City Of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty - book review!

Hello guys! I have a book review for you today! City of Brass by S. A. Chakraborty. The first book in the Daevabad trilogy.


I got this as an e-book on kindle as it was on sales and honestly it was one of the best books I've read this year! I got so obsessed! At the same time I listened to it on audio on scribd (as I had just became a member) and it was the best choice for this book! All these Arabic names... I couldn't pronounce them at all!!!!
This is also Chakraborty's debut novel and it is quite obvious how hard she worked for it.

So... our story follows Nahri in 18th century of Egypt. She is a con artist and a healer (even though she doesn't believe in her healing magic) in order to survive and one day she accidentally summons a warrior djinn who proves that magic does exist! And from there her journey begins as it seems that she is the last magic-healer alive!!! So, you get that this book is full with eastern/Arabic/Islamic mythology and legends, something that I read for the first time and quite enjoyed to be honest!So unique! We all know about djinns and granting wishes but my knowledge did not get further than that before reading this book! And the fact that combines fantasy with my second favorite genre which is historical fiction and is also set partly in Egypt which is one of my favorite destinations for the future... WOW! 

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Our main character Nahri has quickly become one of my favorite female characters! She is strong and passionate and really ahead of her time. 

Dara, the warrior djinn, is... I don't know! I am fully drown to him! He is sooo  mysterious! He is loyal and powerful but there are so many things that we don't know yet and I can't wait for the second book!!!!!!!!!

This book is told through two points of view. The first is Nahri's and the second is Ali's, Daevebad's ruler second son. Ali is raised as a warrior to serve his older brother, Muntadhir, when he becomes King. Despite his strong body and hard way of living, his heart is pure and sensitive and feels for those who are wronged under his father's ruling. He is the best friend everyone wants!

There is also a great cast of secondary characters and that cliffhanger at the end of the first book.... OMG! I need Kingdom of Copper ASAP! And I will definitely buy the physical copies as well because I want to have them in my hands and admire their beautiful covers! 😍 
It would also make an amazing movie!!!!! 🎥

I rated this book with 4.75 stars!
(So hard to rate it with 5 stars after re-reading Empire of Storms...😏)

Some of my favorite quotes:

"Greatness takes time Banu Nahida. Often the mightiest things have the humblest beginnings."

“You're some kind of thief, then?"
"That a very narrow-minded way of looking at it. I prefer to think of myself as a merchant of delicate tasks.”

"It's not haunted". Wajed countered. "It simply... misses its founding family."
"The stairs vanished under me the last time I was there, uncle," Ali pointed out. "The water in the fountains turns to blood so often than people don't drink it."
"So it misses them a lot."

"I'm coming back, Nahri," he promised. "You're my Banu Nahida. This is my city." His expression was defiant. "Nothing will keep me from either of you."

"She can help with your economic policies when you're king."
"Yes, that's just what every man dreams of in a wife"

"Forgive me," he started in a deadly hush. "Exactly which brother did you agree to marry?"

"It's been a dark few months. My time with you...it was a light."

“Nahri always smiled at her marks.” 

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Check the Goodreads summary:
Nahri has never believed in magic. Certainly, she has power; on the streets of 18th century Cairo, she’s a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trade she uses to get by—palm readings, zars, healings—are all tricks, sleights of hand, learned skills; a means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles. 
But when Nahri accidentally summons an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior to her side during one of her cons, she’s forced to accept that the magical world she thought only existed in childhood stories is real. For the warrior tells her a new tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire, and rivers where the mythical marid sleep; past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises, and mountains where the circling hawks are not what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass?a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound. 
In that city, behind gilded brass walls laced with enchantments, behind the six gates of the six djinn tribes, old resentments are simmering. And when Nahri decides to enter this world, she learns that true power is fierce and brutal. That magic cannot shield her from the dangerous web of court politics. That even the cleverest of schemes can have deadly consequences. 
After all, there is a reason they say be careful what you wish for . 


See you next time!
xoxo
Joan!

*Also follow @booksreadbyjoan on Instagram!

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