Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ /5
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 /5
Spice: 🌶️🌶️ /5
Genre: Romance | Sci Fi | Fantasy
Theme: Magic, Forbidden romance, Slow burn, Forced proximity
Author: Amalie Howard
Book Publication date: Jan 7, 2025
Audiobook narrated by Anais Inara Chase and Ramiz Monsef
Publisher: #HarperAudio
Book Cover first thoughts: Beautiful colors and font

One Liner: Narrator did an amazing job bringing the story and world to life!
“The future is yet to be written. Perhaps your destiny will be one you chose”

Review: Dual POVs are some of my favorite book styles. But something I did not think I would enjoy was a Persian/Indian influence. I didn’t expect that going in. I feel like if I was just reading the story alone I may not have picked up on some plots/ world building, the narration helps specifically with this book so for anyone interested in reading I would definitely add the audio.
I enjoy a strong FMC, our FMC is a little naive. I am excited to see the growth of the character in book 2.

I am sad I didn’t have the option to access the PDF, it was not available for me.

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Thank you to #NetGalley and HarperAudio for the ARC (Advance Reader Copy) of #TheStarlightHeir
by Amalie Howard
All opinions expressed in this review are my own. Publication date was Jan 7, 2025. This review is being shared on NetGalley, Goodreads and Amazon(Processing).

The Starlight Heir
Amalie Howard

“His Imperial Majesty King Zarek requests your presence as his esteemed quest.”
Syraya Saab is a talented bladesmith. She is one of the few who can infuse her work with jadu, the last source of magic in the realm. When she received a gold invitation from King Zarek, she believes it is a joke. She has been invited to join in a competition for the crown prince of Kaldari’s hand in marriage. She knows she is not qualified to be a potential bride for the prince. The invitation was tempting; it sounds exciting and adventurous. The invitation had nought to do with acquiring a bride for the crowned prince, it was an obscured hunt for the Starkeeper, a girl that was believed to hold the magic of the stars in her blood.
Her trip to Kaldari was filled with danger. Syraya was drawn to crowned prince’s illegitimate half-brother, Roshan. Unrest is growing between the noble houses and the rebel militia. Suraya and Roshan flee the city after the rebels attack. The couple continue to deny their attraction to each other. Roshan is shielding secrets. Suraya could be the girl they are searching for, Starkeeper. She has no discipline over the force swirling within her. A dark god has taken notice of her, he could be the greatest threat she must face.
WOW! What a great read! I was quickly drawn into Suraya’s story. She is a strong female main character; she stands up to anyone trying to push her around. She is loyal to those she cares about. Roshan is determined to protect Suraya. The two main characters are likable and work well together. Roshan is funny and a big flirt. The secondary characters Javed and his mother were not likable. The supporting characters added depth to the plot.
This is a great romance fantasy. The romance slowly built up until it blossomed. Action packed.
Kudos to author Amalie Howard!

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC

Thank you to NetGalley and HarperAudio for an ALC in exchange for an honest review.

I give this a 4.5 out of 5. Awesome story telling and world building. Narration is topnotch. I was invested right from the beginning. It grabbed my attention and I couldn't wait to find out what happened and where the story was going to go. It has a unique magic system which is pretty neat. However, and without spoiling, I was confused about Suraya’s power and some of the magic system. I think that needed to be elaborated on and described a little better. I loved the twists and the characters. Amalie made you care about what happened to them, good or bad. Overall, I really enjoyed this and will plan to buy a physical copy to add to my collection.

Thank you so much to HarperAudio for an early copy of this audiobook! 💖

As someone who has only ever read historic romances by Amalie Howard, I’m OBSESSED with The Starlight Heir, which is a romantasy book! 🤩 I think I could best describe The Starlight Heir by saying that it has some aspects of Divergent + The Selection BUT also has some specific unique aspects of this story (which I can’t mention because it’s more fun if you go into the book not knowing but…trust me)!👀 There’s an aspect of trials for the hand of a prince but there’s also prince brothers (kind of like in Powerless👀) and there’s magic and portals and lost gods, I mean what else could you want from a romantasy book!?!? 😂 I do want to point out that I’ve mentioned multiple YA romantasy books but I want to make sure that it’s noted that The Starlight Heir is an ADULT book, it just has a fun culmination of tropes or actions that can best be described by these books!

This audiobook was so good! I literally got so pulled into it that I had to go in circles around a parking deck because I missed a parking spot because I was so into what was happening in the story! Sometimes it can be hard to follow romantasy audiobooks because there’s a lot of words that are not real (or have a basis in English) and sometimes you can get lost but while I sometimes got mildly lost, the story was still entertaining enough that it really didn’t matter! 😂 I can’t wait to see more romantasy books like this from Amalie Howard and hopefully a sequel to this book! 👀🥳

Thank you so much for letting me listen to this ARC audiobook! I enjoyed the characters, the concept, and the plot.

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall: 3/5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) Detailed but not many scenes.

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 An invitation to the palace—I loved how it felt like a very fantasy version of The Selection series with a splash of Hunger Games.
🤩 Anais Inara Chase has a gorgeous voice and gives us a great narration of this story.
🤩 The sparse extra male voice was a nice touch in audiobook, and Ramiz Monsef played the part well.
🤩 When the MCs develop a friendship and more! Their conversations and relations are fantastic.

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 This book was trying to be over my head the whole time. I had to really pay attention and do lots of relistening.
💫 I tried to visualize and experience this new world, but my brain just didn’t get much of it.
💫 I really liked the idea of a shadow daddy, but it felt a bit too underwhelming in this book. And we’re just left in the dark about all of it.
💫 When close-to-the-MC side characters die, it’s not my favorite.
💫 Wait, did we get an HEA? If we did, it didn’t satisfy me.

Anais Inara Chase and Ramiz Monsef perfectly narrated The Starlight Heir by Amalie Howard. Their voices kept me hooked, eager to see what happened next. They brought the characters to life with unique speech patterns and accents. The second-person perspective added mystery and suspense. Check out this audiobook!

NO BC WHY WOULD YOU DO ME LIKE THIS AMALIE??!🥺 You build this beautiful world with all this drama and give me not one but TWO love interests, but you only let me really see one of them???😭 This is giving me PTSD from the book that shall not be named, but just know if I don’t get more of the God of Night in book two, I’m RIOTING! I also very much guessed the whole Roshan thing, which was ridiculously obvious Sura girl pls😭, but I did still have a good time seeing the way that man skirted his way around the truth🙂‍↕️ And don’t get me wrong, the chemistry between Sura and Ro is top tier, HOWEVER! I just know that the God of Night is going to be next level🙂‍↕️👏 Plus, not Miss Sura ignoring the thing with this man’s eyes!!!👀 I’m gonna need book two ASAP!😂

The Starlight Heir

Suraya Saab lives a quiet life with her family and friends. She is a bladesmith who can imbue blades with jade, the last source of magic in the realm. A Royal summons arrives one day from King Zarek inviting her to the capital to be his guest. She goes, believing it harmless and an opportunity to explore the capital city. The trip quickly turns into a game of deadly trials to find a wife for Price Javed. Secrets, lies and prophecies threaten to uproot Surayas life and all she’s believed about who she is.

Suraya is a great FMC. She’s witty, strong willed, and fiercely loyal. There were so many twists, turns and secrets in this book. The world building was great and easy to follow. I’m so intrigued about the dual POV in this story. I can’t wait to find out more and see how it fits into the overall story.

The narrator did a great job brining this story to life. I switched between the ARC and audiobook.

~Persian/Indian inspired
~Magic
~Political intrigue
~Secret identity
~Prophecies
~Forbidden romance
~Slow burn
~Forced proximity

4.5⭐️

Thank you NetGalley and HarperAudio for a copy of the ALC. All opinions are my own.

I really enjoyed this book. It was unique and felt like a story that I hadn’t heard a lot before, which is definitely difficult in the fantasy world. The characters were interesting and the world building was really enjoyable. Overall a really great read.

I LOVED THIS BOOK! i picked it up on a whim and i do think it will be the new sensation across the bookish community. i loved it and loved the narration. so thankful for this audio!! :)

I absolutely fell hard (no pun intended) for this story. I want more, no I NEED more! I thought the character and world building were fantastic and the narration was spot on! I highly recommend!!!!

3.5-4⭐️

This book was pretty good! It was fast-paced and engaging! I thought the world-building and magic system were really interesting; however, I have to admit that it left me a bit confused at times. There was a lot going on toward the end and while I was able to follow along with the plot, the stuff about the magic and stars/gods(?) left me thinking “huh??” 😅🙃

I enjoyed the banter between Suraya and Roshan and I found Roshan very charming and suave! That said, I wasn’t super swept away by their romance. I am having a hard time pinpointing what fell a little short for me there. Perhaps it was because things were complicated by a very murky love triangle setup that distracted from the romance a bit (referencing Suraya’s dream lover and the God of Night chapters).

Speaking of the God of Night chapters, I feel like the marketing made it seem like he would be a bigger character in this book, but he had very few chapters and they were very brief. I wish we had gotten a bit more from his character in this book. I have to admit that I am very curious about his character and look forward to learning more about him and seeing the love triangle play out in the next book!

I also thought the big reveal about Roshan was pretty predictable/obvious. Perhaps this is because it was too heavily foreshadowed, perhaps it’s because I read too much romantasy and have seen this type of twist done a few times in other books, maybe it was a bit of both. 🤷‍♀️

Overall, I had similar feelings about this book as how I felt about Quicksilver in that it’s a solid story with very interesting world-building and magic (albeit a bit confusing IMO); however, the story was let down a bit by some of the author’s writing choices (primarily due to the use of modern phrases that take you out of the story— such as “Hot as balls”, “Thick thighs save lives”, “goals”, “for the win”, “resting b*tch face”, “don’t Prince-splain me”😬). I did enjoy the story overall and I am curious enough to pick up the next book to learn more about the magic and the stars/gods, the God of Night, the soul-fated mates situation, and to see what happens with the love triangle that seems to be coming!

Thoughts on the audiobook:
I switched back and forth with reading and listening because some of the wordier parts (like the prologue) were easier to take in while reading while some of the inner narratives and dialogue came across better in the audio versus reading it—for example, some lines of dialogue felt a little immature while reading (“thick thighs save lives”, for example) versus listening to it made it more fun/playful/sassy due to the delivery by the narrator and her portrayal of the character’s personality. I thought her portrayal of the characters and her pacing was good. I didn’t love the male narrator’s portrayal of Vena’s voice or the azdaha. He did an odd growly voice for them that I found a bit distracting. It seemed like an interesting choice to have opted for dual narration to have a male narrator to do just the God of Night chapters since there were so few of them and they were so short. Then again, I assume his character will have a bigger role in the next book so I guess this one was probably just setting the precedent for dual narration between Suraya and The God of Night and that his chapters will be more prevalent in the next one? 🤷‍♀️

Thank you to Amalie Howard, NetGalley, and HarperAudio Adult for providing me with this ALC in exchange for an honest review!

3.5 for this one

I liked the story and premise well enough. The magic was interesting as I don't read much about celestial magic. This is another example of the romance bringing the story down for me. There was almost too much attraction/smutty scenes in the middle of the book which bogged it down. The lack of urgency for the situation led me to the accurate conclusion of who the MMC was from the get go. The FMC was fairly ignorant until things were spelled out for her by someone else, despite supposedly being clever? She also felt sheltered and immature despite being in her late 20s.

Another thing that confused me and put me off were the weird Shadow dreams. I really didn't like those and they really put me off when they would occur. I think I understood who and what they were, but it was still super off putting and awkward.

The narrator for the audiobook was great however and her character inflections and voices kept me engaged when my interest would lul.

Thank you so so much to Netgalley and Avon, Harper Voyager, and Harper Audio for allowing me to read the ARC and listen to the ALC of The Starlight Heir. ✨

<img src="https://64.media.tumblr.com/66bcc5edb221bb9a2e2e19a06c4fab50/1481cb14644dc44e-fe/s400x600/2770ef18e50e2936297eff20c15e0abc6b6b96cc.gifv" height="250" />

<blockquote><i>"Much of history was both recorded and erased by those in power, so it's especially important to bolster your thinking with a wide variety of books."</blockquote></i>

I finished this arc over a week ago and I'm going to do my best to put in to words how much I enjoyed it but please know it still won't be enough to convey how much I loved this book.

This is my first Amalie Howard book but I can tell won't be my last. I loved that we had Indian and Persian influence in this book and I want to continue to diversify my reading with more because I was just enamored in my imagination with her colorful descriptions. The magic and world building is easy to follow, interesting, and a little unique as well as the political background of the royals and houses. Aside from maybe 2 plot points, I was on the edge of my seat the entire time, and I had NO idea how this book was going to progress or end. Seriously, I love being surprised, and this book did it for me.

The audiobook was also fantastic. I've added the narrators to my list of favs. I loved the FMC voice, she had a great way of adding a dash of sarcasm and really conveying the characters inflection to make certain lines punchy or mysterious or intriguing. I was able to do an immersive read thanks to having both and can't recommend that enough. This was my first time trying it and I think it really helped for certain lines to stick to my memory.

I can't wait for the next book. Not only was I reeling but I buddy read this with another friend who also had the ARC and we were channeling Pepe Silvia vibes because there was so much left unanswered and so much that we only realized in the end that was connected but still not clear how. I again, can't wait for the next book and shamelessly hope I get another ARC. I'm absolutely going to be looking to reread this book again this year, if not before the next book.

Me 1 week later still trying to link all the magic and creatures and gods to Sura or Ro or the God of Night or the Royal Stars:
<img src="https://media.tenor.com/04KdcsfRodUAAAAM/conspiracy-charlie-day.gif" height="200"/>

I have recommended this to all my friends and bookclub buddies who likes romantasy and I'm thrilled to know a couple of folks have read it and enjoyed it. Seriously, it's a good one, add it to your TBR.

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Spice: 🌶️🌶️
Tropes
• Arranged/Forced Betrothing
• Slow Burn
• Hidden Magic
• Chosen One

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC of The Starlight Heir. This book had all the elements that I would normally love and fawn over, but I had a hard time finishing this one. I started reading it and then found myself having to re-read the same page multiple times, so I switched to the audiobook. The beginning was a little slow because of the world building and then the rest of the book seemed so rushed. Suraya quickly mastered her magic with little training and quickly fell in love with Roshan. I found myself a little thrown off with the God of Night chapters and wasn’t quite sure why they were even included until the end. I enjoyed the witty banter and Suraya’s personality, but it won’t be something that I re-read.

Absolutely loved the narrators and the performance!

4.5/5⭐
A huge thank you to NetGalley, Amalie Howard, and HarperAudio for granting me the privilege of listening to this captivating audiobook ahead of its release. The Starlight Heir is a dazzling blend of romance, intrigue, and mythological magic that transported me to a world as vibrant as it is dangerous.❤️

The story introduces Suraya Saab, a gifted bladesmith whose rare talent lies in infusing her weapons with “jadu,” a dwindling source of magic. Her skill is both a blessing and a curse, thrusting her into a high-stakes journey filled with courtly intrigue, ancient secrets, and a mysterious prophecy. Unlike many typical romantasy heroines, Suraya isn’t defined by her romantic connections or her magic alone—she’s a fully realized character with grit, vulnerability, and an unyielding desire to shape her own destiny.

Roshan, the enigmatic half-brother of the crown prince, is a character who sneaks up on you. His brooding charm and layered personality provide a perfect counterbalance to Suraya’s fiery determination. The relationship between Suraya and Roshan develops at a steady, deliberate pace, avoiding instant infatuation and instead building a deep connection rooted in mutual respect and trust. Their dynamic felt authentic, which made every interaction between them charged with emotion and unspoken tension.

The audiobook narration by Anais Inara Chase and Ramiz Monsef elevated the entire experience. Chase’s voice captured Suraya’s strength and inner turmoil beautifully, while Monsef’s portrayal of Roshan exuded quiet power and mystery. Their voices were distinct, making it easy to differentiate between characters, and their performances were evenly paced and immersive. I could feel the tension, the urgency, and the softer moments through their skilled delivery, which added an extra layer of depth to the story.

What I loved most about The Starlight Heir was the world-building. Amalie Howard’s ability to weave Persian and Indian mythological elements into the narrative felt both refreshing and seamless. The descriptions of enchanted weapons, shimmering moonstones, and the intricacies of court politics brought the world vividly to life. Every scene was rich with detail, making it easy to lose myself in the story.

If I had to pinpoint a small dislike, it would be the occasional use of modern phrases in the dialogue. While not a dealbreaker, these moments slightly disrupted the immersive fantasy setting, pulling me out of the richly crafted world for brief seconds.

Overall, The Starlight Heir is an enthralling start to what promises to be an unforgettable series. The combination of lush world-building, strong characters, and a perfectly paced romance makes this a must-read (or must-listen) for fans of romantasy. I’m already counting the days until the next installment, eager to see where Suraya’s journey takes her next.

Rating: 4.5/5 stars
The slight deduction is due to the modern phrasing, but it barely scratches the surface of how much I enjoyed this beautifully crafted tale. Highly recommended for those who love slow-burn romance, mythological magic, and strong, well-developed characters!

3.5 stars. This is definitely action packed and an interesting story, but at times I felt like too much was going on and got a little lost. For example, does she literally turn into that bird thing? I still don’t know. Interesting read though and unique enough that I wasn’t ever bored.

What the H@LL was that ending!! Okay, okay, let me back up…I am still reeling from that Epilogue. So much happens at the end of this book, and I am trying to decide how to sum it all up. I can’t find a more elegant way than to say WOW! At first, I was like, okay, this is such a cookie-cutter Fantasy Romance, but then…it exploded into this obsessive page-turning ride through superb world-building, fantastic character depth, Persian Mythology, a cute bastard prince, a shadow daddy Underlord, and dangerous trials. The spice was very nice. I thought it was hot but not cringy, and I appreciate that. There were some downfalls, so I didn’t give it a five. I didn’t like the temper tantrum Suraya throws mid-book, it felt like a backward slide for her character. Roshan isn’t as strong of a character as his female counterpart, and the dangerous trials end before they really get started. Also, the feeling of reading this before happened several times. However, I was impressed when Howard expanded on it, and it became something more imagined and magical. Finally, if this is a standalone, that will really make me hate this book because I can’t with that ending!! Howard, your readers need more!! Thank you to HaperAudio & NetGalley for the ALC. Anais Inara Chase and Ramiz Monsef did an amazing job bringing the characters to life with their narration.

I received this ARC on behalf of NetGalley and was very happy to get the chance to enjoy this fast paced unique magic system. The FMC is strong and intelligent who you can tell truly has felt familial love in her life. At first I thought we were going to get a Bachelor like story of a bunch of chosen women battling for the Prince’s hand but loved the quick turn this story took into Suraya finding out there was more to her background and discovering her magic and the prophecy surrounding her.

I thought the story was quick paced and did a wonderful job expanding on the magic and the history of the god wars while also weaving in the royal corruption and civilian rebellion.

It was a breath of fresh air to have a fantasy stand alone novel capture all the elements to keep you captivated while still building out the world.

I look forward to reading more from this author.