Hello and welcome to the latest Ariel’s Arc review! Today I’m going to talk about a highly anticipated read, The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah. This is a new-adult fantasy with a really fun spin on a classic One Thousand and One Nights tale. As the first installment of a debut trilogy, I found it difficult to put the book down because I always wanted to know what happened next!
Ultimately what I loved most about this book was the characters. It felt incredibly character-driven, and I really found myself quite attached to our four heroes. I am really looking forward to the next two books in the series to find out what they’re up to!
Our first heroine is Loulie Al-Nazari, who has another identity as the mysterious Midnight Merchant, a shadowy figure who sells magical relics to humans. She doesn’t think too much as to how these relics got their powers, but she knows she can make a good coin off of them. However, when she’s sent off on a quest to find the most magical relic of them all, her world and what she think she knows begins to unravel. Loulie is such a loveable character, and I was always cheering for her. Seeing her character develop over a trilogy gives me high hopes!
Our next main character is Loulie’s best friend, Qadir. He’s a jinn in disguise with shapeshifting powers, and he and Loulie work together to find relics and go on adventures. However, he has a few other secrets up his sleeve that become very important to the plot later on. I hope to have a point of view from Qadir in future stories!
Then, we have Mazen Bin Malik, a young prince who hasn’t seen much of the world outside. He does like to sneak outside and experience the markets and see how people live their lives outside of his palace. He’s a trusting and goodhearted person who really does try his best, even if he gets himself and others into trouble sometimes with his inexperience with the real world. A chance run in with Loulie alters his life forever, and I’m interested to see how he changes in future books.
Lastly, we have my favorite, Aisha Bint Louas, who is a tough assassin with a lot of trauma in her backstory. She’s on her own revenge quest, and I enjoyed learning more about her throughout the book as various events occurred.
As a debut book, there were some elements that felt a little bogged down into the details, but that didn’t detract from my overall enjoyment. I am really looking forward to seeing more from this author and especially more in this trilogy!
A big thank you to Orbit for a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review!
Final Rating:
Be sure to check out The Stardust Thief. It is out May 17th, 2022!
Cover image: Photo by Tim de Groot on Unsplash
I heard plenty of positive reviews about the book, glad to see it’s living up to it’s hype. Excellent review as always!