Review: The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem

The Jasad Heir

Sara Hashem

(The Scorched Throne #1)

Publication Date: July 18, 2023

Paperback, 523 pages, Orbit

Genres: Adult, Fantasy

Goodreads

Ten years ago, the kingdom of Jasad burned. Its magic outlawed; its royal family murdered down to the last child. At least, that’s what Sylvia wants people to believe.

 

The lost Heir of Jasad, Sylvia never wants to be found. She can’t think about how Nizahl’s armies laid waste to her kingdom and continue to hunt its people—not if she wants to stay alive. But when Arin, the Nizahl Heir, tracks a group of Jasadi rebels to her village, staying one step ahead of death gets trickier.

 

In a moment of anger Sylvia’s magic is exposed, capturing Arin’s attention. Now, to save her life, Sylvia will have to make a deal with her greatest enemy. If she helps him lure the rebels, she’ll escape persecution.

 

A deadly game begins. Sylvia can’t let Arin discover her identity even as hatred shifts into something more. Soon, Sylvia will have to choose between the life she wants and the one she left behind. The scorched kingdom is rising, and it needs a queen.

 

In this Egyptian-inspired debut fantasy, a fugitive queen strikes a deadly bargain with her greatest enemy and finds herself embroiled in a complex game that could resurrect her scorched kingdom or leave it in ashes forever.

My Review

The Jasad Heir is an immersive fantasy filled with frustrating, untrustworthy, unpredictable, morally-gray characters, which makes for a super entertaining read. Yep, that's right. None of the characters are particularly "good," so this is a perfect book for readers who don't want the typical hero trope.

The main character, Sylvia, is keeping so many secrets, including the biggest one of all—she's the Jasad kingdom's presumed-dead heir. She's also a magic user, which is a big no-no. Her entire family was killed because of their magic. And boy, does Sylvia make some crazy decisions to keep herself safe. I don't necessarily blame her for those decisions; they're just not particularly noble or heroic, if you're into that type of main lead. She has her moments, but she's really out to keep herself alive at all cost, which does make her pretty badass.

The world itself is Egyptian-based, and that was exciting, as I've never read an Egyptian-based fantasy before. Everything was pretty much brand new to me in terms of clothing and food descriptions. All of the details about the culture of the characters and the people around them really helped to solidify the fictional world in my mind. My one issue, though, is that it was hard to follow the countries' names and leaders at first, probably because my ARC didn't have a map since it wasn't the finished book. But the countries weren't introduced in a very memorable way, so 100% make sure to look at the map when you read this book!

Now, to get to the good stuff, the romance. The Nizahl heir, Arin, hunts Jasadi magic users. When he ends up finding out that Sylvia has magic, he uses her for his own gain and has her compete in a tournament for him. Do I have major mixed feelings about Arin? Absolutely. On the one hand, his backstory and compulsive organization were super endearing, and he's even protective of Sylvia in his own unique way, but on the other hand, it just wasn't enough to make up for his decisions a lot of the time. I mean, he's hunting, locking away, and sending people to their deaths because they have magic. Even innocent bakers aren't exempt! It's hard to forgive and forget that. And, like I said, I don't trust him right now, which makes for a very interesting story, as I never really know how he's going to react. Similarly, my biggest nitpick with this book was just how much the hunting topic was kind of sidestepped/ignored. Every time it was brought up, it never felt like the characters were having a real conversation about it. They never got to the heart of the matter, and they just danced around it for the first half of the book. I wanted Arin to emotionally suffer and for Sylvia to put him in his place and make him see the error of his ways. Maybe that'll happen eventually....

Overall, The Jasad Heir captivated me. It has action, betrayals, magic, and enemies to reluctant allies to lovers to... well, you'll just have to see. ;) This book has all the vibes of S.A. Chakroborty's Daevabad trilogy mixed with Sarah J. Maas's Throne of Glass and Shelby Mahurin's Serpent & Dove series. It's a fantasy you won't want to miss if you're a fan of any of those. And, even though the characters aren't your typical heroes, I can't wait to see what terrible decisions they'll make in book two.

*Note: I received a copy of this book to review from the publisher. This in no way affected my opinion/review.