Daughter of Light and Dark

Loved this book. I gave it 5 stars because I couldn't give any higher! This book is a masterpiece and deserves more than "just" 5 stars. I recommend everyone to read this book asap.

This was a fantastic beginning to the Rings and Chains series; the mythological element was wonderfully balanced with an original overall concept. It was a fantastic first chapter in the series and the characters felt like they belonged in this environment. I found the Jinn part to be really well done, and I was really interested in what was happening with Mina. Ahlam Faris writes books of this genre so well that I'm looking forward to more from her. The worldbuilding in this case, which combined a fantasy element with a setting modeled after the Ottoman Middle East, was excellent. I am grateful to the author for providing me with an eARC!

I havent read many books that include Jinn mythology and now I know I need to find more. I like the way the magic and the veil are woven into the heart of the story with seers and Jinn fighting for survival to a degree.

Our FMC is on a quest of some sort that is told as a nursery story to children about how the Jinn and the veil came to be. She deals with so much loss and mistrust on this journey and I really loved her connection with the Jinn ‘The lord of chains’, their companionship during this book is a real highlight for me.

This book was amazing! The story was perfectly written and it was so entertaining. And I loved the main characters so much!

Mina has been called many things in her time, not all of them kind. In a world where humans summon and enslave Jinn into rings, Mina has the uncommon ability to see and speak with them freely. So she knows what it means for a Jinn's freedom to be taken—not just for the Jinn themselves, but for the very fabric of reality. So, with the help of her Jinn protector Ashrush, she sets out to free the powerful spirits trapped inside a dozen gold rings. That includes the one belonging to her late mother.

On the first leg of this daunting task, Mina faces opposition from many fronts. Four of these rings belong to members of the Sultan's family, and Mina must engineer friendships in high places to even get close to them. Meanwhile, a cult is systematically killing off the Seers who commune with Jinn, and it would seem that Mina's friend Saif has some sort of connection to them. And there's something else: a dark power within Mina that has begun to emerge for. Could this have something to do with the name the Jinn use for her—the Daughter of Light and Dark?

Ahlam Faris's first book is enjoyable, with a good structure and an interesting narrative. It does suffer a bit from the common issues of a first book, especially a self-published first book: unchecked typos and occasional grammatical issues, plot points that could be better grounded with a second pass, and so on. But none of these factors counts against Faris's talent. She's brewed up an intriguing story in an equally intriguing setting, and I look forward to seeing her writing grow and evolve over time.