love a broody heir who I still feel there is more to him and you can feel how conflicted he is throughout the book and where we leave him I just need to know more so can book two hurry up please.

Most of the book we are following Sylvia and her journey we filter between her past, her trauma and what she is going through now. I found her fascinating and how she navigates the circumstances she is dealt truly is something that made me gasp. She is someone who is a true warrior and someone who knows how to survive. I am so intrigued to know where her journey goes.

Can you tell that I am looking forward to the next book already for a debut fantasy novel this held my attention sometimes this doesn’t happen and I feel myself just going through the motions to see where we get to but this I reread parts when I was not sure if I knew something happened or if I understood it. I cannot recommend this enough to people who want military, violence with a relationship of sexual banter that burns off the page even when they are not meaning it to its because they are both characters who are just so intriguing and I am excited to have time to speak to others about it when it comes out.

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

"The Jasad Heir" is a book about found family, fighting for those that are yours, finding your place, and betrayal. Sylvia finally lives a quiet life in Mahair after her kingdom collapsed, and she was taken in by someone who tried to turn her into a weapon, and is content to keep this life even though she knows she might need to run. When the Nizahl heir finds her and wants to make her his champion for the trials that are to come, she wants to find a way to make this to her benefit. And there is a lot he doesn't know about her.

I really liked parts of the Jasad Heir, and sometimes I just wanted more. What dragged it down for me was that for a big part of the book nothing really happened, and It was only at about 70% that things started to get really interesting. The ending was really good, and it makes you want to read more, and i think I will read book two when it comes out, it has the potential to be great. There is so much that can happen, and i do want to know where this will go.

3,5⭐️

The Jasad Heir is a book that I was hoping would blow me away, but unfortunately it didn't quite manage it It was however, a solid debut that I think many readers will enjoy as a lot of boxes are ticked: enemies to lovers, a secret queen and a tournament.

The first 25% had me hooked. The worldbuilding and plot setup was really promising and I read through this part really quickly and got myself invested in the story. The storyline remained consistent throught though I think the pacing was a little stop-and-start in some places. The worldbuilding unfortunately started to fall a little flat for me after this point. I was so excited to see an Egyptian-inspired world, but everything remained very surface level. There wasn't enough for me, and I felt like you could almost take the characters and the plot and stick them in anoter setting and it would still all work. I wish the author had leaned into the culture more and made it more a part of the story. I was rather disinterested for the middle of the book, however the last 30% picked it back up again as we reached the tournament. It did feel rushed, but nevertheless it was still exciting to read.

World and plot aside, the characters were solid. Sylivia was well-developed and had a satisfying arc. Arin was also a great character by himself. I wasn't keen on how their relationship developed, but that is often the case for me with enemies to lovers. I would have also liked for some of the side-characters to have played a little more of an important role, but overall the characters were fine.

The last point I wanted to make was that this felt very much like a YA novel to me, and I was surprised to see it listed as an adult read. I definitely think that YA fans would enjoy this one, and I will keep an eye out for the sequel.

I really wanted to love this book, however, it fell slightly flat for me. I believe this story had an excellent premise and was quite well written. The main characters were lovable and I quite enjoyed the way their relationship developed. I expected a bit of a cliffhanger/shock ending, however, I did enjoy that we finally found out more about Sylvia's story.

The things that kept me from loving this book were definitely the pacing and the complex terminology that was used. The book felt quite slow-paced and unnecessarily long. There were parts of the book that definitely could have been shortened or even just removed.

I had an e-arc of this book and there was no terminology appendix, which I definitely think would have helped a lot as I often did not remember what some of the terms meant. Additionally, there were quite a lot of side characters that were mentioned and I kept forgetting who certain people were.

Overall It was not my favorite read, however, I might pick up the next book as I am interested in the rest of Sylvia's story.

Thank you Netgalley, Little Brown Book Group, and Sara Hashem for the arc in exchange for an honest review.

— 5 stars
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

"Power is a choice, Sylvia. When you choose who you are willing to fight for, you choose who you are."

📖 | 496 pages
👤 | author Sara Hashem
🏢 | publisher Orbit Books, UK
📅 | release date 20 July 2023

What you can expect:

• Egyptian-inspired political fanatsy
• Author debut
• Hidden identity
• Enemies-to-lovers
• Forbidden romance
• "Who did this to you"
• Slow-burn
• Touch is painful | deadly
• Found family
• Ace-spec side character

Trigger warnings include: genocide, death, murder, torture, referenced sexual assualt, emotional | mental abuse, sexually explicit language

The Jasad Heir is book one in The Scorched Throne series and is a debut for author Sara Hashem. At the beginning of this book we are introduced to our female main character, Sylvia, who is revealed to be the lost heir of Jasad. Jasad was the last kingdom where it's inhabitants inherited magic. Deemed a threat by the neighbouring kingdoms a mass genocide is carried out which is led by the leader of Nizahl. We join Sylvia on her journey of self-discovery as she seeks her freedom and discovers disturbing truths about that painful day along the way.

I genuinely loved this book from start-to-finish. The writing was gripping and left me vying for more. The lore of the world was complex and at times I did find the world-building confusing, however I as a reader expect this in the first book of a new fantasy series. This book is filled with political intrigue and characters that felt fully-explored. There is a lot of debate and angst in The Jasad Heir surrounding what is morally right and what is necessary to survive. All Sylvia wants is freedom. She does not want to feel tied down to her lost kingdom, nor does she want to feel obligated towards the scattered survivors of Jasad. She is no longer Essiya, heir to Jasad. Sylvia crafted a new identity and is determined to live out her days as she sees fit. With her magic being blocked by a set of magical cuffs only her eyes can see, this should be an easier feat. Except the cuffs are not absolute, and we witness Sylvia tackling magical outbursts she cannot control. After an unfortunate accident where Sylvia is forced to submit to her magic in order to stay alive, Sylvia attracts the attention of the Nizahl Heir.

"I wondered why in a world ripe with monsters and magic, only he could see me so clearly."

Arin is the notorious and ruthlessly-known heir of Nizahl. He has gained the reputation as being known for hunting the remaining Jasadi's. To cross paths with the Nizahl heir is an immediate death-sentence. Due to initially unknown circumstances Arin has the unique ability to detect magic, and is therefore able to better hunt the last remaining survivors of Jasad. When he and Sylvia cross paths, it's immediately hate at first sight. However instead of killing Sylvia, Arin instead decides to make a bargain with her. If Sylvia acts as the Heir's Champion in the Alcalah and wins, a tournament consisting of three gruelling trials where only one can be crowned victor, then she would earn ultimate freedom and would never again be hunted by Arin for her magic. The relationship between Sylvia and Arin is complex from the beginning. They are true enemies, unbeknownst to Arin as he is unaware of Sylvia's true identity. If Arin was to learn the Essiya, the Heir to Jasad was not only alive but serving as his Champion, he would have no option but to kill her. Sylvia battles with trying to stay one step ahead of Arin to prevent him from uncovering her true identity. We watch them progress from their initial rocky relationship to gradually establishing hesitant trust. Their banter and wit is hilarious to read. They truly regard one another in contempt, and yet genuine respect is present. Arin is an absolute genius. Even Sylvia cannot deny his brilliance and views him as a worthy opponent. It was amazing to watch their progression into a wary friendship-allies dynamic. The tension and angst between the pair is palpable, as is their undeniable attraction towards one another.

I particularly loved the side characters introduced in The Jasad Heir. Marek and Sefa's unwavering loyalty towards Sylvia was a delight to read. As somebody that has lost much in her life, we follow Sylvia on her journey to feeling worthy of Marek and Sefa's kindess. Marek and Sefa have their own backstories which compliment the main storyline well, and I look forward to what comes next from them in book two.

The Jasad Heir is a thrilling story filled with unlikely allies, heart-wrenching betrayals and a jaw-dropping cliff-hanger that leaves you desperate for book two. Whilst this story felt slow to get into initially, it quickly solidified itself as a top read of 2023.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit Books UK and Sara Hashem for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Jasad Heir was not for me. I'm not a fan of tournaments or competition plots, but I love the lost royalty trope, so I gave the book a chance.
Sadly I haven't liked the characters or the writing. The first chapter started badly. Sylvia talked to toads... then we got a lot of info dumping and names. After the first chapter, the book got better, but it didn't take me long to lose interest. When I was a child, I loved sesame seed candies, but it was mentioned a LOT. Silvia was raised by a general, but she did the most amateur, stupid things possible. Not checking the pockets? Really?

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown Book Group UK, Orbit for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Jasad Heir

<i>I would like to thank Orbit and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC in exchange for an honest review.</i>

The Jasad Heir is a Egyptian inspired fantasy novel. This book is full of political intrigue, interesting characters, wrapped with a vaste worldbuing.

Although I enjoyed Sara Hashem writing style, I’ve found the pace a bit slow and the story too long. The Jasad Heir, as other recent fantasy books, feels mostly as a set up for a second book, lacking something to make it shine on its own.

The FMC and MMC interactions are great and strongly help carry the book. Thought the romance is not a central issue, it was my favorite part as I believe it might have been the first time I’ve read a true enemies to lovers. I couldn’t believe it would happen and I think it was brilliantly done.

The ending was thrilling and I feel the next books should be promising.

Read this if you like fantasy and enjoy:
- political intrigue
- found family
- fugitive queen
- trials
- forbidden romance
- enemies to lovers
- “who did this to you?”

This is by far one of the best fantasy books of the year. The characters were so well developed and full of individuality and character. The enemies to lovers was so well written and I was rooting for them since their first meeting. The slow burn was so well executed and wasn't rushed unlike how it often is.
Sylvia was such a fantastic character and I loved everything about her, her backstory was so tragic and I loved seeing her magic throughout the book. Her and Arin are so beautiful together. I also really liked Wes and Jeru!
I can't wait for the second book to see how the author is going to take these beloved characters to new heights.

The blurb made this book sound like a mixture of mainly Hunger Games and a little bit This Woven Kingdom. The beginning turned out to be not like that at all. Overall, there is way less Hunger Games-ing than I would’ve thought. There are however similarities to This Woven Kingdom, more than just a similar culture and surprisingly some parts of this reminded me of Throne of Glass. Very enjoyable.

It took me some time to properly get into the story, but once the excitement started, it was pretty good!
However. If I’m being honest, there wasn’t… that much story yet. It’s exciting, we get to know the characters, the history, the world, the politics, the magic – but the climax of this book doesn’t seem to be all that important for the overall series. The actual conflict is only just being built up. There wasn’t that much depth yet. I am expecting the next instalment to go more into depth though and I’m sure it will make up for the lack of action in this one.
That doesn’t mean that there was no action in this book. There were fights to the death, magic, violence. But mostly on a small scale and I’m sure everything will be much grander in the second book.

The world building was alright. Everything we do get told was pretty awesome and I loved the Egyptian inspired setting. However, I do wish there had been more of it. We learn quite a lot about the people, the history, and the politics, but I wish we had more descriptions about the land itself. It’s inspired by Egypt, but for some reason I kept imagining a jungle for the first half and I’m not quite sure I was supposed to.

The characters were fantastic. Essiya’s struggles with her heritage were great. On one hand, she only cares about herself. She knows that she can’t help her people and she simply tries to stay alive. Loved it! Finally a character without a self-sacrificing complex!
However, she still feels guilt over abandoning her country. She didn’t really act on it, but she did feel it. I also liked how, despite her supposed cold-heartedness, she still protected her friends fiercely.
Arin was also great and not just because his name gave me huge throwbacks to The Winner’s Curse which I absolutely love. He doesn’t hesitate to push Essiya, he doesn’t hesitate to hurt her – he doesn’t care about her at all. But still, he follows his morals and despite his ruthlessness he is never truly evil.
The romance was nice. Technically, there wasn’t much of it – it’s very much a slow burn. But the tension, the hatred, the betrayal – fantastic. I’m very much looking forward to further development between the two of them.

I really enjoyed this book. Very nice. Really good debut novel.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little Brown Book Group UK for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for letting me review this book in advance of it being published. This was a very interesting read from the start. The writing style I enjoyed as I was reading, as I didn’t want to put it down. The storyline/Plotline of this story was very intriguing and made the whole story some bulk and made it very interesting as you always wanted to find out what was going to happen next. The challenges that the characters had to go through made me want to read it. The way in which the characters developed throughout the book was very intriguing, to a point i didn’t want to put it down. To be able to see that characters change throughout the book makes it very intriguing, as you wanted to see if they would get through the challenges and tests that are put in front of them. With how it has ended I am curious to see where the story and what the characters will have to go through in the next book.

This was an enjoyable story but it did feel quite familiar and seemed to tick a lot of "trope" boxes. It is a promising debut but could have used a heavier hand during editing as some of the writing was excessively long or awkwardly worded. The world and magic were intriguing enough to want to read the sequel with hopefully some improvements to the writing.

This was overall an enjoyable read although a bit too long. It dragged in places. Quite interesting though and I'll be happy to read this author's other works.

Although the dynamics between the main leads did miss the mark for me, it was a very solid debut and I'll be looking out for more of the author's works.

I have to know how many books there are going be in this series because I just finished The Jasad Heir and I am desperate to know what happens. I have been trying to find a good political fantasy and I am so glad I stumbled upon this book because it is incredible. It is a pretty long book but the pacing is perfection and I never once felt that this was too slow.

The Jasad Heir starts off with action, setting the scene for the rest of the book. The first few chapters give us the perfect look at Sylvia, the former Jasadi princess, and her personality as well as the problems that ravage the world that she lives in. Sylvia has a lot of secrets she must keep in order to protect those around her, especially in the small village she lives in. This adds a lot of layers to her character because she has to grapple with keeping her magic a forever secret or using it to save people. She was my favourite character of the book.

I especially enjoyed how the Nizahl heir, Arin was introduced. He is an intense character and I was a little wary of him at first, but I grew to like him as the story progressed. He is, what I would call, a morally grey character who has rock solid motivations that he does not forego throughout the story. I especially enjoyed Sylvia and Arin's dynamic together; I feel they are the perfect foils to each other and their banter was unexpectedly hilarious. And not going to lie, the chemistry between them was incredible.

The writing is the perfect amount of descriptive and sharp and successfully immerses you in a tale of murder, politics, magic and power struggles. The world building was riveting and you can easily picture the scenes that are happening on the page, in your mind. I am thoroughly intrigued by the kingdoms and the magic system and I cannot wait to learn more about them as the story progresses.

The ending left my jaw on the floor and like I said, I am desperate to find out what happens now, especially to Sylvia and to Arin.

The Jasad Heir is a dark and intense political fantasy that draws you in within the first few pages and leaves you wanting more once you finish it. It is an incredible start to what I feel is going to be one of my favourite fantasy series and I can't wait to read more.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Rating:3/5
I really wanted to like this book. It was a promising debut that lacked in execution. I loved the lush Egyptian inspired world, the magic system and the mythology surrounding it. There wasn't a lot of info dumping. Political fantasies are my favourite, and the political intrigue was great.
On the other hand, I did not like any of the characters enough to root for them. The romance followed a typical, overused plotline, and wasn't anything special. The book suffered from serious pacing issues. The middle third was extremely boring, whereas the last one-third felt very rushed. The tournament was the most underwhelming part of this book. I was expecting so much more, and none of the three trials served excitement. The ending was kindaaaa predictable, which usually isn't a problem for me if it's carried out well, but it was not the case here.
However, the book definitely has some strengths which I hope will be implemented to their fullest extent.

An amazing first tome fantasy novel. fantastic universe great characters good storyline! cannot wait for the second tome!

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

For a debut novel this was really good. The world building was impressive and filled with a rich lore and description which I love in fantasy books.. Sylvia is a strong character and the parts of her backstory we were given really helped with understanding why she’s the way she is and also with her character growth throughout the book, Sylvia is not your normal heroine and very complex which I really appreciated. The enemies to lovers trope is really well done and I loved how it slowly showed them changing towards each other throughout. Overall I really enjoyed this book with the political intrigue and added side characters as well.