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Published February 23rd 2016 by Razorbill
ASIN: B013D6652E
Source: Won at a #FairyChat
Synopsis from Goodreads
She is the most powerful Jinni of all. He is a boy from the streets. Their love will shake the world... When Aladdin discovers Zahra's jinni lamp, Zahra is thrust back into a world she hasn't seen in hundreds of years—a world where magic is forbidden and Zahra's very existence is illegal. She must disguise herself to stay alive, using ancient shape-shifting magic, until her new master has selected his three wishes.
But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?
As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.
But when the King of the Jinn offers Zahra a chance to be free of her lamp forever, she seizes the opportunity—only to discover she is falling in love with Aladdin. When saving herself means betraying him, Zahra must decide once and for all: is winning her freedom worth losing her heart?
As time unravels and her enemies close in, Zahra finds herself suspended between danger and desire in this dazzling retelling of Aladdin from acclaimed author Jessica Khoury.
Review - 4.5 Stars
This book as you have probably worked out from the synopsis is a re-telling of Aladdin but from the (female) jinni's point of view. I have to say that the Aladdin story isn't one that I know that well, I might have watched it about 5 times about 10 + years ago but I remember the basics of the story, so I was all up for a re-telling. I have had my eye on this book for a while, reviews for it have been popping up on quite a few of the blogs I follow, this, plus the fact that it is blurbed by both Marissa Meyer AND Sarah J. Maas meant it was quickly added to my TBR. I however, didn't buy it straight away! But all thanks to @Fairyloot I a now own a beautiful hardcover, and I am so glad that I entered that give away because this book is such a lovely read.
This was my first Jessica Khoury book and I loved it, I enjoyed her writing style and the pages just flew by. It was fast paced and had action from the very first chapter right up to that heart-stopping conclusion. Throughout the book our main character keeps referring to Habiba as though she is talking or writing to her recounting the story, this helped to highlight to the reader how important Habiba was/is to Zahra (although it look me a while to work out who Habiba was!) My only negative about this book is the random page's from history, I found them quite confusing. Although I enjoyed learning about Zarah's history while I was reading it I couldn't work out where this 'history pages' fitted in.
There were three main aspects of this story which made this book so enjoyable for me are they are:
One of the main thing's I liked about this book was the mystery surrounding Zahra's history. We get a very basic run down of some of Zahra's history in the first few chapters but with 4 thousand years worth of history there is a lot still to discover, and I liked the snippets of facts that slowly connect, to finally create a clearer picture of her history.
Another aspect of this story that I enjoyed was the political manoeuvres and tensions, both within the human court and with the jinni's society. I liked that the jinni's had a whole society of their own - this is something I remember about the Disney Aladdin- and this also shone a light on the reason that Zahra is the jinni in the lamp (and how it might not be as cool as it sounds to able to grant wishes). It was also interesting to see the different consequences for the different wishes, and Zahra's ability to twist her 'masters' wish to suit her own desires.
"You can't choose what happens to you, but you can choose who you become because of it."
The third thing I liked about this book was the characters and the romance. I loved both of the main characters so much, and they both go through some great character development in this book. There was also some great minor character's I have a particular love for Princess Capida and her Watchmaidens. The romance in this book is so sweet, there are moments of heartbreak when it is pointed out time and time again how they can't be together, but it was great to see the slow development of their feeling for one another.
So there we have it, I hope you enjoyed reading my thought's on The Forbidden Wish, would love to know if you have read it and what your thought's were.
