This an excellent fantasy with some romance where the most important part is fantasy. A well plotted, action packed and complex story featuring a strong and clever FMC, Zarya.
There's the hero that run and fight for the new city where they live, a cast of characters, and a lot of world building.
I have other books to read by Ms Tuli and can't wait for the next in this series.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this ARC, all opinions are mine

was intrigued to read this book as this is a little bit different that what fantasy books I normally read and I really enjoyed this ! This book mixes south asian and Indian mythology which which really interesting to learn about the different demons and monsters.


I love that there is a lot of world and character building which I feel will help the next 3 books move along. This is a really really slow burn and there is a lot of unanswered questions throughout which does get your mind going, guessing what happened into Zayra’s past and why she is guarded as much as she has been. I’m very interested to see how it plays out for zayra and her potential love interest.

This is the first of Nisha J. Tuli’s books that I’ve read, but it won’t be the last! (Especially since this one is first in a quartet! Three more books of this delicious fantasy world! Woo hoo!)

Zarya has grown up a captive, held in an idyllic location. But as the book says, “It wasn’t an unpleasant prison, but a firefly trapped in even the most ornate jar would still die without air.” She’s been raised by Row and trained alongside his apprentice Aarav. Row won’t tell Zarya anything about her upbringing, just that it’s imperative no one know where she is, and he sets magical boundaries in place to keep her from leaving (because she tries). She and Aarav aren’t on good terms, and she chafes at her lack of freedom. Then one day, Row is gone, and so are the magical boundaries. Zarya takes Row’s horse and takes off fast as she can, heading for the city of Dharati. She wanted adventure, freedom, a chance to truly live? She surely finds it.

Nisha J. Tuli has crafted a beautiful world here, based on Indian/South Asian mythology. I don’t know a lot about the culture and history, but we’ve recently taken an interest in Bollywood/Hindi cinema (my apologies if this isn’t the most current term) and really enjoyed them, so I’m interested in stories with similar settings. Tuli’s word does not disappoint! I could almost see the things she described, almost smell and taste the foods. She does a top-tier job of creating her universe.

Another thing I found intriguing was the process Tuli created by which a new monarch takes the throne. I don’t recall seeing anything comparable in other books. When Princess Amrita took the throne, it hurt my heart, because her becoming queen is life-changing in ways I couldn’t have imagined.

And I know it isn’t the romance, but I adored the relationship developing between Zarya and Yasen! At first he is very gruff to her, sometimes almost rude. But as the story progresses, they warm up to each other and become almost like siblings. I hope we see more of that in future books. I think Zarya will need someone who can balance her, encourage her, and kick her butt when she needs it.

I’ve seen some reviews expressing disappointment in Zarya’s actions and attitude, opining that she acts more like a teenager than a 20/21-year-old. I agree that she did seem very naive and overly emotional in some ways. But think about it. She’s spent pretty much all of life that she remembers closeted away from the world, with no one to help her mature emotionally. Of course she acts younger than her age. She doesn’t know how to do otherwise. She starts out as so many of us do when we’re young, thinking that life is one big adventure, romance is all rose-colored glasses, and everyone is looking out for our best interests. She’s learning otherwise. I think she’ll grow up and mature just fine.

The identity of the love interest really blew me away. I did NOT see it coming, and this is a romance that will definitely be enemies to lovers. Zarya and Rabin didn’t meet face to face until near the end of the book, so I’m not sure if it’s going to be a slow burn or a raging inferno. Either way, I’m here to see how it plays out!

As this is my first book by Tuli, I won’t yet say she’s on my super short list of favorite authors. She’s sure making a run for it, though. Heart of Night and Fire is a solid four-star read for me, and I’m ready for the rest of the Nightfire Quartet!

Thanks to Second Sky and NetGalley for an advance review copy. All opinions here are mine, and I don’t say nice things about books I don’t actually like.

I really really really wanted to love this. I love her other series. I just found nothing about this interesting. It felt like it was 90% description of surroundings and food and inner monologue, 10% actual plot and dialogue. a bummer.

Heart of Night and Fire by Nisha J. Tuli is the first book of the series. A fantasy romance inspired by South Asian mythology, it is the story of Zarya and her destiny.

Zarya has been trapped, and other than the two people in her life, she doesn't know anyone. She has some magic, but she has been told to hide it. It's a secret to be protected. But one fine day, she escapes and finds her way to a kingdom where dark creatures want to destroy everything light. What role does Zarya play in this scheme of things?

First and foremost, reading about South Asian characters is a delight. All the mythical characters of rakshasas, yakshinis, dakini, and other phrases to Indian lore are just wonderful. The characters of this book are just figuring out themselves. The world building is really excellent. My only comment would be that a glossary and a map for the next book in the series would be perfect. I can't wait to see Zarya's growth and how she navigates in her world with all the information she has about herself!

Thank you, Second Sky @secondskybooks, Bookouture @bookouture, and Netgalley for this book.

I'm a fan of Nisha's other series, the Artefacts of Ouranos. So I was excited to see this as an option to request on NetGalley.

The Pros:
The book is pretty short and reads quickly
I liked most of the secondary characters
There is tons of story left to tell and I am excited for book 2
Loved reading a book set in Indian/South East Asian lore

The Cons:
The first half of the book dragged with lots of small tangents that don't seem important to the main plot.
Not a huge fan of Zarya but she started to grow on me at the end
Had to take copious notes because I found the names of the different types of beings very hard to keep straight

I will definitely be reading book 2 and have a strong feeling I will enjoy that one more than this one.

You're telling me I have to wait for the next book?!

Heart of Night and Fire by Nisha J. Tuli was a solidly entertaining slow burn fantasy romance. I absolutely loved the South Asian representation and all of the creatures from Indian mythology. The first half of the book was a lot of world building but I never felt bored or like it was too info dumpy. One of my favorite tropes is found family and I LOVED getting to see Zarya build relationships and find her place in the world, surrounded by people who love and support her. I'm really looking forward to seeing Rabin and Zarya's relationship unfold in future books. I need more of them now. My biggest complaint with this book is I wish we got more from all of the other characters. I like that we follow Zarya but I feel like I only got to witness her character grow throughout this first book and I would love to see more of Yasen and Vikram's journeys. Overall, this was a solid first book in a new series. Have I mentioned I can't wait for the next one?!

Thank you to Second Sky and Netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you, Second Sky, Bookotoure Audio, and NetGalley for this ALC/ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Heart of Night and Fire is marketed towards fans of Sarah J. Maas, Jennifer L. Armentrout, and Carissa Broadbent.

This book is an epic fantasy x romance that features action, enemies to lovers, and a slow burn.

In Heart of Night and Fire we follow Zarya who has been living her whole life in isolation with her guardians: Row and Aarav. She is never allowed to leave home but one of her guardians ends up disappearing which allows her to escape and discover a whole new world, which allows her to discover her forbidden, magical gifts.

First, I want to say I have been wanting to read Nisha's books for a while now and even have a few of them on my kindle and when I saw this one pop up on NetGalley as an e-ARC and ALC, I knew I needed to request them since this sounded amazing and because the cover is beyond gorgeous.

I found Heart of Night and Fire to be mostly at a perfect pace but there were times where the pacing felt like it slowed down.

Nisha does an amazing job with her decadent descriptions of the world since it really makes you feel like you are in the world, and this allowed for really good world building. Plus, I loved that this book has South Asian Mythology and Indian World Building interwoven into this book and because of that it really strengthens the world building.

I did find myself immersed in this book and intrigued from the beginning and found myself enjoying the book in whole.

I really loved the slow burn romance as well as how Nisha wrote these characters to be likeable and feel like they are real.

This was a great romantasy read that grips you from the beginning and has some great twists in it.

Pick up Heart of Night and Fire for these reasons (I am using Nisha's infographic for some of this):
-Great magic system
-Amazing world building
-Strangers to enemies to lovers to enemies
-Only one horse
-Forced proximity
-Hidden/forbidden magic
-Mysterious stranger
-Angst
-Mysterious stranger
-Found Family
-Great action scenes
-A lot of secrets and lies
-Magical creatures
-Who did this to you?
-Sexy blood drinking Rakshasas

**Side note: I apologize if this review makes no sense in some areas or is not well written and this is due to a nasty cold I have.

This is a review of the audiobook.

🔥 𝘼𝙍𝘾 𝙍𝙚𝙫𝙞𝙚𝙬: 𝙃𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙉𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩 𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙞𝙧𝙚 🔥

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️💫 / 0 🌶

Happy release day to @nishajtwrites ! This book is available today, September 15th 👏👏👏

🗡 Bada** FMC
😈 Dangerous Creatures
✨️ Lots of Magic
🔮 Other Worlds

Zarya has been stuck in the same place all her life- and relatably, finds comfort in books. One day she finally is able to escape and promptly finds herself some trouble- and eventually, friendship. 🫂

Join Zarya in learning about her South Asian- inspired world with everything from food to clothes, weapons, and mythology. If you want something different from your usual, this book is it. 👀

This first book in the series has lots of worldbuilding and a very slow burn, but still has a bit of romance and possible love triangle (square, even??) 🔺️

Amazing perspective, common but well-done and interesting magic system, and relatable FMC. I gave this book 4.5 ⭐️ out of 5, and noted 0 spice in this book (though I would expect some in the next).

Thanks to Second Sky @secondskybooks and author Nisha J. Tuli for the #netgalley ARC! 🙌

Read this story now on Kindle Unlimited 📖

I love Nisha J Tuli, her stories are so beautifully detailed! I don’t know what it is but the writing in this book really captivated me…and made me hungry. (Seriously the food descriptions were mouth watering)

Zarya was a really easy to love MC, although she needed saving a few more times than I felt she would based off her initial introduction.

Yasen is me. I am Yasen. I love him and I want to keep him in my pocket.
For me her friendships we much more natural and had better chemistry than her potential love interests.

Overall another excellent story and I can’t wait to jump into the next book!

Nisha Tuli is now solidly on my must-read list! After reading and loving the first two titles in The Artifacts of Ouranos series, I happily moved on to Heart of Night and Fire and it did not disappoint! Beautiful world-building inspired by Indian culture brought such richness and detail to this world. Many interesting side characters along with a strong female lead. This is perfect for Sarah J Maas fans looking for similar titles! Can’t wait for the next instalment!

Rating: 3.5

Note spoilers ahead!

Thank you Second Sky for providing me with a copy through NetGalley. This year has truly been a year of discovering fantasy reads by South Asian female authors and “Heart of Night and Fire” is another read to add to the list! From the first page, readers learn that this is the first book in a four part series and to expect a slow burn fantasy romance.
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Maybe it’s because I was on my period but the dedication had me tearing up! While I’m Indian, I do think the book would’ve benefited from a guide at the beginning for pronunciation and also to explain what some of the items/creatures were. I enjoyed Tuli’s description of food because it made me hungry and that’s when you know an author can immerse you into the story. I did pick up though on the overuse of “snarl” which had me acting out how a character was probably snarling at another.
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Zarya - To be blunt, I wasn’t a fan of Zarya - I found her annoying. I understood that she was held in a prison like state but she was childish. She desperately yearned for freedom but to the point where she was easily irked by everyone around her and would pick a fight with them - why? While it may be due to some mistrust in others, which is understandable, it was frustrating to watch her quickly trust Vikram because he was a nice and good-looking guy who gave her attention. I wished that she focused on trying to make friends first rather than on love and romance. With that, I need Zarya to make female friends. I couldn’t relate to all the guys fawning over her but her life’s been surrounded by only males that she needs a good girlfriend.

We all love a badass female fighters but I think it would’ve been best if Zarya endured a challenge into entering the Khada. It didn’t make sense that she was that good of a fighter when she’s only ever fought against Row and Aarav - she’s never had any applicable experience beforehand and it wasn’t believable. Along with that, Zarya was severely entitled in thinking she was in a place to help Vikram figure out what was happening. Again, you’ve been severely sheltered your whole life - what real-life experiences do you have to bring to the table?
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Zarya & Vikram - I immediately didn’t trust Vikram - he tried too hard and it came off overly suspicious. It made me think of Hawke in “From Blood and Ash” and I was right then! I’d hoped for Zarya to be smarter with Vikram given the romance books she’d read - she said so herself that she knew to not fall immediately for the first guy but that’s what she did. I appreciated that Zarya admitted to her fault in ignoring the blatant warning signs from Vikram - we like a person who can admit their mistakes.
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Thoughts on others - I had an inkling that the guy from her dreams was Vikram’s brother and I am living for the TVD-esque drama to unfold!! Not entirely sure I trust Amrita - she was a bit too buddy with Zarya and I could see her using Zarya as a scapegoat for blame. Another person on my suspicious list is Row as I found his return to come as a pretty convenient time.
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Overall - I did want to keep reading the story despite how annoying Zarya was to follow. Her overwhelming sense of entitlement and self-pity was frustrating and hindered my thoughts of the book. That said, I see a lot of opportunity for the storyline to get better and we dive more into the introduction of other characters (i.e. Rabin) and I hope that we see more of Zarya’s relationships with others as they felt a bit static.

Unfortunately I did not finish this book. I got to 60% and didn’t feel invested in the story or the writing. I appreciate the opportunity to review this book and the advanced reader copy! I might try to re read later, but this writing felt so different from Trial of the Sun Queen which I loved, so I think this put me off a bit.

South Asian fantasyyy. It immediately gets added to my cart. The culture, the food and the action I loved all of it.

A great start to an intriguing series!

The first half of this book was slow for me with heavy world building which I can struggle with but the second half really picks up & brings you in. I am looking forward to seeing how this series progresses! Slowww burn though, so know in advance.

3.5 🌟

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this e-book in exchange for an honest review.

This book had me hooked from the beginning. There were parts in the middle that I was not as interested in, but that quickly changed towards the end. I just finished reading the last half in one sitting. I hope that this book reaches the right audience, as I know many people will enjoy it. I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for an adventure, or who is familiar with the feeling of being trapped or looking for something more in life. The writing felt a little jumbled which took me out of the story, but the story itself was fun.

OK, so I absolutely adored this book. It was well written and I connected with all of the characters. The world and magic system was absolutely fascinating. I immensely enjoyed reading about the culture and mythology, while learning and discovering alongside Zaraya. The descriptions in this book was top tier, especially about the food. I can assure you I had to have quite a few snack breaks while reading this. I loved Zaraya more than words can describe,and that she's a hopless romantic like all readers who read romance novels. This is a fantasy romance with romantic relationships but it also explores friendship and it was adorable. The story felt like it was just getting started so I cannot wait to read book two.

A truly great beginning to what is sure to be an amazing new fantasy series! For lovers of Wheel of Time, you will surely love this series as well! I love a good woman coming into her power book and the twists near the end of this book lead into a great second book I can't wait to read!

Thank you @netgalley & @secondskybooks for early access to this book. It publishes today (9/15)!!

Guys! This book was so good. For lovers of ACOTAR and Fourth Wing, I highly suggest you pick it up. It was truly epic!

There were quite a lot of details and characters that I had a little trouble keeping track of. Although, I suppose that’s typical for fantasy. Despite there being a lot of them, I loved these characters.

I also absolutely loved the Asian mythology theme which was super unique and well done. Plus, there was tons of Asian culture thrown in through clothing, food, etc.

It was TRULY a slooooow burn romance, and it wasn’t really the main focus of this book. However, I have a feeling it’s going to ramp up quickly in the next book. I cannot wait to read more about Rabin 🤤

All in all, there were a handful of great twists and an ending that had me on the edge of my seat. I can’t wait for book 2 of this quartet!

This is more of a 2.5 star read for me than 3, it did not quite live up to my expectations.

There is a blight on the land that is spreading that no one knows where it came from. The Chiranjivi are emissaries from Rahajhan and are the most powerful magical beings on the continent who are trying to solve the problem of the blight.

Zarya is an orphan and has lived by the ocean in a cottage with her guardian Row and his apprentice Aarav where she’s spelled to stay and can never venture outside of the small area around the cottage. One morning, her and Aarav wake up to find Row gone, but his sword and horse are still there. Aarav leaves to find him, and Zarya tries to leave and finds out she can, that the magic holding her back is gone. So, she takes advantage of it and leaves.

What I did like, is the diverse representation in this book, I loved reading about the clothes, the food, and the culture. I loved the different mythical creatures, the mythical beings, and the different magic and people that are in this world. There is definitely a world in this book, with different types of people and beings, and a magic system that is based on elements. I just wish there was more world building than there was. There are a lot of characters, that are all very different and diverse, different types of beings who use different magic or different elements for their magic.

Aside from that, I basically did not really enjoy the rest of the book. The primary reason I am unable to give this more stars as the main character Zarya. I did not like her from the beginning. She is just mean, just a plain mean person. I understand that she was basically kept in the cottage for 20 years, but her guardian told her there’s a reason, he’s protecting her, and that he had made a promise to someone. Instead of being grateful for being taken care of all these years, she always kept talking about how she wanted to unalive her guardian and her basically foster brother. She is supposed to be 20, almost 21, however, she acts like she’s 13 years old, acts very ungrateful, very disrespectful to everyone, and has a very hot temper that she just allows to run rampant and just be mean to everyone. And for some reason, everyone likes her. I cannot comprehend why all the characters liked her, and would say I’ll unalive him for you, when they don’t even know her as a person.

Which brings me to another thing about this book that was hard for me to accept is the pacing and how the characters meet and how the relationships are developed. When Zarya is taken to the Palace, they let her live there, and they all become friends, which made no sense to me because what makes her so special? Why her? And everyone just liked her. I couldn’t connect with any of the characters, except for Yansen, he was the broody moody male character that I always like, and I actually like the way their friendship developed, but he’s literally the only character that I actually liked. All the other characters weren’t developed well enough, it felt very rushed, a lot of the characters just didn’t make sense to me with how they interacted with Zarya, and everyone just seem to think that unaliving someone was the answer to everything that went wrong or bad.

And the romance is basically nonexistent. There are some moments between Zarya and another male character, but that was just her needing affection, or just wanting that intimate moment with someone and so she just chose the first person she meets even though she says she’s smarter than that and wouldn’t just fall head over heels for the first male who looks at her, but which is what she did. The romance may develop more as the series continue, especially since there’s clearly an obvious character that would become romantic with her, but it was barely touched on in this book, even though it says that it’s a very addictive, slow, burn romance, so I guess it is a very slow burn, because it didn’t even happen in this book and must happen as the series progresses.

I’m really bummed that I did not enjoy this book as much as I was expecting to. I love the author’s other books, but this one just felt very rushed, like there was a deadline to write this book and it’s very obvious. Maybe the series gets better as it progresses, and maybe the main female character becomes more tolerable, but it was so hard for me to get through this book and so I don’t think I can continue reading the series.

This is not saying that others won’t like this book, I think a lot of people would actually really enjoy this book, but it just wasn’t for me based on the way it was written, and when I don’t like the main character, it kind of ruins the book for me.

I received a feee digital copy to read. All thoughts and opinions are my own.