I saw Inuyasha in the synopsis and I'm sold. And also, that is one gorgeous cover! Look at it! I can't wait to read this.

The story is very interesting and captivating. I loved that it had Muslim representation in a fantasy world, Nezha Zaman, able to control fire. The World Building is very steady. Character introductions and development was a little too fast for my liking but done well. The plot is amazing and story line is well thought out. Having her life interrupted one day she is a girl with a dangerous secret and the next she is having to use this secret to help her save another world with her companions she must set off to try and save the shattered soul of an angel while Fighting of the The Dark Shadows of Another World. The World is full of about as many different types of mythical creatures you can think of. Over all a great 1st time read.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Crowing Soul in exchange for an honest review.

I wish i'd loved this book. Full of just about every mythical creature you can think of and featuring a muslim lead in a genre where it's normally challenging to even find a muslim side character, Crowning Soul is incredible on paper. The plot and world are detailed and unique and it has a mythos all of its own but unfortunately, this book is just trying to be too much.

Crowning Souls felt like watching a bunch of episodes of a 5-minute segmented animated kids show back to back if you skipped the first few episodes. At first, I found myself stopping to check and make sure I hadn't picked up a sequel because of how quickly I got lost. Then when you start to gain your footing, more and more is thrown at you. A conflict is introduced. It's defeated. The plot so far is recapped to a new character. A new conflict is introduced. It's defeated. The plot so far is recapped to a new character. I just couldn't shake the feeling that I was reading segments of a story instead of an actual story and it made it incredibly hard to connect with the narrative.

I want to say this book is best for readers at the younger end of middle grade even though it's shelved at YA, but I truly think it is too dense of a story for a younger reader to understand. The ideas and world are incredible and I almost wish this book went through one or two more cycles of drafting because it could have been amazing but as is, this was too confusing of a read.

Thanks to NetGalley for granting me this ARC.

I unfortunately had to DNF this book at 35% and I feel awful for it. I felt very hyped about this book and desperately wanted to connect with it.

Nezha, a young girl with the ability to control fire, finds herself suddenly transported to another dimension after the untimely death of her aunt. Two unicorns must help her on her quest to save an angel’s soul and defeat an evil jinn.

A book containing a strong female lead and magic usually means it’s right up my alley. However, Crowning Soul isn’t the one for me. I’m not entirely sure what it is, it could be the writing or the way I felt the plot didn’t flow - this could be because it’s an uncorrected ARC so it isn’t as “polished” as it could be.

As mentioned, I stopped at about 35% in because I really wanted to give this story a chance. The plot seemed to jump from point to point which left me rather confused as to what was going on - but also left me unable to engage with it. I’ve given it 3 stars, however I believe it’s more of a 2.75.

Hopefully, just because I didn’t enjoy Crowning Soul, it doesn’t mean others won’t. I’m a big fan of books about jinn (The City of Brass being a key example) but this one just didn’t hit it for me. Not quite what I’d class as YA, perhaps more for the younger readers (11-14 years).

Thank you once again to NetGalley for this ARC.

Nezha is a young girl with a secret: she has the power to control fire. After the mysterious death of her aunt, she is transported to another dimension. With the help of two unicorns, she must find and gather the pieces of an angel's soul and eventually confront the evil jinn who may be responsible for her aunt’s death.
I really wanted to get hyped by this book. It has everything I wanted : a strong female character, a found family and magic. But I guess Crowning Soul wasn’t for me.
I DNF’ed it at around 40 % because I had lost interest in the story. Too much was happening too fast and it became repetitive and confusing…
Well I was always confused while reading this book. At first, I thought it was because it was only the beginning, I didn’t know much about jinni, and as I read it everything would become clearer. It didn’t. The plot just became messier and messier ; I had the impression that the author never gave proper explanations and that she expected us to understand the backstory and her world-building without having to explain it to us.
I am pretty sure the arc I had wasn’t the edited version and I think the final version will be much better. There are several scenes that I didn't understand because they didn't make much sense but I think the author can easily edit that and I hope she has.
Just because Crowing's soul hasn't met my expectations doesn't mean it won't meet yours.
I’d recommend this book for an audience between the ages of 10 and 14. This book should be perfect for people who are a little to young for YA.
Thanks to NetGalley for providing me this ARC.

This book started off well and good.

The main female protagonist and the myriad other fantastical characters and also that beautiful cover and the premise!

I guess I had expected too much from it.

I guess it's the writing that didn't work out for me.

Some parts gets too repetitive. And until 40 percent of the book I was groping for information and details about this fantastical world.

I find the character introductions and character development a bit haphazard.

I just couldn't get connected with any of the characters.

And tragedy keeps happening even before the characters get to get to me.

I just couldn't enjoy this one.

But I appreciate the descriptions of the cultural backgrounds used; the food and the family dynamics.

It wasn't just enough for me.

I wanted more connection with the characters.

I wanted the world system in details so I have a fair idea about it.

I wanted the magic to happen.

I wanted my reader heart burn and yearn for more.

Looking forward to the next book. Hope I get to enjoy it more than the first book.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.