enne📚 reviewed The Jasad Heir by Sara Hashem (The Scorched Throne, #1)
The Jasad Heir
3 stars
The Jasad Heir is the first book in a series filled with fantasy politics and an enemies-to-potential-lovers relationship. It follows Sylvia, the heir to the destroyed kingdom of Jasad, who is in hiding but ends up being captured by Arin, the heir to the anti-magic (cop) kingdom that destroyed Jasad; Arin chooses her as his champion for the upcoming tournament, where being the winner may get her the freedom she deserves and help Arin with his own political ends. Shenanigans.
There's some stuff going on here I like. There's some tasty uncertainty about historical events and about the characters themselves that I enjoy--Sylvia's own point of view about Jasad is balanced out by extra perspectives later that possibly (but not certainly) Jasad was not the pure victim that Sylvia wants to imagine they are. And on top of that, there's a good bit of unreliable narration going on where Sylvia …
The Jasad Heir is the first book in a series filled with fantasy politics and an enemies-to-potential-lovers relationship. It follows Sylvia, the heir to the destroyed kingdom of Jasad, who is in hiding but ends up being captured by Arin, the heir to the anti-magic (cop) kingdom that destroyed Jasad; Arin chooses her as his champion for the upcoming tournament, where being the winner may get her the freedom she deserves and help Arin with his own political ends. Shenanigans.
There's some stuff going on here I like. There's some tasty uncertainty about historical events and about the characters themselves that I enjoy--Sylvia's own point of view about Jasad is balanced out by extra perspectives later that possibly (but not certainly) Jasad was not the pure victim that Sylvia wants to imagine they are. And on top of that, there's a good bit of unreliable narration going on where Sylvia can't trust her own memories. I also enjoyed the way the tournament plot and the political intrigue came together for the third trial in a satisfying way.
However, in thinking back on this book, there was a lot that didn't work. The various countries felt pretty flat. I (personally) could do without another tournament arc for the rest of my life. The political machinations were interesting, but it felt like there was some missing personal context for Sylvia's relationship with people from her past that could have made some of it feel more impactful.
FINALLY, and this is the big one, but... I don't know that I really buy the burgeoning relationship between Sylvia and Arin. Sure sure, there's certainly plenty of tense heated conversations where Arin is trying to catch Sylvia in a lie and Sylvia is trying to get as much information as possible without revealing anything she doesn't mean to. However, Sylvia is literally being captured and blackmailed by her arch nemesis and she is pretty traumatized about being touched. I can understand the level of mutual respect the two of them develop over time, and I can understand some softening when they each understand that the other isn't the monster they assumed, but anything more than that felt jarring to me. The embrace before the third trial felt awkwardly out of place especially.
Maybe enemies-to-lovers just isn't for me, but I need to be convinced more on why a particular relationship works when it's between two traumatized people who have plenty of reasons to hate each other.
