A curse of illusions is a YA fantasy book with all the elements you need for it to be absolutely perfect. With betrayals, riveting reveals and incredible plot twists, this story will have you stay up to 4am to finish it.
Kamali is a magician- the only one left to keep the city alive and flourishing. Without her, nothing would work. And even though she has this pressure on her, she doesn’t let it weigh her down. She is courageous, and loyal, and willing to give up everything to protect the ones she loves.
Saira is an assassin- who lost her memories two years ago. The only things she knows are the ones that are told to her. She is sent to kill the king, but things don’t exactly go as planned. Saira is strategic, furious and ready to do almost anything to get what she wants.
This book is a great read for lovers of Victoria Aveyard’s ‘Red Queen’ and Holly Black’s ‘The Cruel Prince’.
I enjoyed this book a lot. While the beginning is a little slow, you’ll realise that it is necessary for the rest of the book. The characters were complex, had their different motives to do different things and the plot twists had me in absolute shock. Nothing is as it seems, and just when you think you know everything you need to know, something else reveals itself to you. I love this book and definitely recommend it.

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/4835966697

DNF at 40%. I tried, but I really couldn't get into it. I'm really sorry. I was drawn by the cover and the description, but I felt it dragged in places, and there was too much skipping to make things go faster in others,
I am sure others will enjoy it as the idea is there, but sorry it just wasn't for me.

Thank you to Netgalley and the author for a copy of this book.

Kamali's home of Ausora is almost entirely made up from magical illusions. Kamali and her her family have keeping the illusions going for a century. She's the last illusionist left and her power are running out, draining her life force; she has only a couple of years left, and King Aleksander is looking for her.

Aleksander marries Princess Saira as he needs to marry a magician to keep his family strong. Saira however is no magician, or even a princess, she's plotting to kill him.

This dual POV book presents us with an unusual and intriguing magic system. This novel has a lot in it, political intrigue, mystery, evil royal family oppressing the citizens, a sapphic romance, family, both biological and found, well-fleshed out characters.

I throughly enjoyed this book, and am looking forward to see what else Sadar writes. I did find the story dragged unnecessarily at times, but once I got to the 2nd half of the book I couldn't put it down.

3.5 stars

This book has one of my literary nemesis: a present tense first person POV narration. I always groan loudly whenever I find it, and with this one I had the additional misfortune of thinking it was a fairy tale retelling. The latter is on me, though, and since this was an ARC, I persevered.

It is no retelling, no. It does have the feel of a fairy tale? Somewhat. It's more Steampunk-adjacent in genre, with magic and politicking mixed in and sprinkled with a frosting of adventure. It has a dual POV storyline: one for the magic and one for the court politics, both girls. One of the girls has a gay love story and the other doesn't; and one of them is better developed and fleshed out than the other, at least to me, which helped a lot with tolerating the present tense writing.

Kamali was my favourite of the two girls, on her own merit and not only because I found Saira insufferable. She is stronger, wiser, and more willing to admit to mistakes and make amends, and has a likable personality. Her side of the story was what sold the book to me in the end, and I loved how she and Aleksander, the king, solved the Big Problem of the illusions protection separating the townspeople from the supposedly evil monarchy. If it had been up to me, Kamali and Aleksander, or even Kamali alone, would've been a better narrators duo than Kamali/Saira.

I also liked that the romance is so very understated that it's almost an afterthought, it's simply part of the plot, ingrained in it, organically part of it. As should be.

When I decided to read this book I sure wasn’t expecting to turn page after page so fast. The author created an interesting fantasy world, with an even more interesting plot. I genuinely loved the storyline. This book sure doesn’t lack action and jaw dropping moments.

The characters are well build and quite complex. I like every one of them, including the obnoxious King Aleksander. I believe he is far more than the spoiled kid that he tries to portrait. I wouldn’t describe him as naive. Self-centered? Yes. But not stupid. He’s the kind of villain who plays the naive role just to achieve his goals. He’ll trick everyone and would do anything just to secure his position as the king.

I like Saira more than Kamali. I’m sorry to say this, but Saira stole the show for me. I felt more connected to her. Vincent is my second favorite character and I was hoping for a comeback till the very end. I was hoping to read more about Kamali’s background too, her past and her family. Although her little sister, Doria, is quite active in the story, we don’t know much about her either. And that irks me for some reason.

The writing is simple and straightforward. I don’t think the author intended to create a magical world, but rather bring the reader to the point where you don’t know anymore what’s an illusion and what’s not. To the point where you question everything.

I enjoyed this book. While it is not a favourite when it comes to my preferences of fantasy novels. despite this, I was able to get into the book and enjoy it. I loved the aspects of worldbuilding and intrigue in the story. The characters were well developed and understandable.
Overall, a good book, just not my favourite.
3.5/5 stars

Thank you Netgalley and Vivian Sader for providing me with an arc of A Curse of Illusions.

ARC received in exchange for an honest review

i liked this book. i liked the worldbuilding and i liked the fantasy / steampunk-ish setting. i also really liked the characters; i think that they start out the book with very strong personalities that are shown through the author's writing and they only grow from there. saira's growth was especially enjoyable for me to read; while she frustrated me at times, i really liked seeing her thought process and how she changes. i also enjoy seeing the lesbian representation in fantasy.

there were a few things that kept me from being absolutely blown away by this book. firstly, the writing, while striking and concise, tends to drag a bit. the plot in the beginning is slow and i found myself skimming a lot of paragraphs. the worldbuilding can be a bit confusing at times and i feel like it isn't explained enough. i also feel as though the representation wasn't nuanced enough. both the protagonists are women of color — dark-skinned women of color, at that, with kamali being a lesbian — but when you are a white author writing people of color, there are certain things that you need to be aware of and i think that this aspect of the representation fell flat in that regard.

overall, i liked it, it was an enjoyable read, and i'll definitely be on the lookout for future installments. however, it fails to live up to its potential for me.

(on another note i think i was tricked into believing that kamali and saira were going to be a couple and i was shocked that wasn't the case 😭)

DNF at 15%

I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. I was intrigued by the description but the writing really put me off. It's very jumpy and things happen super fast, but without any context or much explanation. Also, is this a medieval world? Cause everyone is taking quick showers and there are guns all over, but the setting feels like it's meant to be medieval. I guess some description would be nice but we don't get much of that.

I was initially drawn in by the cover and the description of the book. It seemed promising amd the storyline has a lot of potential. However, without getting very far into it, I have decided to DNF it as the writing does not have me engrossed. I'm not feeling connected and feel there are quite a few questionable grammatical issues. There is no way I can make it to 952 pages.