I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

I thoroughly enjoyed both books in this duology— The Daughters of Izdihar and The Weavers of Alamexa. I listened to both audiobooks on Libby. Thank goodness for libraries! The audiobooks were well narrated, and a true pleasure to listen to while doing the dishes, driving, etc.

What I enjoyed about this story is the relationship between Nehal and Georgiana—instead of putting these two characters against each other at each other from the start, which would be sort of the conventional way to start…the author gives us a refreshing experience of these characters working together. We see relationships grow and flourish, characters learning from their mistakes and each other…Arabic women claiming their power, and supporting each other…with elemental magic, sweeping prose, and a gorgeous setting.

I’ll be sure to read the author’s next book.

The wait for this sapphic Avatar meets feminism movement has arrived!
I am emotionally damaged, Hadeer I hope you are okay after writing all of this.

Some people may find it difficult to understand or relate to the level of misogyny depicted in certain communities, such as the one in this story, and may think it is too heavy-handed. However, with the increasing presence of 'trad wives' on social media to project 2025, I believe it accurately reflects the reality. While the story may not reach the extreme levels of "The Handmaid's Tale," it does fall within that spectrum. The male characters, for the most part, are portrayed accurately and, at times, comically, particularly in their interactions with Nehal, who doesn't tolerate any nonsense.

In book two, Nehal demonstrates that she takes no nonsense, and I love it. We also see characters Nehal, Girogina, and new members struggling with the moral implications of complicity in murder and oppression. The story delves deeply into these ethical dilemmas, and I appreciate the exploration of such weighty matters.

The romantic aspect of the story is quite chaste, representing a slower than I would like build-up between the main characters. Personally, I wouldn't mind more F/F pining in the narrative.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

Overall I really enjoyed this one! The pacing was great, and I loved the character development. The world is so immersive and refreshingly queer. The ending was so beautiful and satisfying!

In general, I love fantasies like this that base the story off history and really explore political and philosophical thought and the likes. I love when a book makes me think, and this book certainly leads me to do so. I loved exploring the different perspectives and thought processes of characters and how it all works in a broader sense. It also touches on many themes relevant to today such as intersectionality, government, war, etc.. However, something still felt underwhelming of this book and it took me while to put my finger on it. While I love the logic and thought put into this book, I think that's also where the book falls short for me. I think it's so much based on logic and thought that I didn't fully feel some of the emotion and stakes as much. I think it just needed a little more balance or emphasis on emotion without needing a thought process behind all the emotions, if that makes sense. I think this was prevalent in the first book too, as I remember noting how I wished relationships were more developed.

I just can't spend more time with these characters. I ADORE this world and the magic system. The political strife and battle is fantastic. But I cannot find a redeeming feature in these characters. I struggled with them in the first installment, but I requested book 2 assuming there would be some character development and growth, but the isn't.

**Thank you NetGalley and Harper Voyager for the eARC**

3.5 stars

The Weavers of Alamaxa picks up right where Daughters of Izdihar left off as expected. I found this book to move forward more quickly than the first book. I felt like this book had more action than its predecessor which kept me engaged. That being said I was never as invested in the characters as I would have liked to have been so the stakes didn't feel as high.

The duology is an interesting exploration of women's oppression and the fight for liberation as well as fear of other or different.

First, Thank you for Net Galley for the ARC. I really, really enjoyed the book, but it wasn't until I was maybe a few pages into it that I realized it was the second in a duology. But I loved the magical system and the characters were top tier. If anything, it made me want to go back and read the first so I can reread the second and understand some of the development either more. I love fantasy that has such atmospheric world building, which this story definitely delivers on. I think my one minor complaint is sometimes the dialogue feels a bit stilted and doesn't flow very well, but it wasn't enough to truly take me out of the story or want to stop reading it. I give it four stars because it was engaging, the pacing moved nicely, and I genuinely cared about the characters even though there were events from a book I had yet to read.

This was a satisfying conclusion to a fun duology. There never seemed to be much down time in the book. It was nonstop action.

After desperately waiting for the sequel I was so glad to be approved for this eARC. Being back in the world of Alamaxa continuing Nehal and and Giorgina’s stories, was worth the wait.
This sequel does not drop any of the plot threads from the first book. The pacing was is fast, Hadeer managed to fit so much plot in. Everything was wrapped up in a satisfying way.
Rounded up from 4.5 Stars

Many thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing an ARC of this item.

I honestly really enjoyed this followup to the Daughters of Alamaxa. With the first, I did have a few problems with the world building being a bit uninspired, but I'm not taking that into account for this review. The pace flowed really nicely, and I liked the conclusion to the overall plot. I honestly with this was a triology instead of a duology, and we could have gotten a bit more history, worldbuilding, and character driven moments. That being said, the dialogue could be a bit clumsy at times and I didn't really get the feeling that each POV character had a distinct voice.
That being said there is a lot of great stuff going on here and I'm looking forward to more from this author in the future!

i absolutely loved this. what an amazing follow up to the Daughters of Izdihar. Harder Elsabi does an amazing job with world building and character development. the plot and politics had me as interested as the first book.

This was a wonderful follow-up to the first. It continued the plot well and developed characters in a satisfying way. It always so nice to find a series that doesn’t fall into the pattern of really strong first book followed by a dud of a sequel.

Sometimes the only option is to rage against the machine. The machine being the societal, political, and historical fetters put on women and weavers in Alamaxa. In the conclusion of Hadeer Elsbai's duology "The Weavers of Alamaxa" we see it all hit the fan.

Nehal is in a foreign prison. Giorgina is on the run and the city is under seige. So it's only up from here right? The Zirani leaders have strong opinions on Weavers and are taking drastic steps to "deal with the problem." Despite the cannons, troops, and obvious strong arm tactics the parliament of Alamaxa seems to be falling in lock step. Seems like a good time to put down rhetoric and pick up the elements to rebuild society a bit to me.

Reasons to read:
-Finished story, always nice to have that
-Having all of the leverage ever and still being reasonable
-Comeuppance on some nutty folks
-Oh yea that would do that to a body

Cons:
-Politicians selling out for crumbs being relatable to reality

Overall, a solid ending to this duology.

This book was much faster paced than the first in the duology, Daughters of Izdihar. The beginning pacing was similar to the first book, and by the end quite a lot was happening. In some ways, I almost feel like there was too much happening all at once. While I don't necessarily think it would have needed a third book, it did feel like some of the ending action was crammed in a bit in order to tie up the loose ends.

It was nice to revisit some of these characters and see some character growth. Nehal is still impulsive and spoiled by her privilege, but we do start to see her recognize that a bit more, with some bit of introspection towards the end. It was also nice to see more from Giorgina, though I feel like her overall character arc was both a little out of nowhere and also predictable in trope-y kind of way. Having started this book a few months ago before picking it back up again, it is possible I just forgot/missed some of the religious/lore details that would support her storyline, but given the rushed feeling of the ending, I'm doubtful that's the case.

Finally, while this book still have lots to say about feminism and women's rights, the strong political goals of the first book felt lost. Instead the politics moved away from the Daughters movements on womens rights and voting and into the kind of boring (in my opinion) idea of oppression of magic users (while this is fine, it just feels overdone and this take was not particularly fresh. However, if you like that kind of storyline, then this is a great story for you!).

I think this book was a remarkable improvement from the first book. I remember the first book feeling like very much a debut, but I loved this one. The characters grew a lot, and the characters had a lot of internal challenges that I really appreciated seeing them navigate. This book is fairly action packed, and as someone who doesn't love a lot of action, it was done in a way that was well done and easy to follow. I think the author did a great job of creating this world and its politics in a way that didn't feel overly cumbersome but were also not spoon fed like some softer-fantasies can be. I really loved this one, and I'm glad I picked it up as I was a bit meh about the first one. I will definitely be picking up the author's next work!

Thank you to Harper Voyager and Netgalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is a book two to Daughters of Izdihar which I enjoyed immensely. In this second book, I loved the character development, and the pacing was on point as well. I enjoyed all the magic, which felt much more present than in book one. The dialog lacks a little bit and felt quite YA at times.

This was a satisfying end to the duology. I won't give any spoilers but I cried a couple times reading this book. Giorgina's arc was lovely. Nehal was my favorite storyline to follow, I love her.

Thanks to netgalley for this arc

Overall, a really strong conclusion to the duology - I enjoyed reading it and will continue to recommend to others. The writing was great and I loved the elemental magic system.

I feel like the series would have been stronger as trilogy: the latter half of the book was a bit rushed and I wish we had had more time to explore the repercussions of everything that happens in Alamaxa - the government changes, the societal shifts, life without some main characters, etc. I also spent a large portion of the book hoping for a little more character development from both Nehal and Giorgina - by the end of the book there was a bit of growth from each of them but, this could have been further developed in more pages.

Fans of The Legend of Korea and Paris Paloma songs will definitely enjoy parts of this duology. It’s a refreshing fantasy story that’s focused on politics, magic and how women are viewed in society and features multiple, diverse FMCs (no romantasy here).

Thank you to NetGalley and Harper Voyager for providing an eARC of this in exchange for my honest feedback.