Thank you Macmillan for this book in exchange for an honest review

Synopsis:

Zafira is the Hunter, disguising herself as a man when she braves the cursed forest of the Arz to feed her people. Nasir is the Prince of Death, assassinating those foolish enough to defy his autocratic father, the king. If Zafira was exposed as a girl, all of her achievements would be rejected; if Nasir displayed his compassion, his father would punish him in the most brutal of ways.

Both are legends in the kingdom of Arawiya—but neither wants to be.

War is brewing, and the Arz sweeps closer with each passing day, engulfing the land in shadow. When Zafira embarks on a quest to uncover a lost artifact that can restore magic to her suffering world and stop the Arz, Nasir is sent by the king on a similar mission: retrieve the artifact 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.

Review:

Love is for children, said the girl

Death is for fools, said the shadow

Darkness is my destiny, said the boy

Allegiance is my underdog, said the eagle

Suffering is our fate, said the beauty

And they were all horribly wrong

I’m not going to lie, there was a lot of hype about this book. A lot of hype. And I’m usually sceptical about hype. I usually pat hype on the head like a good little puppy and get it to settle down. Fact of the matter is, there is no trying to settle this book down and the storm of delightful chaos it brings will rain down on us all.

We Hunt the Flame has two incredible and exceptional characters with creative backgrounds, that explain the depth and strength of their souls, as well as all the sass. I lovedddd their sass. And all their strengths didn’t subtract from their weaknesses. Yes, the characters have weaknesses. If you are writing a book, you may want to have characters that have aspects of them that are weak, because no one is fucking perfect. Zafira and Nasir relied on one another and built strength and courage together which was beautiful to read.

Romance is something that I avoid like the plague, really, I hate all that loved up crap. I hate it when love of the characters reaches through the pages and rubs their sick romance on your face like someone pushing your face into your own birthday cake. I hate it. Literally keep your love to the backyard and not on the street, people have to walk here. *cough* anyway… We Hunt the Flame had romance, but not the kind of romance that makes you want to hurl your dinner up, but the kind of romance that grows on you like a cute freckle. And to be honestly enemies to lovers is the type of love that I can get my head around. Though this romance was creatively written, it wasn’t something that took away from the story nor the individual characters themselves.

I have to give Faizal praise for the world building as well. Usually in YA Fantasy books world building is something that is purely left up to the imagination with lack of descriptions of settings or it is so over described that your brain fell asleep, because it the over descripting world building was the same as listening to an accountant tell you about his day. Faizal creating a setting that felt real, pure and intriguing.

I should have also started with THANK THE SWEET DRIED POTATO DUMPLING, this book is dark, has abuse and death. Pure. Painful. And realistic. No need to give a warning label for this, because it is happen in the world around us and sheltering young minds does not assist in them becoming worldly. Darkness, in my opinion, builds better souls in people and in no means cause humans to be disruptive.

This Arabian adventure was brilliant, dark, twisted and just so bloody brilliant. I loved everything about it and wouldn’t be able to fault it if I tried. Get this on your shelves soon.

Rating: 5/5

Publisher: Farrar Straus Girox

ISBN: 9780374311544