Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri (Books of Ambha #1)

Let me just start off by saying that I'm absolutely LOVING all the diverse YA fantasies coming out recently. They're really breathing new life into the old tropes we've been seeing for years, not to mention bringing in myths and legends we don't see very often in YA novels.

That being said, Empire of Sand absolutely blew me away.

Seriously, if you haven't read this book, GO OUT AND GET IT RIGHT NOW!

Empire of Sand is the first in the Books of Ambha series. It's an Mughal India-inspired fantasy with magic, political intrigue, complicated sibling and found-family relationships, and a badass heroine. Need I say more?

(I'm going to say more because I am completely in love with this book and I can't stop gushing about it to everyone I talk to.)

SO.

Mehr, the main character, is the daughter of a governor and an exiled Amrithi mother. The Amrithi are descended from spirits called daivas, and as such they are considered barbaric and primitive despite their magic. Mehr's been raised in her father's home along with her little sister, Arwa.

Mehr soon discovers that she possesses Amrithi magic, and can control the dreamfire. Unfortunately for her, the Emperor's mystics are alerted to her existence and manipulate her into marrying one of their own, a man named Amun.

I won't go any further into detail at the risk of spoilers, but the book just gets more interesting from there.

It really surprised me how much political intrigue was in this book, since none of it actually took place in the Emperor's court; rather, the first part was set in Mehr's father's home, and the other part was set in the mystic's temple.

The romance wasn't overdone at all, which I had kind of been worrying about when Amun was introduced, but the relationship progressed normally and was so cute and awkward outside of the whole "we're using you for your Amrithi magic" thing.

I loved basically all of the characters, but let me tell you. There was One. Particular. Character. Who just scared the crap out of me. Like I was freaked out every time they opened their creepy mouth. And I don't really get scared by characters (with the exception of Joe Goldberg from You by Caroline Kepnes), but I'm fairly certain I would pee my pants if I ever saw this person.

If you couldn't tell, I rated this 5/5 stars on Goodreads, and I'm considering buying a hardback copy just because the cover is so pretty.

I got the same vibes from this book as I did from Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan (also an amazing diverse fantasy that came out November 2018, please go read it) and Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. So if you liked either of those, you'll almost definitely like Empire of Sand. And if you didn't like those, you'll probably liked Empire of Sand anyway because it was just that good.

I'll be linking the Goodreads page for the book below, so you really have no excuse to not add it to your no-doubt unreasonably large TBR.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/39714124-empire-of-sand?from_search=true