We Free the Stars
Series: The Sands of Arawiya, #2
Author: Hafsah Faizal
Genre: Fantasy
Book Description:
Darkness surged in his veins.
Power bled from her bones.
The battle on Sharr is over. The Arz has fallen. Altair may be captive, but Zafira, Nazir, and Kifah are bound for Sultan’s Keep, determined to finish the plain Altair set in motion: restoring the hearts of the Sisters of Old to the minarets of each caliphate, finally bringing magic to all of Arawiya. But they are low on resources and allies alike, and the kingdom teems with fear of the Lion of Night’s return.
As the zumra plots to overthrow Arawiya’s darkest threat, Nazir fights to command the magic in his blood. He must learn to hone his power, to wield it against not only the Lion but against his father as well, trapped under the Lion’s control. Zafira battles a very different darkness festering in her through her bond to the Jawarat – it hums with voices, pushing her to the brink of sanity and to the edge of a chaos she dares not unleash. In spite of everything, Zafira and Nazir find themselves falling into a love they can’t stand to lose … But time is running out, and if order is to be restored, drastic sacrifices will have to be made.
Review:
When I read the preview, We Free the Stars struck me with the same easy-to-feel and easy-to-follow characters that made me love We Hunt the Flame.
I don’t know exactly where it happened, but from there the story degenerated into haphazard darkness. I can only say it was an utter disappointment, at best.
The romance between Nazir and Zafira fell apart. The chemistry did not build, and there was a lot of senseless drama, and over focus on sensuality. It just did not make any sense. The plot, in general, felt scrambled, as if the author was dragging it out in order to create more tension and a longer book.
Worst, however, was the darkness. We Hunt the Flame was dark, with shattered people who have horrible pasts, but there was a hope and a light in the darkness. In We Free the Stars that soured into something I can only say is despairing and depressing. I did not enjoy the game of tricks and lies that Altair plays with the Lion of the Night. And to add insult to injury, another character chooses corruption in a vile and despicable way. I really, really didn’t like how a certain character chooses evil and treason out of grief. It did not flow out of the character at all: it felt like it happened simply to make the plot go in the right way – and also, to be dark and horrible.
I also did not like Zafira’s storyline. It’s not that she struggles with the darkness of the Jawarat, but how, and why. And the way some of the actions she takes are presented as evil. There are some men Zafirah kills, creating a complicated situation. But the way her motivations are dealt with in the story is skewed, and makes no sense. Her actions were definitely complicated, but she’s condemned for what might have been right, or at least not evil. There was a reason she killed the men she did, and they were not innocent. That is not addressed.
I liked Nazir, still, most of the time at least. In general, in himself, he develops well. But there is little else that I enjoyed in the book. The way it seems as if Zafira is arbitrarily twisted into something dark and senseless for the sake of the tension and drama, the betrayal, the compromise – it runs through everything with a depressing streak that runs counter to the sense of hope and light in everyone that I found in the darkness of We Hunt the Flame.
One place that drove it home is the climactic ending itself, where the Lion of the Night is distracted by an illusion that is simply cruel so that Zafira can get the killing strike in: his father, who he saw stoned to death as a little boy. Yes, there are lots of beautiful, poetic statements about hope scattered throughout the book. The writing is lovely. But the story is not, and the way the “heroes” overcome the villain is wretched and dark. That only makes the beautiful, poetic writing more appalling.
Normally, I do not write such a scathing review. But since I liked We Hunt the Flame and recommended it, I felt I owed it to people to let them know I don’t recommend We Free the Stars. I hated it, actually, in a lot of ways, some of them a very big deal. And, unfortunately, We Hunt the Flame ends on the sort of cliff hanger that isn’t a good one to leave off with.
Enthralled By Love 
Beautiful!!!
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