ARC Review: Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim

Genre: YA Fantasy Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

New favorite book alert!!! Wow! To say I was impressed with Spice Road by Maiya Ibrahim would be a major understatement! If you are a fan of the Daevabad trilogy by Shannon Chakraborty, then you will love this debut book!

The novel follows Imani as she embarks on a journey with her nemesis to find her brother, who she thought was dead. She faces a series of adversities that challenge her view of life and discovers that her brother’s reasons for leaving the Sahir were not so simple. Along the way she must conceal the fact that she illegally bound a djinn to her dagger because he was the only one who knew where her brother went.

The best feature of this novel is that it was completely immersive. I truly felt like I was experiencing everything with Imani. The descriptions were so vivid, and the actions scenes so intense. Ibrahim did a phenomenal job of creating such a realistic and magical world. I was surprised that this is her debut book because she writes like a well-seasoned author.

Furthermore, the characters in the book made the story come to life even more. Imani is such a compelling main character. She is so humanly flawed, yet also lovable. As a reader, I felt my emotions changing with hers, which is a very powerful feeling. Likewise, the supporting characters were three-dimensional and robust. Each one was necessary to the story and helped move it along in a unique way.

Finally, there was the perfect amount of romance in the book. I am typically not a fan of books where the main character has more than one potential love interest, but that is hinted at in Spice Road, and I ended up loving it. Either way, it seems like Imani’s love story will play into the enemies-to-lovers trope, and I think Ibrahim is setting it up flawlessly. Personally, I am team Qaymani (Imani and Qayn) all the way!

Overall, I literally can’t wait for the next book in this series! Spice Road is going to have a special place on my bookshelf for sure!