I have received the ALC of this book. I thought the audiobook was well done. The narrators did a great job with the story. This book is a unique, diverse fantasy romance; it has influences from India and the Middle East, and I have never read anything like it before.
The characters were interesting as well.
Although I enjoyed my time listening to the audiobook, there was still something missing from it, and I can’t quite figure out what that something is
Thank you, NetGalley, the ALC of this title. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

I enjoyed this book. I thought that the world building was well done. I enjoyed the different places that they had to go and had no issues envisioning them. What I really liked was that it wasn't overly wordy or bogged down by being too descriptive. The other thing I really enjoyed was the magic system. I found that I really liked the majority of the characters. I did find the pacing to be a bit off at times, and felt that it read way more YA than adult. That being said I am excited to see how the story continues into book 2.

I really liked the narrators for this one and felt they did well with making the story come to life. Audio quality was also really good.

Thank you to Harper Audio and Netgalley for an early copy of this audiobook. Unfortunately, this book didn’t work for me, and I decided to DNF at 65%.

My reasons for DNF’ing were mostly disinterest in the characters and the story. I was initially pulled in by the fast pace and premise, but as we went along, I just never felt like I grew to know the characters or the world, and thus didn’t really feel connected to either.

I felt the narration was ok. (By this point in the book, it was primarily narrated by the female narrator, and I thought she did a fine job. The male narrator was good during his bit parts too.)

For those looking for spice in their romantasy, I do think this one delivered (2 scenes by the time I DNF’d, in addition to descriptions of “breath play” and shadows…👀)…but as I wasn’t feeling the connection to the romance, I wasn’t really invested in those scenes either.

Overall, I can see there would be an audience for this book, but unfortunately I am not a part of it.

I was able to check out both the ebook and audiobook - ARC’s courtesy of NetGallery. One of my favorite things about this book was the mythology - it had elements that I haven’t read it other books before so it was fresh and interesting. I really want to know more about Suraya’s world, and the political and magical structure of this universe, so I hope there will be more to come in the future.

I felt like the plot had a good pace - there weren’t parts that dragged so I stayed engaged whether I was listening or reading. Suraya’s character was witty and sassy and I loved her from the very beginning, even when she had some whiney juvenile moments. The slow burn romance was good, and the spice was well written.

The ending had some twists, and it definitely left me with questions and wanting more.

A really fun romantasy all around!

The Starlight Heir is a new fantasy romance from Amalie Howard, an author known primarily for historical romance. I think this book proves that there’s a huge overlap between historical and fantasy romances, because Amalie does a fantastic job crossing over.

The Starlight Heir is set in a Persian-mythology inspired fantasy world that delivers a lot of world building while still trying to feel fresh and fun. It was a bit of a difficult start for me – although set in a fantasy world that feels a bit ancient, the characters use modern slang. And it starts off with our heroine forced to take part in deadly trials to win the hand of the prince – which I’ve read before and didn’t feel super fresh.

However, after we leave the palace the book moves into much more interesting and original territory. There’s a rebellion trying to overthrow the evil rulers, a steamy romance with the “wrong” guy who seems to be harboring secrets, and lots of discovering her magical powers. The pace picks up about the halfway point too and the final third of the book is action-packed and full of twists.

All in all, a fun book for fantasy romance fans! And the audio narration is really top notch.

This story was very well executed and it had me hooked from the start. Suraya, the character with the major POV is a very brave, smart and interesting Fmc. Her character growth beginning to end was intriguing to wintness. Her relationship with Roshan was amusing, swoony and the kind of soul mate connection.
Roshan is the best of all the other characters in the book and i would have loved to see more of his Pov and i really wanted to know what he was thinking at certain moments in the story. Roshan's suffering related to his parents and the way Javed treated him and he still managed to be kind and have a good heart was amazing. Roshan is definitely my favorite character and i cannot wait to see more of him.
The only character that irritated me the most was Javed I hated him from the beginning as was the point of the story.
The narration by Anais Inara Chase and Ramiz Monsef was amazing and it is sure keep you on your toes all through the story.

I received an ARC of The Starlight Heir thanks to NetGalley and HarperAudio Adult, and it was the perfect start to my 2025 reading! The "chosen one" trope doesn’t always land, but here it was done so well, adding depth and excitement to the story. The magic system was fascinating, the characters were diverse and compelling, and there were just enough spicy moments to keep things interesting. I couldn’t put it down and will absolutely be purchasing a copy when it’s released. Highly recommend for fans of fun fantasy!

This world is immersive and well built, set in a desert kingdom where Jādū shards are believed to be the only remaining magic left from the gods. The story is brimming with adventure, magic, political intrigue, secrets, and betrayal as Suraya discovers that the marriage selection she has been requested to attend to choose the bride of the crown Prince, is a competition and death trial set to discover the starkeeper of the gods: her. Someone she previously thought was nothing more than a children’s fable.

Fantasy novels often remind you of other worlds in the genre. While this novel was no different, it also brought a fresh take I haven’t seen much of before in other aspects. The prose fluctuates between descriptive moments and plain language and reminded me of a more YA style of writing. Both the adventure and world building are fast paced, but the author manages to avoid information dumps throughout the novel and even gives you a breakdown of the faction houses of hierarchy at the font of the novel and a glossary of magical terms in the back, which I loved!

Suraya is a loyal, intelligent, and strong woman with a sharp tongue. While I enjoyed Suraya’s character and her journey as she discovers her powers, I would have liked to read more about her learning about, training, and harnessing her gifts. It felt as though she learned to harness the majority of her control from only some sporadic training. I think this would have also opened Suraya up to more personal growth, as I felt that at her core, she did not have much personal character development outside her gifts.

Roshan is a wonderfully layered and compelling character laced with secrets. He is a fiercely loyal protector, and despite being the illegitimate heir to the throne, he only wants what is best for his father’s people. His relationship with Suraya is a slow-burn, with lots of tension, and well paced in a way that makes the connection feel earned.

The book does not end on a cliffhanger, but several threads are left loose, so this could be a stand-alone novel or the first of a series. Hopefully, it is a series as I am interested to learn more about how the god of night ties into Suraya and Roshan’s world.
—
✨Romantasy
🗡️Desert landscape
🐦‍🔥Death trials
✨Chosen one
🗡️Prophecy & destiny
🐦‍🔥Political rebellion
✨Female bladesmith
🗡️Embued magical objects
🐦‍🔥Magic & runes
✨Astrology
🗡️Adventure
🐦‍🔥Magical mythical animals
✨Open-door
🗡️Love triangle?
🐦‍🔥Sporadic 2nd POV throughout
—
Story by Amalie Howard: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration by Anais Inara Chase:⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Narration by Ramiz Monsef: ⭐️⭐️⭐️
—
Thank you Avon and Harper Voyager, HarperAudio Adult, and NetGalley for these complimentary ARC & ALC - all thoughts are my own! 📚
Publishers release date 1/7/2025

The narrator of this audiobook did a FANTASTIC job bringing this world to life - I will listen to anything read by her! The characters were perfect, and I preferred listening to reading!

The book itself was really interesting, and I enjoyed it! However, it's really a difficult one for me to rate and review, as I felt very different about the story at different points.

I absolutely loved the beginning and the world-building based off of mythology. It reminded me of Egyptian and Indian mythology mixed, and the magic system was really unique. I loved the side characters and the premise, and it had me hooked for the first 20%.

It kind of got a bit Dune Part 2 toward the middle, not in a bad way... but the pacing just changed in a way I wasn't expecting.

We had some twists and reveals at the end, and it set things up for book 2 quite nicely. I think I would have loved more explanation on what was going on with certain perspectives that did become important toward the very end, though!

I think fans of Powerless would love this book based on the love story and magic system!

One thing I have noticed with romantasy is that many of them keep the world building to a minimum. The Starlight Heir does not. The map needs to be consulted, I could have used a more extensive directory because the one provided was very simplified.. It is especially hard with listening to grasp this world. However, this is still an excellent listen..

The romance is hot with extreme levels of adventure. It was hard to figure out exactly where it was going, although the leader of the Dahaka was pretty obvious throughout the story.

All in all, a pretty enjoyable romantasy with excellent narration.

Thank you to Net Galley, Harper Audio Adult, and Avon and Harper Voyager for the DRC. All opinions are my own!

All I all I liked the narrator but I think the modern slang and the insta-list threw me off the story and I wasn’t able to enjoy it properly.

Can we talk about how STUNNING this cover is? Thank you netgalley, the publishers and the author for my gifted copies of this book. All opinions are my own.

I really loved the premise of this book. I felt like in some ways I knew what to expect and others I did not! I really appreciated Suraya’s strength but would have loved to see her try to control her power more in this book. I hope we see what she can do in the next one!

There is definitely a little instalove..or instalust? I like Suraya and Roshan together but I wish we would have gone a little more in depth on their relationship.

🎧 I will say I loved the narration on this one. Anais Inara Chase did an amazing job narrating most of this book and the little tidbits by Ramiz Monsef were great.

I’m interested to see where this story goes next and the secrets yet to be uncovered! This one is out January 7th and if you like romantasy could be right up your alley!

This was a pretty generic romantasy and doesn’t really bring anything new to the genre. I read the audio and didn’t love the female narrator. Spice was well done but forgettable plot.

Thank you to NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinions.

I absolutely loved this book! I had already recommended it to three people before I even finished it!

I need the next book like now!! This book had everything you could want in it…forbidden love, enemies to lovers and secret identity!!

Suraya is a bladesmith who has been chosen to go to the palace as a contestant for the prince’s hand in marriage. We start seeing something funny going on because instantly her dad and aunt don’t want her to go, but she goes anyways. Once there she realizes things aren’t as they seem and she needs to get as far away from there as possible. With the help of the prince’s half brother they start on the run.

The world building in this was phenomenal. This was so fast-paced. I finished it so quick I couldn’t put it down.

4/5 stars and I would highly recommend this to everyone.

This was such a fast-paced and very entertaining romantic!! I loved the chosen one trope we got in this, and the slow burn was so intense and incredible. There is a bit of modern language in this fantasy book that kind of threw me off at some points, but honestly, it fit pretty well in this book that by the end of it, I really didn't mind it at all. There is one explicit scene in this book, but the romance is so good, and the tense is just perfect. I highly recommend everyone listen to this!

This was a good book. I honestly liked the fantasy side of it more than the romance. The characters, to me, lacked chemistry. I am super curious to see if the author does a second book. I would love to read it.

❣️This was top tier for me!
Chosen One trope, unique magic system, political intrigue, betrayal, this book has it all.

I loved the FMC! And her character development was fantastic. The spice scenes were great.

Fast paced and gripping from the first chapter. You won’t be able to put this down!!!!

❗️Disclaimed: This review isn’t to tell the author that their work is bad or not. This review is simply based on my own personal opinion of the book. I do suggest you give it a chance before you form an opinions about it and decide whether you like it or not.❗️

Thank you to Netgalley and Harper Audio for the ALC and ARC of this book.


This was a though book for me to rate. The start of the book I would say is a 1 maybe 2 stars. I would say because the book reads like a YA even though it isn’t, so the spice scenes surprised me and gave me whiplash even though I knew it had spice. I also found myself quite bored at the start and didn’t care for any of the characters or the story, making me almost dnf at 30%, I found myself zoning out and forgetting stuff because I wasn’t interested in the story but I powered through and don’t regret it. Towards the middle of the book it becomes a 3 star because I can ignore the fact it reads like YA and we are also slowly leaving it behind in my opinion.The story gets interesting there and I found myself actually liking the characters more. I also zone out less and actually start to like the story. Then comes the end of the book which is the best part in my opinion and why I will probably continue this series. I loved seeing more of the magic and the action scenes where really well described. I liked the romance even though I’m rooting for another romance (if you know you know 👀). I do think the romance was very insta lust and a bit rushed for my liking but it didn’t ruin the story for me. In the end I do think I like this story and I will probably continue this series because the ending left me intrigued. I also think we can only go up from here and that this series could become a 4 star maybe 5 star series. If you are like me and find the start difficult to get into I would suggest you power through because it goes up from there.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC! All opinions in this review are my own.

RATING AND OVERALL THOUGHTS:

2 stars barely. DNF’d at 41%/147 pages. This was a book that based on the synopsis was full of promise but the execution was without substance that fell flat with modern colloquialisms in a very whitewashed feeling Persian fantasy setting and characters that read like they were 15. I did try to push through as long as I could with the book but I literally couldn’t care anymore about the story or the characters to continue.

SOME SPOILERS AHEAD

---

“It’s called breath play..” “I know what it’s called, you ass. Don’t prince-splain me.”

WHAT I LOVED:

- The narrators are fantastic and the reading experience was definitely heightened because of them, although mainly it was just the female narrator. The male narrator hardly had any chapters and not sure what the purpose was to have a dual style narration for that. The single narrator would’ve been fine for the 2-3 pages needed for those or at that point, make it better and do a duet narration. The female narrator did do a great job making every voice sound different regardless of gender.
- The cover is absolutely beautiful!
- The worldbuilding and lore was interesting though I wish we had gotten more from it. I was interested in the House faction system as well.
- The book had me at the first 15% of the novel despite its quirks.

WHAT I DISLIKED:

- This has been beaten like a dead horse already in the reviews but I am going to say it, the modern language and the constant swearing. Completely out of place and it took me out so many times. It was like if you got dropped in a fantasy world like GoT and the first thing someone says to you is, “Yo dawg, what’s up?” It was slightly jarring the first time but you could overlook it but then it continued and it became cringy.
- It felt like a “here is what to write in a romantasy” checklist type of book and so, it wasn’t well written. There was no *substance* with anything. It was barebones and was just chugging along from one checkpoint to the next.
- The dialogue between the 15% and the 35% I was wanna say took a steep nose dive. I think part of that is my first point about the modern language but even outside of that, it needed a few more passes.
- The characters. Firstly the FMC couldn’t decide on a personality from one section to the next and then she and the MMC literally read like they were 15, not the 25 and late 20’s they were per the text. Everyone else was so one note dimensional they could’ve been written out and nothing would’ve changed.
- The synopsis at all gave me nothing about a sudden trials for the bride for the prince, in fact I was expecting more of a cat and mouse political intrigue so I was left disappointed but open minded until the trials actually started, which then gave me nothing, and then was over just as quickly.

WHAT I AM NOT SURE ABOUT/WANTED MORE OF:

- I wanted more of the culture and mythology that this is based in. It really felt like the publisher said “na that sounds too brown, make it more white sounding”. Like other than a *very* few descriptions of some Persian elements, the rest felt like any other generic European fantasy. I also wasn’t sure what any of the characters look like, I recall one instance of “ashy skin” being mentioned but either I was checking out of the story earlier than I realized, or it wasn’t there. I know this is a BIPOC story by a BIPOC author but it felt nothing like it. I know sometimes BIPOC authors either are forced to straddle the line between making it as “palatable” as possible to as many readers as possible (read: white) or staying as true to their own heritage/culture/etc as they can knowing that some readers won’t “connect” as much. In this case it felt like the former. Take all of this with a grain of salt however since I am whiter than generic store bought bread, its just what I noticed.
- What was the point of the God of Death chapters? They seemed pointless? It didn’t really give me anything. Also the sex dreams felt oddly placed, like it was just there to make the book seem more spicy.

The Starlight Heir was a thrilling, action-packed ride from start to finish! It whisked me away on a magical adventure that was nothing short of mesmerizing. The story was so immersive, I felt as though I was right there, living each moment alongside the characters. The dual narration—one male, one female—was brilliantly executed, with both voices perfectly capturing the essence of their characters. Each narrator brought their unique perspective to the story, making the characters feel incredibly real and relatable. The twist and turns were gripping. This book was truly an unforgettable journey!