I’d describe this book as realistic fiction. The author has done an amazing job at creating imaginary characters and situations that depict the world and society.

Loved this sweeping tale about a young woman forced to undertake a perilous quest for a missing artefact - and a lamp no less! Magic, a desert journey, royalty - a prince, a sultan, a mysterious bodyguard.

I think how much you love this book versus thinking it is just ok will come down to expectations. I was surprised to find this book in the adult fantasy section of my local Waterstones, and I kept being surpised at the age of the main characters, they seemed younger. I got a copy of the book in a YA monthly book subscription box, so that might have skewed my thinking, but this read more as YA than adult fantasy to me. Saying that, that just means that this is a good YA-to-adult fantasy transition book, and a fast read for those more used to more complex fantasy epics.

This is adventure inspired by the 1001 Nights, complete with a thief as a main character, Loulie al-Nazari, the midnight merchant. The plot has a bit more to it than many of the YA books I've read this year, there are several twists and turns, and the relationships between characters are more interesting. I really love a good adventure, and this is one of those.

This is the first book in The Sandsea Trilogy and I'm really looking forward to the next instalment: The Ashfire King

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The Stardust Thief is a beautifully written, exciting story set in an Arabian-inspired fantasy world. It follows Loulie al-Nazari, the midnight merchant, and her hunt for a lost jinn artifact! Along with a story-loving Prince and her bodyguard Qadir, she must adventure across the dangerous lands, to find the treasure she seeks.

One thing I absolutely adored about this story was the friendship between Loulie and Qadir. I loved their chemistry so much and the dialogue between them had me laughing out loud. It was so refreshing to read about this complex and endearing platonic relationship.

Although marketed as an adult fantasy, I personally feel that younger readers or those new to the fantasy genre would love this book! I am intrigued to see where the next book takes us!

The Stardust thief follows our protaganist, Loulie who is the Midnight Merchant a.k.a. a criminal, who hunts and sells illegal magic with the help of her bodyguard who is also a jinn. Suddenly, tasked with finding an ancient lamp or being killed, Loulie finds herself on a dangerous quest, with a cowardly prince and a jinn.

The Stardust thief is inspired by stories from One Thousand and One Nights, and is a gripping and exciting read. The chemistry between the characters was excellent and character development was also well executed. I enjoyed all the characters and I got sucked in from page 1.

I am very excited to read the next installment!

Thanks to Netgalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Stardust Thief is set in an Arabian Nights sort of land and tells the story of Loulie (not her real name) who wanders about with her faithful jinn bodyguard picking up magical items and selling them on for profit, her life is going pretty ok until she does a Good Deed and save the life of a wimpy prince and gets herself tangled up the affairs of state. This book was pretty good overall I liked the set up and there was a lot of decent world building. It was let down a little by its characterisation and I wonder if the author had originally written the characters younger than they were. The young prince is supposedly 23 but he has all the wide eyed innocence of someone much younger, this is explained away by saying he has been sheltered in the palace as a kind of pet but he hasn’t. He’s been out of the palace with soldiers, he’s been around his dastardly older brother, he has knowledge of the outside world he knows how it operates so he became really quite annoying. Anyway I liked it well enough and the plot was twisty enough to keep me interested and the baddies were really quite bad.
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i love books with arabian settings, and this time, it's one inspired by the one thousand and one night? i'm in. i really like the world the author created, and our main characters, she's definitely interesting. i would love to say that the other main characters are my favorites too, but, well, i have a type. and that type was Omar. Omar and his forty thieves. i admit that he's the reason i'm anticipating the sequel.

Amazon Summary
Neither here nor there, but long ago....

Loulie al-Nazari is the Midnight Merchant: a criminal who, with the help of her jinn bodyguard, hunts and sells illegal magic. When she saves the life of a cowardly prince, she draws the attention of his powerful father, the sultan, who blackmails her into finding an ancient lamp.

With no choice but to obey or be executed, Loulie journeys with the sultan's oldest son to find the artefact. Aided by her bodyguard, who has secrets of his own, they must survive ghoul attacks, outwit a vengeful jinn queen and confront a malicious killer from Loulie's past. And, in a world where story is reality and illusion is truth, Loulie will discover that everything—her enemy, her magic, even her own past—is not what it seems, and she must decide who she will become in this new reality.

My Review

It was ok! The characters were ok, the plot ok, the world building ok. I wanted to love this but skimmed read it just so i knew how it ended.

The Stardust Thief is such a beautifully written fantasy. The world-building is outstanding. The story is well written with an enchanting storyline and well-developed characters that engage from start to finish. The world is atmospheric and feels real with vivid descriptions and rich imagery. I cannot get enough. Highly recommended. Be sure to check out The Stardust Thief today.

I’m giving it 3.75/5⭐️ (rounded up). I enjoyed it, I loved their adventure. But I won’t lie and say that it wasn’t boring at some points, bc it was. And I didn’t know this was supposed to be an adult fantasy bc it feels like YA fantasy to me. It was all so simple; the storyline, writing style, world building, characterization. I think even some YA fantasies did it better than this book. But I still enjoyed it nonetheless, even if it was all for Qadir, my beloved Jinn. I think I’m also going to look forward to reading the second book. Bc I’m already way too invested in the story and the world, it felt wrong not knowing how the story would end.

I was so excited to read this! I was drawn into this tale right from the start, and the lore and plot are very compelling. If the pacing had been more consistent and if I’d formed an even stronger personal connection to our characters, I’d probably have been able to rate this higher. As it is, I still very much enjoyed the book and look forward to the next one!

This book is very fantasy beginner friendly (if that makes sense😭). It managed to captivate the world building without it being very complicated to digest. The writing is flown effortlessly. Super page turning. I like the character at once (Mazen, Aisha, and Qadir. Not you Midnight Merchant). I love the tales!!!!

Plot wise, the story is great. It seemed like we're going one way, only to find out that at the half end there are SO MANY THINGS HAPPENING AND SECRETS UNRAVELING AND BRAIN IS HAVING A HARD TIME PROCESSING IT ALL. Felt a bit too crampy.

All and all I will be very delightful to read the sequel bcs I need to know how my girl (Aisha) and boys (Qadir, Mazen, and Hakim!!!!) survive.

If you're into YA fantasy with captivating world building, Jin and the Forty Thieves retelling, throne and power seizing, give this book a go💖

Thanks so much for the arc💕

As usual in my reviews I will not rehash the plot or the publisher's blurb - you can find reviews like that out there already if that's what you're looking for.

I enjoyed this novel, which I understand will be part of a series. The author painted a vivid picture of the various settings, and the characters and their backstories are well written too - with a nice selection of good, evil and plain mischievous entities!

The plot moves through various settings - I was a bit confused by one section but put it down to my lack of understanding of the "mystical" folklore-y side of things.

Classified as a "YA" novel, it was very much enjoyed by this very much not young reader!

I'll definitely read the next book(s) as I want to know what happens next!

My thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for an ARC. All opinions my own.

Neither here nor there, but long ago…

Where humans and jinn coexist in the same land and magical relics are popular commodities, lived an orphan girl named Loulie al-Nazari. She made a living by finding relics and selling them in the underground market. She gained quite a reputation until, unavoidably, it arrived in the Sultan’s ears. He sent for her, offered a job to find a magical lamp or else she would be executed. What choice does she have?

I love the setting, magic, and overall concept. The story is imbued with mystery that unraveled along the way. The characters are interesting but I adore Loulie & Qadir’s bond. They’re so precious and made me go through different emotions.

There’s some part that was pretty hard to follow, especially the battle scenes, but the tension still served well. An amazing debut, I invested so much with Loulie’s journey and can’t wait to meet her again in The Ashfire King!

I definitely have some mixed opinions when it comes to the Startdust Thief. The Middle Eastern setting was really great to read about and I loved reading another take on Jinns, a fantasy element that I don't see much of. The female main characters were badass and I loved that they were the stronger ones in comparison to the male main character.

However for some reason I just struggled to get through it and from the last half I only really read the dialogue. This book also had absolutely zero romance, which may have definitely been a contributor to my lack of enjoyment.

The ending was quite exciting though and I am a little intrigued about book 2.

A big thank you to Netgalley for allowing me to review The Stardust Thief by Chelsea Abdullah!

The Stardust Thief follows a girl, Loulie, who is known as the Midnight Merchant. The story is set in a world inspired by One Thousand and One Nights and djinn are seen as the enemy. The Midnight Merchant thrives on selling magic artifacts that have been created by djinn, though. What nobody knows is that the bodyguard trailing her and helping her in this business is, in fact, a djinn himself.

Since she's known to find even the most elusive of artifacts, the sultan summons her to find one that could end the battle agains their immortal enemies forever. Sent on this journey with the dour oldest son, Loulie has to face various setbacks and attacks to find what the sultan is looking for - or lose her life.

I was so scared going into this that this was going to be another one where the ageless djinn and the young girl end up in a romantic situationship, but was pleasantly surprised. The story wove so many of the classic tales into the narrative without making it feel forced, and the bonds between all the characters were masterfully crafted!

For fans of Wrath and the Dawn, Rebel of the Sands and A Thousand Nights - this book is filled with adventure and twists and only the best character development! I am extremely excited for the rest of this trilogy to come out!

Thank you Net Galley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

I loved this retelling of Aladdin/Arabian Nights. It was such a fulfilling read and I loved the action, I was very much hooked. I will say that it did take quite a long time for it to get going, and the plot was a little too slow for me. Additionally, at times I felt that it sometimes dragged on a bit unnecessarily or wasn’t needed. However, it was really heart-warming, with a strong, determined, 3-dimensional character that was incredibly bad**s. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone as even though it was YA it wasn’t too young for me.

I was thinking of giving it four stars, but then - I f-ing love it! Why not 5 :-D

The next book is supposed to be published this year. *sigh*
Well... now I have time to read other books :-D

When I had only 100 pages left, I yelled at my husband: "But... but... he is going to kill him, and what about her, is she a jinn, is he a jinn, is he even his son? How can she tie up all the threads in just 100 pages?" She tied up the threads in the last 30 pages. Except... it's a cliffhanger. :-D I HAVE to read the next book!

The stories based on Middle-Eastern folklore have become quite popular lately. Chelsea Abdullah at least comes from the right background and knows what she talks about.

Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group and Chelsea Abdullah for the advanced copy of The Stardust Thief via NetGalley, in return for my honest and unbiased review. Quick note: I don’t recap plots in my reviews, as it’s easy enough to read the book’s synopsis and blurbs, I purely focus on my feelings & opinions of how the books makes me feel.

I was looking forward to reading this book, but unfortunately was disappointed. I never really got into the story. Whilst the individual One Thousand And One Nights stories quoted within the book were interesting, the story itself failed to grip me.

The overall pace was too slow, and whilst the world-building was well done, the character development felt flat and was not nearly rich enough for me. The reasons behind the characters’ motives were not really clear/convincing, and I was just left feeling a bit ‘meh’ by the entire story.

There was real promise in the premise of the book and I do look forward to seeing what future works Chelsea Abdullah will produce.

Moods: adventurous, mysterious
Pace: slow
Character development: weak
Plot or character driven: plot
Diversity: low
Spice: 0/5

Rating: 2.5/5 – rounded up to 3

This review will be featured on my blog at www.mymentalshelf.com in future

I ended up dnf'ing this book at 52%. I tried to push through but it was just not catching my attentive

Quick summary:
- Retelling
- Adventure story
- Jinn/human friendships
- Multiple POV
- Morally good characters with a touch of grey
- Great world-building
- Magic
- Lots of action scenes

Review:
This was a really interesting read! I enjoyed the vivid world-building and the connections to mythology and folklore. The storytelling was immersive and I felt connected to Loulie. I wish there was more development of the characters together, rather than them focusing on their individual issues. As an avid romance reader, I wish there was a romance!