DNF Review - We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1) by Hafsah Faizal

Title: We Hunt the Flame (Sands of Arawiya, #1)

Author: Hafsah Faizal

Pages: 481

Publisher: Macmillan Children's Books

Release Date: 16th May 2019

Blurb from Goodreads:

People lived because she killed. People died because he lived. 

 

Nobody knows that Zafira is the Hunter. Forced to disguise herself as a man, she braves the cursed forest to feed her people. If she is exposed as a girl, all of her achievements will be rejected.

Nasir is the infamous Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the sultan. If he refuses he will be punished in the most brutal of ways. 

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya – but neither wants to be. And when Zafira embarks on a quest to restore magic to her suffering world, Nasir is sent by the sultan on a similar mission: retrieve magic and kill the hunter. But an ancient evil stirs as their journey unfolds, and the prize they seek may pose a threat greater than either can imagine . . .

Set in a richly detailed world inspired by ancient Arabia, Hafsah Faizal's We Hunt the Flame – first in the Sands of Arawiya duology – is a breathtaking debut about discovery, conquering fear, and taking identity into your own hands.  

Goodreads | Amazon UK | Amazon US

My Review:

*I received an eARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Thanks to Pan Macmillan and NetGalley*

- DNF @34% - 

Zafira dresses as a man and hunts in the local cursed forest so that the people in her village don't starve. Her exploits have earned her the nickname of 'The Hunter', but people would turn against Zafira if they knew she was a woman.

Prince Nasir, known as the Prince of Death, is an assassin for his power-hungry father, the sultan. 

When Zafira is invited on a journey to restore magic to her land, she leaves her family behind, unaware that Nasir has been sent on a quest of his own to find the hunter and kill them.

Will Zafira be able to bring back magic?

Will Nasir follow his father's orders as he usually does and kill the hunter?

We Hunt the Flame is one of those hyped and beloved books that I hoped I would like and ended up not enjoying.

Zafira and Nasir were okay protagonists but I felt like I had seen characters like them before and struggled to connect with them.

The pacing was a bit off for me, but I do appreciate that the author was setting the scene and establishing the characters and world.

While the setting and concept were interesting, what I read felt like a mix of books I've read before.

From the first page I found it difficult to get into the story. I also struggled with the writing style and found myself losing interest.

After a while it got to the point where I didn't want to read any more and I decided to stop reading.

I might pick this up again at a later point as it was a book that I was looking forward to reading.

I'm disappointed that I didn't enjoy this more.

Unfortunately, this wasn't for me.